From Nvidia.


"We’ve got the official statement from NVIDIA about the SATA issue to all EVGA 680i MB users.

NVIDIA would like to thank all of EVGA's customers who have purchased the NVIDIA-designed nForce 680i-based motherboards and who have patiently been waiting for a fix to the SATA issue.
Together with EVGA we are testing a new BIOS that fixes the SATA issue that some readers were experiencing. In the meantime, we are releasing a beta version for you to use. If you feel that your BIOS needs to be updated, we will be posting a link to download the new BIOS and instructions how to flash your motherboard.

Maintaining the integrity of our brand is important, however, it is more important for us that all of our customers have the best possible experience with our products. We wanted to send a big thank you to everyone who posted messages and technical information in the EVGA forums. We reviewed the message boards daily and the sheer level of information you provided was a huge resource in helping us resolve this issue.

We plan to release the final BIOS in a few days. Please use the BETA version in the meantime.

On behalf of the entire NVIDIA nForce engineering team, thanks for being patient with us while we investigated the issue. We hope that all future experiences with the NVIDIA nForce 680i will be a positive one.

Thank you,

Joe Darwin
jdarwin@evga.com
Marketing

UPDATE:
Here are the instructions for flashing the P23 BETA BIOS.
Please note that this is a BETA BIOS, it is not a final release. This BIOS flash is ONLY for the EVGA mainboard part number 122-CK-NF68.

Floppy Method

* Download the following file: ftp://ftp.evga.com/BIOS/nf68_p23beta.exe
* Insert blank floppy disk into drive and run executable
* Restart your PC and set the floppy drive as the primary boot device
* The BIOS will automatically be updated, after the update restart your PC and clear CMOS


NVIDIA System Update Tool

* Download the following files:
http://us.download.nvidia.com/downloads/ev...pdatecenter.exe
and
ftp://ftp.evga.com/BIOS/p23beta.bin
* Select update boot block, and click apply
* Select browse and locate NF68P21.bin
* Select load bios
* Power off PC completely, on reboot load defaults in BIOS"

Hi

It looks obvious that, even that new firmware corrected some of the issues, that the NForce 680SLI has some serious design issues that cannot be resolved by software patch. Hope that I am wrong, but, so far...

Does Nvidia, through the different manufacturer (eVga, Asus, ...) using that chipset, is planning to recall and replace those cards and/or reimburse those you want for all the time and data that they lost, being the guinea pigs for unsufficiently tested products released on the market?

After a month, I don't know how many times I had to fully reinstall my system and the content of my 3 250GB HD has been definitely corrupted.

Many thanks for your comprehension

Best regards

Phil

Statement from nVidia:

New BIOS for NVIDIA nForce® 680i SLI motherboards


This morning NVIDIA and its partners released a new system BIOS for the NVIDIA nForce® 680i SLI "Designed by NVIDIA" motherboards. These are the motherboards designed by NVIDIA and sold by EVGA, BFG, Biostar, and ECS.

This BIOS update eliminates a bug related to the operation of SATA hard disk drives experienced by some customers. The bug is specific to these "Designed by NVIDIA" motherboards, and is not present on any other NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI motherboard, nor is it present in our chipset.

To simplify the BIOS update process for customers, NVIDIA developed a special Windows BIOS update tool. This tool will be distributed by EVGA, BFG, Biostar, and ECS through a website that instructs customers on what action to take.

Customers can get the latest bios fix from EVGA http://evga.com/support/680i/, BFG http://www.bfgtech.com/nForce680i_motherboard.html, ECS (to be posted), and Biostar (to be posted).

For additional information, please go to http://www.bfgtech.com/nForce680i_motherboard.html


Thank you and Happy Holidays from the NVIDIA MCP Team

Thanks for all your effort and a Merry Christmas to your team!

Now, let's test...

Cheers

I am sorry to inform u that i have the Asus striker extreme motherboard and i experience the SATA problems.All the files in my boot disk are corrupted and i sometimes have boot problems. I would like to see nvidia recognise that the problems also exists with asus motherboards and a solution is also found for them. The fact that there is a closer relation with evga doesnt mean that the asus users dont have the right for a solution to their problems. i look forward to an update for asus motherboards also.

Well thanks Nvidia. Now that I have spend all that money buying a 680i motherboard I can not use any optical drive at all. Not even an IDE or USB optical drive will work. Oh and as for the updated BOIS, who the hell has a floppy drive these days!? And how can I boot from CD when you won't even recognise my cd drive..............what a heap of expensive twiddle.

They arent that expensive, and are u sure u cant boot from usb, there have been some forums that say they have managed it?

Well after finally solving some problems w/ the CPU and heatsink I finally got the system stable enough to stay powered for more than 10 seconds. Now I get to deal with these lovely SATA issues.

So I had to go and buy an IDE drive just to get to windows and download the BIOS update for SATA from the EVGA website. Everything was working fine. Got windows installed, did the BIOS update, and the PC shut down. I put my SATA HD back in along with a windows install CD so i could format and reinstall windows.

At first it would get to where it does the PCI device listing and it would just hang there. I changed all boot priorities to the CDROM and even with the windows CD loaded it just kept repeating "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER". It did this after trying both CD drives. I cleared the CMOS and tried again and this time it would read "Boot from CD:" and it just hung there unresponsive to any commands.

I put the IDE drive back in the machine and tried booting up only to get this:

"NVIDIA Boot Agent 244.0538
Copyright © 2001-2005 NVIDIA Corporation
Copyright © 1997-2000 Intel Corporation
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0f: Exiting NVIDIA Boot Agent"

That would repeat about 5 times over 15-20 seconds and then it would just read "DISK Boot Failure, Insert System Disk and Press Enter." (Still with the Windows CD loaded)

I've run out of ideas and have no clue what to do now. Now going on 2+ months of being unable to use my brand new rig due to one problem after another.

Nforce 680i
E6600 Conroe
WD 7200 SATA/WD 7200 IDE HD's

The EVGA web site seems to be empty now. This indicates to me that they are out of business.

I need to know where else I can download the NVIDIA hotfix NV121906 – Update for SATA Disk Drives.

Not sure why you think they are out of business, but nonetheless, here is the hotfix directly from their site:

http://www.evga.com/support/680i/defaultjon.asp

Ok, it's a bit out of date for me, but i'm having sata prob's since i get my thingy out of the box. It's an Asus Striker Extreme and it lock's every time when i am 5 min in XP(32) Whenever i remove the 2nd hdd, it works perfect. Has Asus been sleeping all this time? or are they cooking something for us... No response @ Asus at all.

Well thanks for nothing guys. The sole reason I joined was to see if going from an EVGA 680i LT SLI to just a 680i A1 SLI would be helpful. I have had a month straight of problems with my LT and squirrelly behavior on its behalf. So maybe it is not the LT in its name just the SATA 320Gb Barracuda HD I happen to be using. Yep I forked out more money for a strait up EVGA 680i SLI. I can only now hope for a real fix from NAVIDIA. EVGA we are through, your American tech support is not that great! There is nothing you can do to repair your reputation with me. Stupid me I have lots of problems and I reward them by throwing more money at them, shame on me!!!!!!!!

HM3 out

They ARE out of Business as far as real Support goes.

That link goes to the EVGA site but shows that the webpage is not found. There Knowledgebase does not give anything about it.

Thanks EVGA, I now have a worthless motherboard since I can NOT run my SATA Hard Drive.

They seem not to care about the Hotfix

I'm having the same sorts of problems with a brand new XFX mobo. So, I'm getting the feeling that NVidia is not going to do anything to help??

I've been trying to set up a SATA RAID for the better part of two weeks now. The drivers don't work, the Media Shield software doesn't load with the NV Control panel. It's a crap shoot ..... a $5000 crap shoot .... lovely.

I am almost ready to boot up my new comp... I have the evga 680i A1 and all SATA drives: optical and hard disks... It wont load my OS???

Ok im going to install the P32 Bios for my Evga 680i SLI mobo are there any issues people are having that i need to know about?

[quote=RickyMaveety,Jan 25 2008, 10:01 PM]
I'm having the same sorts of problems with a brand new XFX mobo. So, I'm getting the feeling that NVidia is not going to do anything to help??

------------------------------------------
I have an XFX nForce 680i LT with strange XP SP2 boot issues. XFX has posted a new BIOS P07 whcih they recommend upgrading to but it isn't recognized when using their winfalsh_1_9 utility with file 721N9P07.BIN, I also get an incorrect match after creating there XFX BIOS Update ISO boot CD. Very frustrating to say the least. I have a ticket open with them but not sure what kind of service I should expect. If this is related or resolves my issues with the P07 BIOS update I will try and post back.

actually xfx sent me this iso image to update the XFX nForce 680i LT sli MB it works fine just burn on a cd rw cd boot with it in the drive

Yes you need to know that the P32 BIOS forces the installation of a single 8800 Ultra into the first PCIe x16 slot (nearest the CPU) on an EVGA 680i SLI board. BIOS immediately says 'Put the card in the first slot ONLY and try again'. Nightmare. The first PCIe x16 slot with an 8800 Ultra completely blocks the two PCIe x1 slots. But even if the 8800 is moved (after a BIOS retro-update) - none of the PCIe slots will accept a PCIe x1 card. This has been notified-

http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/nvidia....li=&p_topview=1

(Thanks Xenaero over at the EVGA forums)

None of the PCIe slots work for cards like the Asus D2X Xonar PCIe x1, which are not recognised by the operating system (not enough resources error 12 or similar)

There is an updated BIOS work in progress NVidia have stated, but nothing yet. A couple of us are holding on to Xonar cards (which simply will not work in this mobo without the BIOS update promised by NVidia) rather than return for refund because they might get fixed at some unknown time in future... not much fun.

I had to reflash to P31 from P32 just so that I can move my graphics card around the PCIe slots - to make room for other cards so- beware... <Twilight Zone, spooky echoes>

Peter

English only please.

Last reply in this thread is dated 6/8/08. I'm posting this on 6/20/09. The co. that I bought my rig from has stopped repairing, stocking, etc. my board EVGA 750 SLI NFORCE 750I due to its problems, but is replacing orig. with a buggier mobo in the asus p5n-d nvidia nforce 750i sli. I'll almost guarantee (though I hope not), that I'll be posting back here in 6/10 still having issues with these 750i boards. I really believe it's the 680i and 790i chips itself is the root cause. Still researching on this issue. Regards gwb56