Howdy all...
 
I'm new to this forum as I just received a computer from a friend of mine. It's his old build and it's specs are better than my current computer so I thought what the hell? He said there was a problem with the video card, so I thought I'd try and figure it out and that's where you guys come in.
 
System Specs:
EVGA 780i mobo
EVGA GTX 295 video card
4 GB Patriot Extreme Performance DDR2 PC2-6400 800MHz RAM
250 SATA WD Blue HDD
Thermaltake Tough Power 850w PSU
 
When I first tried to boot the machine, I got a long beep followed by 2 beeps and no display. After opening the case and looking around, I didn't see anything wrong, and so I started my Google searches, which brought me to this forum. After searching around, I tried resetting the card by removing it and reinstalling it...still the same result. After several other fruitless options for "fixes" I was stumped.
 
After pondering what was wrong, I noticed the 2 character LCD on the mobo and I saw that while booting, it would get to 7F and stay there. So, after Google searches on that, I found it to be an error. When I hit F1, then the error changes to FF and I saw that means the system sees the video card but something is obviously wrong. People suggested that it is either the mobo or the video card and that you should swap video cards to see if you get the same result. As I have no other system to swap video cards with, that possibility is out. However, I saw someone posted something about changing the video card to another PCI E slot. When I swapped the card to the PCI E slot 2 on the mobo, the system booted and I get display! So, I'm thinking great there's nothing wrong with the video card!
 
The only hang up is the system says something about needing to move the video card back to PCI E slot 1. So, I moved it back, and I'm back to the same error with no boot and no display. Bummer.
 
So, this leads me to believe that there is something wrong with my PCI E slot 1 on the mobo. Am I correct in this conclusion? I read in some posts that the slot can be damaged with too much pressure. When I first opened the case, the card was not screwed all the way in to the case, and with the card being so heavy, I'm wondering if the slot was not slightly damaged from the downward pressure? Also, the card is REALLY easy to slide in and out of slot 1, where as slot 2 was much more snug fit.
 
If so, is there anything I can do to fix the slot? I've seen things about baking the mobo. I've done this with an Xbox 360 mobo before and got it back up and running...is this something that would help me here or no?
 
Or, is there any way to run the system with the main video card in slot 2 or 3?
 
Or, am I incorrect in my conclusion and there are more things for me to test/try out?
 
Or, is the easiest thing to just buy another mobo and slap it in there?
 
Thank you for all the help that I was able to garner from these forums prior to this post, as they are what helped me get this far.
 
Any and all help, suggestions, comments would be most appreciated! I'm sorry if I've left out any information that you may need to help out. Please let me know if you need to know anything more from me.
 
Thanks!
-Nick

Right...
 
But as I stated I don't. My old machine I built in 2001 and it's an AMD Athlon XP machine. I don't have any way to swap out the video card or the mobo. I'm stuck with just this machine. Bummer.
 
The more I read about it, the more I'm pretty sure its the PCI-E Slot 1 with the issue. I found a thread on the Overclockers forum with the same issue as mine and he reflowed the Slot 1 with a heat gun and fixed the issue.
 
See here: http:// www . overclockers . com /forums/showthread.php?t=709530
 
I'm considering trying that or trying to bake the mobo for 8 minutes at 385 degrees.
 
Perhaps before I do that, I'll buy an inexpensive video card on eBay to try out?

Dude,
 
This board isn't a simple reflow like the xbox 360 reballing process. Even the xbox 360 process sometimes works sometimes doesn't. I'd not try to reflow it unless you test it with another known working PCI-E card.
 
If you do decide to reflow the solder then the best bet is to throw a nice little tripple layer tinfoil stencil on the bottom of the pcb and heat the joints from the bottom. I've done this with mosfets on older video cards and it seemed to work well.
 
If you cant find a PCI-E card cheap there is a thing called craiglist. I picked up a few older cards for some $10 a piece 9800gtx ect things that could be sli'd and make for a good budget gamer. At any rate let us know how things turn out.
 
Nic

Did you inspect the slot itself? Does it look cracked or split anywhere? The card shouldn't be really loose like that. def don't bake the whole board just to fix the one pci-e slot....if anything try to reflow just slots pins somehow. Evga may repair it for you, but not sure what they would charge. you may even find a local guy who can do it too. You got a whole rig for free, and a decent one at that, so it may be worth it to you to spend a few bucks.

shawneendn
Ok, so I got another video card here in town via craigslist.
 
I get the same issues. I get a long beep followed by 2 short beeps and a 7F error. 
 
When I put the new video card in Slot 2 or Slot 3, it boots and then gives me the error stating the video card is in slot 2/3 and needs to be in slot 1.
 
So, it seems as though the problem is the mobo?
 
@wmmills - I don't mind spending a few bucks to fix it. Is the slot just pins in the mobo? Should I contact EVGA about it through tech support?
 
Thanks guys!

The mobo is a good model. However, if you are low on funds, get with tech support and find out your options. As someone else stated, you got a decent board for free. This is what i use. I enjoy it and trust EVGA products. 

This board really does work very well. I have my x5460 xeon clocked at 4.2ghz and two fermi 460s @ 825/2000. The system really sings with all the hardware i have. Battlefield 4 @ 1440x900 or 1080p with auto settings for my cards is high and reports 60fps stable. 
 
If you have this board i'd spend money to repair it. Locally in d/c metro there is a guy who will reball sockets/replace sockets. He is way expensive and wanted to charge me $200 to replace the socket on a 780i ftw i saw on ebay. I said no thank you and passed on the deal. Evga is probably your cheapest and best bet.
 
I personally spent money for the board used on craiglist and if I had to do again. I would do it in less than a second. That said the resale value for the board i ended up with is high as i've ever seen for an obsolete socket (lga 775). But with the right cpu and gpus even battlefield 4 responds extremely well.
 
Goodluck and fix your board
 
Nic
 
 

I've contacted EVGA to see what my options are on this issue.
 
Thanks everybody.

shawneendn

wmmills
Well, this depends on what your going to use the system for. If its mainly for gaming and some internet surfing, basic program use stick with the core 2 duo wolfdales like the E8400, E8500, E8600. They are fantastic overclockers and with most games not being able to utilize multicore cpu's really anyway, theres no point in wasting your money. By the time most games utilize multi core cpu's this rig will probably be dead and buried. Sadly, socket 775 will be nothing but a memory for most by then. If you plan on turning it into a server or doing photoshop work, heavy cad work etc... then ya, you would want to get the fastest multicore cpu with hyperthreading you can get, or mod the 775 cpu socket and stick a xeon ,socket 771, cpu in it for the most bang for your buck.  you can get that info here:

Wow! That sounds killer! I'm definitely going to want/need 64-bit Quad Core processing for things other than games. That mod sounds very intriguing. If I'm looking at it correctly, is the fastest Xeon quad core CPU that I can drop into my 780i the X5470? 3.33 GHz @ 1333 FSB?
 
I'm not very well versed in overclocking so I'm not really sure how all that works? I'd be interested to understanding more about it if my computer can be stable doing it?
 
Also, still wondering about running the 8 GB RAM in the 780i board?
 
Sorry if I'm asking dumb questions. Thank you again for everyone's help and suggestions.

The X5470 is the best 771 Xeon and is a guarantee E0 stepping and overclocks better than the QX9650/QX9770 since they were only available as C0/C1 steppings.  The X5470 will work with the 780i without any bios modding and with adequate cooling they are easily capable of reaching 4.0ghz+.
 
The 780i will support 8gb of ram, most of time they work fine with the default voltage and timings.

Myself I wouldn't push a board to its ram limits...I would stay well within its capabilities for optimal stability.