The Soyo TechAID comes shipped in a clear plastic blisterpack. Inside we find the user manual, diagnostics card, extra display and remote cable. The user manual includes instructions on how to use the TechAID and has pages of trouble codes and their meanings laid out in easy to follow tables. It covers BIOS from Award, American Megatrends and Phoenix. If you're not sure which BIOS version you have, check with your motherboard manufacturer or take a look at the top of the screen (if it comes up) when you first turn on your computer.





The card itself seems a simple enough device, no longer than the PCI slot interface it is designed to fit in. There's not a really good place to grip the card when inserting or removing it from the slot so be careful not to damage any of the components when using it. It has a series of LED's on the card as well as an LCD 2-character display that shows the hexidecimal code reported by the BIOS. The TechAID comes with an extension cable and remote display if the main diagnostics card is positioned in such a way that makes it difficult to read the code.

Let's see how the TechAID performs.