I need your ECS K7S5A troubleshooting opinions please

[tennesota]

This is my first experience building with one of these boards. Began with the following components:
[*]Supercase with 300 watt power supply
[*]256MB Infineon 168 pin SDRAM(single module)
[*]WD 40 GB 7200 RPM hard drive
[*]I/O Magic 56X CD-ROM drive
[*]Radeon 32MB DDR AGP video card
[*]Generic 1.44MB floppy drive
[*]Generic PS/2 keyboard
[*]Microsoft Wheel Mouse

The first thing I notice after the initial powerup is no video output to monitor. Even without any video to visually show me what's going on I can tell it isn't POST'ing because the drives are not responding. Since the first thing to do here is achieve video output to monitor I remove the AGP card and insert the most basic PCI video card I have available, an old Trident card which has at least 256K of RAM, possibly 1 meg.

Power up again and now I have video.

AMD Athlon(tm) Processor, 1000 Mhz
Checking NVRAM..
262144KB OK

DEL: Setup F8: Boot Menu F12: Network boot ESC:Skip memory test

Drives are detected at this point and then...

CMOS Settings Wrong
CMOS Memory Size Wrong

Press F1 to Run SETUP
Press F2 to load default values and continue

Okay, I this point I hit F1 and I am taken into the BIOS. Once the BIOS categories display on screen I am stuck there, no responses from the keyboard. I am forced to reset the machine and POST once again to the same spot as previously mentioned above. I decide to try F2, the screen blacks out for just a moment and then the hard drive kicks in and I see the Win2K Server splash screen for just a moment before I encounter a STOP ERROR: Inaccessible_Boot_Device. This does not come as a shock and I am not concerned at this point because it was my intention to format the drive anyway.

So I think about the messages:
CMOS Settings Wrong
CMOS Memory Size Wrong

I cannot change the CMOS settings since I cannot move around in the BIOS. I decide to pull the 256MB Infineon and replace with a 128MB Infineon...no change. I pull the 128MB Infineon and insert a 64MB PC100 Kingston module...no change. I disconnect the wheel mouse, no change. I disconnect the CD-ROM drive, no change. I disconnect the hard drive, no change. During this time I am also clearing the CMOS by shorting pins 1-2 on the board because the board has been non-responsive from time to time. Also, the floppy drive does not work either so I cannot boot up with a boot disk. As you can probably imagine I am a bit frustrated right now.

Now here is where I am really puzzled. I can turn on the machine with no drives at all connected to the board, no RAM populating any slots, and no video card in a slot. When doing this I would expect to hear some kind of "beep codes" to alert me that things are amiss but I get nothing...no beeps...ever.

I have also tried three different CMOS batteries. I have noticed that after each CMOS reset by shorting pins 1-2 on jumper 4 I see a new message during POST: CMOS battery low.

I have read some of the other threads here and I see many persons say that it is necessary to have a "stout" power supply to run this particular board. I did check the output rating of my power supply for the +3.3v and it is rated at 14A and the concensus here is it should be at 28A or above. I do not want to go out and spend extra bucks for another power supply, especially since I am not certain that I have a power supply issue.

I need opinions and advice from users who have experience with this board. I know many persons here think this board is crap, I know this because I have read your comments in the other threads. I respectfully request that you persons who do not like this board to please refrain from posting your negative opinions in this thread, thank you.

Let the games begin...

 

[tennesota]

I forgot to add what my opinion is...I think this board has a bad BIOS.

 

[punkrawket]

do you get any beeps?

 

[tennesota]

No beeps

 

[tennesota]

It has been suggested that I RESET when I get to the F1 and F2 messages but I've tried that already. It will reboot, go back to that same pair of messages and then not allow me into the BIOS from there.

 

[punkrawket]

i see you've tried switching video cards.... but have you tried minimal boots?? only processor, at least 1 stick of RAM, and video card

 

[tennesota]

Yes, I have tried that. And I have also changed floppy drives since the first floppy drive was not responding.

 

[punkrawket]

hmmmm.... i really haven't had to much experience with this board... i have watched two friends put together their systems with them... one with 0 problems... and the other had a bad board.. but he got 8 beeps over and over... i'm kinda stumped here... you could always try to RMA it get another or a different board.. or wait for another to try to help you out here

 

[tennesota]

I was mistaken about beep codes and no video card. I did not have the video card completely removed from the slot, I pulled it and I get one long and eight short beeps.

beeeep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep

Has anyone ever heard of a board not beeping when the RAM is pulled?

 

[cloud9]

Hi, I had some troubles with this board like yours. Wouldn't post at all and the bios tried to attempt the floppydrive to recreate it's bios (you know, by renaming the biosfile to amibios.rom). I did the following:
I widenend the pins of the cmos-clear/save a bit, so the jumper has a tighter fit,
took the cmos battery out and bend the upper contact to secure a tight setting for the battery
took the keyboard connector out and pushed it back in couple of times
took videocard out and put it back in, it needs a good push to get it right
after that I noticed that just a "clear cmos" wasn't enough, I had to remove the power cable (just a sec), or it wouldn't work
Finally it boots and runs, but the only way to avoid cold bootproblems is by pushing the reset button right after the startup or overclock the fsb to 138/138, giving 1511 mhz to the xp 1700 I got.
Good luck, start with disconnecting/connecting the powercable after a cmos reset.

 

[tennesota]

I have been disconnecting the power cable before every clear CMOS attempt, the user guide recommends pulling the power cable first. I had already checked for a good fit with battery, haven't thought about the spead between pins 1-2 on the jumper.

 

[tennesota]

Since I could get to the main BIOS page but not do anything once there I did notice that F7 is the function for "Load Best performance values." It took me two trys but I pressed F1 to go into the BIOS and immediately pressed F7 in an effort to load the best values before the computer locked up. It worked!

I can now get in and out of the BIOS and change settings while I'm in there. This has been the strangest experience I've had with a mainboard.

 

[majewski9]

I cant get my board to work at 133fsb but more importantly I cant get it to work at all with my radeon!!!

 

[tennesota]

I set mine to 133/133, XP install in progress. I still have the Trident video card in mine but will try again with my Radeon later on today.

 

[Pyramor]

tennesota,

Any luck with the Radeon?

 

[tennesota]

Nope, I've tried the Radeon and a generic 8MB AGP card...it absolutley will not do AGP. I will most likely return the board to the vendor.

 

[tennesota]

Actually, I should not say it will not do AGP...perhaps it will with some brand of card... but the two cards that I have used did not output video to screen.

 

[osage]

try to boot with just 1 stick of ram,vid card and floppy. no hdds, or cd rom drives, boot with a floppy made with Dr.DOS 7X, with the AMI329 flash utility and the latest bios rom file on the floppy.

 

[Thump553]

Running two ECS systems with Radeons (LE hacked & 32MB retail). Your video card problem is probably a tight AGP slot-try reseating the card a bunch of times, eventually it will boot up ok. Had that problem on one board. This is a fairly common problem with this motherboard (at least a few months ago).

Once got it booted up once had zero problems with the Radeon.

Tennesota, I would do a reformat and clean install of Win2k if you have transferred your HD from another system, to avoid future problems. I've done motherboard swaps both ways (clean install or not) and inevitably I'm doing a clean install on the system, sooner or later. YMMV.

 

[SleepyGuy]

Yes reseat you AGP card... I was wondering when my Radeon 7500 was not getting a signal to the monitor... damn card was like 1/2 CM off the slot! Anyway here are my steps/suggestions.

1) Remove all no essential cards and reboot
2) Make sure you have a decent power supply (k7s5a needs a good ps)
3) Make sure you use plastic washers when mounting
4) Use latest bios
5) Test another bios battery

Not to rub it in your face or anything but... I have an ECS K7S5A with an OC'd Duron 700@1 Ghz 133/133. System is rock stable with a Radeon 7500. Using SDRam... DDR is too expensive (should have bought some a few months ago...). WinME, Win2000 Pro, WinXP Pro in a triple boot. Excellent price/perf motherboard...

 

[ChiefWiggum]

Hi.

I just canned my ECS K7S5A board after struggling with it since September.
I built my friend and I the same system. His is great- mine wasn't.

Here's what you should do: ( for your sanity ) -- Choice A:

1. Return ECS board.
2. Get a VIA (266, 266A), nForce or AMD based board.


If you want to stick it out: ( if you're thick-headed, like I am )-- Choice B:

1. Take everything apart.
2. Reseat everything. All cards, chips, cables, jumpers.
3. Place anti-stat mat in between board and mounting posts.

Sidebar: Make sure you have at least 300W AMD approved PS and make sure the AC line and power strip/protector thingy are good to go.

4. Reinstall everything and replace CMOS battery with a new one.
5. Boot up. Choose all conservative settings.
6. Reinstall windows, software, drivers etc.
7. See if it works.


I'd choose Choice A, because you would have do everything in Choice B anyways. And if you start with Choice B ( keeping the ECS ) you may still have to change boards.

I hane no bias against ECS boards; when they work they are awesome; but there are more than enough people that can vouch for their extreme volatility too.

Good luck.

 

[tennesota]

Thanks to everyone for the comments and suggestions. I haven't touched the machine for a couple of days, I'm going to wait until this weekend before trying again. If things do not improve the next time around then the board will go back to the vendor.

Thump553 - Typically I do start with an empty drive but in this case I did not, I was not concerned because it was my intent to wipe the drive of the data after setting the board. Once I was able to adjust BIOS settings I did wipe the drive, you might have missed my comment above about installing XP.

 

[tennesota]

Tackled the mobo again this evening. I took Thump553's advice about seating and reseating the AGP card in the AGP slot, after a few tries it worked. I now have the mobo up and running with the Radeon card outputting video to the monitor. I'll be reinstalling an OS later this evening and will report back with another update.

Thanks to Thump553 for the tip!

 

[kylef]

In case you have any further issues, I had a nearly identical problem. After months of working fine, it decided not to post one day. The only way to make it post was to remove the AGP card and put a PCI video card in... Then everything was back to normal.

I couldn't fix it by doing ANYTHING. I was very frustrated. Then Xbassman came along (I believe) and said he'd heard that holding down the POWER and RESET switch simultaneously for a few seconds when starting the machine might do the trick.

It did!

I have no clue what it did, but now I can boot with an AGP card once again.

Now if I could only solve some of the OTHER problems that have cropped up with this board:
1. Onboard LAN has completely disappeared from ALL probes
2. Secondary IDE controller works intermittently, and has now stopped working altogether

Hmmm...

 

[cleverhandle]

I started building a K7S5A box for my parents last week and got those same CMOS messages (wrong setting, wrong mem size, and low battery). Resetting the board via the jumper didn't help. But the messages disappeared after I set up the correct FSB in the BIOS. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me.