how do I RMA my k7s5a? should I?

[lamplighter]

The short question: How do I go about returning my K7S5A to ECS to get a replacement? (What does RMA even mean?) I bought the board just under 4 months ago, and would rather just send it to ECS than attempt to deal with the small store I bought it from (unless you guys tell me I should try that).

The long story: I got my K7S5A in January, and it has been great with my Duron 600. Then yesterday I got an Athlon XP 1800 and it has been nothing but problems. It worked at 100/100 but BSODed on me seconds into booting on 133/133. I tried many things from other threads (and on ocworkbench), and then this morning when I turned it on, fans and the harddrive go (the light stays on solid), and my CD-ROM and CD-RW take turns going on "busy". My floppy drive light doesn't light up, so I can't try putting some BIOS boot file on a disk. I've tried my old CPU, a different SDRAM stick, a different video card, taking out all my other cards, and always the same problem. My PSU is an Enermax 350W and I am quite sure it is not the problem.

 

[tritium4ever]

Some soothing words from a fellow T.Oer and K7S5A user...

It's actually quite sad how many people have experienced instability problems at 133/133. This leads me to believe that it's a systemic problem with the K7S5A. In any case, you didn't mention anything about flashing the BIOS, so if you haven't done so, try updating to the latest version. Some people have also reported problems specific to the board revision, and from what I hear revision 3.1 is more desirable than 4.0 (the revision sticker is located near the edge of the board betwen the 4th and 5th PCI slots). Also, check near the left socket lug for a sticker with "XP" on it...apparently boards without this sticker may have problems with Athlon XP processors. Finally, you indicated you were using SDRAM...have you tried DDR?

I've been lucky. I purchased the computer part by part, installed them all one day, and it booted first time perfectly without a hint of instability at 133/133 (okay well not really perfectly...I got the hard disk activity and power LED indicator headers backwards ). Not to mention that this was the first computer I've ever assembled from scratch. I know these extremely positive experiences are few and far in between with the K7S5A, but at this point I suggest you try the steps above, and if they don't work, RMA the board (and BTW, RMA stands for Return Merchandise Authorization).

 

[lamplighter]

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately I now can't even get as far as updating the BIOS (as described in first post). I wanted to try that last because that is how I fried my A7V, updating my BIOS. I guess even though the floppy light doesn't come on, I could try booting with the some flash file that I read to do, but was for people who flashed their BIOS wrong and couldn't boot but had the floppy light on.

 

[bozo1]

If you want to RMA it with ECS, go here.

 

[Peter]

"The long story" looks VERY much like there's not enough juice coming from the power supply unit,
particularly on the +5V and +3.3V rails.

Read the fine print on the Enermax, aside from being 350W total, what's the allowed combined
wattage from +5V and +3.3V?

regards, Peter

 

[tenoc]

Is your sdram PC100 or PC133?

 

[lamplighter]

bozo1 - thanks for the link, thats exactly what I was looking for.

Peter - Hmm okay, I will try a different PSU before I do anything else. On the Enermax EG365P-VE it says:
+3.3V & +5V : 185W ; TOTAL POWER=350W
I've read on other threads people having bought this PSU and it solving their problems, and since it worked before I was really hoping/assuming it wasn't it.

tenoc - my RAM is Crucial SDRAM PC133 CAS, but I tried some generic stick in it also.

Thanks for all the help, much appreciated!

 

[Peter]

185 watts on 5/3.3 should be plenty, I agree. Next thing to do is give it a thorough run of memtest86, to rule out bad RAM. www.memtest86.com. It's not too uncommon to have a higher bandwidth system suddenly uncover a slight flakiness in a DIMM that ran trouble-free for ages in a system with less crunch.

regards, Peter

 

[christoph83]

A friends computer has the same problem and seems like cannot be fixed. Its a revision 4 with a 1.2 tbird that will not run 133/133FSB. Tried newest bios and used an older bios that I have stable on another comp, no go. Tried the overclocking BIOS and it was only bootable up to 112/112. The error that wont let Windows XP boot is a data corruption error, at 133/133 it says this every time: windows\system\config\system is corrupted or not functioning, something like this althought not exact. The comp boots fine at 100/100. I stuck in my 420watt Channel Well Power supply and same error occured. Tried 100/133 and it booted fine so the ram should be fine. Tried 3 different BIOS's. 2 Different hard drives. Theres not really many options left I know of. I have a revision 3.1 board running a 1.13 tbird right next to this comp just fine. My friends in the same position as you lamplighter.

 

[tritium4ever]

I'm guessing it's not the PSU, mainly because I'm using a cheapie Enermax 300W unit and everything is running fine (and this is with two optical drives, two hard drives, two cold cathodes, etc...). Proof positive that the K7S5A can be used with a basic power supply

 

[Buz2b]

<< positive that the K7S5A can be used with a basic power supply >>

Just a bit of correction here, the Enermax PS is not a basic power supply. Enermax is one of the better ones. There are higher quality PS's of course, but Enermax is a well known, quality PS. The fact that your 300 watt works is not a surprise. According to AMD it is rated for up to an XP2100+ cpu. For the record, I don't think the PS is the issue here either. It looks like a BIOS or configuration problem that has snowballed into more issues.
lamplighter:
Why don't you start at the basics, remove all PCI cards and extra components, remove and reinstall the cpu and HSF and RAM. Then try to boot with just the cpu w/HSF, floppy drive w/boot disk, video card, and one stick of ram. BTW, I'd try DDR also, not PC133 for the XP. Just one of those "things" with me. Actually, at this point you should boot this way with the Duron back in the sytem first, in case you want to make a BIOS change. You should be able to boot with the Duron back in it. Make sure you clear the CMOS first, no matter which way you go. Do you understand exactly how to properly do this? LMK.

 

[lamplighter]

Buz2b - okay great, thanks. Right now I have the mobo out of the case, with just the video card, Duron and HSF, and one stick of RAM. I will try reseating everything, and hooking the floppy back up to try to the boot disk. I will let you know how it goes, thanks.

 

[lamplighter]

Unfortunately the floppy disk doesn't get read. The power light doesn't even go on, but it was worth a try. I'm ready to start packing up the mobo to send it to ECS. Thanks for the help all. Can anyone with past experience RMAing to ECS let me know how long it takes? (first I need to fax them a form)

 

[lamplighter]

"ECS Warranty is offered to direct customers with valid ECS invoice only."

Agh, I just read that... so that means I DO have to go into the place where I bought them, have them take a look, and then they have to send it in?

 

[Freewolf]

Yes you will have to return the mb to the place you got it

 

[tritium4ever]

What store did you buy it from anyway? Maybe I'll go down there and give em heck

Buz2b: I agree that Enermax is better than the average power supply brand, but the model I have is the lowest end one. 300 watts, single fan, fan speed monitoring, and no speed control. On top of that, the fan is hideously loud, easily drowning out the other 6 fans in my case. I'm probably gonna switch the fan out for something quieter, but I'm a little apprehensive about messing around with a power supply.

 

[Buz2b]

tritium4ever:
The PS is only 4 screws usually (other than the connectors to the board and drives. Very easy to replace. I once was "apprehensive" about replacing one then shocked at how easy it was. You should have no trouble.

lamplighter:
Sorry you haven't had any luck. Just a quick question, you said it did not read the floppy; did it boot otherwise? The floppy could be just the BIOS setting or something fairly simple if that is all that didn't happen but it booted normally.

 

[lamplighter]

Haha thanks tritium. I bought it from Canada Computers. I'm not sure where in Toronto you are from (I'm actually in Markham), but it is in the Pacific Mall.

Buz2b - no, it didn't boot at all. From ocworkbench, if I'm lucky, I would hear 4 beep after about 1 min and then press some key combo and it boots from the amiboot. I didn't hear any beeps though, or even with no video card I didn't hear 8 beeps, so I was outta luck.

Anyways, thanks again for all the help.