ECS Motherboard issues

jakep12 · Sep 29, 2002, 02:41 AM

I just bought a new ECS K7S5A motherboard, I installed: 1300 AMD Duron, 256mb Kingston SDRAM, Geforce 2, 40gig WD, PS 250watts, and Windows XP home/upgrade SP1.

I am having trouble with the computer just automatically rebooting by itself, and giving me an error message, recovered from a serious error after it reboots. I flashed to the lateset BIOS, everything is set to default, don't know what to do, any ideas??
Thanks

Vampyromaniac · Sep 29, 2002, 03:38 AM

Hmm that's too bad man. I have the K7S5A, too; they are supposed to be pretty stable boards.

There's a chance it could be your power supply; 250W might be a bit low.
But more important than the overall wattage is the combined wattage of the +3.3v and +5v power rails. Mine is a 400W, and the +5v and +3.3v combined output is 245W; my XP1800 system runs quite stable. I'm not sure how much it should be for your Duron1300 . . . maybe someone else could come up w/ some numbers.

Also, what brand is it? If it's not a quality part, it could cause quite a bit of instability. Anything from people like Enermax, Enlight, Antec, Sparkle should be good, I think.

Anyway, that's the only thing I could attribute your problems to. I don't have experience with WinXP, Durons, or GeForce cards, though, so if there's some well-known incompatability issue with some of your components that I don't know about, hopefully someone can post about it.

Good luck with your ECS, man. I've really been pleased with mine!

JavaFox · Sep 29, 2002, 03:50 AM

I have owned two of said motherboard, and I think that they're great. I am inclined to agree with Vampyr -- try a meatier powersupply.

Frodo301 · Sep 29, 2002, 04:56 AM

You may be able to at least stop the reboots by right clicking on My Computer and selecting the advanced tab. From there look under Startup and Recovery and select the settings button. Under System Failure untick Automatically Restart. I'm with Java & Vampyro though, a new power supply is in order. I've had very good luck with Sparkle powersupplies + they are well made and have the advantage of being inexpensive as well. Get the highest wattage you can afford as it allows for easier upgrades of your computer in the future, ie no power problems. At the very least get a 350 watt. Hope this helps.

Mark7 · Oct 1, 2002, 01:50 AM

It _MAY_ be your power supply. Some inexpensive units will have far too much ripple causing problems such as you note.

BUT, if you managed to get an early K7S5A (stuck in someones inventory because some of the early boards were horrendus and were "buried" for a while) then you could have one that has a wrong resistor value on the address bus located inside the cpu socket. K7S5A's were produced first by ECS plants, then as demand outstripped their capacity, PcChips started assembling the boards also - and that seems to be where the boards with the wrong resistor value came in.

The ECS boards are absolutely rock solid - well, some will lose their bios settings about every 3 months for no apparant reason (no big deal - just go into the bios and reset all). But they run great. The PcChips boards are another story.

Check you revision number on the board....

MonkeySpank · Oct 1, 2002, 08:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mark7
well, some will lose their bios settings about every 3 months for no apparant reason (no big deal - just go into the bios and reset all).

... yes and a lot of them, just like mine, lose their bios settings once a day, and that IS a big deal!!!

stay away from the K7S5A.. especially since you can buy a better performing KT266A board for the same money nowadays..

see these links for interesting user comments:

http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/20...0103009570.htm

http://www.ocworkbench.com/ocwbcgi/u...&f=37&t=000108

Sep 29, 2002, 02:41 AM	#1
jakep12 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 6 Rep Power: 0	ECS Motherboard issues I just bought a new ECS K7S5A motherboard, I installed: 1300 AMD Duron, 256mb Kingston SDRAM, Geforce 2, 40gig WD, PS 250watts, and Windows XP home/upgrade SP1. I am having trouble with the computer just automatically rebooting by itself, and giving me an error message, recovered from a serious error after it reboots. I flashed to the lateset BIOS, everything is set to default, don't know what to do, any ideas?? Thanks

Sep 29, 2002, 03:38 AM	#2
Vampyromaniac confutatis maledictis Join Date: May 2002 Location: somewhere dark Posts: 5,974 Rep Power: 77 System Specs	Hmm that's too bad man. I have the K7S5A, too; they are supposed to be pretty stable boards. There's a chance it could be your power supply; 250W might be a bit low. But more important than the overall wattage is the combined wattage of the +3.3v and +5v power rails. Mine is a 400W, and the +5v and +3.3v combined output is 245W; my XP1800 system runs quite stable. I'm not sure how much it should be for your Duron1300 . . . maybe someone else could come up w/ some numbers. Also, what brand is it? If it's not a quality part, it could cause quite a bit of instability. Anything from people like Enermax, Enlight, Antec, Sparkle should be good, I think. Anyway, that's the only thing I could attribute your problems to. I don't have experience with WinXP, Durons, or GeForce cards, though, so if there's some well-known incompatability issue with some of your components that I don't know about, hopefully someone can post about it. Good luck with your ECS, man. I've really been pleased with mine! __________________ *Digitalis 3.3* Athlon 64 3000 // ASUS K8V SE Deluxe // 1024MB PC3200 (2-2-2-10 1T) ATI All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro // 20" Dell 2005FPW (DVI) M-Audio Revo 7.1 + Philips Acoustic Edge // Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 320/16 Western Digital WD3200KS + 120/8 Seagate 7200.7 NEC ND-3550A 16x DVD±RW + Lite-On 52x24x CD-RW Antec Sonata case // 480W Antec TruePower personal bests \|\| Aq'3: 46796 \| 3D'01: 20461 \| 3D'03: 6336 \| 3D'05: 2677 \| PC'04: 4605 \| PC'02: 7691,9092,1250

Sep 29, 2002, 04:56 AM	#4
Frodo301 Outraged Join Date: May 2002 Location: The mountains Posts: 584 Rep Power: 0	XP set to reboot on sys faliure? You may be able to at least stop the reboots by right clicking on My Computer and selecting the advanced tab. From there look under Startup and Recovery and select the settings button. Under System Failure untick Automatically Restart. I'm with Java & Vampyro though, a new power supply is in order. I've had very good luck with Sparkle powersupplies + they are well made and have the advantage of being inexpensive as well. Get the highest wattage you can afford as it allows for easier upgrades of your computer in the future, ie no power problems. At the very least get a 350 watt. Hope this helps. __________________ The greatest thing you'll every learn is to love, and be loved in return.

Sep 29, 2002, 03:50 AM	#3
JavaFox E Pluribus Unum Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 3,203 Rep Power: 0	I have owned two of said motherboard, and I think that they're great. I am inclined to agree with Vampyr -- try a meatier powersupply.

Oct 1, 2002, 01:50 AM	#5
Mark7 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 23 Rep Power: 0	It _MAY_ be your power supply. Some inexpensive units will have far too much ripple causing problems such as you note. BUT, if you managed to get an early K7S5A (stuck in someones inventory because some of the early boards were horrendus and were "buried" for a while) then you could have one that has a wrong resistor value on the address bus located inside the cpu socket. K7S5A's were produced first by ECS plants, then as demand outstripped their capacity, PcChips started assembling the boards also - and that seems to be where the boards with the wrong resistor value came in. The ECS boards are absolutely rock solid - well, some will lose their bios settings about every 3 months for no apparant reason (no big deal - just go into the bios and reset all). But they run great. The PcChips boards are another story. Check you revision number on the board....