Customer Reviews

Soyo TechAid PCI Diagnostic Card - Decode POST!

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I build myself a new system every two years or so and in between I am constantly fiddling. Sometimes things go wrong, horribly, terribly wrong: no video, no BIOS beeps, just a dead system. I would lose whole weekends following trouble-shooting flowcharts and running to the local electronics store for new parts to swap in just to see if that part was causing the problem.

Well, no more. Just plugged the Soyo Techaid in a PCI slot of my current $2500 paperweight, applied power, and I can see in less than a second that my +3V3SB, +3.3V, +5V, +12V, and -12V are all stable, but my POST (Power On Self Test) is terminating prematurely with error code FF indicating CPU failure, and saving me the hassle of swapping out motherboard, PSU, video cards, and RAM before having some idea what the problem might be.

While there are other tools out there with a lot more features like video out, logging by serial port, even forced booting with no RAM, they are geared towards professionals and obviously cost a lot more. For as often as I need help the Techaid is good balance of cost and features.

This diagnostic card will save you time when coming across suspect dead motherboards or cpus; or possibly defective RAM. I was able to save to diagnose a dead socket 370 cpu the first time I used it. Saved me close to half hour of reseating parts (memory, board jumpers, etc).

Only thing: do not becom dependent on it. Use it to get to accurately determine where to attack the problem, and use your other troubleshooting methods alongside it.

Overall, a very good tool to have.

I have used port 80 cards for years for developing device drivers and debugging kernel problems. This particular model has several features which I found useful. The display is on both sides of the board, making it easy to read from any location in the case. The external cable allows the case to be closed and still have access to the display.

I have been using this model for three weeks and it has worked as advertised.

There have been several negative comments about the card. These cards work by displaying the contents of address 80 in the I/O address space. If they are displaying 0xff after booting it is probably because the bios does not use port 80 to display debug information and not due to any fault of the card.

This card is a great shortcut and saves me from looking up what different beeps mean. No technician should be without this tool, but don't rely on it 100%. There is no substitute for experience. As for the probable dork squad employees who say "This tool sucks! It shows my processor as being bad when everything is fine!" CLEARLY have not read the instruction manual where it clearly states FF in one brand of BIOS means CPU/Misc problem, and in another means "Attempt to boot" aka all clear to the MB's knowledge.

I have used mine many times on many different PCs and it has never failed me. The book tells me what I need to know to fix the hardware problem.

It even has a PSU tester via the LEDs at the top of the card. Once I had a PC that had a serious power surge go through it and I tested it with this card. The power supply passed the separate PSU tester but failed the PSU test on this card. That told me that the board was fried and power was not getting through it.

I take this with me on every job I do.

It is ONLY a hardware diagnostic tool. It does not do software.

This product is all you need to detect most of the hardware problems. If computer wont start, no more "tapping in the dark", replacing devices one by one, finding malfuncioned one. Just plug in this card into PCI port, turn computer on and read error code on display. Then, just find that code in enclosed manual and read the description of the problem.
This is a "must have" product.

Works as expected, got it for a replacement to one I lost.
with they would put out a new one for pci-e though.

Great product for finding that hardware malfunction. Would have given a 5 if the diagnostics were a little easier to read and understand.

Worked as described and expected. A good aid for computer trouble shooting.

The product is as described, still need to be able to trouble shoot but will save time in the long run. It has resolved some PC issues with various machines that have been waiting for me to work on them. I bought this with a power supply tester and am happy I did.