K7s5a Problems

[Xionide]

This is my system:
Athlon 1.4
128 mb kinston value ram
40 gb 5400 rpm seagate hd
voodoo 33500 tv (i Know i know)
and a cd rom and floppy and modem and stuff

my problem is that i thoght my sound card was messed up (it was a creative sb live 5.1) cause like every time i moved my mouse or opened a window or sumthing it would make sounds. so i ripped it out of there and turned my onboard sound back on and it still does it. i dunno what this is but this is only part of the problem. almost every time i start up my machine it gives me bsod's or errors saying that the kernal has performed a ileagle operation and has to shut down. then it will run fine for a while and then all of my text will start looking like im in dos and i dunno if its my cheap power suply or if the cpu is running too hot or something. anybody know whats wrong?
im about to huck it out the window.:|

 

[osage]

have you installed the proper drivers for the board, video card etc: ? ? go with the latest from the SIS site for the board.
are you overclocked ?
were you overclocked when you did the OS install ? did you do a clean install ? what OS ? what video card ? what is your PSU ?

 

[Xionide]

i have installed the drivers for the board. ive never overclocked. wenever i do a clean install it does the same thing.i have windows me. and i tried 98 2nd edition and it did the same thing. i will try sis's website. and i think its like a kme psu

 

[kmmatney]

I had similar problems with one of my K7S5As, until I swapped out the memory stick with that from another computer (they both worked fine after that). Its hard to imagine that kingston value ram would cause a problem though.

 

[Xionide]

hey, im gonna try that cuz i had a micro atx and the way the board was layed out i accidentaly wacked my ram with my cd-rom the first day i got the board and when i switch cases i found out that it was rubbing the cdrom the whole time.

thanks

 

[Peter]

Your problem is the PCI VGA card. It eats way too much system bandwidth, knocking the sound data stream off its timing, no matter whether you're using chipset integrated sound or a PCI card. You ain't the first.

regards, Peter

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: Peter
Your problem is the PCI VGA card. It eats way too much system bandwidth, knocking the sound data stream off its timing, no matter whether you're using chipset integrated sound or a PCI card. You ain't the first.

regards, Peter

voodoo 33500 tv

I'm inclined to believe that might be
AGP but you are correct about the PCI vid issue..personal experience there..

 

[Xionide]

its a agp 2x card and its BEEFY with a svid in and out. with av cables in and out.and a fm tuner. and a tv tuner. but if this is why then if i get a new geforce 4 thats beefy will it do the same thing or do new cards not do that?

 

[Peter]

Voodoo chips aren't AGP at all. They are PCI chips that run in AGP slots too. I know it's hard to part with such a feature rich card ... but if you want to move on, then look at ATi's All-in-Wonder offerings.

I'd check about the power supply before you do that though.

regards, Peter

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: Peter
Voodoo chips aren't AGP at all. They are PCI chips that run in AGP slots too. I know it's hard to part with such a feature rich card ... but if you want to move on, then look at ATi's All-in-Wonder offerings.

I'd check about the power supply before you do that though.

regards, Peter

Once again Peter is correct. I have a voodoo3 3000 agp and I really liked that card, but it was getting a little long in the tooth. It may be agp slot but it doesn't use system ram just card ram. Replace it with an ATI all-in-wonder. If you are on a buget get an older 7500. The 8500dv is great but expensive.

 

[Xionide]

im gonna buy a new case,psu,and video card and i was thinking of the asus geforce3 ti200 v8200 deluxe is this a good card? or should i go for geforce4. does anyone no how to overclock a K7S5A?
wen my computer is doing one of its "im gonna freeze for tens seconds and theres nothing you can do about it" tantrums it seems that either my psu or my processor fans sound go's to a higher pitch is this a problem?

 

[teng029]

The K7S5A has a very limited BIOS. I had one of these boards and from what I remember, it would not let you adjust the FSB, I don't remember there being a whole lot of options for RAM timing either.

As for the problems with the K7S5A itself, I remember a PC i built using this board that had nothing but problems. I couldn't install an O/S without getting a blue screen and when I did manage to get Windows installed, apps would often crash and i would get bsods. I tried switching different components, but in the end it was just a bad board. The replacement board I got still works flawlessly.