Soyo K7VME Problem

[RoyKaBob]

Sorry to hear that Bart.

In my opinion I think you deserve more purple hearts than John Kerry given what you have been through.

Make sure it all works, then chop the kit, keep the parts, get a new case and PSU, move everything over and make sure it works, then Ebay the PSU and Case, and move on.

"The nice thing about hitting yourself in the head with a hammer is that it feels SO GOOD when you stop!"

Roy

 

[candiazoo]

Originally posted by: RoyKaBob
I am using the Nvidia FX 5700 LE, and it handles Doom 3 quite nicely. And, after rebate, it only cost $60.

Roy

That's decent!

 

[RoyKaBob]

Yeah, that was a decent price. I got the GeForce FX 5700 LE from TigerDirect, $99.99 less $40 in rebates. Mysteriously, though, that same card is $149 on their website now.

TD is well known for running something for a while with rebates, then raising the price shortly thereafter. I am not sure why they do that, other than a supply/demand issue, or possibly as a legal form of bait and switch...legal in that they are baiting the procastinating buyer who missed it at the lower price, but then buys it later at the higher price.

Roy

 

[scosmo451]

I got this card off NeweggRosewill 5700 LE 256 MB for 90 bucks and it works great. The 250 MHz clock rate seems to be plenty.

 

[bartbrn]

And just to make matters even MORE delightful, after my initial quick look at my replacement Soyo K7VME to satisfy myself that the board, and therefore the CPU, are in exactly the same place they've always been, today -- my ONE day off each week -- I sat down to put this thing together, took the OTHER side panel off, and discovered that the PSU case was all smashed in. Turning to the back, I discovered that the back panel is so mangled -- not just BENT, but totally whanged -- that not only does the output cluster (VGA, sound, etc. connectors) fail to even protrude out of the case enough to even get a connector STARTED, but the output cluster ITSELF -- which is directly attached to, and part of, the mobo -- is all smashed in, with what result to the motherboard itself one can but imagine.

Now, the sidepanels I took off to discover this disaster are completely pristine -- not even a finger smudge. Therefore, it's hard to escape the conclusion that whoever attached this panel, and whoever put their "quality" control sticker on it, were either:

A. Blind

B, Working in a totally lightless environment, or

C. Didn't care that the box being buttoned up was totally hosed.

The first two don't seem terribly likely, so it would seem that "quality" control at Soyo is less than optimal, to put it mildly.

So, nearly three months later, RMA number two.

If I can, at long last, get this thing to work, the first thing I'm going to do is flog the case and mobo off on eBay, probably for about the 98 cents it MAY be worth, and then get myself a REAL case, PSU and mobo. Any suggestions?

Oh, BTW, I also upped my chip to an Athlon XP300+ 400FSB Barton core.

Disgusted in CT

Bart Brown

 

[bartbrn]

Sorry, that should have read: "Athlon XP3000+..."

 

[BigLar]

Just to put a finish to my adventure, I received my $50 rebate two days ago. This was about 10 weeks late and about three weeks after I had complained to Soyo. My kvetch was followed by a note saying my rebate was valid and would be paid. If you've not gotten yours, I'd recommend you complain and I'd recommend that you do it soon. I have a feeling that Chapter 11 or 7 might be looming.

Meanwhile, the Livo I made with it (Larry's Tivo) is OK except that every so often the mouse cursor disappears. I have to reboot to establish normal operation.

Lesson learned: No more Soyo.

BTW, anybody know the status of the nano-ITX board???

:wine:

 

[bartbrn]

I WISH I could finish MY adventure... but thanks for the tip on sending my lament to Soyo. Don't know why I didn't think of it before, as Soyo was the ONLY corporate entity that was willing to help me out, and summarily got Tiger to RMA the damned thing.

So now I'm back at sqaure one, with an unbuilt K7VME barebones kit, an Athlon 3200 XP+ and all the related gubbins to go in the box, and no time to sit down and do it -- my wife and I run a retail hobby shop, and the Holiday season tends to get a little busy.

So now I'm in a quandary:

I talked to a local PC guy about slapping the thing together for me, and though the price was reasonable, his attitude and apparent skill level were not (unless it's for raking leaves or the like, never go with one of those "tear off the phone number" bulletin board advertisers). Not to start a flame war, but most PC-centric folks treat Mac folks like they just crawled out from under a cabbage leaf.

Besides that, this whole business has pissed me off to the point where *I* want to finish the job -- no cheap Taiwanese box is gonna make a monkey outta me! (wanna bet?)

So, if I decide to persist in my folly, should I just put the barebones kit on eBay and buya REAL case, fan, and motherboard? If so, Im looking for recommendations for all three.

Not dead yet

Bart Brown

 

[scosmo451]

I would definitely get a new case - that's where I'm heading. Just waiting for the money to get built up in PayPal to buy something that isn't a huge compromise. Next week maybe. Probably something off a daily deal at Newegg with clear side, lots of fan options and that doesn't look like a pyro's wet dream. Right now, my case is sideless and the PSU is on the desk. The PSU itself doesn't run too bad. According to MBM5, my average volts are as follows: CPU at 1.66 (1.65 is ideal); RAM at 2.5 (2.5); 3.3 volt at 3.25; 5 volt at 5.04; 12 volt at 11.99. Those are averages over a few days of monitoring. If I get a case with PSU, I'll use it, but if I find the perfect case without PSU, I'll keep this one awhile at least.

Already replaced the CPU heatsink and fan with a TR2 and it works MUCH better than the Speeze that came with the barebones. I'm using that fan elsewhere right now. Once the PSU gets out of the way and the case gets airflow, I think it will work fine.

As for the mobo, I'm gonna keep it awhile probably. I say probably, cause the Christmas bonus is coming soon and I might upgrade. But I'm not having any serious issues with the mobo. Got it running overclocked a little (it varies by mood, but right now I'm running my Athlon XP 2500 @ 2.04) and never have problems with it even overclocking it as high as the BIOS will go. Yes, I would like to be able to adjust the voltage, but I'm not a hardcore overclocker anyway. I've got the AGP GeForce 5700 LE plugged in and haven't used any of the PCI slots, so it has more than enough expansion capability for me right now. I may go with a sound card sometime, but the onboard sound works fine with my three speaker Altec Lansing set (that's 2 1/2 years old already). Running mismatched RAM - a cheap Ultra 256 stick and a Kingston Value Ram 512 stick ($50.00 after rebate) - PC2700. They both run a bit overclocked (366MHz) with no problems. Got a Western Digital 80 GB hard drive with 8MB buffer (WD800JB), old Samsung CD burner (DVD burner soon), and I'm using the 52X CD that came with the kit. The heat issue is my biggest concern and that's a case change to fix.

 

[scosmo451]

Well, I finally got a new case last week. Let's see, that means the only things I'm using from the barebones kit are the keyboard, mouse, mobo, and CDROM. Sure glad I didn't pay full price for that.

The case I got is a Rosewill that was on special for $49.00 with free shipping. Also got a 120mm blue fan and some blue cables to go with it. Running my Barton 2500 at 2GHz, I idle at 40C with a room temperature about 21-22C. Running Prime95 for a few hours gets me up to about 45-46C. I like the looks and the lights are bright. For a cheap case, it really looks and works well. Even the power supply isn't too bad. Just got to get some fluorescent parts now....

 

[Quaestor]

I'm building this system for my 10yo daughter for Christmas and it is driving me nuts. I had everything working and now it is rebooting with a machine error every few minutes. It wasn't doing this during the first few days of program installations. The temp is constantly hovering at 61C after cutting a hole in the top, shaving the top vents (increased the vent opening a little), adding a fan to the top and the bottom front. The 61C temp bothers me. My other PC rarely hits 40C in the RaidMax 868 Scorpio Case (love that case - newegg). I removed the graphic board and went with the internal but this did not help the reboots. Now I am leaning towards either the memory or the heat as the cause. Everything is brand new, including the dual sided ram stick. Is there a ram spec that I am unaware of - as in single sided only? I'm going to run Memtest86 tonight to make sure the stick isn't bad. It's getting too close to Christmas to have to send anything back. Also, is there anywhere to disable the on-board video whenever I am using the 5700? Could any of the XP updates have cause the reboots?

Here is the error:
STOP: 0x0000009C (0x00000004, 0x00000000, 0xb2000000, 0x00020151)
"MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION"

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329284

My system:
Soyo K7VME/Athlon 2800XP+ (Barton)/Thermaltake TR2 M2, Arctic Silver 5
Soyo barebones case (yes, the bad one)
Kingston KVR333X64C25/512 512MB PC2700 DDR333 stick
Chaintech GeForce FX 5700 / 256MB DDR / AGP 8X
Maxtor 60GB HD
52X generic CD-ROM drive

Windows XP Professional
Office 2003 Professional
Panda Titanium AntiVirus
Various Games

 

[Quaestor]

I ran the memtest86 all night long last night and it didn't find any errors. The fact that it ran all night without rebooting is noteworthy. That means it is either failing due to excessive heat (I ran with the cover off last night and it only reached 56C) or it is failing because of an operating system conflict (XP Pro w/ all patches except SP2). The memtest boots from a cd w/o an OS present. Tonight I plan on ruling out the heat by installing one more fan, this time to the side panel directly facing the MB.

 

[joshbrown89]

Hey,

This thread is quite old now but...

I have a fan issue with my K7VME kit. I got a Ultra fan with my kit, and it is very very very loud. I don't know how loud in dB, as the website doesn't state, but it is so loud I have to put a pillow over my computer! It is insane.

Anyways, I was just wondering how loud the Thermaltake TR M2 is, and if it is bearable or not. Most fans are 80mm and won't fit, but they all have lower RPM, and lower dB. These 60mm fans that fit in the Soyo cases have really high RPM's and higher dB. How does the Thermaltake and the Masscool fan that are both 60mm compare with each other? And does anybody know if they are quiet enough?

Also, the Thermaltake fan has a variable RPM speed. How would you change the speed with a K7VME board? Because I know I can't use SpeedFan or anything to change the speed with my Ultra fan. Will it always run at max RPM? Is it too loud then, and should I get the Masscool?

I really want a quiet fan, and I would get an 80mm, but the clearance is just too small for that kind of a heatsink/fan combo. If anybody has experience with getting a really quiet fan in a K7VME Kit case, an 80mm or any other quieter fan then please please let me know!!

Thanks ALOT for any replies! The noise has been driving me insane for months now.

Links to the products mentioned below:

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/appl...o=929130&sku=T925-2023

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/appl...EdpNo=990812&CatId=792

 

[scosmo451]

I have a TR2 on my CPU and really like it. It is not loud at all - probably the quietest fan I have in the case (I've got 9 total - different case than the TigerDirect barebone). It comes with its own fan controller that fits in one of your slots in back, so you don't have to adjust it through software. I have mine plugged in directly to the fan header on the mobo and run it at 5500 RPM full time. If you have the barebone case with the power supply over the CPU fan, this one does fit, but not with as much clearance as Tiger claims. In my new case, my Athlon XP 2500+ @ 2.18 runs about 40C or cooler at idle with this fan/heatsink, which ain't too bad considering case temperature is about 32-33C in my overly warm room.

You can see this fan at http://www.geocities.com/scosmo451/Computer

 

[Quaestor]

The TR2 is pretty quiet and I too bypassed the speed switch and keep it on high all of the time. With the Soyo 'bad' case I need every bit of air I can get. TigerDirect did exaggerate about the clearance between the TR2 and the power supply. I put two layers of double stick tape on the power supply to act as a buffer between it and the fan. That is the exact spacing between the two. I'd like to meet the idiot who designed this case. Even with 7 fans in the case I still run at 58C.

I noticed you had a link to Tiger for the fan. They have it for $22 + shipping. You can find it much cheaper at
http://www.pricewatch.com/. I got mine locally at Frye's for $15.

 

[scosmo451]

I think maybe the $22.00 is Canadian dollars....link ends in .ca anyway. I had a little more room between the fan and the PSU than Quaestor mentions, but still not near what Tiger claims. Guess those PSUs vary in quality and size with whoever is the lowest bidder at the time. Might be worth it to actually measure the distance on yours.

 

[joshbrown89]

Thanks for the replies!

I read them after I ordered the parts for my insane project however....

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=1500310&enterthread=y

If you want some good quiet cooling for a K7VME, check it out. I haven't done it yet, but in a little over a week I will be posting pics and more info in that thread as to how it turned out. Should be a very fun thing to do, and will hopefully cool the case and CPU a lot with barely any noise!

 

[Quaestor]

I gave up!!! That Soyo case will never work no matter how many fans you install. I had finally gotten my daughter's PC fairly stable, running at a constant 57 celcius (hotter than I like but the best I could do with that case). That worked fine until I loaded the resident virus protection and MS AntiSpyware. Those two resident programs ran the temp up to 60C. If she ran anything on top of that, even Firefox, the system would become unstable and give her the dreaded bluescreen. I finally broke down and bought a new case/power supply. Back in December I had bought the RaidMax 868 for myself and it had worked like a dream, so I got a similar one for her; the RaidMax Cobra. Her Soyo system now runs at 37C with the virus/spyware resident programs and 41C maxed out with serious 3-d gaming. It is perfectly stable now, runs perfectly, looks fantastic with all of the lighting that came with the case and is even half as loud as the Soyo case. I will never buy Soyo ANYTHING ever again.

RaidMax Rocks!!!! Here is what the case looks like. http://www.buyraidmax.com/shop/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/92
I got it for only $54 shipped from http://www.chiefvalue.com

Oh, my rebate status.....after many complaints Soyo still has not paid out the $70 in rebates they owe me for this barebones kit that I bought back on August 5th. I then started complaining to TigerDirect because they are the ones promoting Soyo so heavily. They too thried to get a resolution through Soyo but finally gave up. They instead credited my card for the $70 Soyo owed me. Finally!

 

[ambience713]

Just wanted to give my two cents that if your item ever breaks (very likely), you'll have very tough time getting RMA on the time.

1. Soyo started charging $5 "handling fee" for all RMA's.
2. You'll incur a lot of time and $$$ just getting to a live person to get a "reference no." which you will need to get an RMA no. But get this, the no. I got rejected by their RMA website.
3. Soyo is a dishonest comp. that engages in rebate fraud. Read some of the complaints at: http://www.planetfeedback.com/sharedLet...146363-5-0-0-20-0-fb_date-desc,00.html


Good luck.

 

[RoyKaBob]

I got ONE of my Soyo Barebones kit rebates yesterday. I applied for two...one for $50 and one for $20. I sent in the paperwork first part of Oct. Seems a rebate center in Calif is getting involved in fulfillment and they are MUCH better at communicating via email.

Oh, and the computer is still running great for my son, but I too swapped out the case and PSU.