moved

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
iamme

iamme

Lifer
Jul 21, 2001
21,058
3
0
Moved to Motherboard forurm

I just RMAed a mobo from Newegg. I installed it today and reinstalled Windows XP on my desktop. Everytime I try to load the video drivers from ATI's site (I've tried the 6037 and 6015), Windows XP will freeze when booting up. Right after the XP screen that has the blue bar scrolling across the bottom, the screen turns black and it freezes. After I do a system restore, it boots up fine. Anyone know what's going on?

My specs:

AMD Athlon XP 1700+
ECS K7S5A
256MB PC133 SDRAM
ATI Radeon 8500 (retail)
60GB Maxtor HD
20GB Maxtor HD
 
iamme

iamme

Lifer
Jul 21, 2001
21,058
3
0
Tried the beta drivers....

Flashed the BIOS....

Updated AGP drivers...

Nothing.

Can anyone shed some light before I return this f%@$ motherboard?
 
N

nRollo

Banned
Jan 11, 2002
10,460
0
0
I would return that "f%@$ motherboard". Your motherboard is NOT the place to go cheap, and ECS is CHEAP. I have one experience with an "Alton" motherboard, which I've heard is the same company as ECS, PC Chips, PC Wave, Matsonic, Amptron, etc..
I was a dumba$$ and thought "I'm getting a PII-333, how much difference can the motherboard make?" Well, when I finally did get the POS to work*, my Q2 fps were 30% lower than a real Intel board. Sold it quick, never made the same mistake again.

*I make my living in IT, so I'm not totally clueless on putting a box together. I get to help people troubleshoot their system a lot.
 
L

LongCoolMother

Diamond Member
Sep 4, 2001
5,675
0
0
very common problem in many cases. apparently when you boot into windows, windows switches to a different VGA device. that device was not your primary VGA, or the one connected to your monitor. to my knowledge, the K7S5A does NOT have a built in VGA, or does yours? and i assume you do not have another PCI graphics card in there? you updated the BIOS, make sure you disable "allocate IRQ to PCI VGA" and also set the "primary VGA" to "AGP". if it still doesnt work, press F8 during the boot screen (the screen with the blue bars). at least, i think it was F8, that will take you to the BOOT MENU. when you start it, start it using the safe VGA boot up procedure. NOT SAFE MODE, safe mode wont work, it will still use another allocated vga in windows. i forgot what the option was. hold on and let me check (i have win2k). ill be back and tell you. check the stuff i told you while i do it
 
L

LongCoolMother

Diamond Member
Sep 4, 2001
5,675
0
0
okay, yea, when you are in the boot menu for windows, choose "enable VGA" mode and see if it can go into windows. if it can, then you can fix the prob from there. if not, then its something else
 
iamme

iamme

Lifer
Jul 21, 2001
21,058
3
0


<< very common problem in many cases. apparently when you boot into windows, windows switches to a different VGA device. that device was not your primary VGA, or the one connected to your monitor. to my knowledge, the K7S5A does NOT have a built in VGA, or does yours? and i assume you do not have another PCI graphics card in there? you updated the BIOS, make sure you disable "allocate IRQ to PCI VGA" and also set the "primary VGA" to "AGP". if it still doesnt work, press F8 during the boot screen (the screen with the blue bars). at least, i think it was F8, that will take you to the BOOT MENU. when you start it, start it using the safe VGA boot up procedure. NOT SAFE MODE, safe mode wont work, it will still use another allocated vga in windows. i forgot what the option was. hold on and let me check (i have win2k). ill be back and tell you. check the stuff i told you while i do it >>



My K7S5A doesn't have onboard video...I tried all the BIOS settings to no avail :(

I can't get XP to boot after I've loaded the ATI drivers. I can only go back by using "Last Known Good Configuration" after I reboot.

Thanks for the help, though :)

Any other hints would be appreciated
 
L

LongCoolMother

Diamond Member
Sep 4, 2001
5,675
0
0
hmm, do you have any bootup sounds or loging sounds or anything? cuz sometimes, windows doesnt display but still continues to run even after the screen turns black. if you have auto login, and login sounds, leave your computer on for a lil after it the screen blacks out. see if you can hear them, if you cant, that means your computer probably essentailly crashed etc. but if you can that means your computer is still running, just not displaying on VGA. you get what im saying? its just an idea, you can try it if you want...
 
L

LongCoolMother

Diamond Member
Sep 4, 2001
5,675
0
0
oh, and yes, dont worry if you flash your mobo BIOS bad, u can use a floppy to recover it, no matter how bad you screw it up. (i am using a K7S5A) actually, im using the same mobo, the same vid card as you. except im running with a 1.4 Ghz tbird. you dont happen to be overclocking are you?
 
iamme

iamme

Lifer
Jul 21, 2001
21,058
3
0


<< oh, and yes, dont worry if you flash your mobo BIOS bad, u can use a floppy to recover it, no matter how bad you screw it up. (i am using a K7S5A) actually, im using the same mobo, the same vid card as you. except im running with a 1.4 Ghz tbird. you dont happen to be overclocking are you? >>



I've left my computer on the frozen screen for a while, hoping in vain that something would happen. No HD sounds or anything.

No overclocking either.

I was running this setup and it was fine until it just failed on me. I would turn on my computer and the BIOS screen wouldn't load up. Everything powered up (fans, HD, etc.), but nothing. So, I RMA'ed the mobo and CPU (since I wasn't sure what failed). I just got the new mobo and CPU today, and carefully put the system back together. I even reinstalled Windows XP, just to give myself a "fresh" start. First thing I did after the OS install was load the ATI drivers (the screen refresh was painfully slow). Windows wouldn't boot up. I did a "Last Known Good Config" and it was back running. I did a Windows Update and flashed the BIOS. Everything was fine. Then I loaded the ATI drivers and the same thing happened.

Any chance it's my video card? I wish I had another one to test it out....
 
iamme

iamme

Lifer
Jul 21, 2001
21,058
3
0
This sucks :( I waited so long without a computer, while Newegg processed my RMA :(
 
L

LongCoolMother

Diamond Member
Sep 4, 2001
5,675
0
0
i dont think its your video card, actually, i dont think its hardware at all... i remember there was a k7s5a official thread around here a while ago. there were many ppl experiencing AGP problems..
 
N

nnnyyy

Diamond Member
Nov 9, 2000
3,370
0
76
Well just to shed some light I have the exact same setup, k7s5a, xp1600, retail 8500, ddr and it works fine for me. Maybe it's your motherboard. Seems like there are some bad batches of k7s5as.
 
N

nRollo

Banned
Jan 11, 2002
10,460
0
0
"Seems like there are some bad batches of k7s5as. "
All of them?
You get what you pay for. If people raved about them, reviewers liked them, don't you think ECS boards might be priced more in line with name brand boards?
 
iamme

iamme

Lifer
Jul 21, 2001
21,058
3
0
Well, I'm able to load Windows w/ the "Enable VGA" option. It loads Windows in 640x480 8 bit color mode. If I try to increase any of the settings, I get a black screen with a blinking cursor in the upper left corner. What can I do once my computer is booted in "Enable VGA" mode to troubleshoot?

 
iamme

iamme

Lifer
Jul 21, 2001
21,058
3
0
I uninstallled the drivers and rebooted. Windows starts up again and the wizard automatically loads the drivers without a reboot. All seems well, but looking at the settings it says 640x480, when the screen looks to be at 1024x768. Any attempt to change the settings and I get a black screen. Oh yeah, if I reboot, it won't work either.

Any good motherboard recommendations to go with my Athlon XP 1700+? :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom