ECS k7s5a bios issues

[munson1947]

I am seeting up my new k7s5a mother board with Duron 1.2 gig processor, 256mb pc133 memory. In trying to set the bios I am stumped at how I need to set the cpu speed. The options are 100/100mh, 100/133mh and 133/133 mh. I thought that the correct choice would be 100/133 because the processor runs at 200mh and I thought that the pc133 memory would be 133 ( is this the dram frequency?)
Well the only way the system will boot is at 100/100. When I try the 100/133 I have to clear the CMOS to get it to reboot.
Also (another issue) at first boot after clearing the CMOS I get two messages a) cmos memory is the wrong size and b) cmos battery is low. After the first boot I don't see these messages again.
Any help would be appreciated

[BBB]

Hi,

Check this site, they have FAQ on issues with ECSK7S5A:
http://forum.ocworkbench.com/ocwbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=4&t=001477

and another one here:

http://pub65.ezboard.com/bk7s5amotherboardforum

/BBB

[polygon]

We have 8 systems running K7S5A's. These are the various CMOS/BIOS problems I've seen:

1) "CMOS lost": I very rarely see this one.
2) "NVRAM error": I see this a lot.
3) "CMOS memory size wrong": I see this once in a while.

#1 happens rarely, but always after clearing the CMOS(of course).
#2 happens mostly on "cold boot".
#3 happens once in a while on re-boot.

I've tried every idea listed on several forums. Nothing, repeat, nothing has solved the problem. When it happens, I'll have it 2-3 times about once a day each. I've even had it occur on re-boot, twice! The only thing that appears to have slowed it down was:
1) Setting IDE detection to "AUTO" in BIOS
2) Disabling "QUICK BOOT" in BIOS
3) A more rigid jumper on the "clear CMOS" pins
4) A AMD approved PSU
Although someone suggested that as time goes on, it seems to be less frequent. I ended up using AMIBCP70.EXE to set up the BIOS the way I want it, so when it happens, I just re-load defaults and my settings are there, rather then me go through all the BIOS windows every time it happens............

[Peter M]

Mine runs just fine with a Duron, PC133 SDRAM and speed set to 100/133. The key is quality RAM. There's lots and lots of not-really-PC133 stuff in the market, and you'll never notice until you put it onto a high bandwidth chipset like the SiS 735.

regards, Peter

[Peter M]

... and I just learned that you need to have a PSU with a strong Standby rail to get rid of the CMOS loss and power-on problems.

The messages after clearing the CMOS are perfectly normal - because all the "CMOS clear" jumper does is disconnect the battery and drain the cooling system, erm, wrong hobby, drain the power line on the CMOS/RTC unit side.

regards, Peter

[munson1947]

Thanks Peter,
I'm only using a 250W power supply and I was using some cheap 133 ram. I put in some 100 ram I had in an old unit and reset the bios to 100/100 and everything seems to be working fine. I wonder if I would notice any difference if I changed power supplies and used good ram either 133 or ddr2100?
Bob

[Peter M]

I have "cheap" RAM too - but a tried and tested, thoroughly memtest86-grilled one. No problem, no matter where that DIMM comes from, it has to be no more no less than OK. You can spend some extra money for a slightly faster PC133-222 instead of a -333 rated one, but that doesn't matter much.

Power supply quality and strength do matter though. Don't go cheap there on an Athlon/Duron or Pentium-4 system.

regards, Peter

[Ifish25]

Originally posted by munson1947
I am seeting up my new k7s5a mother board with Duron 1.2 gig processor, 256mb pc133 memory. In trying to set the bios I am stumped at how I need to set the cpu speed. The options are 100/100mh, 100/133mh and 133/133 mh. I thought that the correct choice would be 100/133 because the processor runs at 200mh and I thought that the pc133 memory would be 133 ( is this the dram frequency?)
Well the only way the system will boot is at 100/100. When I try the 100/133 I have to clear the CMOS to get it to reboot.
Also (another issue) at first boot after clearing the CMOS I get two messages a) cmos memory is the wrong size and b) cmos battery is low. After the first boot I don't see these messages again.
Any help would be appreciated

Check the multiplier in the BIOS listing of CPU settings. You should have one that is 12x and should be listed with the 100/133 setting choice. That would give you 12x100=1200 and a 133 SDRAM setting.

I have the same motherboard, or should say the second replacement. The first one would not boot up because it would not read any of the drives, although it correctly identified them in BIOS. It also would not correctly post the PC100 DRAM when CPU greater than 900 was installed. It kept wanting to post it as 133. I replaced the 100 with 133 with no improvement to boot problem.

The second board would do nothing, nada, zilch. Fry's confirmed this and gave me credit on account for some other stuff I needed. Meanwhile, I had purchased another one on line from AxionTech out of Houston.

This one from Axion is working fine, now, but the AMIBIOS is quirky.
1) You must first clear the CMOS before "firing up" the board.
2) Then, choose default settings in BIOS.
3) Check to see that CPU frequency and the memory are being posted correctly.
4) You may also need to enter the drive information manually . My board will not autodetect the Samsung 40g HD. The manual option worked fine; but it is annoying. Once set, it seems to be stable.

After board drivers are loaded, you can tweak the settings a bit, but the options are rather limited. I still wish I could have found another Soyo K7VTA PRO instead. At least, I was familiar with it, and the AWARD BIOS allows voltage adjustments in addition to doing a very good job of auto-detecting. All said, this K7S5A seems to be working OK, and I have had no more board problems yet. CPU usage runs high with Win98-->51% average (same with Soyo), very low with XP-->much less than 10% average. I have both OS's installed on same HD, or should I say, BipolarBill installed them. ;) He worked out most of the hard drive bugs and snarls. I give him an A+. I just hope it doesn't go to his head. :D

[krazefinn]

Don't run asynch fsb/membus speeds, SIS suffers huge perf hit. Add 486 fan to integrated n/sbridge hs (after scraping off lame tick insulatinf oem double sided tape-doh). That duron will crank at 133/133, no problem, and not "really" out of spec.

I also do not like the beta ocwb verkbench bios, not only plagiarized, but porly written: most need to be reset each boot at desired fsb., not worth it in my experience.

[Peter M]

krazefinn, no it doesn't. With SDRAM, running 100/133 gives faster throughput than 100/100. Got exactly that setup at home myself.

On the SiS chipsets, faster is faster as long as the RAM bus runs slower than the CPU - so with the CPU at 100 MHz DDR and the RAM at 133 MHz SDR, your better off than at 100 DDR/133 SDR. However 100 DDR/133 DDR might not necessarily be faster than 100 DDR/100 DDR.

[walrusbonzo]

ASynch FSB on the SiS chipset is always slower!!!

It induces a MUCH higher latency!!

DON'T USE ASYNCH MEMORY FSB

[walrusbonzo]

As for the OCWB OC BIOS it's great, no problems at all.

I modded it too and it works as expected... Brilliantly

[Peter M]

walrusbonzo, latency isn't everything. As I said, as long as the RAM throughput is substantially less than the CPU throughput, the increased throughput on the RAM is going to give you more than the increased latency will cost you. 100 DDR/133 SDR mode has been and still is faster than 100 DDR/100 SDRAM, on any chipset.

In contrary to that, running RAM at a higher throughput than the CPU can use, at the expense of latency, does not make sense - as we see with 133 MHz DDR CPU and 166 MHz DDR RAM.

If you don't believe me, I'll give you latency and throughput numbers at 100 and 133 MHz SDRAM of my 100 MHz Duron system when I get home.
regards, Peter

[walrusbonzo]

Ok, I'm not one for arguing. I believe you... Not