Nvidia's 780i

[ekiM]

It is commonly known that the 700 series chipsets are riddled with problems, I myself have stumbled upon many of these issues. Preparing for this winters Forum Wars, I am of course stumbling upon these once again... Recently finding a somewhat interesting trait of my board (EVGA 780i), it seems that if I tighten the wing nuts that reside under my CPU HS backplate (CoolerMaster V8) to a high torque I recieve the instant FF error (with a Red LED beside the CPU 4 pin plugin), however... simply loosening these a bit enables the board to POST.

So, whats the issue? I'm crazy about thermal performance, and I like having my CPU having the best contact with the cooler I can get. Any suggestions to solve this problem will be well appreciated, or simply some brainstorming as to what might be causing this...

 

 

 

Thanks, ekiM

[Onion]

No clue, but mine gives instant FF (as you know) but no red light. Odd.

[hardnrg]

I had this problem with my EVGA 680i boards... high torque can result in the board flexing a lot (this is the problem), somehow resulting in an electrical short/break (this is one theory).

 

Replacing the backplate with a Scythe universal backplate (part of the Scythe universal retention kit) solved my problems. It is more solid than the "usual" one supplied by Thermalright/Noctua and probably others, and has a layer of adhesive foam over the entire plate, rather than just the middle section.

 

If you haven't already lapped your heatsink (or CPU), then I suggest doing this instead of trying to increase the pressure of the clamp-down mechanism.