K7S5A, batterie Problem

[StoneJit]

Hi guys

I have a computer that I change the bios Battery 3 time last 4 month, anyone have a clue on this?

here are the specs

K7S5A Pro (rev 5.0)
AMD athlon XP 2200+
256meg non name ram
40gig maxtor
52X cd
floppy
SB live 5.1

I also have a USB hardware Key that one of the program installed need to start

thanks for any help

 

[StoneJit]

any idea someone?

 

[LTC8K6]

What caused you to change the battery?

 

[StoneJit]

I dont know, I changed it because the bios setting where not saved when I shutdown the computer.

 

[daveybrat]

I'll give you an easy answer to this problem.
Remove motherboard from the case, and throw in nearby garbage can.

Go online and buy a new motherboard from MSI, Gigabyte, or Asus.

I've junked so many of those ECS K7S5A motherboards due to bios resetting and battery
not holding settings. It was a known issue in a lot of those boards.

There is not fix for it, which is why i junked mine.
You won't have those problems with any name brand board.

 

[Steve]

How good is that power supply unit in the system? What's the brand name and advertised wattage?

 

[LTC8K6]

Here is a forum for that board. You can probably get more help there. Make sure you are using a good quality CR2032 battery like a Duracell.

K7S5A forum

 

[daveybrat]

You know it's pretty bad when there's a whole forum dedicated to that board and how to overcome it's "issues"......LOL

 

[StoneJit]

Originally posted by: daveybrat
I'll give you an easy answer to this problem.
Remove motherboard from the case, and throw in nearby garbage can.

Go online and buy a new motherboard from MSI, Gigabyte, or Asus.

I've junked so many of those ECS K7S5A motherboards due to bios resetting and battery
not holding settings. It was a known issue in a lot of those boards.

There is not fix for it, which is why i junked mine.
You won't have those problems with any name brand board.

if it was my bord It would already be in the garbage
in fact it's my grand mother rig, she use it for downloading (yeah she is 75 old and she d/l) seam blueprints.. her seam machine is equiped with a floppy disk

Originally posted by: sm8000
How good is that power supply unit in the system? What's the brand name and advertised wattage?

PSU is working good
it's a CODEGEN (dont know if it's good) advertised wattage is 350W



(sorry if I have some bad sentences, english is not my first language and I'am not using it everyday for writing)

 

[Steve]

Codegen is about the worst brand on the market. Get a better unit from a good name like Antec, Enermax, or Sparkle (also called Fortron). There are others, even Allied is good. The problem lies in a deficient +5VSB (standby) rail, if I remember correctly.

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by: daveybrat
You know it's pretty bad when there's a whole forum dedicated to that board and how to overcome it's "issues"......LOL

It has its own forum because its the best-selling motherboard ever. More than 10 million sold.

 

[StoneJit]

Originally posted by: sm8000
Codegen is about the worst brand on the market. Get a better unit from a good name like Antec, Enermax, or Sparkle (also called Fortron). There are others, even Allied is good. The problem lies in a deficient +5VSB (standby) rail, if I remember correctly.

and you think that this is causing the problem?

 

[StoneJit]

Originally posted by: LTC8K6
Here is a forum for that board. You can probably get more help there. Make sure you are using a good quality CR2032 battery like a Duracell.

K7S5A forum

I tried some of their idea like cleaning the battery contact, but they where already clean, I also make sure erverything was making contact.

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by: StoneJit

Originally posted by: sm8000
Codegen is about the worst brand on the market. Get a better unit from a good name like Antec, Enermax, or Sparkle (also called Fortron). There are others, even Allied is good. The problem lies in a deficient +5VSB (standby) rail, if I remember correctly.

and you think that this is causing the problem?

Absolutely. Put in a good name PSU and see if the problem goes away.

 

[StoneJit]

Originally posted by: sm8000

Originally posted by: StoneJit

Originally posted by: sm8000
Codegen is about the worst brand on the market. Get a better unit from a good name like Antec, Enermax, or Sparkle (also called Fortron). There are others, even Allied is good. The problem lies in a deficient +5VSB (standby) rail, if I remember correctly.

and you think that this is causing the problem?

Absolutely. Put in a good name PSU and see if the problem goes away.

the problem is that I dont know when it's going to appen next...

I have a old ATX PSU.. AUSTIN 250W.. is it enough for a AMD athlon XP2200? 1HD, 1CD, gforce2 mx400

I can switch with this one... but that's all I have

 

[amdskip]

I would say no.

 

[StoneJit]

it's not working.. 250W is to low I guess

anyways, thanks for help, I upgraded to last bios, and changed the battery, I guess I will have to change it in 1 month.. but I will really know when the battery die again..

I do really hate problem that take so much time to repeat

 

[Steve]

That PSU won't cut it either. 250W isn't enough, and the name Austin isn't particularly recognized. Get a good one, problem solved.

 

[StoneJit]

to tink about PSU.. why is bad voltage will affect the Bios battery?

 

[dderolph]

K7S5A Pro (rev 5.0)
AMD athlon XP 2200+
256meg non name ram
40gig maxtor
52X cd
floppy
SB live 5.1

A 250W PSU should be adequate for that. I've got a 250W in my system, which actually requires more power than your system; compared to what you have, I have 2-256MB RAM, and two optical drives, and two video cards (AGP and PCI). http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/ has a Power Supply calculator. Use it and you'll see that 250W is quite adequate.

I also have a K7S5A Pro; I've had it since March 2004. No battery problems, but Irecall reading other posts about the problem. Don't know what to tell you on that problem.

 

[daveybrat]

Don't waste your time on a new power supply. I thought the same thing when i had my problems, so i had upgraded to an Antec 350Watt back then and guess what?? Same problems. Battery would reset about once a week or every 2 weeks on average.

that's the only ECS board i've ever had that many problems with. It may have been the best selling motherboard ever, but that doesn't mean i'd ever touch it again.

Use the money you'd spend on a power supply to get a cheap new motherboard.

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by: StoneJit
to tink about PSU.. why is bad voltage will affect the Bios battery?

The CMOS settings are stored in the battery. When you turn off the computer, it doesn't really go all the way off - it's more of a "soft standby" mode, and this is where the 5vSB rail comes into play. If it's not good enough to maintain the CMOS settings in the battery they'll revert to default, the same way removing the battery resets the BIOS settings.


The K7S5A will work just fine as long as you have good components - PSU, RAM, CPU and cooling all working the way they're supposed to. If all of these are definitely good and you still have problems, well then you may have a bad board. It did ship over ten million, so there's bound to be a few bad ones. Put it this way: Babe Ruth was a home run leader and a strikeout leader.

 

[LTC8K6]

The battery maintains the CMOS. There is no 5volt standby when the computer is unplugged.

 

[Steve]

When did the computer become unplugged???

 

[LTC8K6]

Will the computer keep it's settings if I turn it off without a battery in it? We know it won't if I unplug it from the wall.

I am under the impression that the 5volt standby maintains power for things like wake on ring and wake on lan, besides allowing the power supply to know that you have pressed the power on button. I never thought it had anything to do with the CMOS settings.