ecs k7s5a ddr woes

[chr6]

working on a k7s5a, (yes i know, hold the laughter).

anyhow, i plopped in a 2400+ and a stick of pc2700 (256mb kingston valueram)

no go. memory just isn't working. works in other systems, just not this one.

tried setting the timings loose; tried installing memory and then clearing cmos, im not using two different types of memory; tried a stick of crucial ddr pc2100 as well; no go. could the ddr controller be dead or something? if theres something i could try, lmk.

thanks,
chr

 

[txlonghorn]

I built 2 systems based on K7S5A. One would not post with DDR. Took it back to Fry's and as it turns out, it works fine with SDRAM. According to the return guy at Fry's, he has seen this problem before. The problem is bad mobo. The solution is a new one, if it is still under waranty.

 

[SeTeS]

The only prob I had w/ my was the crappy battery. Been running for 2yrs now. 1 yr w/ 512m pc2700. Just added another 512 last month w/ no probs so far.

I agree w/ txlonghorn, probably a crappy board. QAQC is a little on the low side for these boards, methinks.

 

[Rottie]

I used 2 stick of 256 generic PC2100 DDR 266Mhz it runs fine for 2 years now.

If you need some help you can always find some answers at
K7S5A motherboard forum

 

[Peter]

It's the same RAM controller, whether you use SDR or DDR RAM. It's even the same mainboard traces. What I've seen happen is that a previously unused DDR socket had collected enough dust and other misc dirt to let the DIMM not make proper contact. Of course, there's also the possibility that the DIMM socket itself is damaged.

Finally, there's a really oddball problem with some PCI softmodem cards (Creative's IIRC) that prevent the SiS 735 chipset from firing up only with DDR RAM. This is a PCI compliance problem of the cards, interfering with a power-on mode detection procedure on the chipset.

In other words: Try the other DIMM slot, try with all non-essential PCI cards pulled.