eVGA nForce680i sudden boot issues

I've owned this system for about 4 months now with no problems. Last night during a reboot I received 6 rapid beeps at startup with no video being displayed on the monitor, the light as amber as if it was receiving no signal. Everything in the case was operating, all fans and leds working. The system basically booted but with no video. The error code on the mobo was 7F. I reconnected the 24-pin power connector and the 8-pin connector to the mobo and rebooted the system again. Everything booted fine and the PC functioned as normal.

This morning it did the exact same thing, I reconnected both cables again to the mobo and it booted fine. Now the system will not boot, it just gives me the rapid beeps and the 7F error code and hangs with no video.

I have reseated the entire motherboard, removed all extra motherboard mounts in case of a short somewhere, reassembled the entire PC 4 times. Everything has been connected and reconnected. I've removed the BIOS battery for 10 minutes while reseating everything and put it back in. I've tried both PCIe slots for the video card, neither gave any different results. I've tried different power cables for the video card, it changed nothing. I have basically run out of ideas.

I have no clue why reconnecting the 24-pin connecter and 8-pin connecter would suddenly fix this issue that just started popping up. There were no recent power surges or changes in hardware, and the PC is all connected through a powerful surge protector as is. Reconnecting the power connectors no longer "fixes" the problem, and I'm not really even certain what the problem is. The PC ran perfectly normal once it booted both times after the problem occurred for 12-18 hours straight. Any ideas?


Edit: Leaving the battery out for the rest of the night, maybe that will magically fix things.

Check the Manual & see what it says about the Beep Codes.

The manual actually says nothing about the beep codes, it just lists all the hex codes for the error display on the mobo. The beep code is given during C1 and C2 which are:

C1 Memory Presence, Base memory detect
C2 Early Memory, Board Initialization

The 7F error code that it ends the boot sequence on is just listed as:

7F POST error check, Check POST error and display them and ask for user
intervention

Here is a link to the motherboard manual if it is of any help.
http://www.evga.com/products/pdf/680i manual.pdf

It just seems a bit random for both sticks of RAM to die on me at the same time, especially given the error occurred twice before and the computer operated fine for hours on end after it decided to boot. I'll be looking for other RAM to try in the mean time. Could it be the CMOS battery?

shaneG said:

The manual actually says nothing about the beep codes, it just lists all the hex codes for the error display on the mobo. The beep code is given during C1 and C2 which are:

C1 Memory Presence, Base memory detect
C2 Early Memory, Board Initialization

The 7F error code that it ends the boot sequence on is just listed as:

7F POST error check, Check POST error and display them and ask for user
intervention

Here is a link to the motherboard manual if it is of any help.
http://www.evga.com/products/pdf/680i manual.pdf

It just seems a bit random for both sticks of RAM to die on me at the same time, especially given the error occurred twice before and the computer operated fine for hours on end after it decided to boot. I'll be looking for other RAM to try in the mean time. Could it be the CMOS battery?

Click to expand...

Sounds like when it fails an overclock and tells you (user intervention), have you tried pressing F1 to continue or Delete to get into the BIOS?

Also note that these boards are notorious for C1 errors. It usually comes from running the RAM at tight timings and low voltage (on auto) during the first boot up or after a CMOS reset.

to the forums!!!

I have tried both, the problem is I get no video to my monitor so even if it were to boot into the BIOS I couldn't adjust anything. I've read the memory controller on these boards is also dismal and causes tons of memory issues.

shaneG said:

I have tried both, the problem is I get no video to my monitor so even if it were to boot into the BIOS I couldn't adjust anything. I've read the memory controller on these boards is also dismal and causes tons of memory issues.

Click to expand...

Have you tried moving the video card to the other slot? I had a IP35 Pro that hated my 8800GTS in the first slot.

You heard right about the memory controller

I did try both slots for the video card, neither changed anything. I've also tried every RAM configuration under the sun with my current sticks and nothing seems to fix the issue. It won't even boot with nothing but the CPU and RAM installed on the board, 1 stick at a time. Looks like I'll be RAM shopping, and most likely RMA'ing this board.


EDIT: Swapping the video card to an old ATI PCIe card I had laying around fixed the problem. The system booted right up. Still no clue why I was getting C1 errors for a video card issue. Guess I'm shopping for a new video card instead. Thanks for the replies I'll let you know if anything changes.

Update

The 7800GT I removed is now running stable in the system that the ATI card was removed from. Both PCs are now running fine after swapping the video cards. I would love to have the video cards in the PCs they were in originally knowing that both cards are working, but I really don't want more boot errors. Any ideas as to what would cause something like this?