ECS K7S5A - known issues and problems?

[2336]

Folks, I'd like to move to a K7S5A. To my knowledge there are only two known issues - #1. it needs a GOOD 300+ W P/S and #2. occasionally there is a CMOS battery problem. I'd like to hear about other users experiences with this MoBo. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Rick

 

[mechBgon]

Mine worked great, and continues to work great in its new role as a service loaner where I work. The onboard audio is not that hot, but that's about the worst I have to say for it. Some people have solved stability issues by reattaching the SiS 735's heatsink with something better than the thermal tape used by ECS. The biggest problem was the Win2k floppy-disk corruption problem, fixed with a BIOS update within a couple months of launch.

 

[2336]

Thanks for the input Tom. I was a little concerned about a minor problem that some folks seem to be having. From what I've heard they'll boot up one day and the BIOS is all reset as if the CMOS battery has died. they'll replace the battery and all is well for another couple of months before it happens again. Have you heard anything about this?

 

[TrueBlueLS]

I just bought one of these and I'm hoping I got a good one.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: 2336
Thanks for the input Tom. I was a little concerned about a minor problem that some folks seem to be having. From what I've heard they'll boot up one day and the BIOS is all reset as if the CMOS battery has died. they'll replace the battery and all is well for another couple of months before it happens again. Have you heard anything about this?

Honestly, I haven't heard that complaint but maybe I just haven't been paying attention. Hopefully Buz2b will pop in with more info on that, since he has a strong record of helping people out with K7S5A issues here

 

[Regalk]

While you are waiting on the Buzz I will point you to 3 other BETTER boards using that chipset (I honestly do not know why people are still buying this board) - AOpen AK75, A7S333 and MSI 645. If you are still bent on the ECS all I can say is have fun and good luck - I was one of the unlucky ones.
My A7S333 is still going long after the ECS was scrapped/dumped.

 

[Adul]

Originally posted by: Regalk
While you are waiting on the Buzz I will point you to 3 other BETTER boards using that chipset (I honestly do not know why people are still buying this board) - AOpen AK75, A7S333 and MSI 645. If you are still bent on the ECS all I can say is have fun and good luck - I was one of the unlucky ones.
My A7S333 is still going long after the ECS was scrapped/dumped.

^^ agrees

 

[IFICUDIWUD]

Im not buzzb2 but i have had my k7s5a runnin for over a year with no problems with crucial256 ddr2100 an xp1600 enlight case w/340w ps. prophet4500 vid and soundblaster... Maxtor 40gig hd.. liteon cd ans sonycdrw..... im lovin it

 

[Cerb]

8 K7S5A boards that I can think of off the top of my head still running flawlessly (and 3 more that friends have made for themselves). The worst strouble was a certain single-channel SCSI controller not working right (a new USB scanner fixed that, though ). Seems to work fine here w/ all the slots filled w/ various devices, and the only troubles have been the battery (one machine I made that shipped with a bad battery and one of a friend's who died...just get a 2032 battery w/ this mobo).

It is supposed to be picky about memory...however, Kingston and Crucial sticks seem to work just fine every time (and since it isn't a good OCer board, you don't need to be much pickier than that).

Haven't had any PSU troubles, but My dad and myself each fried our first athlon mobos and learned once and for all about buying good PSUs (and hell, now a good 300w can be gotten for $35 or less shipped). All the K7S5As built in this house are running either an Enlight 300w, Enermax 300w, or Enhance 300w (why using PSUs that start in Es I don't know, but no troubles w/ any of them, so that's that).

I can't comment about better SiS 735 boards, as with the exception of the battery thing, every ECS K7S5A since the first has run great.
On the onboard sound...it is pretty bad (That's why I got a cheaper board that has the C-Media chip...sounds as good as any SBLive!, though it isn't a Game Theater XP), but most gamer types are either going to get an outboard soundcard or be very specific in their mobo choices, and any audio freak would definitely just get an Audigy or Game Theater.

 

[Kaieye]

My friend and I bought a total of seven of these k7S5A motherboards which we both use personally. We never heard issues with the other five that we sold but the ones we were using both had the CMOS problem that would periodically appear. Eventhough we have changed the CMOS battery, it sometimes loses it. My friends mb had to be returned because it took a dump and mine is still working fine.

In the end, I plan on selling my mb/cpu combo to someone else soon and getting a nforce 2 chipset mb because I have a problem with upgrade-itis...

 

[RanDum72]

Just observe and see if it acts up for the first few weeks. Once it gets over this period, it should run trouble-free for a long time. My experience with this board is once you get it going, it stays that way. But little, quirky problems usually lead to bigger ones.

 

[2336]

I appreciate the input folks. And despite some of your warnings I think I'll give the K7S5A a shot.

 

[Buz2b]

Originally posted by: 2336
I appreciate the input folks. And despite some of your warnings I think I'll give the K7S5A a shot.

(Gee, the "pressure's" on)
Good idea. You seemed to have gotten all the background info you will need, the main ones being the PS and memory items. As to your mention of the CMOS battery "trouble", I can tell you that you may well see a battery "warning" at first. Just go into the BIOS, confirm your settings and make sure you save when exiting. All should be OK. I have seen one or two instances of someone claiming that, after replacing the CMOS battery, they still got the message a month or so later. Neither I, nor anyone (or any site) I know of has confirmed this to be a legit issue. That's not to say it didn't happen to a couple of folks, it just means that it has not happened with any regularity or frequency that could even come close to classifying it as a "problem" with the board. The odds are in your favor, obviously.
If you would like a personal recommendation or two, I'd say get a Sparkle 300 watt PS (or better) and Crucial RAM. Those two have worked without fail for the systems I have built with this board and the PS is inexpensive (bonus!!).
Other than that, make sure to install the RAM and video card very well. Those slots on that board are "known" to be a bit tight and can cause some "no-boot" instances at first. If it happens, just remove and reinstall a couple of times and all should work just fine. Frankly, I have not had this happen on any recent builds so either I am getting better (doubt it) or just lucky. Either way, it is easy to remedy if it does happen.
Also, don't get caught up in the "slap everything into the box" mode when building. Start with the bare basics, get the OS installed, then add your other components one at a time. It takes a bit longer but is worth the effort. Patience is a virtue when building a new system, no matter what type it is. If you have any problems, feel free to post again and I'm sure someone can help. If you want even more info on this board, including an FAQ and access to some "overclocking BIOS" files (add this later please), you can check out this site. Good Luck!

 

[MaxDSP]

Originally posted by: 2336
Folks, I'd like to move to a K7S5A. To my knowledge there are only two known issues - #1. it needs a GOOD 300+ W P/S and #2. occasionally there is a CMOS battery problem. I'd like to hear about other users experiences with this MoBo. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Rick

My ECS system has been running flawlessly for the past 2-3 months, and it had worked on the first boot up. When I was buidling it, I decided to take a risk and just used all the components I already had, which included an old Packard Bell Platinum 3000 case and it's 230W power supply. The PSU and case are about 4 years old and much to my amazement, the PSU didnt cause any problems at all.

of course, it's only been 2 months or so running on the 230W but as soon as I get my new Epox system up and running, Im gonna ditch the current case and PSU and put the whole thing into a much better case (the ECS system, that is).

 

[Buz2b]

Originally posted by: MaxDSP

Originally posted by: 2336
Folks, I'd like to move to a K7S5A. To my knowledge there are only two known issues - #1. it needs a GOOD 300+ W P/S and #2. occasionally there is a CMOS battery problem. I'd like to hear about other users experiences with this MoBo. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Rick

My ECS system has been running flawlessly for the past 2-3 months, and it had worked on the first boot up. When I was buidling it, I decided to take a risk and just used all the components I already had, which included an old Packard Bell Platinum 3000 case and it's 230W power supply. The PSU and case are about 4 years old and much to my amazement, the PSU didnt cause any problems at all.

of course, it's only been 2 months or so running on the 230W but as soon as I get my new Epox system up and running, Im gonna ditch the current case and PSU and put the whole thing into a much better case (the ECS system, that is).

We should all be "rubbing your head" for luck, cause you certainly have it. I have heard of a couple of instances where a 250 watt PS has worked for a time, but a 230 watt is really pushing the envelope a bit. Of course, as referenced in my previous post, bigger is not always better in the case of PS's. Perhaps your old PB PS has decent output, although that is fairly difficult to believe. In your case, it seems to have kept you from buying a new PS for a time and that is a good thing, no matter what the reason is. I am glad that you are not going to "push your luck" any further though and are planning on getting a new PS.

 

[MaxDSP]

Originally posted by: Buz2b

Originally posted by: MaxDSP

Originally posted by: 2336
Folks, I'd like to move to a K7S5A. To my knowledge there are only two known issues - #1. it needs a GOOD 300+ W P/S and #2. occasionally there is a CMOS battery problem. I'd like to hear about other users experiences with this MoBo. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Rick

My ECS system has been running flawlessly for the past 2-3 months, and it had worked on the first boot up. When I was buidling it, I decided to take a risk and just used all the components I already had, which included an old Packard Bell Platinum 3000 case and it's 230W power supply. The PSU and case are about 4 years old and much to my amazement, the PSU didnt cause any problems at all.

of course, it's only been 2 months or so running on the 230W but as soon as I get my new Epox system up and running, Im gonna ditch the current case and PSU and put the whole thing into a much better case (the ECS system, that is).

We should all be "rubbing your head" for luck, cause you certainly have it. I have heard of a couple of instances where a 250 watt PS has worked for a time, but a 230 watt is really pushing the envelope a bit. Of course, as referenced in my previous post, bigger is not always better in the case of PS's. Perhaps your old PB PS has decent output, although that is fairly difficult to believe. In your case, it seems to have kept you from buying a new PS for a time and that is a good thing, no matter what the reason is. I am glad that you are not going to "push your luck" any further though and are planning on getting a new PS.

hehe. I was nervous when I was setting it up back when, because of all the problems that I had heard about it and that it required quality components to make it stable. I was 85% sure that the whole shebang wasnt gonna work but I lucked out bigtime


some of the other components in the rig are: 4-year old Goldstar 24x (also from the original PB 3000 system), Seagate 4.3 GB 5400 RPM HD (still works, but I took it out last month), and 2 1-year old 40 GB Maxtors (7200 RPM).

The irony of the fact is that the whole reason for why Im building a new system is because my SOYO K7VIA-based ~2 year old system burned out 2-3 months ago. When I checked it out, the main power connector that connects the PSU and the mobo had 4-5 burned out "slots". I also saw some capacitors around the CPU bubbling on the top, emitting a funky smell. The PSU was an Antec 300W, less than 2 years old. To this day, Im still not sure what caused the system to go up in smoke, the PSU putting out too much/insufficient/bad power or the mobo having bad or faulty capacitors.


I still cant believe that I have the CDROM and 2 40GB 7200's running off that puny power supply.

 

[Buz2b]

To this day, Im still not sure what caused the system to go up in smoke, the PSU putting out too much/insufficient/bad power or the mobo having bad or faulty capacitors.

More than likely the "age factor" kicked in. Dust getting into the connector areas, ever-so-slight movements of the system causing the MB connector to "shift" slightly and shorting, etc, etc. More than likely it was the dust effect. Happens more than I care to remember.

I still cant believe that I have the CDROM and 2 40GB 7200's running off that puny power supply.

Are you going to Vegas or Reno any time soon and if so, can you meet me there?! Seriously, it can happen. As I alluded to, the total output of the PS is not the definative judgment criteria; it is the output of the individual lines and their respective amp ratings. At any rate, you are still one lucky person.
PS> I might be in Reno in January; any hope?

 

[Grminalac]

I have been running a K7S5A motherboard for about 6 months or so and have had a substancial amount of problems. My first issue stemmed from the problem that about twice a week during post the system would not find my hard drive. In order to correct this problem I had to open the case, which is a chore and unplug the IDE cable connected to the drive start the system, allow it to post and then power off and plug the drive back in. Why this fixed the problem I have no idea. I just happened upon the fix while trying countless other fixes, which involved upgrading my old 300 watt Elan Vital power supply to a 380 watt antec.
To remedy the intermittant problem I decided to scrap the onboard IDE controller and purchase 2 new 100gig Wd 1000JB drives and attach them to a promise fastrack 2000tx raid controller. The system worked fine. While playing games such as BF1942 and Hitman 2 I would occasionally get lockups that required powering off the system. This problem cleared up after setting my memory latency to the slowest speed in the BIOS... Sure I am running SDRAM which is not reccomended for this board but it is good Mushkin stuff rated at 140+ at 2-2-2 which i paid a good deal of money for about 8 months prior. I am not pleased my system is now is now running at 3-3-3 with memory setting set to safe... Because the board did not seem to enjoy having both ram slots populated. I replaced my 400 dollar worth of mushking memory with a 50 dollar stick of 3-3-3 rated kingston. Sure I could purchase a expensive stick of crucial 2-2-2 ddr but what is the point of blowing the money for a marginal performance gain. At this point I would be better off to just buy a 333 motherboard if i was going to invest in expensive ddr.

Anyway. Getting back to the point, I am now recieving the BIOS problem where my comp routinely appears to have a dead cmos battery. It does not happen all the time which is odd. What is also lovely is the fact that when the bios is cleared, the system is unable to make it past the promise fastrack bios post. The promise posts before the motherboards bios config screen appears creating a catch 22. I have to change the bios settings before i can make it past post however i need to make it past post to change the bios settings. Meaning I have to pull the fasttrack card when this happens, reset the bios settings then plug the card back in... Which is a pain in the a$$.

The ECS sounds like good deal if you have a large amount of SDRAM lying around and want to upgrade without investing in expensive memory, unfortunetly the board does not work well with anything other than the slowest timing settings even on 200 dollar per 128Meg (when i bought it) mushkin memory. And yes, I have confirmed that the bios screws up at intermittant times, a problem that does not appear to be caused by a dead cmos battery.
My advice is to peruse the anandtech reviews and choose a board that is 333ddr capable and buy a decent stick of memory. I imagine this will save you time and headaches.

 

[Buz2b]

Grminalac,
I will at first admit that I read thru your post rather quickly because it is getting late for me. However, I think you need to take a "fresh" look at your troubles.
In no particular order, you mention that you at first said that you, "replaced my 400 dollar worth of mushking memory with a 50 dollar stick of 3-3-3 rated kingston". $400 dollars?!?! That's some hellacious RAM!! Why in the heck would you replace that before you replaced a $55 MB??!? Then you said, "Sure I could purchase a expensive stick of crucial 2-2-2 ddr but what is the point of blowing the money for a marginal performance gain". Have you priced Crucial RAM lately?? It is about the most affordable RAM as you can find. I would hardly call it "expensive". Second, running it at 2-2-2 vs running your current RAM at 3-3-3 (or whatever), would certainly garner more than a marginal performance gain.
Look, I don't think picking apart your post solves anything at this point. In fact, I would hope that either myself or someone else could help you find some answers; either here on on
this site. Your conclusions about this board are a bit premature considering that you already acknowledge problems with the RAID, PS and RAM setup. Those could happen on any MB.
I will look through your post in-depth tomorrow and maybe I, or someone else, can offer some advice for you.

 

[2336]

Folks, I appreciate very much all of your input and Buz 2b, YGPM. Thanks again folks.

 

[tcsenter]

I used the K7S5A in two systems a month after the board was released, both are still humming along without trouble. Though, I haven't been paying attention to the different revisions that came available since.

What's this K7S5A-2 and K7S5A+ thing as listed on ECS's Taiwan site?

 

[MaxDSP]

Originally posted by: Buz2b

To this day, Im still not sure what caused the system to go up in smoke, the PSU putting out too much/insufficient/bad power or the mobo having bad or faulty capacitors.

More than likely the "age factor" kicked in. Dust getting into the connector areas, ever-so-slight movements of the system causing the MB connector to "shift" slightly and shorting, etc, etc. More than likely it was the dust effect. Happens more than I care to remember.

I still cant believe that I have the CDROM and 2 40GB 7200's running off that puny power supply.

Are you going to Vegas or Reno any time soon and if so, can you meet me there?! Seriously, it can happen. As I alluded to, the total output of the PS is not the definative judgment criteria; it is the output of the individual lines and their respective amp ratings. At any rate, you are still one lucky person.
PS> I might be in Reno in January; any hope?

Coincendentally, I turn 21 this thrusday, Nov 7th. I took 5 days off from work to celebrate the momentous occasion. Maybe I'll end up in Vegas if the partying gets crazy enough.

About that dust part, yea, it also couldve been that. When I took the whole rig apart, I saw soidified dust (as solid as dust can get) on the HSF and around the CPU area. Maybe the dust blew onto the connectors and did it in.

Anyhow, I have a digicam and I'll take pics of my setup so y'all can see the ghetto-fabulous Packard Bell rig. I need to find a good and inexpensive CF reader first though to transfer the pics onto the PC

 

[MaxDSP]

Originally posted by: tcsenter
I used the K7S5A in two systems a month after the board was released, both are still humming along without trouble. Though, I haven't been paying attention to the different revisions that came available since.

What's this K7S5A-2 and K7S5A+ thing as listed on ECS's Taiwan site?

I havent made any revisions to the board (if you mean BIOS updates) either. Just used it straight out of the box.


EDIT: Here's the thread link that details my story about the burnt motherboard

 

[Duvie]

I owned one last year, built 5 others for others, and just built one with an 1600+ from newegg....All run fine....3 out of the 7 had cmos battery issue...none came with cmos jumper in wrong spot and all of the first 6 had 1400 tbirds with them without any crashes....Used sparkle 300-350 PSes on all...


Interesting issue with this one of late...Takes along time to boot...slows when it gets to identifying drives ie. HDD eventhough I am not on auto but actually detected and selected drive in bios...The battery did not die persay but if I shut it down and cold start would result in failure to boot past the identify drives. It basically cannot find the harddrive. No issue ever from a warm start or restart...

I changed out battery and had not had any issues for a week but it usually doesn't shut off....When it did have the issue it never lost any of my other settings in the bios...

 

[Grminalac]

Well as i said, I only resorted to swapping the expensive mushkin with a 512 stick of memory when I found that the motherboard was not 100% stable when populated by both mushkin. Although the board was very stable running with one mushkin stick (128m) I garnered better performance with the one stick of 512 even running at 3-3-3.
The original reason i purchased the expensive mushkin memory, which now that i think about it was bought more than a year ago was because i was overclocking my PIII 550 to 843 and needed a good quality memory. Believe me the Mushkin delivered and was well worth the money spent considering when I bought my 550 Intel did not even offer a PIII scaled to 800.

And as i said spending 152 (price from newegg) for a stick of crucial only running at 2.5 cl would not be a tremendous gain for me as most of my games run just fine at 1600X1200 right now with my current setup.

I figure If I upgrade I would buy a nice stable board either an nforce2 or a 333 and pair it with some memory rated 2-2-2. ANd fully exploit the performance of DDR.

I'm glad to see another here with the same problem of the board not finding the HDD. Its a very wierd problem when witnessed firsthand.