watchdodogg MAXIMUM PC TAKES A BITE OUT OF BAD GEAR dog
THE REPLACEMENTS
Having read recent glowing reviews of the Nvidia
680i motherboard and the Intel Core 2 Extreme
QX6700 processor, I thought it reasonable to
purchase these two components as the basis
for my own Dream Machine. The only problem
is that these components are incompatible.
The QX6700 has an unlocked multiplier, and
the Nvidia 680i is marketed as an enthusiast
board for overclockers, but when you put them
together, they become unstable.
If you read some of the forums, it is clear
there is a problem. At the end of February, EVGA
announced that it would offer replacement 680i
motherboards to owners of the QX6700 proces-
sor—going so far as to RMA replacement boards
before they were sent back to EVGA—this is a
brave move by EVGA, and one for which they
should be given credit.
Unfortunately, I purchased a 680i board from
BFG, and when I called the company’s customer
service department, I was told that I would need
to induce a fault and then they might consider
replacing the board—the only problem being
that I would void the warranty by overclocking it.
I would greatly appreciate it if you could
contact Nvidia to find out what gives and why it is
not offering replacement boards to all owners of
the 680i with a QX6700 processor.
— Mark MiocevichThe Dog spoke with a BFG spokesman who
apologized for the problem. He said Mark’s
issue cropped up before the company had
fully verified the problem was occurring
and briefed its techs. Since then, BFG has
updated its response and will replace any
board that is causing problems.
But what exactly is the problem? EVGA’s
website seems to indicate that issues arise
only on some boards when the front-side bus
is pushed beyond 1,300MHz and a quad-core
is used. Nvidia officials told the Dog that the
company had tracked down the cause to a
faulty transistor that has since been fixed.Nvidia contracts with a vendor to build its
boards, which are then resold through its
partners such as BFG, EVGA, and ECS. It’s
not known if the problem impacts Asus,
MSI, and other third-party vendors who
design and build their own boards, but no
complaints have crossed the Dog’s path.XCOPY TANGO UNIFORM?
I bought a copy of XCopyDVD over Christmas to
back up my DVDs. The program doesn’t work on
several of my DVDs, and I have tried to contact
XCopy9 on its forum and through email. To date,
there has been no response on the forum (to any
requests for help—for over a month) and only a
canned server response to my tech support email.
Has XCopy9 gone belly-up?
— Keith M.The Dog agrees with you, Keith. XCopy9’s
support is a bit obtuse, but the Dog did
manage to reach an official with the com-
pany, who apologized for the problems
you’ve been having.
Dan Van Hoose told the Dog that Keith
was a victim of massive changes XCopy9 has
been undergoing. A competitor, 123CopyDVD,
has entered into a business relationship
with XCopy9, and the result is that XCopy
products are being phased out. Fortunately
for customers of XCopy9, Van Hoose said
the company is providing free upgrades to
the equivalent program from 123CopyDVD.
Consumers must provide a current license
ID, but Van Hoose said he believed that all
XCopy9 customers were eligible for a copy of
123CopyDVD. The company is in the process
of contacting registered customers now, but
those who have not heard from a company
rep should visit XCopy9’s forums for help
obtaining a copy of the new product at http://www.
xcopy9.com. The Dog spoke with Keith again
about getting a copy of 123CopyDVD, but he
said he had already moved beyond the app to
more effective tools that are free.BFG and other nForce 680i
vendors are replacing
motherboards for people
who are having problems over-
clocking quad-core processors.BFG and other nForce 680iwho are having problems over-
clocking quad-core processors.Got a bone to pick with a vendor? Been spiked by a fly-by-night operation? Sic
the Dog on them by writing [email protected]. The Dog promises to
answer as many letters as possible, but only has four paws to work with.