HELP NEEDED with ECS K7S5A

[LukFilm]

It works fine when I put DDR RAM in it, but once I put SDRAM in, it doesn't boot. The lights on the DVD-ROM and CD-RW keep flashing off and on forever as if it went through a resetting process. However, with DDR all is well. Any ideas? I tried two different motherboards, happens with both of them...

 

[Superman9534]

did you take the DDR out first? You can't have both in at the same time. Also make sure the SDRAM is pushed all the way in, somtimes its hard to get it in there.

 

[Kazuo]

Tried flashing the BIOS to the newest version? Might wanna do the newest CheepoBIOS if you're into OCing too. It's the same BIOS, just with FSB settings and some other neat toys. I'd advise against fast writes though.
The older BIOS revisions had issues with standard SDRAM. Try flashing with DDR in, then switching over. Hope that helps.

 

[LukFilm]

Originally posted by: Kazuo
Tried flashing the BIOS to the newest version? Might wanna do the newest CheepoBIOS if you're into OCing too. It's the same BIOS, just with FSB settings and some other neat toys. I'd advise against fast writes though.
The older BIOS revisions had issues with standard SDRAM. Try flashing with DDR in, then switching over. Hope that helps.

Where could I find this BIOS? If the flash works, you are my savior! And no, I don't have DDR and SDRAM in at the same time

 

[osage]

before you flash the bios , you may want to try removing and reseatting the ram a few times, the slots on this board can be very tight. try the sdram in the other slot, also clear the cmos

 

[Buz2b]

Another question that needs to be asked is what RAM are you using? Sometimes that board can be a bit picky about RAM quality.
If you are asking about the CheepoBIOS (overclocking ones), you can find them by looking around this forum.

 

[lsman]

The story go like this:
Last night, need a urgent upgrade of 256MB PC133 RAM, Best buy and office max have the same price after rebate.
I pick BB,
There are 8-9 256MB PC133 RAM kit that are on sale, into 2 groups: one start with "VT"... and one with "S" (spectek), read before the "S"uperman logo ram should be a good choice.
So I pick the S brand ram aside,
There are 2 packs.
I pick one of them.


Then i go thro 2-3 hours of ramdom hang up, reboot, lost BIOS on HD settings on the Pcchips m810 board.... (it was running 128MB fine before for over 2 weeks). Swap out the PS, no need. Finally think about the memory. Take it off to other machine and run diag.... it hang in one of the test.... so easy to say it is a bad one.

Out of the 9, i pick the bad one. Hope you check the RAM on other machine.

 

[Peter]

Originally posted by: Buz2b
Another question that needs to be asked is what RAM are you using? Sometimes that board can be a bit picky about RAM quality.
If you are asking about the CheepoBIOS (overclocking ones), you can find them by looking around this forum.

The board ain't picky, it just pushes hard enough on the RAM bandwidth that it reveals even the slightest flakiness. "Picky" would imply that there are some RAM sticks it doesn't like, even when they're OK, and that's just not the case.

 

[Buz2b]

Originally posted by: Peter

Originally posted by: Buz2b
Another question that needs to be asked is what RAM are you using? Sometimes that board can be a bit picky about RAM quality.
If you are asking about the CheepoBIOS (overclocking ones), you can find them by looking around this forum.

The board ain't picky, it just pushes hard enough on the RAM bandwidth that it reveals even the slightest flakiness. "Picky" would imply that there are some RAM sticks it doesn't like, even when they're OK, and that's just not the case.

C'mon Peter, we've been down this road before; whether you've been there or not. In fact, you practically answered and acknowledged it yourself. You say, "The board ain't picky", but you actually reveal/talk about the flaw that some, "less expensive" RAM has, in that it "pushes hard enough on the RAM bandwidth that it reveals even the slightest flakiness". Look, as far as I am concerned, this is just symantics; you need to have decent quality RAM, (which is the point I was trying to make), with this board. You can call it whatever you want Peter; the result is the same.
Finally, you said, ""Picky" would imply that there are some RAM sticks it doesn't like, even when they're OK, and that's just not the case. " On many more occasions than I care to recall at this point, it has been proven that this board has not worked well with some "known good" RAM that worked on other systems. "Known good can mean many things and just because it worked with XX system doesn't mean it will work with others. You know that better than most, I would think. Period. End of argument. I did not imply, nor did I state, that this board does NOT WORK with good quality RAM. I simply stated that this board "can be a bit picky about RAM quality". That means, in case I wasn't clear enough for some (), that you might have a RAM issue because this particular MB has shown that propensity for this since it's original release (which I was around for). Nothing more; nothing less. Please don't read more into my posts than was intended.
END OF RANT.

 

[LukFilm]

Originally posted by: lsman
The story go like this:
Last night, need a urgent upgrade of 256MB PC133 RAM, Best buy and office max have the same price after rebate.
I pick BB,
There are 8-9 256MB PC133 RAM kit that are on sale, into 2 groups: one start with "VT"... and one with "S" (spectek), read before the "S"uperman logo ram should be a good choice.
So I pick the S brand ram aside,
There are 2 packs.
I pick one of them.


Then i go thro 2-3 hours of ramdom hang up, reboot, lost BIOS on HD settings on the Pcchips m810 board.... (it was running 128MB fine before for over 2 weeks). Swap out the PS, no need. Finally think about the memory. Take it off to other machine and run diag.... it hang in one of the test.... so easy to say it is a bad one.

Out of the 9, i pick the bad one. Hope you check the RAM on other machine.

Hmm!!! I was using Viking 512MB PC133 RAM with SPECTEK chips!!! I'll try different RAM and see what's up. Thanks for the idea

 

[LukFilm]

Fvck this $hit, no more SDRAM for me!!! :| I tried 512MB RAM with Spectek chips, no go. I tried 256MB Kingston ValueRAM with Nanya chips, no go. I tried PNY 256MB RAM with Infineon chips, no go. It only works when Samsung DDR RAM is in place. This sucks, no more ECS for me!

 

[Buz2b]

Originally posted by: LukFilm
Fvck this $hit, no more SDRAM for me!!! :| I tried 512MB RAM with Spectek chips, no go. I tried 256MB Kingston ValueRAM with Nanya chips, no go. I tried PNY 256MB RAM with Infineon chips, no go. It only works when Samsung DDR RAM is in place. This sucks, no more ECS for me!

Gee, I guess it's a good thing that this board "ain't picky" when it comes to RAM! (Sorry, I couldn't resist!)

For the record though, I have used Kingston DDR with this board before with no problems. I'm sorry to hear you had such a frustrating time of it though. You could also look at the bright side; DDR is a bit faster in most instances. Honestly, most of the time I used Crucial; either DDR or SDRAM, when I built systems with this board. For the most part I used DDR though so I couldn't give any real insight about problems with various brands other than for the most part, lower quality means higher failure rates. However, there are exceptions as you found out. I do know that Crucial (SDRAM) worked fine though and is probably the best quality/price sticks you can get right now.

 

[lsman]

So its not the RAM is bad. Then it must be the board's slot, or whatever (connector, .....)

 

[boa]

try switching to fsb 100/100 just to check for stability. I have some pc133 and it will only run at 100/100

 

[Buz2b]

Originally posted by: lsman
So its not the RAM is bad. Then it must be the board's slot, or whatever (connector, .....)

MB's generally have slots for RAM. However, while there certainly could be a case for the slots themselves being faulty, it is doubtful at this time that this is the trouble. Especially since the Samsung seems to work just fine. Possibly, since the Samsung is DDR, the SDRAM slots might be at fault, but it remains to be seen. At this time, it seems that the RAM is the culprit, only in the sense that the MB places different/higher demands on it than other boards at times. Not exactly a "techno" explanation but suffice it to say that, contrary to some opinions, the ECS chipset is a bit "unforgiving" when it comes to RAM quality.

 

[BigEdMuustaffa]

Originally posted by: boa
try switching to fsb 100/100 just to check for stability. I have some pc133 and it will only run at 100/100

I think it's a bios problem. Lots of bios revisions since the mb was produced. I haven't flashed mine yet, I have rev 3 of the mb. I can only run ddr and a duron at 100/100 too. I heard that if you try to run more than 1 stick of sdr the mb won't boot or locks up or something. DDR is ok, but the system is unstable at 100/133, so I am running pc2100 as if it were 1600, until I flash the bios and see what happens.

 

[BigEdMuustaffa]

Anyone have success with this problem by flashing the bios? The 100/100 thing?

 

[RaymondY]

My K7S5A motherboard is running fine with a Athlon 750mhz o/c 1000mhz via 133/133 using some Kingston ValueRAM PC133 (256mb)

100% stable.

 

[dannybin1742]

doesn't sdram use more power than DDR? its probably your PSU, mine did wou'd not post, the crdom lights and leds for power would just go on and off, so i bought a new PSU (400W) and it fired right up and have not had a problems since, i'm using a duron and DDR though, but i'm geussing its your psu, this board like power!!

 

[Flaredair]

Luk, what power supply are you using with the ECS board?

 

[Swanny]

I was having your same problem. I think it's a problem of the BIOS autodetecting the RAM wrong. My problem was switching from SDR to DDR last night. Same endless flashing of CD-ROM drive light. What I did was put the SDR back in, go into the bios, set the CPU/FSB to 100/100, and set then put the mem timing to 2 (even though my DDR is 2.5, it wouldn't work on 3). Then I put the DDR in. I was able to get into the BIOS and set the mem timings to 2.5 where they should be and then set the CPU back to 133/133.


I hope that helps you out a bit.

 

[SH3200]

mine runs fine with 1 stick of 256MB kingston and 1 stick of 256MB crucial both PC2100... tried a cheapo stick of 128MB SD the other day and it worked fine. mem timings @ ultra 2.0 - 2 - 3 Running at 133/133 stable havent had a crash/freeze in months, try flashing the bios it might help.

 

[BUTCH1]

I'm running a K7s5a with 1 256 kingston PC100 and 1 128 generic PC100 @ 133 with no problems....

 

[BigEdMuustaffa]

Originally posted by: BUTCH1
I'm running a K7s5a with 1 256 kingston PC100 and 1 128 generic PC100 @ 133 with no problems....

I really think the problem might lie with the BIOS. Would those folks that are able to run stable at 100/133 please post their BIOS version/date? Also post your cpu, set up, etc......Thanks.

 

[BUTCH1]

BIOS date 4/29/2002, XP1600, 350 watt allied PS, Radeon 7200, useing "safe" mem. timings
If you can tell me how to get the exact BIOS version I'll post it as well...