Where Are The Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6 Motherboards?

[evanscnce]

installed some new Windows XP update I just got and my internet ports all work again.

*shrugs shoulders*

What does Microsoft do other than make problems then fix them???

 

[KRentfrow]

Last night I put my system in standby, this morning I tried to return from standby, the power light came on but nothing showed up on the display, hard drive light was on solid, I pressed the reset button and nothing happened, I powered off at the power supply, when I tried to power on, a message flashed on the screen with Award Bootblock BIOS 1.0 scanning BIOS from HD and floppy. I tried connecting a floppy, the floppy drive does get accessed every time I try to power on or after I hit the reset button, sometimes I get the message about Award bootlock BIOS flashed on the screen very quickly then a blank screen, other times the screen just stays blank.
I have tried pulling the battery for several minutes, I removed everything from the motherboard except for 1 Memory module, the CPU and Display adapter. When I try to power on, the fans and lights come on, the floppy gets accessed and it doesn't do anything else. I don't even get any beeps.

Any Ideas?

Kevin

 

[justinburton]

KRentfrow,

I would say it's either the video card, power supply, or motherboard. What motherboard do you have and what bios is installed? Also try putting in a different video card.

 

[KRentfrow]

Thanks justinburton,

I did try a different Video card, I tried a 8600GTS, exact same symptoms. I will see if I can connect a different Power supply (Update: Different PS dis not help). The system was last running with the F5B BIOS. I tried putting everything from F2 to F5B on the diskette, the system seems to scan the diskette, the drive makes noise for a second but then nothing. Since I am not getting a beep, it seems that it's never getting through the BIOS, all disk drives were spinning up when they were installed.

System: GA-N680SLI-DQ6 Rev1, E6600, Zalman 9700, (4x1GB) Crucial Ballistix Radeon X1950, Soundblaster Audigy 2 Platinum Pro, 3 x 500GB Seagate SATA 2 HD's (no RAID), Sony SATA DVD Burner, Antec P180 Case with Antec Neo HE 550w PS

 

[jkresh]

I almost got it to post again (after clearing for hours), got to the gigabyte screen but keyboard was not recognized. Turned it off and cant even get back to that (also my debug card gives me different results depending on which slot the ram is in). Trying to boot at 360 should not have killed the board but I am runing out of ideas (have reset the graphics card, tried 2 different ram stick sin each of the 4 slots). I have an old pentium d 820 I can try booting with later to see if maybe it just doesnt like booting with my quad and the f3 bios but this is bothersome. Since mwave no longer sells the board I can either RMA through gigabyte or send it back to mwave and get a refund (if I do that I think I will just use the q6600 in my p5wdh and wait for x38).

Any suggestions on how to get it to post would be appreciated.

 

[jkresh]

it boots ok with the d820 but I am having an issue using Qflash to update the bios. I have the f4 bios and f5b and f5e on a usb key, Qflash recognizes those bios's, updates the main bios but then it wont boot, when it does eventually boot its off of the backup (copied the backup back to the main and it boots ok off of the main).

It appears that at least for teh f5e (which I am not using as Gary has said F5b is best for quads right now) that some people had to flash both the backup and main before it would boot. I could try flashing both with f4 first tomorrow, but the fact that it wont boot off the main whenever i flash it (with f4 or f5b) makes me worry. If I flash both the main and backup and then I cant boot then the board has to go back as the bios chips are not user replaceable.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, i will either have this working tomorrow and have the fusion installed or its going back and I will wait for x38 next month.

(I have never had an issue like this with an asus,msi or dfi board, though admittedly none of them have the dual bios feature.)

 

[Gary Key]

Gigabyte is working on BIOS releases that should occur early next week. More later...

 

[dlbetz]

Thanks, Gary

 

[KRentfrow]

Gigabyte support said "No beep, and no post means the CPU, and the board is not transferring any signal codes." I was able to get another Motherboard to test the CPU in and the CPU is fine so my motherboard has died. I will attempt the RMA process.

Kevin

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Evening Everyone.

Well, we're quite a ways into the month of August, and those folks at nVidia still haven't released the N680i chipset drivers which include Teaming and other long-awaited functions. I sure wouldn't like to be depending on the NV folks in a serious emergency - they would likely be AWOL!!

Maybe Gary and the other folks at AnandTech can build some heat under the NV jerks. It seems that NV has been rather dishonest with Gary and his colleagues, just like they have misstated the truth to the rest of us. Maybe it's time for a chestnut roasting session for the NV guys!!

Have a nice evening. TheBeagle isgust; :beer:

 

[Gary Key]

Update from Gigabyte last night -

Hey Gary,

Just wanted to give you an update on the N680SLI-DQ6. The engineers found that for the performance issue, it is caused by the new NVMM from Nvidia. We have informed Nvidia to check the issue.

The S3 issue happens on the QX6850 (instability issue) and our engineers and Nvidia are working on a solution. I will keep you posted.
-------------------------------------------------------


I do not have an update from NVIDIA on the drivers but hopefully they will have one today.

 

[imported_alcuin]

Sadly the QX6800 and QX6850 no longer show up as testing on their cpu list page. Hopefully they will reappear when the new bios is released. http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Sup...uctName=GA-N680SLI-DQ6

 

[justinburton]

Who cares about the QX6800 and QX6850. Lets just hope the new Intel Penyrn CPU's are supported with the new bios.

 

[Blazer7]

I second that Mr justinburton.

Here is another interesting one. Despite the fact that ASUS lists all their 680 boards as penryn ready they do not list the QX6850 in their cpu support list. It seems that nVidia has really screwed the 680 microcode and not just for us. If they don't get their act together soon the big bad boys like ASUS and Gigabyte will get a piece of them for sure.

I'm sure that after all this waiting everybody is tired of this, so lets all hope that this will happen and nVidia will lose a good piece of their @$$. That will teach them a thing or two about support.


PS
with nVidia's record so far, I won't believe that we'll get a new driver until I see it on somebody's site. :thumbsdown:

 

[Blazer7]

New forceware beta drivers release.
Ver 163.44 for win XP/XP64/2000/2003/Vista32/Vista64

http://www.nzone.com/object/nz...s_rel70betadriver.html

 

[mfarbman]

Two weeks ago I build a new system and installed the Intel OEM CPU fan. I want to replace it with a Zalman 9700. My question is in regards to the thermal paste. Can I leave what is on the cpu and just install the new Zalman or must I clean off the two week old paste and reapply.

 

[eklock2000]

Clean off the old paste for sure...and follow arctic silver's guide to using just the right amount, and in the right orientation. I used to think more was better until I pulled off an old install and the paste was all cracked and thick...looked like the bottom of a dried lake bed. It was so thick that good contact was not being made between the components. Good luck.

EK2K

PS - a huge thanks to Gary for keeping us updated. The waiting game sure suxors tho.

 

[vvanholl]

Hello

I am new to this forum.

I have a GA-N680-DQ6 Motherboard for about 2 months and I try to install Windows XP SP2.
I have always the same problem each time : A the boot I have the message ntoskrnl.exe corrupted or missing.

I have the first revision of the MB. i have put the version F5b of the BIOS without success.

I have now no idea.

Can you help me ?

My config :
MB : GA-N680-DQ6 rev 1
BIOS : F5b
CPU : Intel Core 2 Duo 6700
MEM : 4 x 1gb Crucial Ballistix DDR 6400
DISKS : 4 x 500gb Western Digital SATA
SOUND CARDS : Audigy 4 Pro
GRAPHICS : Geforce 8800GTX

 

[cdfire]

vvanholl, I seem to recall having that same problem when I tried to install the OS H/D to the purple sata ports on the board. Been a few months since I built this pc, so I could be wrong, but I think that was it for me.

BTW since clearing the CMOS, clearing the DMI data pool and re-installing the F5b BIOS a couple weeks ago, along with the latest official Whql NVIDIA Graphics drivers, I have not yet, knocking on wood, had the building DMI on boot up issue. I have been avoiding posting such for you know as soon as I post its ok it will happen again, LOL

 

[vvanholl]

My four 500gb hard drives are connected to the yellow ports.
They compose a raid 5 array.

I have the same problem when the disks are independants.

 

[Blazer7]

Originally posted by: mfarbman
Two weeks ago I build a new system and installed the Intel OEM CPU fan. I want to replace it with a Zalman 9700. My question is in regards to the thermal paste. Can I leave what is on the cpu and just install the new Zalman or must I clean off the two week old paste and reapply.

eklock2000 is right.

You'd better use some sort of special fluid to get rid of the original thermal paste like AKASA's Thermal Interface Cleaner (TIM-clean fluid ? my favorite)

http://www.akasa.com.tw/ -> products -> Thermal -> AK-TC

Then you can use Actic Silver Ceramique ( http://www.arcticsilver.com/ceramique.htm ) or Arctic Silver 5 ( http://www.arcticsilver.com/as5.htm ) for best results.

You can find instructions as to how these thermal pastes must be applied here : http://www.arcticsilver.com/instructions.htm

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Evening Everyone.

Since I couldn't get my Q6600 (G0) to work worth a damn in the N680i board, I built a new PC for my office, and stuck the Q6600 in that rig. I used a Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 board, with assorted hard drives, optical drives, 4x1GB Ballistix 1066 memory, a Zalman 9700, 8800GTS, and Vista 64 Ultimate. After installing the OS and all the programs at stock speed for the proc, and using the F5L BIOS, I started to tweak the proc a bit. It turns out that the Q6600 will run at 361 FSB x 9 = 3.25GHz @ 1.350v; and the memory set at a ratio of 3.20:1 = 1155, 5-5-5-15 @ +.45V. This thing really rips along, and at least so far, no BSOD, lockups, etc. I was quite surprised that the memory would run at 577, 5-5-5-15.

So for those who might be getting a bit tired of NV's empty promises for the N680i board, there seems to be a very good alternative use for those Q6600 procs. I'll keep you posted on how well it runs as time goes on. But for right now, getting a 3.25GHz OC out of a 2.4GHz Quad-Core proc is quite acceptable, especially on air cooling. I noticed that more voltage than 1.350V is a killer for this G0 stepping proc, and CPU-Z reports that it only uses 1.326V, at most. Best regards. TheBeagle :beer:

 

[CarsonWales]

I have three issues with this board and am hoping you folks might help me out.

1) I having trouble powering off. The OS shuts down, the screen goes blank, but the fans and power to the board is still on. I can only shut off using the power switch on the PSU

2) I am running the OS on a pair of WD150's in SATA. When booting and after detecting the drives in the post screen, the bios posts this message twice: Detecting drives, no any drives found....then the system just boots up like normal. How do I turn that off?

3) After the system heats up I sometimes get a high pitched tone or squeal in or around the cpu on the motherboard. Its not the alarm buzzer...it is coming from the board itself.

XP Pro SP2
OCZ Flex 9200
QX6700
2x 8800GTX 768's

 

[eklock2000]

Welcome Carson...

...which BIOS version? F5b seems to be the version of choice right now until Nvidia works out some issues for us...don't hold ur breath.

1) Sounds like the power down issue that others were having. Beagle had a workaround that he explained some pages back (maybe high 50's). It involved a complete wipe of the BIOS and some embedded code.

2) I don't think you can turn that off. It happens on my board also. It may be trying to detect IDE drives and if you have none attached, and the controller is "enabled" in the BIOS, that may be the fix?

3) I get the high pitch squeal when I'm dumping too many volts in the RAM during an OC attempt. Weird that it happens after running the system for a while.

EK2K

 

[raisinjack]

Originally posted by: TheBeagle
Good Evening Everyone!!

WARNING - WARNING!!!!! This evening I allowed Microsoft to download about 13 Upgrades/Updates to my Vista 64 PC, which utilizes the GA-N680SLI-DQ6 motherboard. After the download and install of these "upgrades/updates" the PC rebooted. After the reboot, the network function of my Rev 1 board was DESTROYED!!! No matter what I tried to do to repair the network function, it was a NO GO!!

MICROSOFT has SCREWED us AGAIN!!!! Do NOT allow this "upgrade/update package" to be installed on your machine!! Fortunately, I created a Restore Point prior to the upgrade/update nightmare, and that allowed me to completely (hopefully) return my PC to the previous state.

I sure hope that someone from Anandtech immediately investigates this issue and causes some sort of remedial solution to be implemented. I just thought you all would like to know about this potential disaster. TheBeagle :frown:

Was it your 2 Nvidia adapters that disappeared? It is on mine and this is the second board that it has happened to me on. I am RMA'ing it right now. Talked to Gigabyte tech and they are clueless about this. The first time it happened to me on was early July. This time it was less than an hour. All 4 are there and then -poof- only the Marvel ones are there. On my board the 2 yellow lights for the adapters are on constantly when the computer is powered up. I will try for 3 then thats it going to try something alse. Oh by the way its Vista x64 I am using.isgust;