AMD Sempron Processor 3100+ & ECS NFORCE3-A Motherboard for $80 at Outpost.com

[avash]

Originally posted by: homestarmy
I'm sorry, I should have been more specific. I am speaking of waking from S3 sleep.

In my case it is important because I have used it in a couple of living room Media Center PC setups where the remote should be able to be used to put it into and take it out of s3 standby mode.

Thanks for your reply though!!

+1 .. I too have problems. I put my PC in to standby but it will not wake up properly, have tried S1 and S3 and USB wake. Keyboard is USB, mouse is USB (w/ PS/2 adapter).

It furstrates me because I have always used standby in the past. The "shutdown/startup" with standby is a lot quicker than a full shutdown/power-on, plus it doesn't initiate my USB scanner everytime.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: deadken
I had hoped the with 2nd day, I might get it on Saturday (two days after Thursday).

Generally speaking, only the USPS delivers on Saturdays. Other carriers may deliver on Saturdays if the shipper specifies (and pays extra for) Saturday delivery. Overnight or second day does not equal Saturday delivery. Sorry about your $3 gamble.

Originally posted by: deadken
BTW: The guy I sold my combo to has been bugging me for combos for a while (that was the 3rd I sold him).

Does he need any more?

 

[deadken]

Originally posted by: Zap....Does he need any more?

Heh heh... He builds PCs for guys at work. I had worked on one that he had built and it wasn't very good when the guy who owned it told me the price! Whoa...

Originally posted by: furballi.....It is possible to go back n forth between the BIOSTAR and ECS BIOSes. Use AWD826G.EXE in the command line, followed by the desired BIOS......

Why would you want to go back to the ECS BIOS? Does it offer any more options or features?

 

[Zap]

IIRC the ECS BIOS gives "smart fan."

Well, does that guy need anymore combos, or even built systems? I've got tons of spare parts because I just buy stuff to satisfy my curiosity or 'cause it's a good deal and got tons of stuff sitting around.

 

[furballi]

I like SmartFan. The Zalman CPU cooler if OFF most of the time because the temperature does not exceed 40C. Wish the NF4 754 had this option!

 

[freshspace]

Hey you guys and gals,

My set up is humming right along. I want to buy another set or two, just because I think it is a good deal. I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking this. Do you think I should buy another set, or 2? Do you think I should wait for another deal to come along, hopefully 939? I may have to wait another year for this, if it ever comes!

 

[furballi]

It's the best value if you don't care for the bells and whistles like PCI-E x16. The ECS NF4 754 also costs $80, and is a better overclocker at 289MHz. Unfortunately, it comes with the more expensive PCI-E x16 slot. I suppose you can run a PCI card until the price of PCI-E comes down to earth.

Fry's may bundle this MB with a more modern Sempron with better overclocking ability. Really don't know how many Sempron 3100 Paris they have on hands.

 

[homestarmy]

Originally posted by: furballi
Still the best deal if you already have an AGP card. If starting from scratch, then the ECS NF4 754 is a better buy at $80. The cheapest PCI-E card will cost around $45. Note that you will need to spend $3 for a passive Zalman heatsink to cool the NF4 chip. The stock factory fan spins at 6000rpm. It will probably fail within one year.

It is possible to go back n forth between the BIOSTAR and ECS BIOSes. Use AWD826G.EXE in the command line, followed by the desired BIOS. It's best to load the BIOS PRIOR to installing the OS.

Also saw the Abit AX8 939 on sale at TigerDirect for $65 plus $8 shipping. Final price is $43 AR. I have this board (purchased last year). No problem running at +275MHz FSB. Wait for the A64 3000 to hit 80 and you'll end up with a nice 939 rig for $120.

Where do you get the Zalman HS for $3? And also, I picked up an x300 PCI-E for $25 shipped on fs/t forum.

 

[furballi]

Hmmm...is that X300 new or used? From a private party?

http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A1924311

 

[deadken]

WOW! I'm in for 4 Zalmans! Can't beat that price!

-Thanks Furballi

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: furballi
http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A1924311

Seems like their "specials" only are "in stock" for a limited quantity a day.

 

[qilin]

Need help!

My system powered off automatically after I plugged in a USB dazzle SD card reader and won't boot again. it's been stable for one month. I took the board out of the case, took out the cmos battery and reseated, reset the jumper, connected the power only, the power indicating light on the ethernet connector just won't light up.


I also have a new combo I planned to give to my bro, so I put in the new mobo, worked fine, but I was stupid enough to plug in the SD reader again, it first said USB device not recognized, then powered off. This time, the fans will spin but the screen remains black and refuses to boot. Did I just fry two mobo with this SD card reader? This reader works fine on other two systems I tried.

My previous OC settings: CPU 250 MHz, HT frequency 3x, Max Memclock 166, Memory Timing 1T, CAS#latency 2.5, CPU voltage +1.7%, DDR Voltage 2.7

Ultra 4000 1G DDR RAM
Two Maxtor 200g IDE HD on IDE 1
NEC 16x DVDR & LiteOn 48x CDR on IDE 2
EVGA FX5500 dual display Acer 19" LCD x 2
One Adaptec internal USB PCI card
One dazzle firewire PCI card
MGE 450W PSU
Antec super lanboy case

 

[furballi]

No fan, no beep? Can you access the BIOS? Can you clean install windows? Reset CMOS after disconnecting AC cord.

The card may draw too much current from the USB port. You can try swapping out PSU, RAM, HDD, etc from the 2nd system and retest. Always shutdown PC and connect the USB device for best performance. DO NOT hot plug USB as this can damage the MB, especially with high current devices.

 

[qilin]

Originally posted by: furballi
No fan, no beep? Can you access the BIOS? Can you clean install windows? Reset CMOS after disconnecting AC cord.

The card may draw too much current from the USB port. You can try swapping out PSU, RAM, HDD, etc from the 2nd system and retest. Always shutdown PC and connect the USB device for best performance. DO NOT hot plug USB as this can damage the MB, especially with high current devices.

The first board has nothing, no fans.
The second board has fans but no beep, no POST, black screen.

It's hard to imaging you can't hot plug a USB flash drive, this dazzle is just a SD card reader, I hot plugged it on several other machines without any problem before.

 

[BobDaMenkey]

I jumped on this deal. Hopefully the parts will all get here within the week. I bought an opty HSF off of a guy in FS/FT for $17 shipped. I'll be selling my XP 3000+ on Fleabay and ditch my HSF and mobo on FS/FT and make money on the whole deal

 

[lldribbler]

Originally posted by: lldribbler

Originally posted by: gbuskirk
Well, symptoms are: no video, no post beep, fans turn, electrical burnout odor, Nforce3 gets real hot. Son was plugging in a USB device when it died. Replaced P/S, disconnected all case cables but power switch, reset CMOS, and still fails. Contacted ECS, and have had some troubleshooting dialog but no RMA yet.

same problem here..... and did you notice the NB gets hot even though the board is not powered up (ie, power supply switch is on but the board has not been switched on)? .... and mine failed when i tried to connect to front usb port, back ports were ok.... i did buy two of these and the other is 100% ok

qilin, this might interest you..... never did rma mine, just sits in the junk pile

 

[qilin]

same problem here..... and did you notice the NB gets hot even though the board is not powered up (ie, power supply switch is on but the board has not been switched on)? .... and mine failed when i tried to connect to front usb port, back ports were ok.... i did buy two of these and the other is 100% ok

And I fried two :-(
wondering if it's worthwhile to call them since both are over 30 days now. If it's so sensitive to front USB device, maybe I should go get a different board instead of having future headaches.

 

[Melectricus]

Hot plugging is one thing, kind of sounds like a static electricity discharge upon contact problem I had with a Via board; is one usb pin on the header grounded?

Also as noted above, I think my board is flakey on usb also, although just fine for powered usb devices. I had a few locks but not total failure.

 

[homestarmy]

Originally posted by: furballi
Hmmm...is that X300 new or used? From a private party?

http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A1924311

New and private party. Thanks for the link to the Zalmans. I just might pick up one or two.

 

[homestarmy]

Another issue I see with the USB card reader: It is a DAZZLE. These things are notoriously junk. I say stomp on it and throw it out. I wouldn't plug one into a machine that I own or one of a person that I care about.

 

[Zap]

Was the card reader plugged into front ports or rear ports? You said that it had been in use with a number of other systems, have you been able to successfully use it since then? One thing you may want to try is to pop the plastic off the USB reader and look at the PCB for signs of burns. It is possible that once a device goes bad, it'll keep killing anything that it gets plugged into.

 

[gbuskirk]

My first NF3 fried just outside a month of operation, when my son plugged a PDA USB link cable into the front USB. Symptoms were identical to those reported above (no beeps, no video, fans spin. Northbridge heatsink would get hot) It was outside of Outpost's return period, so I contacted ECS. They went through some diagnostic rigamarole, then authorized an RMA. I packaged the motherboard and all cables, disk, and manual, and sent it to them. After testing it, they confirmed that it was failing, and sent me a replacement. I received it last weekend, but haven't begun to test the new board yet.
I see a trend indicating a vulnerability in the front USB ports.

 

[furballi]

Could be an issue with the front USB not having adequate grounding path. Another possible issue is that the USB header was not properly connected.

 

[qilin]

Originally posted by: Zap
Was the card reader plugged into front ports or rear ports? You said that it had been in use with a number of other systems, have you been able to successfully use it since then? One thing you may want to try is to pop the plastic off the USB reader and look at the PCB for signs of burns. It is possible that once a device goes bad, it'll keep killing anything that it gets plugged into.

It was plugged into the front port.
Yes it still works fine on another machine after this happened.

 

[qilin]

Originally posted by: furballi
Could be an issue with the front USB not having adequate grounding path. Another possible issue is that the USB header was not properly connected.

the USB ports are working fine with my flash drives, so the headers are connected correctly, I think. the ground pins of both ports are also connected. maybe the board design is inadequate?

I guess a warning to others who own this board: don't hot plug any USB device, especially products of Dazzle, into the front USB port! How does this sound...