K7S5A Pro won't post...or kinda

[Elvis2]

I just got a used ECS K7S5A Pro from a fellow trader and when it posts, it auto detects the drives and then just stops and leaves a flashing cursor. At first it would go as far as giving me the error message that it had the wrong CMOS settings and that the CMOS battery was low and to hit the F1 key for setup or F2 to load defaults and continue. Now, I don't even get that. It won't allow me to enter the bios by hitting the delete key . It doesn't respond to the keyboard. I've tried clearing the CMOS but nada...no difference.
any ideas?
Tia

 

[TeeJay1952]

He is dead Jim!

 

[fireontheway]

how about removing and reinstalling the CMOS battery?

 

[Markfw]

What kind of PSU do you have ?

 

[drag]

In the k7s5a there is a jumper that you can use to clear the CMOS.

On my old motherboard it's by the PCI slots (I think). I suppose you could find a manual somewere that will show you the location. Buy moving the jumper one pin over and then attempting to power up the computer (it shouldn't power up at all, but act completely dead) it will completely reset the bios. Then put the jumper back and it should boot up.

This happenned to me a few times. It's irritating. Usually it would happen when you would tell the BIOS the harddrive setup instead of setting it for autodetection (specifing drives speeds up the bootup a little bit), and then changing the drives around would confuse it and it would fail to boot. BIOS bug.

Hope thats just it.

 

[Elvis2]

thanks for the responses

it has a 400 watt ps. there was a p3 450/abit be6-2/voodoo5 in there before that ran flawlessly.

iv'e tried several times to clear the cmos moving the jumper and tried powering up once with no effect. i haven't tried removing the battery.

i have a new 2400+ installed and it see's it as a 1800+. maybe the bios doesn't recognize it? it does the proper memory count tho...

 

[n7]

Oh god, i hate that board.

I actually just bought it to replace my old one which died, & sadly, it was the only board i could find locally that supports my SDRAM sticks.
I am having a hell of a time getting it to work.
Mine is doing the same sort of thing, my 1700+ will only show up as 1100MHz (CPU & RAM at 100 MHz each instead of 133MHz), & if i change it to 133, it won't even post, & i have to reset the CMOS.
I eventually got pissed off i tried an alternative bios, Honey X's tweaked version, & it actually does recognize my CPU & RAM speed correctly.
However, it will only see one stick of RAM :|

And better yet, it will not recognize my CD-RW in Windows now.

Anyway, i recommend checking that you have the latest bios, & then if that stil doesn't work, mebbe try Honey X's like i did.

Linky

 

[Elvis2]

Anyway, i recommend checking that you have the latest bios, & then if that stil doesn't work, mebbe try Honey X's like i did.

yeah but...i can't even get it to a point where i can flash the bios
i built by wife a comp using this board with a 800 duron then a 1700+ using both ddr and sdr (alternated ram depending on what i needed for another system. she never noticed the difference ) running XP home and it's been rock solid. in fact, i've used several of these boards without a problem.
newegg's going to rma it anyway.

 

[n7]

Sorry i misread your first post.

Good to hear the board does work sometimes, since it's really frustrating me.

 

[DieHardware]

Did you clear CMOS with the PSU unplugged? Some MB's won't clear if they're still powered. As for n7's problem, memtest86 your RAM for 10+ passes, you want zero errors.

 

[n7]

I will have to try that when i get mine back home.

However, the problem of only one stick working with the Honey X bios is mentioned, so that's not surpirsing.

However, do you know why the official bios won't let my CPU & RAM run at their correct speeds?

 

[DieHardware]

n7 is your RAM PC133? If the RAM is PC100 and BIOS is set to run the RAM from it's SPD settings, that would be a reason why it won't see the stick when it POST's at 133MHz.

 

[0roo0roo]

egads. never buy ecs used. its bad enough new. sometimes it works, sometimes they don't. store exchange is good. that board sometimes won't do 133mhz on both or either sdram slot. its happened to me. worked with ddr, but with sdram, 100mhz was max it would take. annoying as f*ck. not that its horrible. with socket pin mod i oc'd a 1800+ to 2.4ghz with socket pin mod on my k7s5a

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: DieHardware
n7 is your RAM PC133? If the RAM is PC100 and BIOS is set to run the RAM from it's SPD settings, that would be a reason why it won't see the stick when it POST's at 133MHz.

No my RAM is PC-133.

I don't really have any great desire to run an alternate bios, but since i couldn't even get my the official one to work at all, i figured why not...though now that means less RAM working.

Here's a quote from the Readme you get with the Honey X bios:

"Q: Is there a problem by using 2 sticks SDRAM at 133Mhz and can it be fixed?

A: Yes there is one. This Mobo is known to freeze a lot or beeing unstable for a lot of people who use 2 sticks and there is no magic fix for this because it´s due a voltage drop by using 2 sticks and on some boards this drop is to high to get them working stable.. You can use only one stick SDRAM, move over to DDRAM, try to run at 138Mhz or stay at 100Mhz. The 138Mhz setting works somehow for some people but no idea why. Maybe due a higher power consumation their PSU´s are giving higher voltages."

 

[Zepper]

Go to http://www.ocworkbench.com and read their FAQ and guides on the K7S5. If you are using DDR memory, you can get a brand new Iwill K7S3-N for $36. +SH at compgeeks.com. It has the SiS 748 chipset and Iwill is well known for making stable boards - if not as fast as some others based on the same chipset. It has the P4 power connector for the CPU and that alone will make it more stable than most ECS mobos.
.bh.

 

[DieHardware]

Originally posted by: n7

Originally posted by: DieHardware
n7 is your RAM PC133? If the RAM is PC100 and BIOS is set to run the RAM from it's SPD settings, that would be a reason why it won't see the stick when it POST's at 133MHz.

No my RAM is PC-133.

I don't really have any great desire to run an alternate bios, but since i couldn't even get my the official one to work at all, i figured why not...though now that means less RAM working.

Here's a quote from the Readme you get with the Honey X bios:

"Q: Is there a problem by using 2 sticks SDRAM at 133Mhz and can it be fixed?

A: Yes there is one. This Mobo is known to freeze a lot or beeing unstable for a lot of people who use 2 sticks and there is no magic fix for this because it´s due a voltage drop by using 2 sticks and on some boards this drop is to high to get them working stable.. You can use only one stick SDRAM, move over to DDRAM, try to run at 138Mhz or stay at 100Mhz. The 138Mhz setting works somehow for some people but no idea why. Maybe due a higher power consumation their PSU´s are giving higher voltages."

I've built a lot of systems over the years with this board and never had problems when using good quality RAM. memtest86+ your RAM to rule it out.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: n7
However, do you know why the official bios won't let my CPU & RAM run at their correct speeds?

The K7S5A developed a reputation for wanting a fair amount of 3.3V + 5V power. What's the combined 3.3V + 5V rating on your 400W PSU there? Is it a good brand of unit? I ran mine on an Antec TruePower430, which has something like 270W of 3.3V + 5V since they're generated independently on TruePowers. ~200W would be a good rating, though.

Also, I hope you got your heatsink on this way, sorry if that is a well-DUH! thing to you

 

[n7]

Thanx for all the suggestions...& well, i don't know why this would make such a difference, but i reinstalled Windows, & voila, everything's working great, except that my HDD (IBM Deskstar 60 GB - i know it's a horrible one) is only showing half it's size .


I still will run memtest on my RAM to check it out, but i am wondering if there are any good programs for detecting bad sectors on HDDs, since Windows error-checker isn't able to access it.

 

[DieHardware]

Did you set the hardware up in BIOS? Set BIOS to defaults. RAM speed. Is the HDD size detected properly at the POST screen? Maybe it's partitioned and one partition isn't formatted. Memtest86+ that RAM.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: DieHardware

Originally posted by: n7

Originally posted by: DieHardware
n7 is your RAM PC133? If the RAM is PC100 and BIOS is set to run the RAM from it's SPD settings, that would be a reason why it won't see the stick when it POST's at 133MHz.

No my RAM is PC-133.

I don't really have any great desire to run an alternate bios, but since i couldn't even get my the official one to work at all, i figured why not...though now that means less RAM working.

Here's a quote from the Readme you get with the Honey X bios:

"Q: Is there a problem by using 2 sticks SDRAM at 133Mhz and can it be fixed?

A: Yes there is one. This Mobo is known to freeze a lot or beeing unstable for a lot of people who use 2 sticks and there is no magic fix for this because it´s due a voltage drop by using 2 sticks and on some boards this drop is to high to get them working stable.. You can use only one stick SDRAM, move over to DDRAM, try to run at 138Mhz or stay at 100Mhz. The 138Mhz setting works somehow for some people but no idea why. Maybe due a higher power consumation their PSU´s are giving higher voltages."

I've built a lot of systems over the years with this board and never had problems when using good quality RAM. memtest86+ your RAM to rule it out.

heh, well most people seem to buy this board as an upgrade. and even with non sh8tty ram i've had 5 outa 5 systems reject double plain sdram at 133. all ran fine with ddr. go figure