My ECS K7S5A Rant

[MrCodeDude]

By all means, please do not let this rant affect your purchase of a K7S5A, they are great and stable boards, but it seems the one I have hates me.. Now that, that's out of the way, on with the rant.

Any floppy drive refuses to work.
That's right, I've tried 3 floppy drives, one from my previous computer, and two newly purchased ones that I got from Fry's for $20 for both. I've tried other Floppy Drive cables, I've flashed the BIOS to the newest version to see if that did anything, NOTHING. It's not the floppy or the floppy cable because it worked fine on the Iwill 333-R.

Not being able to hit 133 anymore
I can no longer hit 133MHz FSB :| I used to be able to hit 133 no problem, my hard-drive crashes, I put in a new hard-drive and no longer can it hit 133MHz. It's not the RAM. I tried clearing the CMOS, nada. Nothing. CPU temperature is the same as it always has been so it isn't the CPU overheating.

No Power-on LED
I know this isn't the K7S5A's fault, more of the Enermax FS-710's, but it only has two pins for the power-on LED. The Enermax's cable is 2 pin, but occupies 3 pins since the middle pin is empty. You can fix this by taking out one of the end pins and putting it in the middle, but if you screw up, you screw up. The 8K3A has 5 places to put the pins, the 333-R has 3 or 4 (I can't remember). :|

It is impossible to put 2 USB devices and a network cable on the back of mobo.
Since they are all stacked together, it is impossible to get the CAT 5 and two USB devices plugged in at the same time. I had to go out and get a splitter things that allows me to use 4 USB devices out of 1 USB port.

And something completely unrelated
Windows always recovers from a serious error
This is Windows, but it always says it has just recovered from a serious error. I've done everything except reinstall Windows, which I'll be doing next week

I'll be looking forward to installing the XP 333-R and if that is broken (I couldn't get it to work last time), I'll soon be getting a better mobo. The K7S5A will be the mobo for my other machine though, I'm just very pissed with all the problems that have come up lately.
-- mrcodedude
-- mrcodedude

 

[Iron Woode]

Let me get this straight:

the ECS doesn't work right so you are going to use it for second system? What's wrong with this picture?

Just replace the board with the same or different. No need for a rant.

 

[Eymar]

Are you able to return\rma it as it looks like you got a bad board. If not try updating the BIOS. I put almost everything you can (2100xp, 512MB PC2700,2 hds, 2 cdroms, SCSI, tvtuner, modem, and use both the onboard sound and nic) in mine and have very few problems. However, even though mine runs fine bad boards will always get passed quality control. I also don't like the fact there is no standard power LED, I connect my case's sleep LED to overcome this fact.

Good luck man from another guy who hates wasting time solving computer problems.

 

[Booster]

I'd suggest replacing it with an ECS K7S5A-2. That board is a whole lot different. All bugs fixed, great general use stability. Different PCB colour (yellow), different PCB design, but the same chipset with higher speed and rock solid stability.

 

[DieHardware]

I'd suggest sticking to code dude...flame suit on.

 

[Adul]

great and stable aren't two words I associate with ECS

 

[AnMig]

try this link, they did mention about floppy drive corruption in w2k and xp with old bios or something.

also adding a hard drive and suddenly not being able to use 133/133 setting might indicate a Power supply issue. (I know you know this but just wanted to state the obvious.

I too have recently run into some problems with his board when I tried to upgrade my daughters computer from a 750 duron to a xp 1600. couldnt set it to 133/133, restarts and hanging. Short story--replaced 300w enlight with a no name 400w psu (I like to live dangerously) and all problems are solved. Using the cheepos bios by the way.

good luck fixed link

 

[meDave]

My K7S5A just took a crap on me a couple of weeks ago, I had it going for 11 months with no problems then just woke up one morning
and it was frozen, I tried to reboot and just got 1 beep followed by 8 quick beeps. Now I'm running an Aopen AK77-333 so far
so good with this board its only been running just a couple days. Hoping i can rma the K7S5A it was real good to me,
It was an early rev. of the board i bought it last Aug. was running Duron up until 2 months ago then i put an 1800+ in it
did alot of video capturing with it wondering if that did it. Oh well it was a good one while it lasted

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Adul
great and stable aren't two words I associate with ECS

The irony is they manufacture Shuttle and Abit now as well, you gonna add them to?

 

[JeremiahTheGreat]

that no power lead thing is damn annoying... and since i have SCSI hd's, i get no HD light either.. so i dun know if my computer is on... unless of course you count the fact that the monitor is actually lit up and doing stuff, and the rattling hurricane of the fans and harddrives etc etc..

Reset BIOS to defaults, that fixed my floppy drive problems.

That windows has recovered from a serious error thing is a known bug that effects a lot of people, where the OS somehow doesn't clear its logs and conitnues to give the same error message everytime u bootup even tho there is no message (download the update from the auto-update thingo).

Tried the Motherboard (note MOTHERBOARD) heatsink mod? That damn thing is stuck on with sticky tape, and re-sitting it with good old thermal epoxy fixed up the 133Mhz problem for me. Otherwise, it may be ur new harddrive is draining too much juice from ur PSU..

You get what u pay for, and it takes a few tweaks (ok, maybe an understatement) to get this mobo to work sometimes..

 

[Flashram]

You definitely have a bad board. I've built systems with at least 7 or 8 of these and never had any of your problems, except the 2 pin power led, which was easily fixed.

 

[DieHardware]

meDave wrote:

I tried to reboot and just got 1 beep followed by 8 quick beeps. Now I'm running an Aopen

One long eight short is a display/retrace test failure...reseat the video card. AMI beep codes: 1 & 2.

 

[Regalk]

Hmmm didn't know that ABIT and Shuttle outsourced to ECS - I have to add that to my notes -
Re: note to myself -->3 board manufacturers not to buy value based boards from.

 

[Peter]

Floppy ... put the cable the right way round, and get a BIOS update. Early BIOSes had an FDD problem, but that has been rectified almost a year ago.

No 133 MHz ... check power supply adequacy. You aren't the first.

No power LED ... Simple modification to the case. Better cases have the wires for the power LED separated to accomodate "old" and "new" styles of mainboard.

2 USB and LAN ... Strange, I manage. As long as your USB and LAN cables' plugs are of the specified size, it'll fit.

Serious Error ... that happens when it can't shutdown right. BIOS and driver updates, please.


Now where's a PARTICULAR problem with this board that isn't easily resolved? Rant at the man in the mirror, but don't blame the people who built the hardware.

regards, Peter

 

[dirtweasel]

knock on wood, but i've had excellent luck with my ecs k7s5a. running a t-bird 1.4 in my secondary machine and loving it. using the onboard lan and both usb ports with no problem also. weird.

main system is now running a kr7a-raid, which actually took me a lot longer to get setup.


dirty.

 

[J3anyus]

That's why you buy a good board like Asus or EPoX. Did you and Bob ever get that new system running?

 

[Peter]

Strange that those "good" boards also won't run with poor PSUs, also have varying front panel connectors, and also use the same 2-USB-and-LAN connector blocks that ECS introduced.

This thread is redundant in its entireness. If you don't manage to set your rig up, have someone else do it. But don't rant at the manufacturers for your own lack of skills.

This is just like over in the other "ECS K7S5A problem" thread. After 19 replies the guy goes "oh, maybe I should use thermal compound between CPU and heatsink". GNNNNN.

regards, Peter

 

[joe4324]

You had a bad board, See if you can RMA it.

I've built over 20 system with this board (lost exact count after 15) most of them early revisons as well. I've needed to replace 2 cmos batteries so far and that is about it. I had one board die because someone I sold it too tried to flash the bios himself and somehow fuxxxored it. aside from that Its my favorite motherboard of all time. By far. I even had a 8k3ha+ a few months ago that I got as payment for making a system. I traded with for another k7s5a (plus some other stuff) i just cant resist the value the K7S5A gives...

too the guys who consider ECS a low quality manufacturer, Funny how ECS sells more boards then ASUS and is the OEM's best friend. I mean afterall, Micron/Dell/Compaq obviously like to minimize there profit margins by spending hundreds of millions on Research and Development only too chose the board manufactures who will sell them the most unstable,unreliable boards possible. I mean afterall who wants profits anyway?

I'll stick with a slightly slower slightly less tweakable board, over one that is too new and chock full of bugs and incompatabilites anyday. Hell with the $50+ I save going with a ECS board I can buy another 256mb of ram, or get an even better video card when its time to upgrade.

 

[Valis]

Anyone that can recommed the ASUS A7S333? Here they cost just a little more than the ECS 745, infact the ASUS is just $3 more than the ECS.

 

[kmmatney]

I've had more Lemons from Epox than from ECS, in my own experience. I was able to use 2 USB cables and the LAN connector on my board - it probably just depends on the thickness of the USB adapters. I don't think that the design is any different than other motherboards with USB and LAN.

Sounds like you need to RMA the board, though.

 

[Superman9534]

I just bought a K7S5A. Its a great board some how. I like how I can use my PC133 RAM Until I can get my hands on some DDR. I mean, I looked at all these more expensive boards (some with the same chipset even), with the same specs. This really was a good deal. I have had no problems at all so far. I actually will be building 2 more systems for my friends soon with it.

 

[ToXiCRaGE]

I have only 1.5 problems with my ECS K7S5A - LAN dosen't work (the .5 is that my keyboard dosent get power from the mobo from time to time - I need to reboot and replug it). I tried to connect to the net and I cound not. I am using a seperate ethernet card without any problems now. When it comes to the 133/133Mhz FSB setting, well I am running an XP1600 with Antec 300W PS and no problems whatsoever. And the floppy drive, well no problems with that too. I think that you have a (obviously) a faulty board. Just return it and grab another one.

Overall, K7S5A is awesome - it is like a Ferrari without power windows. You geta great board but you do not get the BIOS modifications that you need to OC your system. I'm not into OCing anymore cuz CPUs are pretty inexpensive to change.

 

[mbuf]

My ECS K7S5A (v1.xx) is running fine, it's fast and stable. Clearing CMOS always solves my problems (if any) after reinstalling some stuff. Running my TB-1.4@147FSB with OC BIOS. My only complaint is the RAM slots, especially DDR, they are too close to CPU socket thus block air flow. The AGP card also blocks air on one adjacent side, but not that close. This only gives you two open sides, and some space between the two blocking sides, for air flow. Not a big deal though.

Generally, it's a nice mobo, if it gets sufficient juice.

- mbuf