Okay, i've posted this in other forums and no one could help out. Here is the deal. I built a pretty sick system for my roomie. It's this, soyo kt400 junk. And it has so many problems it's insane.

for starters
1. the integrated lan will not function. I tried updated drivers, and it is enabled in the bios.

2. We have an athlon 2900 400 FSB and it will not accpet the proper speed in the bios. If I change it it will not start, forcing me to clear the CMOS.

The major issue, is that the Video card will not function properly. It's only a problem when trying to run a 3d intensive app. It'll freeze and shutdown during HALO WARCRAFT III, and splinter cell. These are the only apps i've tried, but if it shutts down during all of them, something is wrong. There also was some funny discoloration and very strange vertex deformations on the screen during play. I updated all the drivers from soyo and this seemed to go away, then it just starts shutting down randomely. I also adjusted the voltage for the agp slot and it didn't seem to change anything.

That about does it, I hope some of you have some suggestions.

Hmm, there's been a Soyo flash that destroyed boards completely recently...

I dislike Soyo anyway, and I'd check the card in another system, just to be sure it's not the board exclusively...

definatley not the card, I tried it in my A7N8X and it works fantastically. I looooove my asus.

I was looking at flashing the bios, but I have never done it before. so i'm actually looking that up right this second.

Okay, then you probably just need to look at a new board for that rig. What's your budget?

fortunately it's his budget, but mr anal retentive wants to not have to purchase anything else...he really tapped it all to build this baby. I want him to get the nforce2 Asus A7N8X-deluxe but, he's just frustrated at this point. So I would say anything I can do to get this thing working would be best. I contacted soyo, and they said they could take it back and look at it, so I guess that's the next step.

I personally can't stand soyo either. I am so glad I got my asus instead. This thing is poo. Had potential, but oh well eh.

Well, it's his cash, but there's most likely NOT any repairing that board.

If he's on the cheap side, the Shuttle AN35N Ultra is the fastest nForce 2 chipset available and it hovers around 70 bux0rs. It can go toe to toe with your ASUS on speed-I know, I have one. Great mobo, solid overclocker...

excellent I'll tell him. I think were gonna send it back to soyo too. I'm gonna flash the bios here in a few, I just got the instructions, it's pretty easy, so maybe that'll help. I doubt it though. Thanks for your input

!!!Make sure you DO NOT flash it to the newest one!!! If you do, the board will die. Seriously, just check on the forums...BA posted about it and it's all over the place.

I would suggest the KAA5...at least I think that's the one I'm using and everything is smooth as silk...except for the fact I can't go to 200FSB and run my memory at PC3200 speeds.

I flashed the newest bios on the site, it's kaa8 I believe if this is the bad one let me know asap, it's working great, all graphics are fine, it runs 3d apps no problem. The board is brand spanking new..like one month. So maybe it's okay, but if it's like a matter of time type thing let me know pls. I'll switch out the bios asap.

I started out with this board and found that I had similar problems with my Radeon 9800 (though my memory is pretty foggy). I remember that the "VIA arena" website had a great message board chock full of people trying to iron out the same problem.

I fixed the problem by returning it to the store. It was great. I accidentally broke a part of it, but put it back and hoped for the best. The girl at the counter didn't notice it, I got my money back. Shame on me, but things are working out great now

You're too late Kage... too late. My prayers go out to Mr. Cognition and his board

nf7-s........kayin you know i was going to say that.....

so i guess I just need to know if i can flash to an older bios? Everything seems to be working just great now. I've got the Clock on the processor all the way up and the ram is all the way up, everything seems peachy.

guess it couldn't hurt to try an earlier flash.

Now it randomly shuts down. NO reason at all, just shuts off. So I think i'm gonna jump on finding an earlier bios that may work. I checked the pc health and it doesnt seem to be overheating. What is odd though is that it's got the aquarius II liquid system with antifreeze/water/highliter/mix. And it doesnt stay much cooler than my volcano 9 cooled CPU. What is up with that?

Because the Aquarius II is about as good as decent air cooling. Go thermalright or swiftech air cooled, or ask a watecooling pimp about a recommended setup...

Hey design, if the BIOS flash failed, you'd know it the second you tried to power your machine up - it wouldn't POST. IF all is working well now, then I suppose Soyo finally got off of their collective asses and fixed the problem.

As the saying goes, "if it ain't broke, don't break it."

Oh - and ABIT pwnz j()()

[EDIT] just saw the part about the random shutdowns...what kind of power supply is on this rig, and what else is in the system? Maybe the PS is overloaded...

I really want to tell you guys i appreciate all the help. See the thing is it's not even my machine, and my roomie would never care enough to actually get on here and do any research himself. I guess I'm a sucker for broke stuff. I gotta fix it, I'm a troubleshooter in software that's why I T/A and tutor. I am a troubleshooter for bikes, for puters for friggin everything. I'm a junkie is what I am.

moving on...

As far as the PS it's a 500watt generic brand, which even though it's generic It should be just fine. In fact I think it's a cheaper codegen. There are really no other frills except his black lights and neon fans. But they shouldn't make much difference. I'll post pics of his machine tonight too cause I built it as well. Some of the mods are his and his alone though.

I'm going to doulbe and triple check the auto shutdown in the bios i want to be sure that it's not just overheating. And thanks KAYIN for solidifying my fears, that liquid system seemed a bit junky. BTW go to memoryup.com tell me what you all think about the closed loop system, I'm building a wicked thermaltak setup for my buddy and was thinking about using it.

Oh and while i'm ranting, how in the hell do they get away with charging 100+ bucks for that liquid cooler?? That just sucks the booty. um...I think that concludes this issue of my book of soyo suck.

-piece

pimp_joose My other roomie just built his bad@$$ machine with an abit board, we were both very impressed by it to be honest. It does rock the house!! He'll be posting his pics soon I hope, and wait till you guys see his custom resevoir!! It's insane.

melikes ABIT boards...I'm currently building a new machine around one...look for the project thread...coming soon to a project forum near you.