Soyo Dragon Plus (KT266a) sucks???

[lorddrake]

So far my SoyoTek Dragon Plus is sucking hardcore. I keep getting lock ups at random. Here is the system, let me know if you think you might know what the cause of the locks ups are.

SoyoTek Dragon Plus Motherboard (KT266A w/raid and lan)
Athlon XP 1800+
2 sticks of Crucial 2100 DDR 256MB CL2.5
1 30 gig Seagate Hard Drive (C drive with Windows XP Pro on Primary IDE port)
2 40 gig Western Digital Drives in a Stripe set up on the onboard RAID controller. Each Drive is set to master, Each drive has its on channel on the MOBO, one is on IDE port 3, one is on IDE port 4, Both drives are identical.
Creative Labs Geforce 2 Annihalator
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live Platinum w/live Drive
Adaptec Fire Wire Card
One Toshiba 40x CD Drive (Secondary IDE port, Master)
One Plextor 16/10/40a (Secondary IDE port, Slave)

I installed Windows XP Pro, ran all the patches from the windows update site, Installed any VIA patch I could find, and all the most up to date drivers for the video card, sound card, etc..

Problem One: Computer locks up at random, even while surfing the internet and not using any software from the Stripe array.
Problem Two: I can NOT install a game to the Stripe set of drives. The install will ALWAYS lock up around 2 to 20 percent.

Oh yeh, the bios posts that everything is fine, and the stripped set shows up as one drive (D: drive) and there are no conflicts any where on my system under device manager.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!

 

[scoobydooby]

Just because you had a problem doesn't mean the board sucks. I think most people encounter problems with motherboards at first. Did you flash your bios to the newest version? If no one here has an answer for you then I would take a look over at www.amdmb.com in the soyo forum. Hope that helps.
Scoob

 

[Demonicon]

Another thread where some expects help, while bashing the product they need help with. Boggles my mind. :disgust:

 

[Windogg]

Whoa buddy. Chill and take a deep breath.

Lots can be wrong here but slamming the board is not a bood start.

What power supply do you have? You are running lots of stuff that sucks down lots of juice.
Have you started yanking boards? Remove the firewire card, SBLive, etc.
Installed something other than XP? XP has probs with many devices due to immature drivers.

Windogg

 

[Duvie]

The statement is a little premature don't you think??? I mean really...It could be a number of components, and in the end may just show you that you are not the best builder of pc's...

It also chaps me a bit that ppl will read just the topic and start spreadinig rumors they heard that sosyo boards suck and ppl are having problems with them...They won't come in and read thread and find out the author is a complete moron to be making this blanket statement so early in the process. Now I know it is frustrating and you are starting to get mad.

Try to do these things:

1) List make and size of power supply...It dawns on me any person who doesn't list ther power supply as a component doesn't realize its true significance especially to amd chips...

2) Pull out all cards execpt vid card, and reformat just one drive with jsut one stick of the ram in...

3) Then slowly add components and watch to see if the problems begins to arrive at a certain point...

4) Check out your temps and voltages at all these stages to see if those can be a factor...



Remember XP is relatively new and there may be compatability issues that are resolved in certain product's bios or firmware upgrades...

 

[Insane3D]

Make sure you get the latest bios from Soyo. There were supposedly some instability problems with the shipping bios that are fixed in the latest release.

 

[lorddrake]

Okay okay, I really hadn't put THAT much thought into my subject of my post, I wasn't serious! The reason I bought this board is because it got many awesome reviews, anyways, chill out guys. Be happy and stuff. =

Status update: On another site, someone bet me, that If I yanked out the SB Live that the problem with game installs locking up would go away, and he was correct. I pulled the SB live out and now I can install anything on my D: Drive (which is the two 40gig drives in a stripe array). And I put it back in, tried to install some other games and the problem returned.

At this point, im considering playing "guess the PCI slot that likes the SB Live" or just buying an SB Audigy because I heard it works a bit better and has better audio anyways, so I guess theres 2 reasons to pick it up. But until then, I'd like to keep using my SB Live in there for a few more weeks.

Anyways, anyone know which is the best PCI slot to put the SB live into? Is there one? And btw, whos fault is this, VIAs or Creatives?

 

[fijianflash187]

yo my friend had a simialr prob with his sound card and that board,all he did was move it from pci 4 to pci 5 and the prob was fixed ans everything is running smooth, juz something u might wanna try,
PEACE

 

[Duvie]

I have heard more reports the problems happen more with the live drive...

I also think the problem is creatives as the problem has been reported with non via motherboards as well and on intel chipsets...that is to many mobo manufacturer to think isolated bug...

What via 4 in 1 drivers are you using...anything after 4.32's should have had the "so-called" sb-live workaround in it...However it hasn't cured everyones problems...

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

<< Make sure you get the latest bios from Soyo. There were supposedly some instability problems with the shipping bios that are fixed in the latest release. >>

 

[bakaris]

stick her into slot 4 or 5. worked for my audigy.

 

[S0me1X]

How can you be sure it is even the motherboard that is the source of your problems.

 

[novon]

I have a SB Live! working fine in this board, just move in the PCI 4 or 5 and get the latest BIOS.

It's a SWEEEEEEEET Board, tell it you are sorry.