[Wink]

Installed a new BFG 680i board tonight.

Wouldn't come up, had an LED error code of F6. This code isnt listed in the book, so I called BFG. They hadnt seen it either.

So.. I strip the board down, out of the case.. only power.. CPU and 1 stick of ram in the BANK0 slot, and a video card (7600GT for ease of use).

Nothing else, not even keyboard.. still get immediate F6 error. So i had BFG tell me he was calling it a DOA. So I took it back and get a direct replacement and just got it home, ONLY hooked up the above mentioned items.. results? F6 error..

***? I thought maybe I had a CPU issue, so I grabbed a known good P4 3.0 out of a running machine and put it in.. F6 error.. I have cleared CMOS, run it without the battery. blah blah..

what am I missing here? surely I dont have two back to back boards with an unknown error, something on my end is wrong, only thing I havent swaped out is the PS.. which is POSSIBLE.. but unlikely. Since it worked fine before I removed it from the Asus board it had been powering.

I am at a loss, now I am not sure I had a bad board when i sent back the first BFG.

PLEASE HELP SOON!..

 

[jph1589]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wink Installed a new BFG 680i board tonight. Wouldn't come up, had an LED error code of F6. This code isnt listed in the book, so I called BFG. They hadnt seen it either. So.. I strip the board down, out of the case.. only power.. CPU and 1 stick of ram in the BANK0 slot, and a video card (7600GT for ease of use). Nothing else, not even keyboard.. still get immediate F6 error. So i had BFG tell me he was calling it a DOA. So I took it back and get a direct replacement and just got it home, ONLY hooked up the above mentioned items.. results? F6 error.. ***? I thought maybe I had a CPU issue, so I grabbed a known good P4 3.0 out of a running machine and put it in.. F6 error.. I have cleared CMOS, run it without the battery. blah blah.. what am I missing here? surely I dont have two back to back boards with an unknown error, something on my end is wrong, only thing I havent swaped out is the PS.. which is POSSIBLE.. but unlikely. Since it worked fine before I removed it from the Asus board it had been powering. I am at a loss, now I am not sure I had a bad board when i sent back the first BFG. PLEASE HELP SOON!..

Give us your complete specs.

 

[tubnotub1]

I was under the impression that F6 was a memory error, let me call up eVGA real quick and see if thats the case. Im almost 100% sure it is though.

 

[JacKz5o]

The 680i chipset has a problem with SATA drives........ try an IDE one and see if the F6 error still comes up.

 

[jph1589]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JacKz5o The 680i chipset has a problem with SATA drives........ try an IDE one and see if the F6 error still comes up.

He already said that he tried just a stick of memory and cpu and video. That probably means his sata drive wasn't connected.

Are you absolutely sure you have all the power connectors plugged in? The 24 pin and the 8 pin?

Edit....there is recent bios update for memory issues. So I'd be leaning that direction too.

 

[Wink]

ok.. I yanked a stick from my Wifes machine.. no more F6 error.. and irritating beep. So I am past that.

lol

Now hung on C3 stage of boot, which says Extending Memory.. next in line is Initiate Display I believe.. So looks like I lost some ram.. BUT I read elsewhere that it is finiky on this board, and once I can get to the bios, I can set my specs on my new ram, and it should accept it on reboot.

I have the new Bios flash on floppy, but I cant get far enough into the boot process to flash it! doh!

Ideas on how to get past C3 now?

 

[Wink]

Yes, I am fairly certain my power settings are corrent.. I have disabled my Tt 250 SLI Suplementary PSU for now, and am running a 7600GT that doesnt require a PCIE Power adapter.

This is what is currently on the board (Out of case)

4 Pin Power, 24pin Power.. CPU and OEM Sink/Fan, 1 Stick 1GB RAM, Keyboard, 7600GT (Also tried with a single 7900GTX, in both slots as well.

nothing else plugged up

 

[tubnotub1]

The Sata issues had to do with motherboard timings when your memory was overclocked past 800mhz. It did not cause F6 errors, it caused Windows/parition corruption. It has since been fixed with bios updated P23. This can be found at eVGA's website. Also, I believe the bios update that jph1589 is referring to is P23, which fixed the memory/sata issues. Im talking to eVGA atm, trying to see if I cant find out what the F6 error is. Just to make sure I understand, you are getting the F6 error on the LED read out correct?

LOL, it was a memory issue, ok, kinda funny that the tech at eVGA told me it was a CPU post code... oh well, my knowledge > their knowledge.

 

[Wink]

hmm ok.. moved ram to DIMM slot 1 (Was in 0) system went straight to BIOS.. damn.. so Slot 0 BLUE is possibly DOA..

sigh.. this whole ordeal (For the last month) is getting tiresome.

Will assemble now and see about flashing bios and setting ram speed to see if it will recognize my AMP X 800Mhz RAM

will update as I learn more

thanks for the assitance so far folks..

 

[Wink]

Attached 2 of my SATA's and got the onboard RAID working.. good news here.. my raid is intact!!! yeah! but windows blows without a mouse

and of course all the SMBUS stuff doesnt work without driver updates.. but It booted and loaded, yea!!!!

so now to hard install it in the case again. Flash the BIOS.. then load to windows Safe Mode and run Drivercleaner to clean it all up and start over on the drivers..

so far so good.. sucks about the RAM, but it's only a few weeks old, will RMA that stuff if I can

 

[jph1589]

And also plan to buy a new power supply. If I understood you correctly you are using the 24 pin and 4 pin? The board is made for a 24 pin and 8 pin I believe? They probably have a disclaimer that you can use a 4pin but it might not be stable.

 

[Wink]

Yeah it says to get an 8 Pin is at all possible.

Was hoping to avoid that. I have a decent 550Watt, and with SLI happening, I got a Tt250W Supplementary PSU that has two seperate 12V+ rails for PCI-E cards only. Seemed to work well on the Asus.

Well, I am going to break down and just freaking buy SLI Cert RAm this time, so may as well get an SLI Cert PSU too..

this $500 upgrade just passed like $1700.. and still climbing..

btw.. I am posting this from the 680i.. it is up.. went into safe mode and wiped drivers, and used drivercleaner.. then let the setups for the chipset run.. all seems fairly stable so far.

Thanks for all the help, DImm Bank 0 is dead as hell.. if DIMM1 & 3 are ok, then I may not ***** too much.

I just hope I am done soon, this has been a painful week.