Some RTX 50-series gamers with EVGA motherboards are having to physically tape their graphics cards to boot up their PC

Far be it from me to presume a state of play for technology in 2025, but I don't tend to assume a need to tape up expensive circuitry to get our precious PC components working. So what a fool I looked when I discovered that's exactly what some PC gamers are having to resort to to get their RTX 50-series graphics cards working with their EVGA motherboards.

Apparently there's been an incompatibility issue between some EVGA motherboards and RTX 50 GPUs that has led one Redditor to a workaround fix (via VideoCardz) involving Kapton tape.

Workaround/FIX for 50-series GPUs on EVGA Z690 motherboards from r/TEAMEVGA

The Redditor found that their system with EVGA Z690 Classified motherboard and RTX 5080 Founders Edition graphics card, "as expected", wouldn't boot. Instead, they found their system "looping through 0A and 7F POST codes." This seems to be a known issue with the motherboard and RTX 50-series cards.

The problem is apparently caused by SMBus pins on the EVGA motherboard. SMBus is an interface for small and lightweight comms such as for power management—originally, it was for batteries. It's an interface that's mostly not used, and most motherboards don't have the connection live.

Some EVGA motherboards do though, it seems, and this is causing problems with the RTX 50-series graphics cards. The issue seems to be that two pins on RTX 50-series cards communicate (intentionally or unintentionally) with these SMBus pins when they're live and cause issues. In most cases there are no live SMBus pins to communicate with, but there are in the case of these EVGA motherboards.

The solution the Redditor found was to simply tape over the respective fifth and sixth pins on the GPU's PCIe connector with Klapton tape (electrically resistant tape):

"Cut a 2mm-wide strip of electrically-insulating tape (Kapton strongly recommended). Then, apply over pins #5 and #6 on the front side of the GPU’s PCIe connector. Thermal Grizzly sells the tape on plastic sheets, which are easy to cut to size. Make sure that only the two SMBUS pins are covered, nothing else. That’s it. Reinstall the card and enjoy."

It's not every EVGA motherboard that has this issue; it seems to primarily be some (and not all) Z690 boards. Still, for those with such boards who might be considering an upgrade to an RTX 50-series card, it's worth knowing what you might be getting yourself into and that you might need to get your electrical tape ready.

EVGA doesn't have much to do with the RTX 50-series. The company stopped making graphics cards at least in part because it had had enough of working with Nvidia.

So far there's no official word from Nvidia or EVGA, but an Nvidia rep has said they will get some from the company to look into the issue. Hopefully it's something a simple GPU driver update can fix, rather than requiring a motherboard BIOS update. If not, kapton tape seems to do the trick just fine, but might not last over the long term without replacement.