Soyo's K7VEM PRO must have Palomino core CPU

[tmCCNA]

I recently purchased a barebones kit including an Athlon XP 1700+ CPU. from TigerDirect. I don't like dealing with TigerDirect, but I got this combo at a price that I couldn't pass up. I finally got all the components delivered, anxiously tore open the boxes and began to build my new system. Now, for the fun part, turning it on for the first time, a new birth. No, actually I got absolutely nothing. It wouldn't even POST or beep. My fans were running, so I ruled out that maybe the power supply was on 220 instead of 115 or turned off, which is a different story that I don't have time to tell. So, I removed everything from the motherboard except the CPU and RAM, still nothing. I removed the RAM, still nothing. I detached the motherboard from the case and fired it up on my desk to rule out the chance of their being a short. Not a thing. I called Soyo tech support, but they were already closed. I called TigerDirect and told them that the tech at Soyo said he thought it was a CPU that was bad. They wanted to send me motherboard first, because there is no return on CPUs and if the problem was not the CPU, then I would have to purchase it anyway. I recieved the new case, power supply and motherboard, installed the CPU, zip. I sent the old case, power supply and motherboard back and requested a CPU. The sent me one, it did not work, they sent another, it did not work. Finally after hours spent with my ear on the phone, a customer service rep actually helped me. Although he spoke very poor english, he could spell "Palomino." I researched it and sure enough, they were sending me the wrong CPU. That's kind of bad, when you purchase it in a bundle. So I'm happy, problem solved. Well, they don't have the Palomino. So I order it from someone else, specifying the Palomino core. Get it, wrong one. Call them and they tell me that there is only one kind of Athlon XP 1700+, so I give them this link,

http://www.soyousa.com/kb/kbdesc.php?id=91

He believes me now, so he lets me send it back, but they don't have the Palomino. I repeated this 4 or 5 times, and to this day I don't have that system up and running and it has been two months. TigerDirect did give me a free CPU, but I didn't want the Duron 1.3 in the system, so I put it in another one. The moral of this story is, when you have an issue, check with this forum before you contact tech support, because you will most likely find it here and if you don't, post it and you will have an answer by that night, may not be the correct answer, but it is a starting place. The reason I am posting this is to keep people from experiencing the same unpleasant situation as I did. This forum is the very best. Travis McGuire

 

[TheTuna]

I just love this post! No, not that you are having trouble, but that you actually took the time to lay it out. Best of luck, hope you get what you're looking for!

Say hello to Jerry for me...

Tuna - It's fat free until you add the Mayo!

 

[smah]

Nice story. Some time ago, I had a very similar problem with a TigerDirect bundle that included a Soyo mobo & Athlon processor. I finally sold them both on eBay - seperately because they wouldn't work together.