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ECS K7S5A + AMD XP 2GHz - Help needed!

H

helloagain

Junior Member
I bought the ECS K7SA + AMD XP 2GHz from Fry's last week and built my first computer. I managed to have it boot up installed Windows XP and connect to the internet. However, the system hangs when my kids try to play games in lego.com and also playing other CD games they have. I have no idea whether this is a hardware problem or software problem. I am using 2 PC133 128M SDRAM and a 5 years old video card (probably 8M) from the old computer.

I also do not know if the CMOS is set up correctly and that may be the problem. Any assistance/suggestion is appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
i am willing to bed it is the video drivers for the video card. have something more current laying arround?


BTW ECS MB are picky with memorym power supplies, etc. so I would try it with one less stick of ram assuming they are different brands
 
My guess would be the videocard. 5 year old videocard dates back to a little earlier than the TNT...

Your pc probably has no 3d capabilities.

What I reccomend is to go and buy a videocard. It seems that only your kids are interested in "lego.com" games and others such as that so I will reccomend the Radeon9000 Pro. You can get it for 88 dollars with the DVI/S Video OUtputs (or without a DVI/Svideo connector for 77ish dollars) at Newegg.com with free shipping.

That SHOULD fix your problems. If you are more affluent, then I reccomend buying a 9500 PRO for 150 dollars or so.

I'm guessing its the card because he says that certain game (IE: D3D games...) don't work.

Also remember to download latest drivers(which will probably be a few YEARS back for your videocard...and if you get the Radeon be sure to download the new Catalyst 3.0 Drivers, get windows updates, and the latest version of Direct X)
 
Before buying anything, download and install Java first. Many online gaming sites use Java and MS, in it's infinite wisdom, chose not to include Java with WinXP. This may or may not help, but try it first.
 
(I think Microsoft just lost in an antitrust trial about the Java thing.)

K7S5A is a poor motherboard all-around. It is more finnicky about power and memory than any motherboard has any right to be. That and the fact that it starts to drain its BIOS battery and then you have to buy new ones every week. My friend and I got rid of his and picked up an Abit KG-7.
 
I tested it out with my other 32M video card and it works at lego.com , etc. So I guess I probably need to shop for a new video card tomorrow. Any recommendation for a reasonable video card (in terms of cost and performance)? I don't play any computer games at all and only some simple picture/video editing. I don't want to spend a lot on it (bearing in mine my motherboard + processor is only $99).

Thanks in advance and Merry Christmas!
 
When I said I don't play any video games I meant no graphics intensive video games. My kids do play some but only those from Disney, etc which is not so demanding.

Thanks
 
Originally posted by: Adul
i am willing to bed it is the video drivers for the video card. have something more current laying arround?


BTW ECS MB are picky with memorym power supplies, etc. so I would try it with one less stick of ram assuming they are different brands
Click to expand...

For the love of God! It's a motherboard! Your'e not supposed to have sex with it. Ewwwwww.
 
Originally posted by: StormRider
Originally posted by: Adul
i am willing to bed it is the video drivers for the video card. have something more current laying arround?


BTW ECS MB are picky with memorym power supplies, etc. so I would try it with one less stick of ram assuming they are different brands
Click to expand...

For the love of God! It's a motherboard! Your'e not supposed to have sex with it. Ewwwwww.
Click to expand...

LOL!

Radeon 7xxx, GeForce 2 MX, sounds like one of these is all you'll need.
 
helloagain

Try it with only one stick of ram. I had the same probelm until I took one 256MB stick out.

Now it works fine but I only have 256MB ram insted of 512.

BTW, my specs are

AMD Athlon XP 1600+
256MB RAM Crucial PC133 Cas 2
Sb Live Value
Geforce 1 DDR 32MB
Lite-on 52x24x52
Pioneer 16x DVD

Good Luck!
 
I would get something from the Radeon 7x series. You will probably want the improved 2D quality over the MX and the hardware DVD playback capabilities.
 
Ok i will tell you my experience with the k75sa. When it was first released and all the postive reviews were out there for it. I got all excited and bought two. Four more people at work bought 1 mb a piece. Ok the first one i bought was great. It was one of the most stable boards i have ever owned. The second one i bought sucked. It would lock up all the time and gave me all kinds of problems (thats the one i used for my domain server). I have very little hardware on my domain server (1 hard drive, 1 cdrom, no sound). That is basically it. I was running windows 2000 advanced server. One day i was curious and swapped out the first k75sa i bought (the one that had been very stable). I put it in my domain server to see how stable it would be. Well, that fixed the problem. From that point on the domain server never crashed. Just if your curiuos, both the mb's were running the same bios version (latest one i could flash at the time). I bought the motherboards about 2 weeks apart. I forgot where i got the good one but the bad one was bought from newegg( i in no way blame newegg for it). The guys at work also had mixed results. Two motherboards were really stable and two sucked. ECS sucks when it comes to Quality control. Some of the k75sa's were really good and some really sucked. You just had to be lucky to get a good one. I don't know if they still have the same problems but it has kind of scared me when considering on buying any more ECS boards. I have always been happy with my tried and true (abit) 🙂.

Ncage
 
Originally posted by: ncage
Ok i will tell you my experience with the k75sa. When it was first released and all the postive reviews were out there for it. I got all excited and bought two. Four more people at work bought 1 mb a piece. Ok the first one i bought was great. It was one of the most stable boards i have ever owned. The second one i bought sucked. It would lock up all the time and gave me all kinds of problems (thats the one i used for my domain server). I have very little hardware on my domain server (1 hard drive, 1 cdrom, no sound). That is basically it. I was running windows 2000 advanced server. One day i was curious and swapped out the first k75sa i bought (the one that had been very stable). I put it in my domain server to see how stable it would be. Well, that fixed the problem. From that point on the domain server never crashed. Just if your curiuos, both the mb's were running the same bios version (latest one i could flash at the time). I bought the motherboards about 2 weeks apart. I forgot where i got the good one but the bad one was bought from newegg( i in no way blame newegg for it). The guys at work also had mixed results. Two motherboards were really stable and two sucked. ECS sucks when it comes to Quality control. Some of the k75sa's were really good and some really sucked. You just had to be lucky to get a good one. I don't know if they still have the same problems but it has kind of scared me when considering on buying any more ECS boards. I have always been happy with my tried and true (abit) 🙂.

Ncage
Click to expand...

Oh btw i was using athlon 1.4 in both machines.

 
A friend of mine has been having some serious trouble with his ECS K7S5A as of late. I have a feeling his PSU may be lacking, and I hear that is a common cause of problems when using a K7S5A. Nonetheless, I am going to see what I can do with his system before I determine the source of the problem as his motherboard.

A side note: I know this doesn't offer too much insight, but I usually recommend against purchasing ECS boards. I owned one in the past, and two of my friends bought the exact same board from the same vendor. All of us had some kind of troubles related to the motherboard. This was a long time ago, however. It was a slot1/socket370 combo board. I don't even remember it's name anymore. ECS may have changed their act around since then, but I just have reluctance trusting them after those troubles and the possibility of problems with my other friend's K7S5A.
 
Originally posted by: Bovinicus
A friend of mine has been having some serious trouble with his ECS K7S5A as of late. I have a feeling his PSU may be lacking, and I hear that is a common cause of problems when using a K7S5A. Nonetheless, I am going to see what I can do with his system before I determine the source of the problem as his motherboard.

A side note: I know this doesn't offer too much insight, but I usually recommend against purchasing ECS boards. I owned one in the past, and two of my friends bought the exact same board from the same vendor. All of us had some kind of troubles related to the motherboard. This was a long time ago, however. It was a slot1/socket370 combo board. I don't even remember it's name anymore. ECS may have changed their act around since then, but I just have reluctance trusting them after those troubles and the possibility of problems with my other friend's K7S5A.
Click to expand...



Hey just to let you know. I actually bought a new 350W dual fan power supply listed on amd's recommended psu list. I thought that might have been the trouble with the k75sa i had. It did not fix the problem at all. Unfortunatly your friend probably has one of the bad ones
 
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