14 DAY TRIAL // Nvidia seems to have some issues regarding the Nforce 680i chipset. And I'm not in a good mood when I say that, especially because I really like what they've done to that chipset. However, several owners of 680i based motherboards that follow the reference design have reported some issues regarding the SATA controller. Motive for which Nvidia and EVGA have released a new BIOS version that should fix the problem.
Some users, especially those who possess Nvidia reference boards or EVGA/BFG ones have recently reported some serious problems regarding the SATA controllers. Errors such as "lock up" or "disk error" affect the stability of the storage system and can - in some cases - generate logical errors on Raid arrays. Regarding the abnormal behavior of the motherboards, Joe Darwin from EVGA stated:
"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."
As always, the story doesn't stop here. Nvidia may have presented a beta BIOS that solves the SATA issue, but it seems that some reference boards also have problems with TCP/IP offload and with the PS2 ports. Nvidia has not commented on these problems, nor did they say what caused the SATA lock up error.