piece of crap k7s5a

[alexruiz]

I am another one who jumped into the ECS K7S5A and now I am paying the price.... I am building a new computer for my wife. These are the specs:

- Duron 1.3 with thermaltake volcano 6 (I used a copper shim)
- Generic 300 W power supply (160 in the combo, 3.3 - 14 A max, 5 - 30 A max). Cheap ATX case.
- Maxtor DX740L (40 Gigs, 7200 RPM, ATA 133)
- Jaton video card (Trident Blade 9880)
- Firewire card
- Aopen CRW1232 (12x10x32)
- Mitsumi floppy
- PCI fax/modem
- NO RAM installed, I will borrow some SDRAM from my father in law.

I have read all the posts regarding this mobo, and I think this is the closest to what I am experiencing.

I turn the computer on, but I get no display. I don't get any beep either. CPU fan spins, I get the power LED ON, but no display on the monitor. If I press the power button for 4 seconds, the computer turns off. CD-RW seems to attemp reading something. It keeps trying to read. I already tried resetting the video card like 4 times. Even though I have no RAM, I am expecting to see something in the monitor, then say RAM failure. I was expecting also to get a beep. Nothing.

What confuses me is the fact that the CD-RW tries to read, and the power button turns the machine OFF. I don't know if my case speaker is well connected, as this is a 4 pins connector with wires in the extremes. Is this the right connection for the speaker??

Should I just wait to place the RAM and see what happens???
Is the video card the problem??
Is my CPU dead??
Do you think I should try with another power supply??? I have another generic 300 W PS, but the spare one feels heavier (I think better built).

Thanks for the advice, I promised my wife to have the machine running today.....

 

[SunnyD]

alexruiz -

NOTHING will ever show up on the screen without RAM... on this or any motherboard.

Get some ram in there, and it'll prolly work fine.

SunnyD

 

[PullMyFinger]

Buzz,
I just checked my power supply and it states "PP 303XP" with a combined 5v and 3.3v of 180 watts. This doesn't match the specs on the AMD site which only specifies the 303X with 165 watts combined power. I looked over a bunch of the other suggested power supplies and a number of them have a lower total and combined power output. I have a hard time believing that a 300 watt name brand power supply like Antec would have a hard time powering an XP1500. I've only got the CD, hard drive, floppy, and cpu fan powered right now.

I'm leaning more towards a driver/IRQ/setting error rather than hardware. I'll give the CMOS clearing trick a try tonight.

 

[Buz2b]

alexruiz:


<< Generic 300 W power supply (160 in the combo, 3.3 - 14 A max, 5 - 30 A max). >>

This has got to be the #1 rated, most quoted, downfall of anyone trying to build a new system with the K7S5A board. I am not passing judgement on you at all; I try for bargins every chance I get also. However, that PS is probably not going to cut it. Sure, there are the "lucky" few who seem to defy fate and have even gotten "generic" 250 watt PS's to work. However those are the , exception, not the rule. I think the first thing you need to do is put in a stick of RAM (on the odd chance that it might work). Second is to look at getting a better PS. I "forgot" to put in a stick of RAM on an Epox board the other day and it refused to do anything but beep at me; no video, nothing. Oops! Next, make sure that the Speaker plug is orientated correctly. If you look in your manual (page 14 I believe), you will see a small #1 by the diagram of the SPK1 connector. That signifies pin # 1 or the red wire. The 4 pin connector (with the wires in either end) is normal.
So, in essence I think you should try a stick of RAM first and then a better PS second, to see if you can get it to boot. But I suspect the PS would make the most difference. Third is to look at the shim. While I believe that these can save a lot of CPU's, they sometimes can cause more trouble than not. But, don't go there yet. Try the other two first, then let us know.

 

[alexruiz]

Thanks for all the advices guys. I will place the RAM and see what happens.... As you can see, I am fairly newbie

I'll let you know all the advances.

 

[Rottie]

I bought this mobo just before I read this messages but I am very lucky that I got this brand new K7S5A and I built and run just fine except for floppy drive but I made a mistake with cable so the drive works great...I like this mobo...it has everything I need...Good future investment.

You should give ECS some credits.

 

[Athlex]

Anyone know if these boards (or any, for that matter) will be able to run .13micron Athlons when they come out?

 

[Regalk]

I've been there and did it all. I read Buzz's comments with interest - but nothing there that is new. The PS supply issue is old news now.
Bottom line was I just wanted to try the Sis 735 chipset and see how it compared to others. I liked the performance when the board was operational but once it died (< 2months) I simply moved on to real motherboards and in particular the SiS 645 chipset is super (P4S333) so far. I had my last act with ECS - will not buy their products anymore! End of story.

 

[xracer]

<< Maybe it could be that some folks get "kicked off" of forums because they advocate hardware mods that could ruin MB's and have not been tested, approved or even needed. The "fix" from Mr. Athlon is an old argument that, while it may have "helped" some few individuals, was being touted as a fix for a defective Motherboard; neither of which is true. The numbers just don't add up. Also, while I did not do a great deal of posting there, the OC Workbench -ECS Forum was, and is still, the most informative and helpful site for that I've seen for a particular board in some time. That site and many others like this one here will usually tolerate a lot of BS from folks. To put it plainly, one really has to step over the line to be in a position where they are not welcome anymore. I don't think I would wear it like a badge of honor. I'm sure that this will attract the same type of attacks as it did before but I can't help it if I'm one of the hundreds of thousands that built a system (or several) and have had zero trouble with them (other than the ones I brought on myself). And for the record, the only threat from ECS was to forum users that constantly posted accusations and unsubstantiated claims of defects about their product. And they did it for all to see, no back door threats. >>



Is ECS to be applauded for an uprecedented threat of a lawsuit suppressing information? They'd lose their arses in court over this if a class action lawsuit was filed against them. What about the chipset mod (removing and resecuring it and adding hsf)? That's altering the hardware, and many are saying it's yet another problem. Also, doesn't it bother you that OCWB is sensoring anything negative?

The numbers don't add up? The truth is, 1.2-1.4 Tbirds were a problem with this board (particularly the 1.4 with Rev 4), but evidently ECS chose to blow it off maybe calculating the XP was going to replace the TB anyway and decided it was better to cover it up than admit there was a problem. Plus, there were certain version boards in the beginning that were fine (pre ver 4 I believe). Mr. Athlon, for whatever reason, did do extensive testing and posted it for public viewing, however they are all gone, and any reference to the the resistor problem is gone as well. I suspect a large number of people gave up and accepted a slow pc, or don't even know there is a problem. As I stated, I called ECS 2 times and got nothing but BS "buy this, try that" crap. I first heard about the problem on the Hercules video card forum because I was grasping at straws and thought maybe the 3dProphet 4500 was the root cause. A person there kindly pointed me to OCWB.
Please site your evidence that hundreds of thousands have had zero trouble, ok? The numbers do say a lot. Nowhere will you find so many problems posted for one model mobo. I've followed that forum since last October. There definitely was a resistor problem from what I've experienced. Yes, Mr. Athlon's fix "helped" me "some"!!! It prevented me from trashing the mobo! How many times have you seen a mobo mfr threaten a lawsuit against anyone on any forum? I sure haven't.
The PSU issue shouldn't be one, except the K7S5A is finicky (which it shouldn't be with a AMD approved psu for a particular CPU). I tried different psu, to no avail. I soldered the recommended resistor (200 ohm? it's been a while) on and viola!....no more bsods, random boots, memtest errors (another ECS fallacy), crashes etc. etc.
The fact is, there still are MANY that post the same problems that were there 5 months ago, except they will end up wasting a lot of money and time on a new PSU, ram and whatever. A PERSON SHOULD NOT NEED TO BUY A NEW PSU FOR A $50 MOTHERBOARD WHEN IT (AMD APPROVED AND RECOMMENDED) WORKS FINE ON OTHER MOTHERBOARDS.
Loyalists are the same no matter where you go. Why must you guys continue defending this?
4 ECS K7S5A motherboards, all early REV 4:
(2) 1.4 tbirds. Both had same problems (133/133). Both had the same fix. Both are fine.
(1) RMA (constant bsods, crashing)
(1) 1 ghz Duron that will not boot, at all. Have decided to try all available suggestions before I RMA
Before you convince people to go out and spend more money for a new psu than the mobo is worth, I'm wondering if ECS has their own "recommended" psu list that overrules AMD? I bet they don't for obvious reasons. By doing so they would be admitting there is a problem, something it appears they will not do. My K7S5A with the Tbird runs pretty good, but not without a big learning curve.

 

[PullMyFinger]

Ok, here's an update. I tried Win2K in safemode and was able to finally get to the desktop. I was then able to install the network and sound drivers and reboot. Guess what, it did the same damn thing as before, got through the first two startup screens and then nothing else. What was really strange was while in safemode and setting up the drivers, certain functions took FOREVER. During the driver installation, progress stalled for at least a minute until a window popped up stating that the file was not Microsoft certified. This happened on both the network and sound install. Then, I tried to get the properties of my harddrive from the hardware device manager, this too took well over a minute, during which time the computer seemed to be locked up. What gives? A 386 would have been faster. I'm quickly reaching my limit with this board. Right now I'm doing a Win98 install just to see if it's something to do with Win2k. If this does not work, out goes the board, and never will I deal with ECS again.:|

 

[Brian48]

No problems here with either of the K7S5A's me and my brother bought. Been running stable and fast since day one.

 

[MozartsGhost]

Yes, the link does work. I have never had any problems with the MB. If the bios dosen't need flashing then my advice is don't. The board was made to run in very specific conditions. 50.00 bucks aint gonna get you much. It's a board that is used to hold you over until you can get a real one. (I'm still holding over)

 

[Stanman]

Don't RMA the board, just throw it away and figure it was money well spent to learn a lesson. I had one that almost burned my house down. It shorted the 12v buss in the PSU (not using fan connector on board) so that it was still powering the cpu, but had no fan voltage. The heatsink was almost red hot, with an XP.
It did not blow the PSU, I put another one on it and same thing, no 12v. I threw it away with a smile and don't want any more ECS if you gave it to me.
Back when they came out with the 100fsb socket seven board I got three DOA's from them and the fourth died in about a week.
It's the worst of the "generic: boards.

 

[alexruiz]

Well, this board seems to be "hit or miss" as the revies are a mixed bag. I feel happy to say I am in the hits.

My father-in-law had no SDRAM available, and the only memory he had was 2 sticks of 8 MB EDO RAM!!! Needles to say, they didn't even fit.

I went to circuit sh..y and I got 128 MB of DDR, snapped the memory and bingo!, the board worked. I accesed the hardware monitor to check the voltages, I notived the 5 volts was quite low (4.81), the 3.3 was at 3.19. I changed this generic power supply and used another generic power supply, this time the voltages were 4.94 for the 5 volts and 3.26 for the 3.3... better. I alredy installed winME (what my wife will use) and so far the system is runnign fine.

Pretty fast board. I belong to the exceptions regarding the power supply..... Now i only expect this to last.

 

[MoboN00B]

damn this board! damn it to hell. :disgust:

naw, i just got a bad one from newegg and just RMA'd it. newegg rma service is pretty top notch.

 

[keyman923]

I don't understand the fascination with this board?-Is it you get to brag you own the cheapest motherboard available? in both price and quality?

 

[PullMyFinger]

Yeeeeehaaaawwww! Finally got this SOB to load Win2k! It turns out I had Plug n Play OS enabled and Power Management enabled, for some reason. Turned both of them off and bam! right through the format and install. I was seconds from getting the sledgehammer out :Q Now for the lousy reinstall of everything else, at least I'll be able to transfer a lot of the stuff via network that I would normally have to backup to CD.

 

[bambam]

Waht would be the next step up ( just a little more $) in lieu of taking a chance on one of these ? -thanks

 

[tenoc]

Bought two of these from NCIX. Done a lot of swapping about.

They've worked fine with 1.0 Duron, 1.333 Athlon and 1700+ XP.
They've worked fine with Enlight 300W and generic 350W.
They've worked fine with Radeon le, MSI GTS Pro and Radeon 8500.
They've worked fine with Micron pc133 and Crucial ddr 2100.
They've worked fine with 98se and ME.
They've worked fine with various CD-rom, CD-RW and DVD drives.
They've worked fine with three different Maxtors.
They've worked fine with three different keyboards and both MS and Logitech mice.

Shit, the bottom line is, they've worked just bloody fine!

For me, anyway!

 

[wyvrn]

I have built two boxes with this mobo. The first one running 1 Ghz Duron and 512 MB Corsair PC133 with 300W PS from Newegg. That one wouldn't play sound in games until I flashed the bios, but my friend reports no problems since. So I decided to build myself a 1.1 Ghz Tbird with 256 MB DDR ram on a box with a 350W PS. This one always posts, but doesn't make it to the Win2k loading screen more than once in 5 tries. I have flashed the bios and disabled many of the options there (according to many forums). Plain and simple I don't think the K7S5A likes the power supply and looks like I am going to RMA it, and go with an Epox 8K7A for only $18 more. My suggestion is to make sure you have a rock-solid power supply before you use this board, or just ante up an extra $18-20 and get the better Epox mobo in the first place.