News EVGA motherboard owners furious over modern GPU issues — DIY users resort to taping over pins to fix RTX 50 Series problem on Z690 boards

[Admin]

A Redditor devised a crafty solution to fix RTX 50 boot-up problems on their EVGA motherboard by insulating the problematic pins with electrical tape.

EVGA motherboard owners furious over modern GPU issues — DIY users resort to taping over pins to fix RTX 50 Series problem on Z690 boards : Read more

 

[ingtar33]

to be fair EVGA hasn't made motherboards since they dropped out of the GPU game. The company is basically in maintenance mode at this point. Expecting more is probably hoping for too much.

 

[S58_is_the_goat]

SMBUS is a small communication line that's largely used by components for lightweight communication, think power management and temperature. It's highly possible that Nvidia's RTX 50 GPUs likely don't expect or cannot handle an SMBUS connection, which effectively halts the system from booting up.

Maybe it's Nvidia's fault as much as evga's?

 

[Heat_Fan89]

to be fair EVGA hasn't made motherboards since they dropped out of the GPU game. The company is basically in maintenance mode at this point. Expecting more is probably hoping for too much.

Totally agree. I'm not even sure if they have sold anything new since they left the Nvidia fold. If that's the case then people need a reality check and not to expect their motherboard's to support current GPU's.

Once EVGA downsized after Steve from GN's took a farewell tour of their facility and interviewed Kingpin, I knew then that the clock was ticking on EVGA and it was not a good idea to buy future products from them.

 

[kidnan2505]

I think it's probably very important to clarify that they aren't using "Electrical Tape", they're using "Kapton Tape."
People are looking for solutions right now so it'd be ideal to help others, because electrical tape isn't going to get you far.

 

[aberkae]

My previous Strix I itx i motherboard ($450) x670e is in rma second time due to USB overvoltate current preventing boot times. Upon researching the problem I've noticed others have the same issue with that particular brand. Initial RMA claimed to fix the issue with checklist only to have microcenter tech support try alternative cpus and ram kits to confirm the motherboard was never fixed. So now I wait for second RMA.

 

[ezst036]

We desperately need the whole BIOS/UEFI ecosystem to go open source to remove these motherboard companies from their iron-fisted positioning.

 

[Amdlova]

Not long ago some gigabyte 590 series got this issue with AMD fire graphics and WX. Same procedure put a tape on graphics slot.

At this point evga is a dead company. Don't expect anything from them.

 

[txfeinbergs]

Who is to say that EVGA is even in the wrong here? As long as those pins are wired per standard, it might just as well be Nvidia's fault.

 

[thestryker]

I'm sure the non-existent BIOS team at EVGA will get right on it. They let their BIOS engineers take jobs pretty much immediately after shuttering motherboard production. While they never really came out and said it the motherboard business was likely a victim of shuttering video cards since EVGA used contract manufacturing.

Overall such a shame because while they didn't have the resources of the big companies they had some really good engineers and still approached business like most tech companies did before becoming behemoths.

 

[Lamarr the Strelok]

Some of you like Matrox, Cytrix,etc., because of nostalgia. I'm like that with EVGA. I only had a gt 740 but I throttled the heck outta that sucker. 768p on Shadow of tomb raider were good times.(Still works).And yes it's nvidia's fault. They said it was because of disrespect from them.EVGA wouldn't know (either or both) the cost or the specs of the new chip until nvidia announced it(!).How the hell a company can plan around that is beyond me.
It makes EVGA all the more remarkable as a company.They put money into their gpu's,etc.

 

[artk2219]

I mean this seems more like another issue with the RTX 5000 series, than it is an issue with EVGA, as several motherboards from other manufacturers also come with those SMBUS pins enabled. Nvidia really did cheap out as much as they could on board construction and feature support this generation.

 

[beyondlogic]

We desperately need the whole BIOS/UEFI ecosystem to go open source to remove these motherboard companies from their iron-fisted positioning.

only issue with that is do you want someone making bios/uefi that open because that can be quite malicious

i wouldnt trust any board out of china thats modified by a unknown user god knows whats on it

 

[doomtomb]

Sell the motherboard. EVGA is crypt

 

[peterf28]

This is how the end of civilisation is slowly approaching

 

[derekullo]

If my main business is bridge building and all my architects and engineers leave, I can't just tell the clerical staff to give it their best effort and then claim when the bridge inevitably fails that we had to scale back due to all the architects and engineers leaving!

 

[evermorex76]

Maybe it's Nvidia's fault as much as evga's?

I would say it's not EVGA's fault in any way. They implemented the full wiring spec of PCIe, so their boards would work with any video cards that do want to use those pins. It's the fault of the video card makers and Nvidia for connecting those pins on the card when the chipset doesn't actually support the function. Why are they even connected on the video card if they don't use SMBus?

Do you blame the electricians for installing a 240V outlet when someone hacks a 240V plug onto a 120V piece of equipment and it explodes?

 

[evermorex76]

If my main business is bridge building and all my architects and engineers leave, I can't just tell the clerical staff to give it their best effort and then claim when the bridge inevitably fails that we had to scale back due to all the architects and engineers leaving!

Bridges and buildings have very different contracts and legal responsibilities than a motherboard, but EVGA's separation from Nvidia and reduction of staff also came many months after this board had been designed and released. At some point the company that builds a bridge hands over responsibility for maintaining it to the government, and if there are problems found the company is only responsible as far as the contract says they are. In this case, EVGA built a bridge that works exactly to the specifications they were given, but people are trying to drive trucks over it that are too tall. That's not EVGA's fault.

 

[acadia11]

The bigger question why are you putting a 5090 in an EVGA motherboard in the first place? Excuse while I park this McClaren in front of my Co-OP what do you mean you don’t have covered parking? Sir, please be happy we have a WaWa, not the best sub in but in a pinch decent.

 

[evermorex76]

The bigger question why are you putting a 5090 in an EVGA motherboard in the first place? Excuse while I park this McClaren in front of my Co-OP what do you mean you don’t have covered parking? Sir, please be happy we have a WaWa, not the best sub in but in a pinch decent.

EVGA boards always had a good reputation, and that one was designed and released before they separated from Nvidia and reduced their overall component presence, so there wasn't much reason to think there'd be any problems. Just being EVGA is certainly not an indication that it's not capable of using a 5090 to full capability. Certainly not a difference of covered parking versus sitting out in the elements.

 

[wwenze1]

Maybe it's Nvidia's fault as much as evga's?

I would say it's not EVGA's fault in any way. They implemented the full wiring spec of PCIe, so their boards would work with any video cards that do want to use those pins. It's the fault of the video card makers and Nvidia for connecting those pins on the card when the chipset doesn't actually support the function. Why are they even connected on the video card if they don't use SMBus?

Do you blame the electricians for installing a 240V outlet when someone hacks a 240V plug onto a 120V piece of equipment and it explodes?

I had the same first thought, but

Do other mobo makers and GPU cards also use the SMBus pins and have no problem?

Who dares to say nobody out of at least 10 mobo makers implemented the full wiring spec of PCIe?

 

[DingusDog]

EVGA PSUs and GPUs have always been rock solid. Mobos not so much.

 

[spongiemaster]

Some of you like Matrox, Cytrix,etc., because of nostalgia. I'm like that with EVGA. I only had a gt 740 but I throttled the heck outta that sucker. 768p on Shadow of tomb raider were good times.(Still works).And yes it's nvidia's fault. They said it was because of disrespect from them.EVGA wouldn't know (either or both) the cost or the specs of the new chip until nvidia announced it(!).How the hell a company can plan around that is beyond me.
It makes EVGA all the more remarkable as a company.They put money into their gpu's,etc.

Nvidia has nothing to do with the demise of EVGA. The CEO didn't want to do it any more and refused the sell the company, that guaranteed its downfall regardless of anything else. Rather than just publicly tell the truth and be honest with his employees, he instead decided to scapegoated Nvidia.

 

[evermorex76]

I had the same first thought, but

Do other mobo makers and GPU cards also use the SMBus pins and have no problem?

Who dares to say nobody out of at least 10 mobo makers implemented the full wiring spec of PCIe?

Based simply on this story and the indication that nobody is claiming EVGA didn't implement it PROPERLY, but that the video card is the part that isn't handling it properly, it's reasonable to assume that very few motherboards have them AND that very few video cards have the pins connected. So it only came to light when some few users happened upon the combination of those specific cards and those specific boards. I can't really come up with a reason that EVGA or other board makers might include the pins only on some boards but not others (if ALL their high-end models included them, it would make sense, an added feature/capability for add-in boards that used them) or why the video card makers might have only connected them on some models, or why they're connected or implemented at all when the expectation is that mainboards won't have them. (I bet Nvidia implements them in the chipsets because their "pro" lines and server stuff are only slightly different from the consumer chipsets and it's easier to just design them all with the SMBUS connections, but board makers don't need to connect them and Nvidia could fuse them off on the consumer lines.)

It doesn't seem to be exclusively an issue with video cards or the retail mainboard makers, either. I went to search which pins specifically are involved, and there are posts about RAID adapters and network cards in Dell and HP systems, even low-end models, as well where the pins needed to be taped off, going back years. Even weird issues like Dell and HP systems that had half of the RAM undetected (a whole RAM channel was disabled) until the pins were taped on Intel i350 NICs.

 

[uplink-svk]

What? 😒, it's like crying that Russia isn't maintaining Duga early warning system from the end of previous century, well, it's because it's out of commission for almost half a century, same as EVGA in iT terms. EVGA threw towel two GPU generations ago, so expecting some maintenance from their side is like waiting for Godot to finally show up. Come on, get real.