ECS K7S5A + Athlon XP 1600 = Problems??

[thetaz]

Hey all,
My buddy just bought an ECS K7S5A based upon all the impressive reviews that many of the online hardware sites have given to this board. Well, he got the board and set it up in his new case and everything...

Well, the system would not even POST!! I did some research for him, and I read somewhere that some of these boards have ground problems if metal extensions are used from the case to hold the motherboard.

Well, that's exactly what is on his case. We pulled the board out, and set it on the foam that comes with the board, and turned it on. The sucker booted!! We got Win98SE on it and all, but it was really unusable. We were getting mad BSODs all the time. Did he get a bad board?? Or is this fairly common issue? Most of the cases I've ever used had the metal extensions for the motherboard to sit on top of. This is just stupid if this board won't work that way. I think he wants to RMA and buy a different mobo. If that is going to be the case, are there any recommendations at a price point just below $100 with good performance and DDR? (Preferably a stable/reliable board. He's not looking for too much cutting edge performance)

System Specs:
ECS K7S5A
256MB PC2100 DDR Crucial RAM
GeForce 256 32MB DDR
WD 40GB 7200rpm HD
TDK VeloCD
300W AMD Approved PS

 

[MasPingon]

The board he has does not support the XP processors. The ECSK7S5A supports the K7 processors. If he wants to stick with ECS and a board under a $100.00 dollars, try the ECS K7VTA3.

 

[Duvie]

MasPingon, shut your hole....I hate when people talk and don't know what they are talking about....

Many anandtechers have xp working on ecs mobos, ECS supports xp's and even states it at their site....


I have installed a half dozen ECS mobos and have had no issues...1 with an xp with no issue...98 had some issues cause of the acpi functions which you need to disable in bios prioir to install...

Other then a handful of mobos that got oput with faulty cmos batteries causing system to forget bios settings if off for a certain length of time...easy and cheap fix though...


Could be a handful of things other then the mobo...so do a good problem anaylsis

1) ECS mobo needs a good power source and the 300watt could (and I state could) be the problem.

2) Bad ram can cause these issues, or too aggressive of settings...go with safe settings on ram

 

[RossGr]

Because you have had sucess with the ECS board does not mean that ALL ECS boards are good. Mine died after running fine for 3 weeks, I am now running a Shuttle AK31. It does not cost a lot more then the ECS board and is a full feature OC capable board. If you get the ECS board running, great, it can be a very nice board. But they also make a fair number lemons so if it is giving you troubles, dump it.

The board sould be able to run fine with metal standoffs, as long as all of them line up with the mounting holes in the motherboard! Do not leave any extras!

BTW: My Shuttle has been running for 2-3 weeks now with the SAME components and even the same windows installations. Just new mobo drivers. The only time I have locked it up was trying to run Giants at 1024X768 at 32bit color and hi detail. I backed off the color depth and it runs fine.

 

[Duvie]

Where the hell did I say all ecs mobos are good???

I for one don't just scrap them as bad that fast...go through normal troubleshooting and diagnosing and you may be able to isolate to the mobo in which you can rma it or another component altogether that may give you issues with that beloved shuttle mobo...

 

[NegativeWon]

Firstly, my rig is built on the K7S5A mboard. Its been a top performer and I've had no probs with it.

Anyway...

Its amusing when builders just slap everything together in the case and then expect it to post first time. Test the m/board OUTSIDE the case first with just the cpu, hsf, ram, vid card, PSU connected and power/reset switchs and HD/power LED's connected. Make sure the RAM and video card are seated properly. I've seen quite a few threads on other boards where people have solved post problems with re-seating the ram or video card. Its far easier to trouble shoot if you can get the board working with the bare minimum at first and its better to establish if the board is faulty BEFORE you install everything in the case. If the board then decides not to work in the case when it worked outside then theres probably shorting issues.

 

[thetaz]

<< Firstly, my rig is built on the K7S5A mboard. Its been a top performer and I've had no probs with it.

Anyway...

Its amusing when builders just slap everything together in the case and then expect it to post first time. Test the m/board OUTSIDE the case first with just the cpu, hsf, ram, vid card, PSU connected and power/reset switchs and HD/power LED's connected. Make sure the RAM and video card are seated properly. I've seen quite a few threads on other boards where people have solved post problems with re-seating the ram or video card. Its far easier to trouble shoot if you can get the board working with the bare minimum at first and its better to establish if the board is faulty BEFORE you install everything in the case. If the board then decides not to work in the case when it worked outside then theres probably shorting issues. >>



Like I mentioned, the board is working fine outside of the case, but it seems to be grounding on the mounting posts (1 of the 4 probably). The PS 300W is a good brand, just can't think of the name off the top of my head. Also, by not POST'ing, I mean..this board turns on and does not output monitor signal, nor will it give any beeps/floppy drive access attempts. It just acts like a dead board. Pull it out of the case, it magically POSTs, and will proceed to boot. However, my friend was having trouble with Win98 blue screening quite often..even with it setup that way. He has decided he wants a different brand.

Any recommendations? I've heard the Epox EP-87KA is a good AMD 760 board (if you want to stay away from VIA KT266A), but as far as going KT266A, the Epox 8KHA+ or the Shuttle AK31 seem to be good choices. I guess it bears the question, has VIA fixed their chipsets now? Will the KT266A be a good choice for a chipset? He isn't looking for 'mad' performance off this system, nor overclocking capability. Just a good all around stable/reliable mobo with good performance too.

 

[Peter]

Strange ...

(a) that ECS K7S5A is AMD recommended for any Athlon XP

(b) thetaz, what makes you think that if your mounting methods ground out one board, you will have better luck with a different one? Check your skills, don't blame the material.

Oh, and then check the cooling attachment and RAM health BEFORE attempting any OS installs. Bad RAM happens very often with the price levels being as low as they are now.

regards, Peter

 

[thetaz]

<< Strange ...

(a) that ECS K7S5A is AMD recommended for any Athlon XP

(b) thetaz, what makes you think that if your mounting methods ground out one board, you will have better luck with a different one? Check your skills, don't blame the material.

Oh, and then check the cooling attachment and RAM health BEFORE attempting any OS installs. Bad RAM happens very often with the price levels being as low as they are now.

regards, Peter >>



The RAM is ok - My friend had another guy run it through memtest86 for him, checked out just fine. Also, this board that he has..seems to have some solder points right next to the mounting points. I was looking at one of the mount points, and the solder point is touching the mounting post. I don't know of a safe way around preventing contact, as I'm sure electrical tape is a bad idea on a motherboard that runs really hot. I know of no way to prevent this, and I'm sorry if we lack 'skill' to resolder a board, but hell. We shouldn't have to do that. This board is very shoddy, he is GOING to send it back, and there's no way I can change his mind - he made his mind up already. This board is not worth that much trouble to only save $20. Obviously ECS has some quality control issues... :|

 

[ReCo]

ECS K7S5A do support the new AMD XP processor, it is even printed XP next to the CPU socket. Frys is selling this board as combo with the 1600, 1700 XP processor. I just bought two ECS K7S5A/1800XP combo. Both are woking fine. The only problem was installing the board drivers and was fixed by downloading the drivers from ECS website.

 

[The Dancing Peacock]

I have 2 XP 1600's running on the K7s5a in my house right now. I'm in the process of installing a 20gb drive on one of them right now. Check and make sure that you don't have any extra of the brass brackets on the motherboard tray. Only put in the ones you're gonna use.

 

[t4t3r]

rofl, omg that was halarious...

<<MasPingon, shut your hole....I hate when people talk and don't know what they are talking about....>>

good call, i will have to totally agree with you. there is too many people that post without even checking their info. but back to the topic, a friend of mine just built a k7s5a + 1600 xp, so they are compatible. sounds like you fixed the post problem, but if you can't figure out a way to mount it in the case and get it to boot, you may want a new mobo. since you said you wanted price over performance, i will go with the shuttle ak31a. priced at $80, it is very budget-minded, but its performance is excellent. take a look at it...


t4t3r

 

[Pabster]

RossGr wrote:

"Because you have had sucess with the ECS board does not mean that ALL ECS boards are good. Mine died after running fine for 3 weeks, I am now running a Shuttle AK31. It does not cost a lot more then the ECS board and is a full feature OC capable board. If you get the ECS board running, great, it can be a very nice board. But they also make a fair number lemons so if it is giving you troubles, dump it."

And to the total contrary, I've used over 20 K7S5A's without a single glitch -- no matter the cpu/ram or OS choice/configuration. Rock solid. Yet of the 3 new Shuttle AK31A's (and one refurb) I've used, not a single one has been stable enough to pass my torture test. They've all had voltage issues (low core voltage in particular) and I had one that took about a minute to POST. Does that mean all AK31A's are pieces of crap? Shuttle must be producing "a fair amount of lemons" as well.

As for o/c capability, I've got a Thunderbird 1400 running at 1650 (150 FSB) rock solid. On another, I have an 1800+ XP doing 1680MHz (147 FSB) without a hitch. Ultra RAM timings, the whole bit.

 

[Peter]

thetaz, guess what the isolating washers that you get in every computer case's bag of screws are for ...

 

[jfunk]

Well, they don't come in ALL bags of screws...but probably all hardware stores....<G>

Either way, an engineer is not required to figure out a work around for this....



j

 

[thetaz]

Peter -
Yeah, he didn't get any rubber washers..so we both assumed that his case didn't need them..guess not. I'll have to have him go to the hardware store and pick some up, I totally forgot about those!! It's been awhile since I put together a system, same for him...I'll have to let him know!

Thanks for the tip.

 

[lsman]

i guess some Cases come with those "washer" but some cases don't. And they are not rubber.

 

[thetaz]

<< i guess some Cases come with those "washer" but some cases don't. And they are not rubber. >>


Really? The last time I put together a case that actually came with those, came with rubber ones...prolly 5-6 years ago!!

Every case I've bought recently however, does not include any type of washer with it. Thats why the thought never occurred. Most of the boards seem to be constructed so that they will not ground through their mounting posts these days, but this ECS board seems to be an exception to that rule. Hopefully they will correct it in their future revisions/models.

Are the ones that come with some cases now days, are they plastic/nylon?

 

[RossGr]

IF the board POSTs out of the case, the basic components are fine. It is your placement of the standoffs in the case that is the problem. There are nine possible mounting holes in the ECS board, each of them has a metalic mounting ring around it. These are the only holes which should be used for this purpose. Use as many of them as your case allows, do not use any others. The metalic ringed mounting holes are designed to be grounded however, be sure that none of the heads on the screws that you use are larger then the metalic ground ring.

I will say it again, just because you have had good luck with ECS or (as I have had) with Shuttle, does not mean that ALL boards from that manufacture are good (or bad). All Manufactures produce lemons and diamonds, the key is to identify them quickly and not waste time and money trying to fix what cannot be fixed. ECS and Shuttle are both what I consider 2nd tier manufactres, you always take a chance, perhaps due to quality control issues, when you go budget. If you want higher percentage chances of a good board pay for an ASUS.

I have been building and maintaining my own computer systems for over 10yrs and have been working as a electronics technician for over 30yrs so am quite confidient (but still am capable of making mistakes!) of my abilities to troubleshoot and repair.

 

[lsman]

i buy a cheap case from thailand, it come with only one of these: plastic standoff they are good for some part of the case/motherboard connection. usually where on the case has holes that allow these to slide in and out.
But i got a enlight 7237, none of those. May may someone with more expensive case will tell us.


The washer i mean are: please look at the mid of page. a copper over a washer
or look like this Text. the color should be brown/dark red and sometimes, one side of it has sticky surface for attachment.