Please avoid this board
Written: Sep 29 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Cheap price
Cons: You get what you pay for. Bogus RMA service
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| adamadi's Full Review: Tekram Slot 1 P6PRO-A+ Motherboard |
There are many motherboards out there with the via chipset. You could buy a Asus, Abit or even Gigabyte version of this motherboard but I decided to go with Tekram. Just for PRICE!
I paid $65 bucks for this motherboard online. I thought it was a steal. Now I realise the steal was made from my wallet.
The motherboard box comes with everything you expect to get with a motherboard except a good manual. This motherboard manual is one of the worse manuals I have ever seen. The part of the manual where they tell you which pins are for which connecters (Power Switch, Reset Switch, IDE Light, e.t.c.) is completely screwed. I'll explain.
For some parts, like the jumpers, the diagrams shown would be facing a certain direction, so you have an idea of which direction to plug it in. With the light connectors, there are absolutely NO diagrams. Even so, on normal motherboards there is writing on the actual motherboard showing you which pin is for what. Well, the Tekram people have decided not to print this so I was left having to try to figure out which plug is which.
As you may know, this indeed is a serious problem. On the power switch for example, plugging it in the wrong way ( Like plugging the negative in the positive ) can short your motherboard. I was only able to plug in the Power switch, nothing else. From then on, I had no idea when my hard drive was busy and I had to press the switch on the back of the power supply to restart.
Putting that aside, this motherboard has built in sound, and AGP port, 3 serial connections (2 9pins and the big one) , 2 USB connections, 1 parallel and 2 PS2 connections. Besides the Slot 1 socket, there are 3 dimm slots ( A great help ).
Well, after I catched my *** to set up the switch connectors, I plugged in my AGP video card in the slot. Well Well, after partitioning and beginning to install windows, my computer frooze. It kept on doing this. So I decided check the different pieces of hardware for problems by swapping components with another working PC, it still crashed. After switching this motherboard with an Intel 820 board, the computer ran fine.
I also talked to another person they said they had a similar problem with this same motherboard. So I had to call a number to get an RMA. After sending my board back, I received a call telling me my motherboard had no errors and asked for my credit card no. to pay for the return shipping? WHAT?
Now, I remember once returning an Intel motherboard and even though they said they found no errors, they took my word that I had a problem and sent me a different refurbished on. Well, I wasn't going to pay any money to receive a non-working motherboard. There went my $65 bucks.
I would highly not recommend this manufacturer. Buy from a trusted manufacturer, Abit, Asus, Gigabyte or someone else.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
adamadi
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Reviews written: 56
Trusted by: 25 members
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"The more people smoke herb, the more Babylon fall" Bob Marley
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