AMD 1700 and ECS K7S5A Mobo

[Brazin]

I'm trying to use this combination mobo/cpu with 512 MB of PC133 SDRAM. At first the mobo woudn't recognize the 1700 (said it was an "unknown Athlon"). So I flashed the bios to the latest that is supposed to support the 1700. Now it will recognize it but not correctly. If I go to the "CPU PnP Settings" page of the bios it will only recognize the CPU as a 1700+ if I set the CPU and RAM speed to 133/133. However, if I do this the machine will start to boot (shows it as a 1700+) but then locks up everytime when the Windows 98 splash screen loads. If I lower the settings to 100/100 it recognizes the cpu as an "Athlon 1100". It will then boot and run just fine. But damnit I bought a 1700 and I have PC133 SDRAM so I'd like to make this work. Is there any chance that the problem might be related to my memory and not the cpu or mobo? I'd happily buy 512 MB of DDR memory IF it will fix my problem, but I don't want to spend the money if it won't.

Thank you!

Brazin

 

[OS]

Do you have two sticks of SDRAM? Try just one. Yeah it sucks, but it gives you a place to start. Either way, consider taking the mobo back and getting another one. I have similar problems and I'm gonna try a second one.

 

[hdeck]

i have an ECS motherboard. i hate it. if you can, get a different motherboard. when i first set up my pc, it did the same thing (it called a xp 1600+ a 1000+). changing the settings in the BIOS worked for me fine, though.

 

[Ilmater]

Me and my roommate got new mobos and procs at the same time a few months back. We both got the K7S5A; he got a 1700+ and I got a 1900+. Both run fine and work fine. And hdeck, before you bash this board, at least try to give some reason why it isn't good, don't just say you don't like it.

 

[jfall]

Common problem with ECS boards.. not being able to run at 133/133 that is. It usually turns out to be something with the ram or not having a good enough power supply. Check out the OCworkbench forum that was posted above.

I have the same problem with mine. I have an ECS board with an 1800 and although I can boot into windows fine on 133/133 3d games lock up on me. works fine on 100/100. I actually got it working fine by overclocking just a little.. running at 137 or something. I also have 2 sticks of PC133 ram and a cheap 300w power supply.. just haven't got around to upgrading them yet.. but i'm pretty sure that the problem will be solved if I do.

But if you have 2 sticks of PC133 ram try removing one stick.. this is usually related to a power supply issues.. certian voltage on a particular rail I believe. What kind of power supply do you got in there? The ECS board is suppose to work quite a bit better with DDR ram, so if you are looking for an excuse to upgrade to DDR.. then there you have it

 

[OS]

Originally posted by: Ilmater
Me and my roommate got new mobos and procs at the same time a few months back. We both got the K7S5A; he got a 1700+ and I got a 1900+. Both run fine and work fine. And hdeck, before you bash this board, at least try to give some reason why it isn't good, don't just say you don't like it.

I'll have to say something in his defense. I've gone through three of these motherboards and the QC/consistency of these boards is extremely poor. Each of those three boards were visibly different from each other, even though they are all of the same revision (3.1). The current one I'm using has a completely different PCB color, mem socket color compared to my last one. And my current one seems to be a victim of cost cutting, it's missing some caps where clearly the PCB is marked for caps.

I have the same problem as the first post, SDRAM doesn't work at 133 mhz with two dimms. The missing caps might be why two dimms don't work at 133 mhz, since all the missing ones are near the SDRAM sockets. The funny thing is, those two dimms ran fine in the previous ECS board i had, but that board had different problems. Yes, I am using high quality parts, including name brand SDRAM (Kingston) and a good PS (431W enermax)

This board is a really big crapshoot. There are very real problems with QC on these boards. Quite possibly the worst I've ever seen in any computer product I have first hand experience with. Anyone who is considering buying this board should definitely make provisions for the very real possiblity that they might need an RMA/return. But the feature set is nice and the price is right, which is probably why I keep banging my head against the wall.

 

[Woodchuck2000]

I'll have to say something in his defense. I've gone through three of these motherboards and the QC/consistency of these boards is extremely poor. Each of those three boards were visibly different from each other, even though they are all of the same revision (3.1). The current one I'm using has a completely different PCB color, mem socket color compared to my last one. And my current one seems to be a victim of cost cutting, it's missing some caps where clearly the PCB is marked for caps.

I find it hard to believe that they've accidentally forgotten to put caps on the motherboard. It's entirely possible that you've gotten different revisions of the board and that they're slightly different because of that.

I Installed an older revision of the K7S5A for a friend with a Duron 1.2GHz and it's been running fine for a year now. I installed an XP2100+ with 2x256Mb PC133 (cas 2) for my brother a couple of days ago and it's working perfectly.

I've had good experience with it and have spoken to other people who have used 5 or 6 of them.

BTW, it initially tried to run the 2100+ at a much 100/100 but did perfectly well upped to 133/133.
Have you tried running your board at 133/100?

 

[hdeck]

Originally posted by: Ilmater
And hdeck, before you bash this board, at least try to give some reason why it isn't good, don't just say you don't like it.

i forgot, it's not enough on this board to say that you don't like something. you have to provide a Bible of examples to back yourself up. I'm sure OC has given enough reasons, so I won't bother posting more reasons. Just go to reviews of the board and let the professionals tell you why it's not a great board.

 

[Woodchuck2000]

Just go to reviews of the board and let the professionals tell you why it's not a great board.

I've seen an awful lot of good reviews for the K7S5A

Here's Tom's Review

This time, Elitegroups is able to collect a lot of gold stars. First of all, they were the first to show courage by releasing their SiS 735 motherboard. Secondly, the board is suitable for the vast majority of users due to its features - even though both SiS and ECS might consider it as a low-end product. Thirdly, the K7S5A comes with both excellent performance and stability, which is mandatory for a motherboard if it wants to receive high marks.

Here's XBit's Review

We have made sure that thanks to SiS 735 core logic, ECS K7S5A mainboard is a high-performance product offered at a low price. It might become a good buy with an excellent price-to-performance ratio. Surely, considering the lack of most popular (especially overclocking) functions, we cannot call this board an "all-in" solution, though the outrageously low price (as low as $65 in some hardware shops) of this DDR mainboard makes us close our eyes to all its drawbacks.

The Firing Squad were very complementary as were Tweaktown. Those were the first 4 that a google search threw up...

 

[sandorski]

Try lowering your ram Cas, or up the voltage to the CPU(if there is the ability to adjust RAM voltage try upping that too). My bro has made 6ish systems with this mobo and hasn't had a problem yet. You may want to get some PC2100 though, many people with problems are using PC133 SDRam.