Soyo Dragon Plus issues

[ChrisOh]

Hey all, I have a Soyo Dragon Plus and I was experiencing some problems with it that I would consider major. The problem is that if I shut down the computer all the way and restart it, it would ALWAYS freeze while loading Windows 2000 and XP, the bar would freeze up and it would just stop altogether. This doesn't happen when I'm restarting the computer, only happens when I shut down the computer all the way before turning it back on. The only way to get windows back up after it freezes in bootup is restart, then go into the BIOS, set everything to failsafe defaults and restart, then it would get into windows and that point I'd restart again and set my BIOS all over again. Once it is restarted, it works perfectly. The problem only occurs when I do a complete shut down and restart. Sometimes it would freeze while installing windows too. Anyone know of this problem

Configuration:
Athlon 1200 200MHz FSB
Soyo Dragon Plus with the latest BIOS
512MB Crucial DDR (2x256MB in slots 1 and 2)
GeForce2 Pro 64MB
Santa Cruz
On board LAN
12X Plextor and 16X Pioneer DVD in IDE2
60GB Maxtor in IDE1
350W Enermax PSU.

 

[justdad]

Hi Chrisoh,

I have the same board. I do not have any problems with restart. I only have xp on mine though. I had two different operation systems before and they worked ok for the most part. there were times when the whole system would just crash and I had to reset the bios but even then it was because it crashed. seems you may need to reinstall as sounds more like a software problem or faulty memory as it is telling the system that something is wrong. check the fan for the cpu and make sure it is running up to par and the power supply is sufficient for the system and amd approved, also how many fans are you running as I had to change my power supply to 400watts to operate properly. I know that I am talking alot but I've been in computer repair for 20 years now and there are seldom easy answers to some of the problems that crop up. The normal tech would say replace this or that but I assure you they are guessing most of the time. Good Luck with it.. sorry I could not be of more help.

 

[ChrisOh]

thanks for the reply, all the components check out and are working fine and all the temperatures, etc... are fine also, I just reinstalled windows and the same problem exists. I am betting it is a hardware problem so I'm going to change out the motherboard to see if that will work.

 

[ngupt02]

Do you have Video Init set to PCI or AGP? I'm running WinXP and it had trouble rebooting if my bios was set to AGP init first. But a quick change to PCI fixed this issue (PCI is the default setting). BTW i'm running bios 2ba1.

 

[StanFL]

Chris,

I've now handled dozens of these boards (mostly bad ones being returned) and have seen one thing in common among troublesome boards. When you power on the computer, if it takes 3-5 seconds for the monitor power light to come on, odds are good your going to have major troubles with the board. If the monitor light comes on almost instantly, hopefully it will be a good one.

I had thought the slow video sync was just a "feature" till I actually got my hands on a good board for the first time. I was amazed at how much quicker the damn thing booted into windows and reacted in general. It's been a while since I had such a love/hate relationship with a motherboard. If you get a good board they are great, but getting a good doesn't have the greatest odds in my experience.

Use this info if applicable.

 

[RagingGuardian]

StanL, if you check the amdmb forums you'll see that it's a feature included on all Soyo motherboards. Soyo clearly stated that in an technical support email.

ChrisOh, I'm having almost the same problem. In was using Win2k and every so often my computer would refuse to boot. I thought it was a problem with my software so I went and bought WinCraxp only to find out that it does the same thing:| I've now found out that it's a problem with my RAM settings. When I use the default settings it never happens. I'm about to get some quality DDR to solve the whole thing.

BTW, I'm using BIOS 2BA1.

 

[ChrisOh]

alright, im going to set my video to PCI and my RAM to default and see what happens.

 

[StanFL]

Frankly, Raging Guardian, I really don't care what Soyo says when I have seen this behaviour with my own eyes while working with (I repeat, dozens) of these boards. I'm replying simply to reiterate my opinion and have no intention of changing it.

 

[josphII]

sounds like you have a bad ram stick

 

[ChrisOh]

I just took out a stick of ram from a post i read regarding instability problems with more than 1 ram slot filled and put ram settings to default and put Display INIT to PCI slot first and that might've done something.

 

[RagingGuardian]

Well StanL, Soyo claims that it's a feature included in all their boards that take it so long to boot. As for everything else I've said, forget it. Tonight while trying to load Wincraxp I got stuck at the boot up screen. Seems as if it may be a board problem afterall. I'm gonna return it at the computer show tommorow. I realised that there are two versions to the board. I have the first revision which is reportedly less stable. I'm going to get another board. I loved the dragon but the reboot issue is something I can't live with.

 

[ShadowFox]

jeez, cant believe no one has said this yet:
Chris, it is very likly thet you will need to upgrade your bios to 2ba1, it is a widly know problem that windows installs fequently stall with the shipped bios, flash to the newest bios and you will be fine, (worked on my 2 dragon boards)

 

[ChrisOh]

sadly, the BIOS is the newest one. I took out the stick of ram and changed the video settings a bit but the reboot problem is still there.

 

[Samooh]

Probably just like you who have problem to use Soyo Dragon Plus. I'm experiencing the same kind of problem. First, a few weeks ago I bought a Soyo Dragon plus mother board from an Internet shop. I set up my new computer like:

PC Case: antech sx1035b
CPU: Athlon XP 1800+
GC: ATI Radeon VE 64M DDR
MM: DDR 226 512K (brand-- TwinMos PC2100 It's Hundai memory)
HD: IBM deskstar 60Gx2
OS: Windows XP Pro

When I tested the computer, if it stated running at first, and then it could ran upto 14 hours. However, it often failed to boot up. I notice that the motherboard could not boot up quickly, but took long time to show the boot up message on screen. I called Soyo tech service, and they said it could be memory problem. So, I tried Pany DDR 128M memory, but I still see the same problem--the system often could not boot up or Windows XP crushed. I called Soyo tech service again, and they asked me to return the motherboard.
Today I just bought another Soyo Dragon Plus motherboard in a computer show and tried it again. But, I experienced the same problem. This time I immidiately went back to the computer retailer where I bought the motherboard to test it by the shop's tech service. When the motherboard was tested there, it could not bootup first, but after a few attempts, it could boot up. The tech service person said this motherboard needs quite long time for boot up. By the way, this time we used Micron and Samson's DDR memory in the testing, and the motherboard seemed to run OK. So, I believed that I didn't wait enough when the motherbaord boot up, and I went back home. After I came back home and tested the motherboard again, it boot up at first, and then it started failing boot up again. After spending a couple of hours for testing the motherboard, I started searching for the infomation of the problem of Soyo Dragon motherboard. I found that many people seem to love the motherboard, but I just found there are quite few people who seem to have the same problem in this web site as I did. I'm sitll not sure this problme is caused by the quality of the motherboard or by something else. For instance, Soyo tech service blamed for the memory I used. They suggested me to use Kingstone (if so, they should posted the info somewhere for us), and I have not used it yet since I could not find it around me. Is there anyone who knows what causes the problem of the motherboard?

Here is some additional test info when the system ran properly:
VCore 1.77v
Vcc 2.5v
3.3v 3.1v
+5.0v 5.02v-4.97
12v 12.28v
5usb 4.97-5.02v
cpu tmp 37C
Sys tmp 26C
CPU fun 49-5113

Does it look OK? I'm not familiar with AMD CPUs...

 

[ChrisOh]

well at least I'm not alone here, your temps and voltages look fine man, when it boots up, it works great, but when it doesnt boot, it's just frustrating. Anyone else have ideas?

 

[RagingGuardian]

I really love this board because it never crashes for me. It's 100% stable once windows loads but I hate this booting problem. I've tried just about everything in the BIOS and I can't figure why windows would fail to load at times. I've even tried 100fsb. I'm going to return this board today. Think I'll get me a MSI pro2 or a KR7A.

 

[Cybordolphin]

You may try reflashing the bios one more time before you decide to return the board.


And it may just be a matter of moving a few of your PCI cards around.

I also just bought this board. Mine boots up IMMEDIATELY into windows (XP). It is the fastest booting motherboard I have ever seen. I did not flash the bios either. Go figure. In fact it boots TOO fast...lol...
I don't even get a chance to see all of the startup information (not that I miss it).

 

[Samooh]

I just returned Drgon Plus and got ASUS A7V266E. I still like the feature of Soyo Dragon. I agree if it runs, it's really good motherboard!!!

 

[ChrisOh]

I think I might've stabalized it. When I took out the sound card, everything worked fine. So I moved my Santa Cruz to PCI 2 (non-busmastering) and reserved IRQ 11 in the BIOS and everything works fine now. We'll see how it stabalized as I keep using it. Just putting a heads up

 

[Samooh]

It was big suprise that I got the simular problem when I tried ASUS A7V266E. I saw the boot up was very slow and motherboard often failed to boot up. I took back the motherboard to the retailer from which I got it. The tech support tested the motehrboard in front of me, and mother board had the same problem even though different memory, graphic card, power supply and even CPU were used. We tested an another brand new A7V266E motherboard too. The motherboard works more stable with one configuration, but less stable with another. There was no perfect setting to make the motherboard work perfect. So, I returned the motherboard to the retailer. Eventually, I have CPU, memory, GC, and PC case, etc but no motherboard.:Q

 

[RagingGuardian]

Well I'm a real happy camper this Christmas. I returned my board yesterday and got the newer revison dragon plus that I've been hearing so much about. First of all the Turbo setting now works perfectly and I'm now overclocking at around 160fsb. The most important thing is that the stupid problems where windows refuses to load are now gone.

For those interested the newer dragon plus has an atx connector with a solid egg shell color and the name Dragon Plus is printed on the PCB in some fancy writing instead of the cheap sticker that was on the first batch. Also there are a few more capacitors placed here and there around the board. The board is absolutely stable without a crash since yesterday. I believe the first dragon plus boards were nothing more than the vanilla dragons with the newer chipset in place. Seems as if Soyo has worked things out an added a few changes. I love this board.