motherboard trouble k7s5a

[jredd246]

I tried to set up the ECS k7s5a mobo that i bought, and got nothing, tried sdram: still nothing. Another processor, still nothing. I was originally using ddr from crucial.
i sent the board back and they gave me a new one, i tried everything again, and still got nothing. i still have the board, and the only thing i can figure is that the power supply is not sufficient, although it is 300w, and i am running a biostar board and 1.2 athlon @1.314mhz with no trouble.
anything?
thanks:confused:

[Rocketmech]

Try this:
Check that your Clear CMOS jumper is set to normal. Also, is the CPU fan running? It must be plugged into the FAN1 header and running .

[morpheus kain]

i had the same prob and here is how to fix it. get a case and power supply that you know work. then put in the mobo and make sure that is not touching ANY metal because it will ground the k7s5a out easy. then do a bare boot. ram,hd,video,and processor. should work. if not take it out of the case and set it on some cardboard or something. then do another bare boot. should work i had to work with mine. hope this helps i know how lame this can be.:D

[kilabyte]

I had a similar problem using DDR ram. I had been using the board for a while with SDRAM 512MB, decided to go to DRR ram.

When I took the Sdram out and put DDR in it just would not boot, blank screen and everything.

Tried taking the DDR ram out and in, in both the two differnt sockets, no joy.

But then my phone rang so I had to leave the board powered up. Came back ten mins later and board was dead. Rebooted and it has worked fine ever since.

I don't know whetehr this will help you, but it is worth trying leaving it powered up for a while.

[PIETRO]

Rocketmech has a good point I know that ECS boards sometimes ship with the CMOS clear jumper set. Also make sure the the CPU is good and that is securely in the socket. Good Luck!

[IronHawk]

Just remember... Like I said in earlier post.....

Companies around Louisville KY have been freaking out about random problems with K7s5a.

The key, according to our local biggest seller of AMD products, is the quality of the case... They only put it in enlights and none have reported problems....

Enlight is pretty expensive, but the board is cheap :)

MB;)

[kilabyte]

Just a thought, you are using a power supply of at least 300Watt arn't you!

[jredd246]

yes, i have a good 300 watt power supply that is running the same thunderbird chip on a biostar board. i also tried using both kinds of memory.
i will give the "out of case" boot to make sure that it is not grounded, but could it be that the CMOS battery is not good? the jumpers are set ok.
i have heard that not all 300 watt power supplies are really running that wattage, that could be the case, or maybe a 300 is just not good enough.
thanks for the help.

[PhantomUK-519]

I build many of the ECS in the shop. I also sort out many problems when irate know it all come back with a dead ECS board. Firstly , you cant make the misstake of cpu fan in wrong socket, only one at the top of board. If you are getting power to the unit dont leave it on for 10 mins while you go speak on the phone. You will kill the cpu. If you get it to boot with sdram and not with ddr then i would try another brand of ram. Dont ask me why but crucial sometimes works and sometimes it wont. I have a board in the shop that wont work with it but the same stick works in other ECS boards???? The cmos does not come closed like Pc chips so if you havent moved it it will be in the correct possition. Also look at the cpu core to make sure it hasnt been crushed or chipped on instalation. This is the most common fault with dead boards that come back to the shop. If all else fails, and you live near Wakefield fetch it to the shop and i will look at it for you. for free.

[morpheus kain]

alright, the comment about ecs boards being picky about their case is DEAD ON! I'm sure that all of you who post where also know this because i have not found more intelligent people on the net. I jus put together another ecs k7s5a and the SOB didn't work. I was sure it was the case just like the last time. So I went home and got an old gateway case and and a 10$ 300 watt power supply. (it doesn't have to be pricey to be good) I popped the k7s5a into the new case and BAM. I know it wasn't the power cuz i tested them both. i tell ya dude, do the no case boot and then do the boot with a TRIED AND TRUE CASE.



p.s. u prob can get a good old gateway case from a gateway shop for pretty cheap, or if u know someone that works there.

[PhantomUK-519]

I have had one case problem in the shop. A customer came to the shop and asked me to test it ( also had this prob with a pc chips) I stripped the unit down instaled the mother board correctly and it was sorted. The problem with most "system" builders is that they dont use all the " card" washers supplyed with the new cases. I will also add that in the UK our Electric is not the same as most of the USA posters on this thread and our electric is earthed and all elctrical product has to meet strick safty law thus all cases and PSUs are supplyed with a sealed cable that is earthed! Most 110v cord in USA is 2 pinned and not earthed and the standard for houses in USA are 2 pin. So if in UK you have earth probs then take it up with the trading standards or take the case back and get a quailty case and not a cheap one.

[morpheus kain]

alright enough power stuff. All that power stuff he said isn't gonna help you fix it. Good information in that post and if your question was about a power supply then it would be an A+. Just do the bare boot with tried and true case and ps and if that doesnt work then either your mobo, or processor is probably bad. Once again i have said this in other posts, DO NOT LET THE MOBO TOUCH ANY METAL CUZ THE ONLY PLACES IT IS SUPPOSED TO TOUCH IS THE LITTLE SCREW HOLES AND YOU MUST PUT WASHERS OR THE LITTLE PLASTIC OR PAPER RINGS ON THOSE! THIS IS ABSOLUTELY VITAL!!! MOBOS GROUND OUT REALLY EASY!!!!!!!!! TAKE THIS TO HEART FOLKS!!!!!



(sorry bout the rant)

[PhantomUK-519]

Have a look at what people write and you will notice that we have said all this. By the way ground and earthing PSUs is very much to do with this subject.

I dont know about you but I do this for a living mate on avarage i build 20 pcs a week and lost count of the repairs i do. One one main pain is "system" builders who build cheap pcs just to make cash and think they know about pc because they throw a few pc chips together.

If you have a short the only thing you can do is get rid of the **** case and buy another. Card washers wont help because the mobo will still ground from the ps2 point ect.

[kilabyte]

Morpheous, who rattled your cage and don't shout.
We are all trying to help and put in different views on what may help.
Cool it.

[morpheus kain]

Ya know phantom i absolutely agree 100% with ya. sorry bout that but the dude hasn't replied after the last couple posts so i figured if it wuz power he woulda fixed it by now. Yeah i know all these "system builders" are full of #### and i absolutely agree with ya when it comes to the case thing but u can just get a little tape and fix almost any contact points. Yes it is cheap but if someone is stupid enough to buy some cheap **** case then you got what you deserve. Yes power is a major problem for so called "system builders" who smack together some cheap parts pc that built with price as the major determining factor instead of quality. Yes, to all you "system builders" it is very very possible to build a good high quality pc on a budget. I'm sure Phantom could tell you more about this than I can because I really don't have to work on a budget when i build. (thank god) Also i would recommend spending AT LEAST 65$ on a case and make sure it has an Enlight, Sparkle, Enermax or (i'm not sure if they exist anymore but I have a couple of them and the are EXCELLENT!) Tiger.

[PhantomUK-519]

I am not sure how to take the " I am sure Phantom knows about them"" cheap quality systems" not what we are about at our shop. Just quality, it dont come that cheap ;)
But myself, well i only use the Lian LI case, my wife has the 802 Global. £120 english pounds the Lian LI. Ultra 160 raid(IBM Drives 15000 rpm) 1900+ xp Abit KG7R (I also have the Iwill) I have over 300 GB of hard drives All IBM but the main c: is Ultra 160 in raid 0.

Not a game head so went for quality, ATI 64 VIVO ( 8500 radeon soon) Live drive ect

I could go on, lets just say i put my money into my family then the spare bank it and pc it :)

By the way i am so sad i have the window lights the lot, sad yah.

[firedog5c]

This is not a jab BUT on my ECS K7AMA board all the jumpers were setup for the slower settings.
I spent 15 minutes changing every jumper on the board.

DDR has to be jumpered for sure.

Just my 2 cents

[morpheus kain]

i know what ya mean bout the bank Phantom :D! I have all my money in my PC too. Unfortunately that isn't very much since I am a whopping 14 yrs old and am still to young to get a full time job working on pc's. I have a whole 35 gigs of hd space and a geforce 2 ultra. I think I have fried my ultra tho. Bad stability now and i just realised my extra video card cooling went out on me. Kinda po'd cuz i made that fan in electronics class. Ah hell oh well. Guess i will have to get another job working on some idiots not so broken computer and rip his wallet a new one. J/K i charge a whole 20$ to start and an entire 12$ an hour after the first two. Oh well me and my 600mhz piece of **** will just learn some more o/c'ing tricks

[chicken3]

Well unfornately it looks like I am joining the club of people with dead k7s5as.

I've been building computers for 7 years now and have never had problems like this with any other motherboards.

Here is my story:

My mother was visiting from Maine (I live in Mass) and wanted a quieter CPU fan.

My system had an Asus a7n8x + Athlon XP 2400+ / Thermaltake Volcano9
Mom's had an ECS K7s5a + Athlon XP 1700+ / Some loud 60mm POS

I bought a new heatink for my system (Thermaltake A1889 Silent Boost) and put the Volcano9 into my mother's.

After powering on mom's I got nothing on the screen and no beeps or anything. All the fans were running and the hard drives were powering up, the cdroms were blinking but it wouldn't POST. So I reseated the heatsink, reseated the video card and RAM, cleared the CMOS and all that good stuff and also tried different power supplies. I also tried setting up the motherboard outside the case in case it was a grouding issue but still could not get it working.

I then tried my Athlon 2400 in mom's but it still wouldn't boot. So I took the Athlon 1700 and tried it in my Asus a7n8x and it booted right up. She had to leave so I had no choice but to give up my A7n8x and send her on her way.

In order to give her my Asus board I had to take DDR out of another ECS K7s5a system I have and I popped in the original 512MB Pc133 that was in my mother's system. Now that wouldn't boot and it was having the same problem, after popping in some other DDR that one booted fine. So I came to the conclusion that the PC133 had gone bad somehow even though it worked fine when she first arrived.

So I ordered a replacement A7n8x for myself and when it arrived I put my **** back in and it wouldn't boot. ****!!!. So I decided to take my brother's system (also an ECS K7s5a) and try his Athlon 2000 in my motherboard and it booted up fine. After putting his Athlon 2000 back into the ECS motherboard, I got the exact problem my mother's had, no video no beeps no nothing. I've reseated the heatsink and all that stuff yet again but nothing will boot.

So I sent my mother's k7s5a to newegg for a "repair" and hopefully I'll get a working on back for my brother's system.

So now I'm left with my dead Athlon 2400, and my brother's dead k7s5a. :(

[Rocketmech]

Its just not your day , friend. You just answered a thread that hasn't been open for 2 years. :x

[piratedo]

Not only am I having the same issue with the K7S5A but I also have that issue with an Asus A7V266-E ! Both started fine this morning. The K7S5A system has been running fine for months and I added the Asus, a faster AMD processor, and a 400 watt PS to the K7S sytem I had. I was grounded, took all the precautions and was very careful. This is the first time I have every had a problem like this. I have tested both MBs with different PS, CPU, Ram ... and I had already attempted all the suggestions mentioned. So far nothing has worked. Both systems have been on surge and battery backup too.

I have ordered a new MB and CPU just in case but I cannot see blowing both MB or both CPU's ... heck I have never burned up a single MB or CPU since 1980 and that was when I piggy backed a clock cystal to an old 8088.

Is there any other information / new ideas?:confused:

[fishybawb]

Welcome to SysOpt piratedo :t
I suggest that you post a new thread in the Motherboard forum, it's likely to get more attention than this old thread.