Talking about EVGA brings back painful memories, especially when we think of the end of this prestigious brand. First of all, the company stopped its graphics card business and then its motherboard business. In fact, the latter was left in the lurch, to the extent that incompatibility problems with RTX 50s affected the Z690 Classified. And with no real presence in this sector, getting a fix is like believing in Santa Claus. Fortunately, there’s still a strong community around the brand, and an admittedly home-made fix has been found.
Z690 Classified: scotch tape to solve RTX 50 incompatibility problems!
Broadly speaking, the issue boils down to a problem with the SMBUS on the motherboard. If we’re to believe what MurkyIncident (the person behind the fix) says in his post, these pins have no assigned standard use and most OEM boards don’t even wire them. However, EVGA has done so on its motherboard, and apparently this is what causes problems when the PC starts up, particularly at memory level when RAM is detected. Finally, the solution is quite simple: block the signal received by the motherboard. To do this, apply a thin strip of adhesive tape to pins 5 and 6 on the front of the graphics card connector. In this way, the signal is blocked and start-up proceeds as planned. Not just any adhesive tape will do – Kapton is recommended. This is an insulating adhesive that withstands high temperatures. Thermal Grizzly offers this type of adhesive in easy-to-cut sheets. Once applied, all that’s left to do is reassemble the card and boot up your PC. Normally, you should no longer see the debug LED alternately displaying codes 0A and 7F.
