Maximum PC

I just bought a nice new setup. I have a custom built and this is not the first so i am not new at this.
XFX NFORCE 680I SLI Intel SOCKET 775 DDR2
q6600 Intel proc
Corsair Twinx 2048MB DDR2 800MHz
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad
Evga GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit

I went through a couple of forums and i discovered a couple of 680i SLI MOBOs had an issue with the clay that was used between the North and South Bridge and MCP heatsinks. When i first boot up my BIOS i went to the monitor. Processor temp was about 38C and the motherboard was about the same. They were fine. The MCP however was 76-78C!!! Everything booted fine, so i thought maybe its just how hot they get? (I dont know much about the proper operating temps of things)

I updated all my hardware and i went into Nvidia Ntune and wanted to see what that monitor reported. The NMonitor always locks up (I HATE VISTA!!)
so i downloaded SpeedFan and that didnt give me a reading for the MCP. Anyway, i start up Crysis and i was running it at 1024 x 768 with no AA and my frames were not doing too well, like 30 and dropped all the time. I went to forums and people with slower video cards / PCs were getting better rates than I.
Someone said that the MCP had an issue and he upgraded the BIOS and he was ok. Well i go to XFX website and they recommended a BIOS Update. So i downloaded the Windows Flash Program with the update and Vista FROZE midway through the installation (I HATE VISTA!!!).
It gave me a blue screen and now my cpu wont BOOT!!!! The BIOS are shot, i cant even get to the boot screen. No beeps, nothing, dead. I tried making a bootup disc with an autoexec file setup to autoinstall the BIOS but the floppy drive wont even read

Well theres my story, but what i'm looking for an answer to is WTF was up with the MCP!!! Has anyone heard of this issue before?
Is it an RMA Issue???
Now that i can't turn it on i'm rather upset and don't know what to do with it. Does anyone know how to redo the BIOS another way?
If anyone could give me any information about any of this it would be very appreciative... Thanks alot guys.

The least of your problems right now is the MCP temps.

You hosed the BIOS chip. You have several options... I don't see where your board has a BIOS recovery option.

1. Have access to a PROM burner and burn a new chip? ... I'm guessing you don't.

2. Call to get an RMA and talk real nice to the CSR.

3. Buy a new BIOS chip, provided it isn't soldered in and is replaceable.

4. Buy a new mobo.

5. Pay XFX to replace the BIOS chip.

Lesson learned: and a lesson many of us have learned the hard way, don't flash BIOS in Windows... use a boot disk and flash in DOS with your BIOS manufacturers flash program.

I've flashed successfully in Windows, but you need a stable system and it's a crapshoot. Flashing in DOS is still risky if you aren't familiar with the process. Carefully read and follow the procedures prior to flashing. Use a USB floppy if your system doesn't have an internal floppy available. You'll need one boot disk and another disk with the flash program and .bin file. Make sure you know what you are doing in DOS, 1st.


If you talk real nice to the XFX CSR, you may get an RMA and that may also solve the heat problem, if there was one. Sometimes the sensors give off weird readings. I've seen my CPU report at 2,000F.


Also: The Nmonitor freezing may not be Vista's fault. nVidia has some flaky software occasionally.

Your frame times may have been driver related, my video card rated a 1.0 on Vista until I installed the ATI driver. It now supports AERO, gets a 5.9 and gives decent frame rates in gaming.

Your freezes may also be driver related if you go with the stock Windows drivers and not the board manufacturers drivers.

First of all thank you on the quick response. No i don't havea prom burner. I talked to XFX and they sent me an ISO image to burn to a disc as a recovery cd for the bios.... but to no avail it did not work. They mentioned that they may RMA it, for the problem may be on their end. I, too, would rather have done it through Dos and i will never again attempt it in windows. My drivers were all updated to the newest Geforce drivers and my rating in Vista was a 5.
As far as the temperature goes, i know that it wasnt a misreading, for even after i turned it off it could have burned the back of my hand. That baby was burning!

If it is that hot, it isn't with the thermal paste or heatsink (unless it's a bad HS design, add a fan), but the voltage is probably too high. (The heat's not getting TO the HS is the problem with bad TIM, the heat stays in the chip, doesn't transfer to the HS)

That's probably the bios fix, a lower default voltage... or you may be able to manually change the voltage in the bios.

I have an ASUS P5N32-E-SLI that by default runs too high on the NB chipset. You actually could get burned... I set much lower voltage manually and it is stable and cooler.

How's that for intelligence on their end.... a system that won't POST and they send a boot CD for a fix.... duhhh.

I hope they RMA it for you. The best of luck to you in the future!!!

Thanks for everything. I read that some BIOS have a backup so that if you hose it like u said, you can still do a boot cd or disk with an autoexec file tellin it to auto load the flash prggram. You stated you didnt see a BIOS recovery option. What did u mean by that? Oh and while im asking that, that PROM burner your talking about, what would be a good one to invest in in case any of my friends have a similar issue?

I read your specs and manual, I didn't see any BIOS recovery options for that board.

My Gigabyte mobos, IIRC have a way to recover the BIOS if they get hosed. I've never used it or looked into it. Once you do a few flashes, it's hard to mess up without a power failure. That doesn't make it impossible to hose, though.

Some boards revert to default if you get carried away with an OC, that way you don't have to open the box and move the Clear CMOS jumper. Some actually have two PROMs, in case a flash goes awry.

A chip/PROM burner? Probably several grand, some people are fortunate to have access at work and can do all sorts of goodness with equipment. One guy here was able to desolder the bios chip, add a socket and get some PROMs burned. Not your average person has access to such specialized equipment, but some of us do. I don't.

Thanks for your support. While I have this thread up, I was wondering if you could tell me proper operating temperatures for the devices. What I mean is Proc. temp, MCP and N/S Bridges, Video Card Temp. If i ever decide to overclock I would like to know what the range of temperatures should stay in for maximum life expectancy. By the way, if the MCP was running at such a high temperature, it could possibly have received some damage correct?

I am currently trying to get information on the RMA, but they continually ask me to do things as if I have no clue what I am doing. Hopefully I get another MB.

Sorry to post again but XFX just contacted me and told me that because my motherboard onboard LED readout is " - - " that it would be a processor issue. Is this true? Could the BIOS have screwed up the Proc? I do not see how it could be the issue because Vista blue screened and i had to manually shut the CPU down. Are they just pulling my leg or at least trying to beat around the bush?

Do you know exactly where the flash program froze? This is important, because if it actually froze between erasing the old version and writing the new, that's very bad. Before it erases and after it finishes writing, you should be OK....SHOULD BE...

Stupid question, done it myself though.... is the 4 pin or 8 pin ATX12V (CPU power) plugged into the motherboard?

Did you re-seat the RAM and cards?

If the BIOS is corrupt or missing, that board won't recognize anything.... or even do anything...

Did you mention that you were in the middle of a BIOS flash when it crashed, to tech support?

I doubt your proc died. Was the bios set to default settings, or had you OC'd it a bit? If you by chance went a little crazy on the CPU voltage.....

Had to ask, but I know you were monitoring temps and would have said the CPU was hot, also...

Not impossible, but pretty hard to kill a proc.

I have the 8pin ATX connected. OK, as far as the ram and the cpu temps, I did not overclock anything, and everything was default at its regular voltage and clock speeds. I did reseat the ram and cards. The CPU never saw temps higher than 40C.

You are correct in that the BIOS does absolutely JACK. Nada. Nothing happens only the fans turn on. Lets just say in my judgement, i cannot see where the proc. would have fried. The blue screen came up, and i turned the cpu off. When i went to turn it on, there was nothing. No POST nothing.

As far as the flash was going... I believe it was around 40 percent of the installation when the blue screen came up. The erase was already done. I did mention to them that I was in the middle of the Flash when it froze. I also mentioned I hate doing it in Windows but that was the program they supplied with their BIOS update.

They told me to find another proc or to try my proc in another MB, if I have the resources. I'm tempted to just say it works and send the MB back to them.

I'd go with that... you tried a known good proc with same results.

The chances of your proc frying in the middle of a flash procedure....pretty slim, or gloriously unlucky.

I've erased a BIOS before.... somehow erased it without having a .bin file anywhere. It doesn't even know it's a computer at that point. Now they check to make sure you have a new bios before erasing the old one, ahhh progress.

Flash through a Floppy or USB outside of any windows. Not everyone is a good programmer, and I've had issues with those Win-based apps as well. Too many hoops for the bin file to jump through and do while the computer is up and trying to run...even in WinXP. Gigabyte was the last that I've actually had work correctly through Windows.

The BIOS is socketed, correct? They should be offering to send you a new BIOS with the latest software version already installed, then you just plug it in. It's their application that failed.

I just wanted to thank everyone on this issue. XFX RMA'd a brand new board, and then it had issues with two RAM slots.

They RMA'd that board and upgraded me to a 780 SLI board!

That was a great surprise! Brand new in the box too!

Thanks alot guys for all your help!

'bout time!!!