ECS K7S5A and Power Supply

azPNG

Senior member
Mar 20, 2001
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Which power supply should I get for that board? I currently have a FortronSource 300W and it works fine only @ FSB 100 which means that I cant get it to run @ the cpu speed that I bought (1.2). I have 2 PC133 256 DIMMS (Micron and Crucial). I think that this is fine. I think it might be my power supply. Please let me know. I WANT THIS THING FIXED TO RUN @ 1.2 like I paid for it.

linman

PS: If you need more information LMK.
 

stevewm

Senior member
Dec 6, 2001
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The problem is not your power supply. ECS changed the ZP resistor on later revisions (not sure of the revision #) of that motherboard to improve Athlon XP compatability. But in doing so also caused T-Birds 1Ghz and higher not to be able to run at 133 FSB. If you've bought your motherboard within the last month or so you most likely got one of the affected boards. The only fix is to swtich to a T-Bird slower than 1Ghz or a Athlon XP. And it is a known issue over at the OCWorkBench forums. http://forum.ocworkbench.com
 

azPNG

Senior member
Mar 20, 2001
392
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stevewm,

what do I do?? Return this mobo and say to crap with ECS?? Or what? LMK

linman
 

drake6

Member
Nov 21, 2001
78
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Check and reseat the atx connector to the mobo, when I first install my k7s5a, my atx cable wasnt seated right and cause a no boot.
 

azPNG

Senior member
Mar 20, 2001
392
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I am not having problems booting the system. I dought its the power connector. I push hard when on my connectors to make sure they work.

Also, I am not going to spend 70 more bucks on a different motherboard. I dont have that kind of money. But I might get a 1ghz cpu. Also, I am waiting to here back from Tech ( I hope they call me today).

linman
 

L00PY

Golden Member
Sep 14, 2001
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When you say you can't get it to run at 1.2, what sort of problems are you having when you try? What else do you have in the machine in terms of drives?
 

azPNG

Senior member
Mar 20, 2001
392
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I just called tech and they told me that the 1ghz and above thing is NOT true. He told me to try and run it at 100/133 and 133/133 and to take out one of the DIMMS (the micron) Both settings seemed to work. So I left it @ 133/133 and everything seemed to boot fine until Windows 2000 w/ SP2 completed the blue bar at the load screen and then i saw the drive light go on and it rebooted. Upon reboot, i get an error about a configuration change and it was not able to boot. So I took the FSb back to 100/100 and it booted fine. So either I have a processor that is fine (I think). If I do make this change, I will need to get another DIMM of Micron and reinstall OS with either XP or 2000 (hopefull XP). Please let me know if my assumptions seem ok and if not tell me how to fix it.

linman
 

Thump553

Lifer
Jun 2, 2000
12,824
2,613
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Stevewm: Are you sure about what you posted? That would be a HUGE defect with this motherboard not to be able to run T-birds over 1 gig. I went to ocworkbench.com, reread the faq and scanned the forum messages and didn't see anything like you posted. Can you post a direct link?

BTW, I have three of these boards (bought in August and Sept) running a 1.2 and two 1.4 Tbirds under Win2k with absolutely no issues. Am thinking of buying two more in the near future, but not if what you posted is true.

linman: To answer your original question, I'm using the Enermax psu (approx. 450 watts)-may be overkill, but it is one sweet unit. Very quiet, too.
 

azPNG

Senior member
Mar 20, 2001
392
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EVERYONE. I found the problem. It is my powersupply. The Engineer told me that my Power Supply needs to be 28A for 3.3 setting. It is only 16.0A. WOW!!! So it is my PSU. HAHAHA, not.

linman
 

bmckim

Junior Member
Dec 7, 2001
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The way my son got his to run at 1.2 was to swap out the 266 speed processor with a 200 speed processor. The multiplier settings are on the processor and can't be changed. The 266 uses a 9x multiplier and the 200 uses a 12x multiplier. We ran memtest with all combinations of cpu and memory. The only ones we didn't get errors with was the 266 matched with pc133 memory running at 100/100 and the 200 speed matched with pc133 memory running at 100/133. The former runs the cpu at 900mhz. The latter at 1200mhz. DDR ram will not work properly with either. This is probably why AMD only approves this motherboard for the XP processors. ECS has fixed this problem on some of the motherboards. It has something to do with a wrong resistor located under the processor that is causing noise at the higher speed settings. There is nothing wrong with your processor or memory. It's the higher speed settings that causes the problem. There is a fix, but it involves soldering on the motherboard, and I don't recommend it. I have heard of some people returning their boards and getting a good replacement. Actually, my son and my sister bought their boards at the same time from the same place. One was okay, the other was not.
 

azPNG

Senior member
Mar 20, 2001
392
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So how do you know if you are getting a bad or a good motherboard?? I think my issue is my power supply. They recommend a psu to have a 3.3 Amp setting of 28 and mine if running a little more than half of that. Where can I get a replacement for this motherboard in VA or PA that does not have this problem?? LMK

linman
 

DFranch

Member
Aug 14, 2001
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I am using a Sparkle 350W Power supply from Newegg with my K7S5A. I have a 1.4 tbird, 2 7200 RPM HDD, A DVD and CD-RW and Several USB devices. I was using Win 98, now I'm using Win XP pro, and I have never had a problem. I would recommend this power supply to anybody.