Soyo Dragon Plus Fiasco

[stranger707]

I bought a Soyo Dragon Plus with an AMD 1900+ at Fry's to update an old system that I have had for 5 years. I also upgrade the video card and HD, GeForce 3 Ti200 and a Seagate 360021A ATA 100. I saved an Adaptec 2940UW and a Toshiba CD, Zip 100 and Yamaha CDRW from the old system that are all SCSI.

On first boot the system posted fine, detected the Seagate HD and then went to a flashing _ cursor in the upper left hand of the screen. To troubleshoot I changed out the video, removed the Adaptec, and changed the HD to see if the problem would be solved, but nothing changed. So I cleared the CMOS memory and on the next boot the system worked fine. I installed DOS and was ready to install Win98 when the SCSI CD would not respond when the Win 98 CD was inserted. The CD was dead. I worked at this all afternoon removing one item at a time fr4om the SCSI bus, and changing SCSI cables; then finally using an active termiantor on the end of the bus. Removing the SCSI Zip drive seemed to solve the problem for a while, but then the problems returned.

So after a boot when the system exhibited the first problem of a flashing _ cursor after detected the HD, I packed it all up and took it back to Fry's. I got in line behind a few other people returning Soyo Dragon Plus MBs.

The second MB is the same bunch of problems. I noticed, on the first motherboard, and on the second that everything in the box looked new except for the manual, which was dogeared and well thumbed. Soyo must be getting a bunch of these back.

Has anyone seen this problem on a Soyo Dragon Plus? Any ideas?

 

[cmdrdredd]

My soyo is 100% but I don't use SCSI!

Try to get an IDE CD and Hd to test...do a thorough test for a few days with different bios dettings and see what happens. I bet your propbelsm will go away.

 

[stranger707]

The problem isn't the Adaptec SCSI card or CD. I removed the Adaptec SCSI card and rebooted and the symptoms are the same. Immediately after the BIOS detects the hard drive, the display goes to a flashing _ cursor. An IDE Cd would not solve this problem.

 

[cmdrdredd]

just a question...did you set the BIOS to use RAID or forget to disable it? Also plug the IDe into the IDE1 port and not the RAID even though you can use the RAID as a 3rd and 4th IDE with RAID turned to off.

See if those are set properly...also check the startup order.

If that's no good i suggest you try a Abit KA7R

 

[docgonzo]

I also have a Soyo Dragon Plus. Yes, I got it at fry's, and yes I have seen alot of people in line returning them. My mobo is a P4, and has the sis 645 chipset. I had a similar problem booting my system at first. Usually it would make it through the post, and then lock up somewhere in the loading of Win2K. I reloaded my operating system, and flashed the Bios, but still the same thing. I finally fixed it in the Bios by choosing, "Load Optimized defaults." It configured my Bios the same way I had it, except it changed the Internal clock/Memory Ratio to like 3/5. I think I had tried it at 1/1 at first and then 3/4. Since the change in the ratio, it has not locked up once... I am thiking the ram was not getting enough juice? A problem I read on the web about the Soyo board.

This is probably not your problem though, as you are not making it past the bios. Sounds like a problem initializing the HD? You didnt ever load any kind of software bios for your old mobo onto that HD did you? Just a thought. Sounds like a problem with something on your HD and the new bios. Have any other HD's that you can start from scratch with?

 

[stranger707]

No, man, I am using a brand new Seagate IDE HD. As part of my original troubleshooting, though, I replaced this HD with a older IBM and the problem still returned. I am back to the Seagate. I will try changing the BIOS defaults as you did to see if it makes any difference.

Today I replaced the power supply, as the chassis is over 5 years old. It was a 300W ATX and it has served me well, but I thought that maybe when the AGP kicked in it might be sucking the guts out of the old power supply. I bought a new 350 watt and installed, and guess what . . . .. it still can't get past the HD recognition.

 

[stranger707]

Well, I appreciate your suggestion, but the change in BIOS defaults did not help. I guess that I will march into Fry's and ask for my money back. I really think that they are pawning off a bunch of returned mobos as new when they package them with processors. I know this because the mobo manuals with both of the 2 that I received were dog-eared.

I have really enjoyed shopping at Fry's but this experience has changed my opinion of them.