ECS K7S5A doesn't like PC133 RAM in first DIMM slot?

[Salvador]

I've moved my K7S5A motherboard down the food chain by putting it in another system. I had been running DDR RAM in it and it worked flawlessly, but when I tried to put PC133 CL2 Crucial in it, the mobo flaked out on me. I tried two different sticks and the same results. I then tried the DDR again to make sure it was the RAM difference and it ran perfectly with the DDR. So.. I tried reseating the Crucial PC133 and still a no go. Then.. I put the stick in the 2 SDRAM DIMM slot for the heck of it and it works. Is there a reason why this board doesn't like PC133 in the first DIMM slot or do I just have a bad RAM slot?

TIA,

Sal

 

[BG4533]

Works fine on my board. I have ran a 256MB stick of Crucial PC133 without issues. I have found that sometimes for even the slightest change the board needs to have its CMOS reset. Might want to try that if you havent already.

 

[Peter]

No design problem there. Check whether you got the BIOS settings right - RAM termination Off, Skew Rate on Slow for a single DIMM. Also check for mechanical damage or foreign objects in the DIMM slot.

 

[Salvador]

No design problem there. Check whether you got the BIOS settings right - RAM termination Off, Skew Rate on Slow for a single DIMM. Also check for mechanical damage or foreign objects in the DIMM slot.

No foreign objects. I don't know what you're talking about with these settings. I don't find any settings like this in the BIOS. Maybe "safe" instead of slow. Don't see a setting for single DIMM. I assumed that it the mobo would detect the differences between the RAM on its own.

I will clear the CMOS. Thanks for the suggestion.

I still can't figure out what it works perfectly in the number two DIMM and why it's so flakey in the 1 DIMM.

Sal

 

[Peter]

If you don't have said settings, chances are you got quite an old BIOS in that board. Goto www.ecs.com.tw and fetch an update. Please do the update with the stable setup

 

[BG4533]

I have had goodluck with the cheapoman BIOS as well.

 

[Salvador]

If you don't have said settings, chances are you got quite an old BIOS in that board. Goto www.ecs.com.tw and fetch an update. Please do the update with the stable setup

Could that be my problem? I never did flash the BIOS because the board always ran great out of the box with the DDR RAM.

BTW.. I tried clearing the CMOS and that didn't help either. It's still flakey with PC133 RAM. Hopefully a BIOS update will fix my problem.

Does anyone know of a ECS FAQ page. I seem to remember someone having a FAQ written up about these boards.

Sal

 

[Peter]

BIOS update, and then run www.memtest86.com to assert whether that PC133 DIMM is working at all.

 

[Mem]

BIOS update should fix the problem,I too am running two sticks of Crucial PC133 in my ECS K7S5A board with no problems.

At least if your Crucial ram does turn out to be faulty,Crucial have excellent customer service as I found out when one of my Crucial sticks went faulty in my Epox board.

 

[Salvador]

At least if your Crucial ram does turn out to be faulty,Crucial have excellent customer service as I found out when one of my Crucial sticks went faulty in my Epox board.

I'll try that. I've never flashed a motherboard before though and I'm a little afraid to because I tried to flash a pc card modem a while ago and killed it. I guess this is the right board to try it with though considering that it didn't cost that much in the first place.

I do know to make sure and not shut anything off during the process, so I will do the flashing of the BIOS with the DDR RAM, so it's stable.

The RAM is fine. I have two sticks of the Crucial and it works perfectly in another machine and neither would run stable in the first DIMM slot on the ECS board. They would run stable though on the second DIMM slot. Weird.

Should I bother with a overclocking BIOS if I'm just going to run PC133 RAM in my board now?

Thanks again.

Sal

 

[Mem]

BIOS flashing is not really difficult,I would go here and read and maybe print a copy on how to flash etc ,you should find it simple enough.

Just double check which K7S5A board you have and make sure you get the right BIOS for your board.

Should I bother with a overclocking BIOS if I'm just going to run PC133 RAM in my board now?

I would just download latest official BIOS from ECS website,that`s what I did.

 

[Peter]

Test the RAM in this particular machine. You wouldn't be the first to find that RAM that has been perfectly fine in a P-III or super-7 mainboard does NOT work in a P4 or Athlon board. The latter are much more demanding on the DIMM being compliant to its own specification.

 

[DieHardware]

If your K7S5A is an early one, flash off the HDD not the FDD. Oh and when you clear the CMOS make sure the PSU is unplugged. Edit: I had an early one that wouldn't boot consistently with a BIOS version later than 11/21/01.

 

[Salvador]

If your K7S5A is an early one, flash off the HDD not the FDD. Oh and when you clear the CMOS make sure the PSU is unplugged. Edit: I had an early one that wouldn't boot consistently with a BIOS version later than 11/21/01.

Later than 11/21/01? What BIOS did you end up using? Thanks for the tip on flashing with the hard drive instead of the floppy drive.

The RAM is fine. It works great in a number of AMD systems including a K7S5A Pro board. It either has to be a bad DIMM slot or the BIOS.

Thanks again.

Sal

 

[Peter]

The latest and finest BIOS for the non-pro is from 10/2002.

 

[DieHardware]

Originally posted by: Salvador

If your K7S5A is an early one, flash off the HDD not the FDD. Oh and when you clear the CMOS make sure the PSU is unplugged. Edit: I had an early one that wouldn't boot consistently with a BIOS version later than 11/21/01.

Later than 11/21/01? What BIOS did you end up using? Thanks for the tip on flashing with the hard drive instead of the floppy drive.

The RAM is fine. It works great in a number of AMD systems including a K7S5A Pro board. It either has to be a bad DIMM slot or the BIOS.

Thanks again.

Sal

11/21/01. I sold that particular board almost a year and a half ago, so I can't say if it would've had any issues with a BIOS version later than June/July '02...I'd still try the last non-Pro version though, my warning was just a heads up if you have any trouble booting. Also if you use certain SCSI cards beware of certain BIOS versions. Peter might know more of which versions worked better or worse in that regard.

 

[Peter]

There have been SCSI quibbles in the first half of 2002, ultimately solved in the June BIOS. The 10/2002 BIOS is what I use here (w/ SCSI controller). That's the one I recommend and put on all the non-Pro K7S5A near me.

 

[Salvador]

There have been SCSI quibbles in the first half of 2002, ultimately solved in the June BIOS. The 10/2002 BIOS is what I use here (w/ SCSI controller). That's the one I recommend and put on all the non-Pro K7S5A near me.

Thanks guys.. I'll give it a try.

BTW.. I'm running a K7S5A Pro right now as a kickaround system and it's running just great. As a matter of fact, it's running on the very same RAM that the non-Pro board turned its nose up at.

Sal

 

[robcy]

Just for laughs make sure that the timings on the memory in the bios is set to CAS 3. My old v1.0 runs fine with any cheap a$$ DDR at CAS 2, but only ran PC133 on either slot when set to CAS3. I upgraded the BIOS to no avail. Its still running as a scorage for my DVD collection.