I am having a very strange problem with my soyo sy-5ema+ v1.1 and AMD K6-2 500. Whenever I try to connect to the Internet I lock up and have to reboot. Sometimes the screen just goes black before I get the loggin screen but after windows starts to load. I have cable modem access and a router. All my other PCs connect fine. I have changed RAM and Video HW, updated video and sysybd drivers, updated my sysbd BIOS, and checked and rechecked board configuration settings. I am not trying to overclock. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

did you try different ethernet card?
yours might be bad
go to run and type cmd
and type this
ping 127.0.0.1 this is a loopback test for your ethernet card
if this doesn't work, then your lan card is bad

Thanks, I forgot to mention that I started with a linksys and switched to a netgear. It just finishes the Windows 2000 Advanced Server logo screen and then goes black about half the time. I've now tried clearing the cmos, increasing core CPU speed, and decreasing CPU speed to 450 Mhz (not all at the same time).

how many watt is your power supply unit?
did you try other pci slots?
also can you go to system information and check for possible IRQ conflicts?

Well I swapped the AMD K6-2 500 for a Cyrix 6x86 MX PR 166, reconfigured and everything is working very well. So either my K6-2 is bad or there is some kind of conflict between the sysbd and K6-2. I really want to use my K6-2. Do you know of a good (free) CPU diag program?
I've been looking everywhere for known problems. Thanks for the help.

No solutions, just wanted you to know that you're not alone. I'm using same board, version 3, and I've gone through the same hair-tearing routine(s) that you have. The only thing that's changed is the cable access; I was using the same board w/a K6-2 350MHz before, no prob. Switched to the 500 MHz, no problem. Switched from AT&T to cable using Motorola Surfboard and kaflooey. Video goes on vacation and (with no video) further diagnostics are impossible (well, for me, anyway). I've swapped RAM, disconnected all periphals and removed all cards except video (bear in mind that all that stuff worked just fine before) and problem remains. In fact, I removed the LAN card as well and still the same problem, which also rules out the cable modem, etc...
Must be some impurity/deficiency in the AMD 500 chip, I guess.....sorry (oh boy am I sorry) that I can't be of more help than a shoulder to cry on. One quote from W.C. Fields may be appropriate here:

"If at first you don't succeed, then try, try and try again. Then give up. There's no use in being a damned fool about it."

:)
George