SoyoTek Dragon Plus

[Guest]

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.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!

 

[njeske]

This may or may not be the problem, but I have read of a problem similar to yours before, so it certainly won't hurt to give it a shot.

Both the Live! card and RAID controller are HUGE hogs of your PCI bus. To test installations on your array, I would pull the Live! card and see if you get the same results. If you do, then I am sorry that I can't do much to help you. If that seems to work, then I would try moving the SB Live! card to different slots and see if it works when moved. I recall several conversations I have had where the card wouldn't work in slots 2 or 3 (I think).

I just had another idea.... The Dragon+ has onboard sound that rivals that of the Live! series (except that you won't get to use the Live! Drive). Make sure that this is disabled while you have the Live! card installed. They could be conflicting. Also, it is a nice thing to have in case the Live! card is conflicting with your RAID controller and you have to pull it out permanently.

Hope this helps.


<font color=red>"I'm not gonna launch a $2 million missile at a $10 tent and hit a camel's butt." -Bush</font color=red>

 

[Guest]

NICE CALL MAN!
I yanked the SB Live out of the machine, and now I can install anything without it locking the machine up. Now the Question is, what would be the best PCI slot for the card to not cause these problems?

 

[njeske]

Use trial and error. Just put the card into each slot and try to do something that would make the computer lock up before. If it still locks up, shut it down and then move the card to a new slot. I think that you will eventually get a workable solution.

However, I really think your best bet will be to use the onboard audio. With the included addon bracket, it gives you 6 channel digital audio with both S/PDIF and optical I/O. And based on what I have read here and elsewhere, it really gives the Live! cards a run for the money.


<font color=red>"I'm not gonna launch a $2 million missile at a $10 tent and hit a camel's butt." -Bush</font color=red>

 

[Guest]

Thanks guys. This has been a very helpful thread. I was also having incompatibility problems with the Soundblaster Live! and the Dragon Plus. I spent a couple days thinking it was a memory problem.. until I stumbled across this discussion.

I found that if you disable the onboard audio in the BIOS >and< tell the BIOS that you have a plug & play OS, the problem seems to be resolved -- you don't need to move your SB card around.

Cheers,
nohit