Refurb AK31 Ver 3.1 ROCKS!!!

[cool0221]

I am running with the latest "EF" bios and it is rock stable. Actually I had ZERO problems with it!!!

Donno why it got returned but anyway I am so happy with my upgrade

BTW the memory bench is like 1900 or something Quite a leap from my A7V133,

 

[lordbob99]

i gotta agree with u cool0221. i ordered this same board from newegg refurbished, and it's been running rock solid. the only thing that i noticed with my board is that the fan speed monitoring doens't seem to work, but it's not really a big issue for me since i never really look at it anyways. awesome board for an awesome price.

lordbob99

 

[tsnyder]

Even at full price this is an excellent board... VERY stable and great performance. The only negatives I can say about the board are completely superficial. No raid... but do I use raid? No hardware sound (worthless AC'97), No LAN (ok I could use that). Really though I wouldn't have any reservations suggesting this board to anyone. The board really earned my respect for Shuttle.

 

[JoeKamel]

i also bought this refurb board from newegg... and i got a dud, i think.
my conclusion is that it has a defective agp slot. it will not POST with an AGP video card. tried 2 different working agp cards. but it boots up fine with a PCI video card. i heard about Power supply problems, and tried 2 different AMD XP approved ones. same results. even disconnected everything except for the vid card.

also, i wasn't able to successfully flash the BIOS to the new version. even tried clearing CMOS and resetting battery.

disappointing. does newegg even test their "refurbished" stuff?

 

[IronCityPA]

JoeKamel: read the manual (not being offensive just saying it's a good idea). With the ak31 rev3.1, there's a jumper you need to set to be able to write to the bios ... in other words bios protection. That will let you write to the bios. As far as the agp card problem.. I had that problem with my Abit BH6. I finally got my card to work after like 20 times putting it in and out of the slot. I took it out again like 5 months later and I couldn't get the damn thing to work again.. so i rma'd it... the next board had a bad ps/2 keyboard port. My keyboard would work on every 3 bootups and the other 2 times wouldn't... so I will never buy Abit again (2 bad experiences one after another leaves a bad taste in my mouth for abit quality). Running the Shuttle with ZERO problems

 

[JoeKamel]

thx for the reply. i read the manual. had done the cmos and bios jumpers. currently, newegg has my board. they haven't said anything about sending me another one yet.

 

[Zap]

A buddy got a refurb from Newegg for $49. I've noticed that they've bumped the price to $57 now. We would not be able to tell the difference from his refurb and a new board. Of course it has the usual problem of incorrect voltage adjustments - try to bump it over 1.85v and it resets to default, but we know that to be a BIOS flaw and not to be a bad board. Anyone have a link handy to instructions for voltage mods for this board?


<< The board really earned my respect for Shuttle. >>


You said it, tsnyder. We used to use a lot of Shuttle boards back with the original socket 7 designs. The HOT-557 board was pretty nice. In fact, I discovered Anandtech way back then because Anand posted a great review of this board. The HOT-661 (BX) was pretty decent also, but the HOT-591P (VIA Super 7) wasn't so great. Then we started using the AV61. That board blew! We stopped using Shuttle boards until the AK31. I think we started using them with version 2, with the KT266 (not A). Good performance with never a problem.

JoeKamel, bummer about your board.