Interesting... ECS K7S5A won't post with 2 drives... :(

[GraveJoKer]

Hi
I am facing a very interesting problem. I have a ECS K7S5A, running a XP1800+

A couple of days back it suddenly stopped posting. Some time before that happened, I had added a Liteon CDRW 40125S (Liteon DVD drive was already installed a long time back and the system was running pretty stable with it)

Now upon some investigation and obviously fiddling around, I figured if I removed the Liteon drive, the mobo would post and run pretty stable. I also noticed that sometimes the 12V rail would drop to dangerous lows of 9.9 V with both drives attached.

Is it that with an additional drive, the power requirements become too much? So the mobo locks itself ups?
But isn't 400W enuf for the conf that I have which is:

ECS K7S5A mobo (don't know the exact rev, but bought sometime in Oct last year)
Athlon 1800+
Crucial 512MB DDR2100
Antec SX1040 case(PP 412x PS, 400W)
Visiontek Geforce 3
Liteon DVD drive (Primary slave)
Liteon CDRW LTR-40125S (Secondry Master)
3 fans running (2 case, 1 cpu)
IBM 40GB HD (Primary Master)
Creative SoundBlaster Live 5.1 Value

Does neone have any suggestions/ideas as to what might be the exact issue over here? I am completely frustrated.


JoKer

 

[pdo]

Is it an Antec 400W PS you got there or is it some no name PS? Cuz it sound like you have some cheap PS there.

 

[mechBgon]

400W is enough, and the PSU from Antec (if it is an Antec) is not a flaky no-name unit, but from the sound of things, it might be faulty. Can you test with any other PSUs in the 300W+ range to confirm this? Another troubleshooting method is to pull up a second computer next to yours and use its 4-pin power plugs to power the two CD/DVD drives, taking that load off of your own PSU.

 

[GraveJoKer]

Nopes ... Its a original Antec PP412X PS, as bought with the original case SX1040 from a reputed store. I think it was techstore.com

Unfortunately I don't have access to a seconf computer. So can't debug the way you are suggesting mechBgon!

 

[mechBgon]

Ok, 'nother suggestion, try starting up the computer with only the new CDRW drive plugged in, and see if it's happy with just one or the other of your two optical drives. If it'll run with either of them but not both, that suggests that it's not being caused by a faulty drive.

Also, since the Antec PSU is covered by a 3-year warranty, keep in mind that you could ask Antec to RMA the PSU, if you have good reason to suspect it's faulty. You'll be down for the meantime but it's a $85-$90 PSU, so it might be worth waiting to get it warrantied.

 

[GraveJoKer]

mechBgon
lemme try what you are saying and see if its an issue with the drive or something else.
Also, someone suggested that I switch the locations of the drives to see if that would change the situation (switch from primary to secondry) ... I am gonna try that too

Apart from that, I haven't RMA anything before. So how RMA works?
- Do you RMA to the manufacturer or to the retailer that you bought from?
- Can you RMA netime within the manuf. warranty period? or only within some specified period?


JoKer

 

[mechBgon]

The warranty varies depending on the manufacturer. With Antec, you can email them at techsupport@antec-inc.com, tell them that you have a PP412X that you suspect is bad, perhaps cut-&-paste the contents of your first post in this thread, and ask if they think it should be sent in. If so, they'll probably give you a Return Merchandise Authorization number or have you email their RMA department for one. Then you box up your PSU, send it in to Antec, and they'll fix or replace it.

The dip in the 12V line is what I would consider the strongest evidence that something's wrong, either with the new drive or with the power supply.

 

[GraveJoKer]

Thanx mechBgon...
'll do as you suggest!

 

[GraveJoKer]

It just locked itself up again...
and this time .. with a single drive

 

[howardthehobo]

I had a similar problem couple weeks ago. My problem is that my new burner(Lite-On 32X) won't stay at UDMA2 unless I pull the Afreey 12X DVD-ROM out. I solved this problem by pulling out the DVD-ROM and putting in a CD-ROM. I set the CD-ROM at Primary and the burner at Slave and they worked fine, both were at UDMA2. Now I got the Artec 16X DVD-ROM and Lite-On 32X work with each other perfectly, both of them are at UDMA2. Hope this will help.

Here is my setup:

ECS K7S5A
Athlon 1GHz
Crucial 384MB PC2100
ENLIGHT MEDIUM ATX TOWER CASE MODEL # EN-72370X3C4 with 300W PSU
Abit GeForce4 Ti 4400
Artec 16X DVD-ROM(Primary)
Lite-On CDRW 32X(Slave)
WD 30GB(Primary)
Maxtor 80GB(Slave)
Creative Audigy
3 fans(1 cpu, 2 case)

 

[GraveJoKer]

bump

 

[Zclyh3]

This motherboard has so many problems. I've have vowed to stay away from ECS and FIC. These motherboards that they sell at Fry's has a HUGE return rate because most of them don't work. Also, FIC and ECS are like a couple of blocks away from the Fremont Frys.

 

[howardthehobo]

Zclyh3

Not true, I only had one problem and that is all. For me the board is rock soild and provides all I need at a very cheap price> if you ask my suggestion for a motherboard, I would still say ECS K7S5A.

 

[Loqutious]

I had a similar problem when helping a friend build a system with the ECS mb. Gave up and told him the board was dead until I got it to POST with only the HD, no other IDE devices. Then I found a hint somewhere that said not to let the BIOS auto-detect the other IDE devices, just force them all as CD-ROM drives (well, the ones you're using, of course). Sure enough, after powering down and reconnecting the DVD and CD-RW it worked! Give that a try...

 

[Zclyh3]

Well, I'm telling you based off of my own personal experience.

 

[SilverWerewolf]

Strange, I thought I had replied to this thread...

Anyway, I think you might want to look for a short on one (or more) or your devices. I have the same board as you, with a 300 W PS, and I run 3 hard drives, and 2 CD-ROM (DVD and CDRW) without problems, so I don't think the board is the problem.

The reading you're getting on the 12V rail could also indicate you have a defective PS. It's way too low.

 

[GraveJoKer]

SilverWerewolf
I have posted my problem on couple of forums. And I asked you the same Q there.

HOW DO YOU FIND OUT WHICH DRIVE IS SHORTING OUT??

rem that It locks up arbitrarily... It will run smoothly for some time.. and suddenly BOOM... there it goes
haven't have a clue as to what is happening!

 

[GraveJoKer]

:|

Another Interesting twist to my sad story...
I removed both the drives and the damn thing still keeps locking me up...

I think I am over with K7S5A... time to get a new mobo

 

[SilverWerewolf]

Ah, that's why I kept having "deja vu"

I have answered the question on the other forum...

Basically, it's a switch an try tatic. Switch components around till you find the culprit.

You might have bad RAM, random lockups often come from bad RAM. I've experienced weird problems with RAM, and sometimes changing it will do the trick. It seems that Micron RAM doesn't like some motherboards, and it will work fine in another. Crucial uses Micron chips, if I remember correctly. Try Corsair (which I have in my K7S5A), or Samgsung.

You also might have a bad Windows installation.

 

[GraveJoKer]

That's essentially what I am trying to do. I have figured till now that my DVD and CDRW drives are fine, Sound card is also ok...
as the system still locks up after removing these components...
Now, I 'll go after the RAM.

I have 2 sticks of RAM, each Crucial DDR2100 and everything was working fine for like 7-8 months...

No floppy drives for my comp
yep before booting, I looked at the 12V rail in the BIOS.. everything looked fine ... like 11.86/11.79 V ..

Also, one other thing, now that I remember, a couple of times when the system locked up, I heard some knocking sound from the hard drive ... like constant clicking sound ...

Any ideas?