ECS Ks75A reboots randomly in games

[Illuminati]

I'm practically at the end of my sanity here...

Anyways I've been looking for the past 8 days for a solution to my problem as stated in the topic. When I play any sort of games my computer randomly reboots itself giving me the dreaded "your pc has recovered from a serious error" message that ms gives you when I go back into windows. Most of the time before the reboot my sound becomes really sluggish (voice talk in slow motion like in Operation Flashpoint) and a bit choppy (Like in Morrowind).

This is my specs:

K7S5A pro v 5.0 (with the bios version that came with the board)
EZ Media 300 W PSU
512 mb DDR ram (Brand : not sure it has an m on it but it doesn't match the logo used by Micron Technologies)
Athlon XP 2400+ CPU at 133/133
Geforce 3 Ti 200 64 MB
Latest drivers for the C-Media Audio driver
(Have a raid card, 3 HDD, floppy, dvd, cd-rw)

This is what I've done so far:

I've tried to see if it's my PSU, I unplugged everything except my master HDD, cd-rw, and graphics card but it still happens (Might spring for another PSU but short on cash)

Tried different RAM: Generic and a brand called Centon

Added a volcanic heatsink and my cpu temp is around 45 idle 52-55 active (games) + I blew a desk fan into my PC to see if it was a temp problem (ie the chipset with it's wonderful thermal tape (if someone could show me a good place to show how I can safely add the arctic silver onto the chipset I'd be grateful)

Got the board/CPU exchanged

Everything else on my pc works perfectly (sound in windows ie when I play music or watch movies) I can encode videos easily with no lockups, run multiple windows applications, browse the internet, etc everything except being able to play games.

I'm not too sure about updating my bios since I'm not sure which one I should pick and judging from some of the horror stories that I read with updating bios I want to be careful not to fry my board.

As for the sluggish sound before reboots I'm considering buying a PCI sound card like Sound Blaster Audigy, and maybe even a PSU

But I wanted to expend all my other options that I can do without spending a vast amount of hard earned cash. Anyway thanks for reading this, this mobo is wonderful except for the reboot thing.

[BipolarBill]

Sigh. Windows version?

What is the system heat like when it restarts? Stop in BIOS setup and check or just take the cover off the PC and point a fan at it.

The K7S5A needs high-quality power or at least lots more than 300W. A low-quality 300W PSU is a bad idea with this and most other boards. That's what you have.

It also needs good RAM. You seem to be starving that motherboard with generic components, honestly.

Update your BIOS here:

http://www.ecsusa.com/downloads/k7s5a_pro.html

It's the one on the bottom. The K7S5A needs the latest BIOS for sure.

If you have Win2K/XP, Control Panel > System > Advanced > Startup and Recovery. Untick "Automatically restart" and set memory dump to None. Hopefully, you'll get a blue-screen error with a message next time.

Check Event Viewer too.

[Peter M]

Dodgy pseudo-brand 300W PSU? With a 2400+ and a GF3? That's BEGGING for trouble.
Unplugging peripherals doesn't help, since the problem usually is on the 3.3V rail.

With that sorted, check your RAM - www.memtest86.com

[Illuminati]

Ah sorry I'm running Windows XP, I just replaced the ram with samsung (512 ddr) and ran the memtest in safe mode overnight and no errors came up.

I also placed arctic silver on the chipset heatsink instead of the thermal tape it has one, least the heatsink gets hot now. But it didn't help with the reboot

the system is around 52 C right after it restarts so I don't think it's a cpu heat problem it even restarted before when it was at 48

Looks like it must be the psu, does anyone know any good brands? that won't cost an arm and a leg (ie antec) unless I really need to get it.

I also did the stop the automatic restarts and I get this blue screen instead of the reboots, it tells that there was a fatal error and tells me to check drivers, bios, go into safe mode, etc. All my drivers are up to date, and I get the following technical info:

Stop 0x000000c5 (0x00000000, 0x00000002, 0x00000001, 0x80533f7B)

Is it better to get the official ecs bios update? or the honey x/cheesoman's bios. some people tell me that they are better than the official ones.

[BipolarBill]

Take a look at these:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&i...=Google+Search

Fortron:

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...82E16817104979

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...82E16817104970

The first is adequate. The second is preferred. Fortron's PSUs put out more that you would think - 380W and 420W respectively in this case.

[Illuminati]

Alright, I found a temporary solution though, well so far it's been working well. I went into the directx control panel and turned my direct sound acceleration all the way down to acceleration. the games won't reboot anymore if it's in emulation but it will in basic, standard or full acceleration. Maybe this could be in fact a driver error, but I do have the latest in the sound card drivers.

though I'm going to pick up a new PSU anyways for the future, maybe that will enable me to play it in full acceleration without it crashing.

btw... what's the difference between emulation and full accerlation? if it's no big difference I might just leave it like this and save myself a hundred dollars.

Anyways thanks for helping me, really appreciate it given the wait I've had with ECS's technical support.

[BipolarBill]

Emulation uses more CPU muscle to reproduce sound as opposed to a stand-alone PCI card or chip.

If you can scare up the funds, a Sound Blaster Live "Value" OEM card will suit you:

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...82E16829102156

As will a Santa Cruz:

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...82E16829118101

Let's face it - the onboard sound in the ECS is far from excellent anyway.

[Illuminati]

Finally solved my problem! It actually was a driver issue but I didn't exactly go it by true trial and error (one step at a time) But to anyone else that has the same problem, here's another possible way to solve it:

1) First when I installed the drivers off of the cd that came with the mobo, it installed two drivers along with the C-Media ones called "Legacy Audio Drivers" and "Legacy Video Capture Drivers" it wouldn't let me uninstall them so I had to "update" them as generic drivers and then uninstall them.

2) I then rolled back my c-media drivers (at the windows startup boot options screen) to 5.12.1.34 on date 6/27/2003 (last known configuration that worked. (not sure if this is the same one that's updated on windows update)

and voila I can now play games at full acceleration without it restarting, gone 2 and a half hours so far with no faults.

But I still plan on buying a new psu though, just in case my luck runs out (I'm still surprised with everything hooked up I'm not having problems (besides games) with only a 150W TCO of 5v and 3.3 v), but judging from the error messages I was getting at each reboot (0xc5 and 0xc4) both referred to driver problems. Do kinda feel moronic to find out it was a driver problem but thanks again for helping though, this is my first custom made pc and works like a dream.

[rmanet]

Originally posted by Illuminati
1) First when I installed the drivers off of the cd that came with the mobo, it installed two drivers along with the C-Media ones called "Legacy Audio Drivers" and "Legacy Video Capture Drivers" it wouldn't let me uninstall them so I had to "update" them as generic drivers and then uninstall them. 2) I then rolled back my c-media drivers (at the windows startup boot options screen) to 5.12.1.34 on date 6/27/2003 (last known configuration that worked. (not sure if this is the same one that's updated on windows update)

Congratulations - you mentioned that the error code (after a simple google search) was driver related - maybe next time focus on that - it's easy to blame psu, ram, etc. and gawd, you did everything but literally build yourself a new system

But I'm curious, when you replaced the mobo (I think you said you did) you didn't reinstall all the mobo drivers did you? - if you were using the same HDD and same mobo you didn't have to?

Either way, glad to hear you figured it out

[causticVapor]

Originally posted by Illuminati
Is it better to get the official ecs bios update? or the honey x/cheesoman's bios. some people tell me that they are better than the official ones.

These main feature of these BIOSes is they give you lots of overclocking options. Not that you'll do much on that PSU though.

The 250W sparkle/fortron is really all you'll need for that system. I'd still go for the PC Power&cooling Turbo cool 510, though, if you don't want to get a new PSU down the road.