piece of crap k7s5a

[smplipnoy]

Has anyone ever encountered problems with the ECS K7S5A? For some reason the mobo won't boot the. It doesn't go into post, I take out the DDR ram and start it and it doesn't beep, I take out the CPU and start it and it doesn't beep. When the computer was working I flashed the BIOS to the lastest revision at the time, which was about a month ago. I thought that would fix the problem but no. I know it isn't any of the other components because I tested them all individually and they all work. I thought the mobo might not have been getting power but all the cards light up and the fans turn on. Right now, I have that mobo, with AMD 1200, Micron 256 DDR ram, IBM HD, and GeForce2 MX. Should I just call it quits and trash the board? Thanks.

 

[Theslowone]

What power supply do you have. These aren't the best boards but for the price they are worth a try. The k7s5a needs a good quality power supply because of electrical "noise". If you have a good power supply, enermax, sparkle, antec, etc then it probably is something to do with the mobo, if you have a generic mobo then it could be that.

Have you tried clear the cmos.

 

[AA0]

Has anyone had problems with it? ya, thousand, like all ECS boards, they aren't good, just cheap.

If it just stopped working, its probably dead, typcial ecs, return it.

 

[Buz2b]

Most likely it is something simple. These are actually pretty nice, but a bit finicky boards. Yes, you need a good PS for them. Not just AMD approved, you need to be sure it is AMD approved for your specific CPU. Second, the RAM and video card slots are pretty precise. You might have to pull and reseat both the RAM and video card a few times to get solid contact. Other than that you should be fine. I have built a few with very, very similar setups as you and had no troubles. As mentioned, make sure the "Clear CMOS" jumper is in the Normal operating position; not "Clear". Give us an update when you check these out.

 

[smplipnoy]

You know, I've tried most of the suggestions already with the exception of the PS. I checked out the PS and it's made by Traditional Technology Group Inc. But before this major failure occured, if the computer would not start I would have to reseat some of the cards or disconnect one of the IDE devices, restart the computer, then plug back in any devices that I left unplugged. Then it would start. Now this current problem all started when Win2k froze and then I had to restart the computer then no more. I probably should try changing out the PS, huh? Alright I'll give that a try and keep you all posted.

 

[Shaorinor]

For the price, the ECS boards are one of the good bang for your buck boards...but my lord do they have lots and lots of RMA's.

I had to return 2 or 3 boards before I got my brother's system working perfectly and w/o problems.

 

[jaeger66]

What the hell does anyone expect for $50? Quality?

 

[Confused]

I got a K7S5A a couple of weeks ago, and it didn't want to post. A quick hunt here and i found that you have to normally reseat the AGP card a few times until it works. Also, they need a half decent PS. Luckily i have an Enermax 350W, so that didn't matter for me.

For a budget board, it is extremely fast, and that's the main reasons it's still a best seller!

Just stick with it and you'll be impressed.


ConfusedBW

 

[Dan]

So far I've built 3 systems using the K7S5A mobo and haven't had any problems. (That tapping sound you hear is me knocking on wood. )

 

[bowie71]

<< What the hell does anyone expect for $50? Quality? >>



Good Point, that's the reason I choose ECS k7S5A as my mainboard, it's cheap, faster than KT266 and can still use SDRAM before I get DDR RAM (I have DDR RAM now). Quality is not one it has,.. we should be smart, passionfull and like to have a challenges to have it works, of course with the basic requirement, good and AMD approved power supply, ...

 

[Regalk]

As I have said in several forums - it is pointless to buy a $50 board and a $75+ PS to run it. Add to that the number of times the video card/Ram needs to be reseated to get it to work if at all. I learnt the hard way not once but twice. A fellow by the username of Mr Athlon and a few others revealed a number of short comings about the board before we were practically kicked off www.ocworkbench.com for challenging ECS to respond. They did all right byt telling us to shut up pr face legal action.
Trash the board or use it for a wall hanger or somethin useful and get a real board - the one thing you should never go cheap on anyway is the main component - motherboard. A real shame Asus or MSI did not choose to market their version of the K7SiS boards and allowing the likes of ECS to thrive.

 

[bowie71]

<< As I have said in several forums - it is pointless to buy a $50 board and a $75+ PS to run it.... >>



smlipnoy, don't worry about the price, you can get a good PS from some auction sites. I got my brand new powertronics 450W from Ebay for only $59. Keep huntin... and be smart.. unless you'd prefer to RMA it or put it in the microwave like one of our angry K7S5A user in ou forum.

 

[Theslowone]

While these boards do have a high failure rate, if they work they are good fast boards. I know plenty of people that are very happy. This is probably one of the best selling boards out right now, and its going to have more returns then other boards. A more expensive power supply is needed that may be true, but $75 on one is a bit extreme. You can get a 300watt sparkle, antec, enermax, etc that would run it fine. And I think you can get a sparkle 300 watt for under 30 bucks. You could also get away with running a 250 watt ps but it needs to be name brand.


I am not defending the board, it does have some problems. But for the price the performance is great, and if it is a good board then it is reliable and fast.

 

[LS20]

my input... im using that board with a generic SUperlink 320w PS...SuperCooler HSF running warmer than normal (51/57C)

NEVER had a prob.. flashed the bios once... still no problem doing that.. has hanged booting into windows about 3 times out of the 200 or so times that ive rebooted... thats with crucial DDR running at MAX speed

replaced ram 3 times...pcc100/133 mix to pc133 to ddr
swapped agp card once..
installed new nic card once...

never had to 'reseat' or otherwise perform any voodoo to get it to work. i guess im just lucky

 

[alpineranger]

K7S5A...
Some swear by it. Others, at it.

 

[sadb0i]

just my 2 cents

ive built many many, like 20+, comps with the ECS k7s5a board and ALL of them have had no problems. all these boards came from newegg. i may have just gotten the golden bundle. the only issues that came up were problems with the other hardware like bad ram, HDD, video card etc...

majority of them are using generic 250W PS however ALL of the computers using 300W AMD approved PS, the PS died! now i thought that was hilarious. true story!

 

[Dually]

MAke sure you have good ram and reset the cmos and make sure the ram is seated right. Then update to the latest bios, it came out in Febuary.

 

[hominid skull]

I have used one k7s5a and 2 k7s6a's, one in my own system to replace a broken Abit KG7.

I must admit that i wasn't expecting alot for the money but at the moment i'm happier with the K7s6a than i was with the KG7.

 

[Buz2b]

<< I have used one k7s5a and 2 k7s6a's >>

Curious as to your opinion on the differences in the two. I've not tried the K7S6A yet for a build. Anything you can share.

 

[Athlex]

Just got a new K7S5A (from Newegg) up and running last night. I'm also easing into upgrades so I'm still using a duron and SDR memory.
So far it's been rock solid and the slots are fairly loaded (Kyro2, NIC, sound, SCSI, HPNA). Windows 2000 barfed when I first put it in, but after I nuked the boot drive and reinstalled it was clear sailing.
I was a bit cautious when I first got the board since its build quality isn't quite up with Asus or Abit, but it seems to be totally stable, haven't had to reboot since I reinstalled.

Quick question to smplipnoy- does your board have "XP" stickers near the center cleat on either side of the CPU socket?

 

[Jerboy]

My K7S5A doesn't work at all

 

[smplipnoy]

Athlex: The computer is over at my friends place right now but if I remember correctly it does have the XP on the left side of the CPU socket. Man I haven't had time to work on this thing. Damn school is getting in the way especially with finals next week. I'm hoping to put some work into this thing Thursday night though.

 

[Athlex]

Just checking because I've read that the earlier revs (besides being notoriously unstable) didn't work very well with AXPs. (and at the same time, ECS was saying that the board was designed to ONLY run XPs)
Anyhoo, the ones with the XP stickers are supposedly more reliable. Good luck getting the machine up.

 

[hominid skull]

Buz2b,

I have used one k75sa and two k76sa's, all with the XP sticker near the CPU slot. Installing the mobo was fine, it detected the multiplier - as L1's, i only had to set the fsb to 133 in the bios and that was it.

The install of WindowsXP went fine, the only thing is if you wanted to use the onboard audio the drivers are not windowsXP certified, although they did work on both the k75sa and one k76sa, the other is my machine which i have a Audigy card installed.

Another thing is the IDE drivers, they say in the readme.txt file that they are not for WinXP so i didn't install them, seams to run fine without them. I have checked their web site and they have the same drivers.

Apart from that everything is ok, i've even had this mobo(k7s6a) up to 147MHz fsb stable except that my modem dosen't like it, if i try to use it to dial out then the machine will hang. Not bad as the northbridge only has a heatsink and no fan.

hope that helps..

 

[DBandit]

bought 2 $20 Antec 300W PS from directron a while back (while they were on sale). Anyone know if the 6A's are just as finicky as the 5A's. Don't need SDRAM slots. Might just wait for the MSI version of the sis745 to come out. I hear they're already out in some asian countries from OCWorkbench. Should hit stateside soon (I hope).