Am I the only one who tihnks the Dragon+ is not all that/ R U having the same probs?

[TORBO]

Lockups when running at 133FSB or any other of the "High Performance" options...
MAJOR IRQ issues coupled with no ability to turn off or truly control APM in the BIOS...
Failed Installs, Page Faults, IRQ_NOT_LESS_THAN_EQUAL, Undefined Critical System Errors... Any of this sound familiar?
Since I have purchased/replaced/returned/swapped every other piece of hardware (including a replacement Dragon+) for this box and have been able to produce predictable results on this boards unreliability while no one else seems to have a real problem with the same things.... I ask again am I the only one who thinks this board is a pile of sh1t?

You may want to check here for more detail on the probs I have with this board
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=29&threadid=752913

All hardware is either twice new (returned/replaced) or proven stable on other systems:

XP 1900+
1gb Crucial PC2100 (2x512)
ATI AIW Radeon (GeForce 4 soon)
Santa Cruz: Turtle Beach - sound - (Audigy is next)
20gb Maxtor ata100 hd - with WinXP Pro - clean install several times
Plextor 40x CDRW
Sony DVD ROM
2 x 60gb Deskstar 60GXP's - RAID 0
3Ware Escalade 7000 4 port RAID controller
3Com Firewire
El Cheapo 56k Lucent Modem
Antec 1080b SOHO case w/430w TruPower
BIG BOTTLE of Headache Medicine
All Retail

TORBO

 

[Boonesmi]

ive used that board in multiple builds in the last several months

i really like it... havent had any problems at all


couple questions
did you verify the powersupply isnt faulty?
did you verity its not overheating? (what were are the cpu temps?)
did you ever run any type of memory tests to make sure the ram and memory sub system is in shape? (i prefer memtest86 )

 

[Boonesmi]

by the way im curious which 3ware card your using? 7410 or 7450? (not that its related to your problems )

how do you like the card?

 

[TORBO]

That's why I was asking... Everyone else seems to love the board I have seen some other troubles with IRQ's but I think the consensus is on the upside.
I do wish that I had as straightforward answers to the questions you posed. The truth is though that they are not.

Power: I have tried several different power supplies (of varying wattage up to 400) I finally got frustrated and swapped out the 1020 antec case I originally had everything in with the new 1080 (430w). No change, no improvement.

Heat: There are a total of nine fans in my case including the two power supply fans and both 7200 rpm baddies (one in the side panel port and the one feeding my thermalright sk6 heatsink). I don't overclock this system (couldn't if I tried) but I run it hard when it cooperates so it'll usually run somewhere in the low 90's (F) on a warm day.

Memory: I have tried a couple of mem testers like the Sandra one but I have probably run ten different sticks though it. All of which work fine on other systems between here and the office.

Funny you should ask about the Escalade (7450). It was actually part of the problem up until recently when I did the latest firmware upgrade and installed their totally new and totally revised drivers. That cut down some of the really mysterious problems I get by about a third. (BTW I only got the 7450 because we upgraded one of our medium servers at work with and 8 port card. I was already going to buy the 7410 (because I mostly do video editing so all I run is raid 0) but they offerered it to me for cheap so I nabbed it. I absolutely love the card. Doing what I do (even at 100FSB) it still makes all the diff.


It may sound like a bit of a mismatch with the other hardware I run but the idea to run this system with that board is a direct result of my attempts to get my previously 'New' system to settle down. It's a Tyan Tiger with two 1600+'s in it and 2gb of crucial 2100. It really did not like my video card (which I had bought originally for my original P3-500) and some of my other parts. So I put my old GeForce256 in it and basically took everythign else out except the lan card and the drives to make it my 'render farm'.

These Dragons are killing me. This is even the replacement board for the first one. I can't throw any better or bigger variety of hardware at it. I am thorough, I do the research, I have plenty of spare parts to test with, and when I make a decision I like to stick with it. However, I am about to throw the thing out the window and look for a better solution. This is my last ditch effort.

TORBO

 

[Boonesmi]

plz dont take offence, hehe cause its not meant that way

but if you had problems with one board, and the swapped it for a new board which has the same problems(and they are problems other people with the same board dont have)... either you have horrible luck, or the problem isnt the board

odds would be that the problem isnt the board.. have you tried running it without the 3ware card?



hehe sorry im not any more help, but good luck getting it worked out... hopefully if you go with a new setup you wont have the same problems

 

[TGirl]

Maybe one of you guys could help me out here. I am having problems getting the sound to work. I'm about to go insane. I'm going to liink you up to the discussion on this.

PLEASE help me!!!! Love you guys!!!

TGirl "Soyo dragon and sound problems"

 

[LoneWolf1]

Have you tried using the onboard IDE controller with a single drive or the raid controller with a 2 drive array to test for stability? If you haven't already done so, go thru the BIOS and disable the serial and parallel ports if you don't use them. That will help to free up some IRQ's. Also, when you set everything up, did you install all of the PCI cards and then install the OS, or did you install the OS and then the PCI cards? Have you tried shifting the cards to different PCI slots? It would help to know what steps you have taken in the build process to help troubleshoot your problems.

 

[TORBO]

I have had nothing but the strangest trouble with these Dragon's and I have been troubleshooting till the wee hours of the morning for weeks on end.
I have seriously tried every possible hardware configuration. I have enough other parts and spares around (and believe me they have all done their service in trying to fix this prob) to be 100% certain that the parts that I need to have in the board are all individually solid. The only variable that has not been eliminated is the Dragon.
Thank you all for interest but since I seem to be having a unique and isolated experience I can only be led to assume that the curse of the Dragon is my burden to bear.
I am just going to ditch it and go with something else.

 

[scottrico]

I had to return my soyo dragon 3 times and I had all kinds of issues.
I did not even return it in the end. It is still in my closet. I hate that motherboard.
I went to epox boards and never looked back.
good luck

 

[TORBO]

thank you. I can now get rid of that thin and begin the healing process knowing that I am not entirely insane.
TORBO

 

[Jman13]

Well, one thing that I would try before you throw the thing away is to take out your extra RAID controller, since the Dragon Plus already has a RAID controller on it. Or, if you need the added one, make sure the on-board controller is disabled in the BIOS. FWIW, my Dragon Plus system is extraordinarily stable...I love this board.

Jman

 

[TORBO]

Thanks for the advice but I have already dealt with the issues concerning my escalade controller and I assure you the promise controller on the Dragon is not enabled. The thing will still crash within the first 30 seconds of heavy work (if I run the FSB at 133).
BTW: Try not to take this the wrong way, Jman13, but there is really no comparison my "Extra" raid card to the onboard promise controller. 3Ware IDE raid cards may be in the same category but they are not even near being in the same class.
THX,
TORBO

 

[TGirl]

You guys may already know this, but I found some interesting tidbits regarding this board and ddr memory at Mushkin : I copied this from Mushkins Soyo Dragon Plus info


"Notes:

*1 POST problems with NEC-based DIMMs for PC2100 operation with the original BIOS, more below.
*2 More than 128 MB system RAM will strongly decrease the overclocking capabilities of the 8K7a(+).
*3 Above 138 MHz FSB, the VIA chipsets lose USB capability, in the KT266A revision, this problem has been fixed.
*4 Ultra and Ultra2 memory settings are reserved for PC1600 operation only and can cause errors in PC2100 mode.
*5 Relatively poor overclocking capabilities.
*6 Only 3 DIMM slots can be filled with unbuffered DIMMs, details below.
*7 Rather high Core voltage makes this board run very hot
*8 The 845D chipset only supports 4 banks or 2 double sided unbuffered DDR DIMMs
*9 With more than 2 DIMM slots populated with double-sided DIMMs, the board can only run in PC1600 mode
*10 With all 6 banks populated most nForce boards default back to SuperCompatibility Mode. New BIOS revisions fix this issue.
*11 A bug in the AMD Opus SouthBridge can cause USB devices to malfunction. Chances are about 1/1.000.000 for this to happen.




Soyo SY-K7V Dragon Plus

Soyo SY-K7V Dragon Plus: VIA KT266A chipset (VIA Website)
The Soyo SY-K7V Dragon Plus! is fully compatible with all Mushkin DDR memory modules using x8 chip technology. Very fast with features like Smart Card reader, clean layout with purple PCI slots on a black PCB.



USER TIPS: The Dragon Plus has no memory voltage adjustments. We found that the Dragon Plus works best with Nanya-based DIMMs. Using the Integrated LAN will limit Overclockability to about 148 MHz. With the current BIOS revision, the board will not correctly work with some GeForce 3 Ti500-based graphics boards.

RECOMMENDED DIMMS:
512Mb Level 2
512Mb Special
512mb High Perf
256mb Special
256mb High Perf



Soyo SY-P4S Dragon Ultra

Soyo SY-K7V Dragon Ultra : SIS 645 chipset (SIS Website)
The Soyo SY-P4B Dragon Ultra is fully compatible with all Mushkin DDR memory modules using x8 chip technology for 133 MHz operation. The Dragon Ultra is conditionally approved for PC2700 operation since neither Core nor DDR voltages meet the specifications.

USER TIPS: The Dragon Ultra offers memory and core voltage adjustments in the BIOS, however in reality, regardless of the selection, the adjustments don't work and the memory voltage is below spec at 2.42V. This and the fact that the Vre is below specs as well (we found 1.43V instead of 1.5Vre) makes is very difficult to run at or above 166 MHz memory bus speed or to overclock at all. We found that the Dragon Ultra works best with PC-2700 DIMMs. Under overclocked conditions, the board will often not reboot but pressing multiple times the reset button can reinitialize it. Once up and runnig, the Dragon Ultra is fairly stable. Using the Level2 DIMMs we were able to run the Dragon Ultra up to 114 MHz FSB / 192 MHz Memory frequency.


Maybe this may assist you with memory problems. It could be it's not fond of the memory you put in it? Just thought I'd show you this.


TGirl