My friend is having a problem...

Jan 7, 2003, 04:24 PM

with the computer he is building. It has an ECS k7s5a mobo, Athlon XP 2100+, 256 PC133, VOODOO 3000 W/TV-out (my old videocard (god what a leech)), maxtor 30 GB 7200 RPM UDMA-133 Hard Drive, and he is using integrated sound.

So, his problem is that when he tries to install operating systems on it (even win98) there are errors when he is installing it. Some of them are the BSOD, he will sometimes get it installed and then get illegal operations when installing drivers or when it is detecting hardware. When he is installing XP he will finish copying files and goes to when it says "Starting Windows" he will get the XP BSOD. He thinks that it may be his hard drive but i know it's not since the same stuff happened on his old 10 GIG (he thought getting a new HDD would help...) and THAT was from compaq. So you KNOW it was good... so anyway. If any of you can think of a solution or what the problem is; that'd be great.

tigerarmyAFI · Jan 7, 2003, 04:35 PM

the k7s5a HATES sdram, due to the fact that its a badly built piece of poo...tell him to try using higher quality ram, some ddr, or chucking the mobo into a skip and buying a decent one (even the pcchips m810 is FAR superior)

Jan 7, 2003, 04:38 PM

actually, i have the k7s5a along with a bunch of other people who like it. And it is a good motherboard. Now i will admit he needs different ram... but just to let you know... if you got more ram, your performance would be way better, i should know.

tigerarmyAFI · Jan 7, 2003, 04:43 PM

well i went thru a bunch of those boards due to various instabilty, incompatabilty issues and got sick of them and just brutally murdered my last one and went out and bought a decent board, never had a problem since...

and FYI i dont need anymore ram (although i would like some), im running win2k which leaves me with plenty of ram to do whatever i wish, i have never had any speed problems...

Jan 7, 2003, 04:45 PM

o, ok. Most people have XP on DH. So i assumed you did to. But i don't have any compatibility issues on my computer and neither do a lot of people on here. So our mobo's are fine for us

tigerarmyAFI · Jan 7, 2003, 04:56 PM

i did use xp for about a year, until i realised all the features i like are available in 2k, without all the bloat.

but back to the pint of the thread, from my own experience i can definitely say that the sdram is the cause of the problems, as i had EXACTLY the same probs with my ecs boards, which was (temporarily, at least) solved by purchasing the DDR in my sig..

Jan 7, 2003, 04:58 PM

well i didn't always have ddr but i DID always have my mobo. And i never had those problems on my SDram. so although it COULD be, i am not to sure it is

tigerarmyAFI · Jan 7, 2003, 05:02 PM

did you use branded or generic sdram? and same for your friends ram, is it branded or generic?

Jan 7, 2003, 05:03 PM

i actually don't know... i got it from my dad and it was PC-100, and i don't know about my friends

tigerarmyAFI · Jan 7, 2003, 05:05 PM

there is a well documented incompatabilty with unbranded, generic sdram modules on the k7s5a, i would definitely look into it..

also, what kind of psu is being used in your friends system?

Jan 7, 2003, 05:06 PM

i dont know, i can't go over there and he doesn't really know very much about computers

tigerarmyAFI · Jan 7, 2003, 05:09 PM

ok, well if it is a cheapo 300w thing, you could try switching it with a higher wattage psu, as when i built my bro's pc (on a m810, but i think its still relevant) i couldnt get windows to install, it just kept hard rebooting on me, so i went out and bought a cheap 450w psu (Â£25uk) and bam, problems gone....

Jan 7, 2003, 05:09 PM

ok, i will keep that in mind

Vampyromaniac · Jan 8, 2003, 03:32 PM

I installed Win98 on my k7s5a with SDRAM also, and the RAM was PC100 running at 133MHz. No problems at all.

tigerarmyAFI · Jan 8, 2003, 04:12 PM

yeah, you can get lucky with ecs boards, but a lot of them are buggy as hell, so its a gamble.. each one of them i owned had a different problem, and i never did see a good one, but i have heard some success stories (i used to frequent k7s5a-related forums when i was going thru that nightmareish time), yet far too many prople buying these boards had very similar problems, it cant exactly be a coincidence.

Vampyromaniac · Jan 8, 2003, 05:29 PM

Well, every review I've read had good things to say. Heh, I wonder what the forums would look like if everyone with a GOOD experience posted, also.

Jan 8, 2003, 09:50 PM

Update: He paid $50 to someone to install Windows XP. And all they did was instal it, they didn't do anything special to do it. they just installed it the right way. My friend will NEVER live that down. N-E-V-E-R

JavaFox · Jan 9, 2003, 10:05 AM

I have owned two K7S5As. My best friend has one, and I've used at least that board on at least two other instances, besides. And my experience with those five K7S5As? They are fine. They are pretty good boards.

misterman87 · Jan 10, 2003, 08:43 PM

Well it sounds like your memory but does ECS boards are alittle tricky to setup sometimes thats my own opinion LOL

Jan 7, 2003, 04:24 PM	#1
generalstupid Guest Posts: n/a	My friend is having a problem... with the computer he is building. It has an ECS k7s5a mobo, Athlon XP 2100+, 256 PC133, VOODOO 3000 W/TV-out (my old videocard (god what a leech)), maxtor 30 GB 7200 RPM UDMA-133 Hard Drive, and he is using integrated sound. So, his problem is that when he tries to install operating systems on it (even win98) there are errors when he is installing it. Some of them are the BSOD, he will sometimes get it installed and then get illegal operations when installing drivers or when it is detecting hardware. When he is installing XP he will finish copying files and goes to when it says "Starting Windows" he will get the XP BSOD. He thinks that it may be his hard drive but i know it's not since the same stuff happened on his old 10 GIG (he thought getting a new HDD would help...) and THAT was from compaq. So you KNOW it was good... so anyway. If any of you can think of a solution or what the problem is; that'd be great.

Jan 7, 2003, 04:35 PM	#2
tigerarmyAFI DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: England Posts: 111 Rep Power: 0	the k7s5a HATES sdram, due to the fact that its a badly built piece of poo...tell him to try using higher quality ram, some ddr, or chucking the mobo into a skip and buying a decent one (even the pcchips m810 is FAR superior) __________________ AMD AthlonXP 1800+ ThoroughBred B JIUHB @ 2137MHz Geforce4 Ti 4200 128Mb @ 310/600 (ASUS V8420) ABIT KX-7 333 v1.1 512Mb Micron PC2700 DDR Creative Live! 5.1 Aircooled (45c Full load)

Jan 7, 2003, 04:43 PM	#4
tigerarmyAFI DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: England Posts: 111 Rep Power: 0	well i went thru a bunch of those boards due to various instabilty, incompatabilty issues and got sick of them and just brutally murdered my last one and went out and bought a decent board, never had a problem since... and FYI i dont need anymore ram (although i would like some), im running win2k which leaves me with plenty of ram to do whatever i wish, i have never had any speed problems... __________________ AMD AthlonXP 1800+ ThoroughBred B JIUHB @ 2137MHz Geforce4 Ti 4200 128Mb @ 310/600 (ASUS V8420) ABIT KX-7 333 v1.1 512Mb Micron PC2700 DDR Creative Live! 5.1 Aircooled (45c Full load)

Jan 7, 2003, 04:56 PM	#6
tigerarmyAFI DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: England Posts: 111 Rep Power: 0	i did use xp for about a year, until i realised all the features i like are available in 2k, without all the bloat. but back to the pint of the thread, from my own experience i can definitely say that the sdram is the cause of the problems, as i had EXACTLY the same probs with my ecs boards, which was (temporarily, at least) solved by purchasing the DDR in my sig.. __________________ AMD AthlonXP 1800+ ThoroughBred B JIUHB @ 2137MHz Geforce4 Ti 4200 128Mb @ 310/600 (ASUS V8420) ABIT KX-7 333 v1.1 512Mb Micron PC2700 DDR Creative Live! 5.1 Aircooled (45c Full load)

Jan 7, 2003, 05:02 PM	#8
tigerarmyAFI DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: England Posts: 111 Rep Power: 0	did you use branded or generic sdram? and same for your friends ram, is it branded or generic? __________________ AMD AthlonXP 1800+ ThoroughBred B JIUHB @ 2137MHz Geforce4 Ti 4200 128Mb @ 310/600 (ASUS V8420) ABIT KX-7 333 v1.1 512Mb Micron PC2700 DDR Creative Live! 5.1 Aircooled (45c Full load)

Jan 7, 2003, 04:38 PM	#3
generalstupid Guest Posts: n/a	actually, i have the k7s5a along with a bunch of other people who like it. And it is a good motherboard. Now i will admit he needs different ram... but just to let you know... if you got more ram, your performance would be way better, i should know.

Jan 7, 2003, 04:45 PM	#5
generalstupid Guest Posts: n/a	o, ok. Most people have XP on DH. So i assumed you did to. But i don't have any compatibility issues on my computer and neither do a lot of people on here. So our mobo's are fine for us

Jan 7, 2003, 04:58 PM	#7
generalstupid Guest Posts: n/a	well i didn't always have ddr but i DID always have my mobo. And i never had those problems on my SDram. so although it COULD be, i am not to sure it is

Jan 7, 2003, 05:03 PM	#9
generalstupid Guest Posts: n/a	i actually don't know... i got it from my dad and it was PC-100, and i don't know about my friends

Jan 7, 2003, 05:05 PM	#10
tigerarmyAFI DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: England Posts: 111 Rep Power: 0	there is a well documented incompatabilty with unbranded, generic sdram modules on the k7s5a, i would definitely look into it.. also, what kind of psu is being used in your friends system? __________________ AMD AthlonXP 1800+ ThoroughBred B JIUHB @ 2137MHz Geforce4 Ti 4200 128Mb @ 310/600 (ASUS V8420) ABIT KX-7 333 v1.1 512Mb Micron PC2700 DDR Creative Live! 5.1 Aircooled (45c Full load)

Jan 7, 2003, 05:06 PM	#11
generalstupid Guest Posts: n/a	i dont know, i can't go over there and he doesn't really know very much about computers

Jan 7, 2003, 05:09 PM	#12
tigerarmyAFI DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: England Posts: 111 Rep Power: 0	ok, well if it is a cheapo 300w thing, you could try switching it with a higher wattage psu, as when i built my bro's pc (on a m810, but i think its still relevant) i couldnt get windows to install, it just kept hard rebooting on me, so i went out and bought a cheap 450w psu (Â£25uk) and bam, problems gone.... __________________ AMD AthlonXP 1800+ ThoroughBred B JIUHB @ 2137MHz Geforce4 Ti 4200 128Mb @ 310/600 (ASUS V8420) ABIT KX-7 333 v1.1 512Mb Micron PC2700 DDR Creative Live! 5.1 Aircooled (45c Full load)

Jan 8, 2003, 03:32 PM	#14
Vampyromaniac confutatis maledictis Join Date: May 2002 Location: somewhere dark Posts: 5,974 Rep Power: 60 System Specs	I installed Win98 on my k7s5a with SDRAM also, and the RAM was PC100 running at 133MHz. No problems at all. __________________ *Digitalis 3.3* Athlon 64 3000 // ASUS K8V SE Deluxe // 1024MB PC3200 (2-2-2-10 1T) ATI All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro // 20" Dell 2005FPW (DVI) M-Audio Revo 7.1 + Philips Acoustic Edge // Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 320/16 Western Digital WD3200KS + 120/8 Seagate 7200.7 NEC ND-3550A 16x DVD±RW + Lite-On 52x24x CD-RW Antec Sonata case // 480W Antec TruePower personal bests \|\| Aq'3: 46796 \| 3D'01: 20461 \| 3D'03: 6336 \| 3D'05: 2677 \| PC'04: 4605 \| PC'02: 7691,9092,1250

Jan 8, 2003, 04:12 PM	#15
tigerarmyAFI DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: England Posts: 111 Rep Power: 0	yeah, you can get lucky with ecs boards, but a lot of them are buggy as hell, so its a gamble.. each one of them i owned had a different problem, and i never did see a good one, but i have heard some success stories (i used to frequent k7s5a-related forums when i was going thru that nightmareish time), yet far too many prople buying these boards had very similar problems, it cant exactly be a coincidence. __________________ AMD AthlonXP 1800+ ThoroughBred B JIUHB @ 2137MHz Geforce4 Ti 4200 128Mb @ 310/600 (ASUS V8420) ABIT KX-7 333 v1.1 512Mb Micron PC2700 DDR Creative Live! 5.1 Aircooled (45c Full load)

Jan 8, 2003, 05:29 PM	#16
Vampyromaniac confutatis maledictis Join Date: May 2002 Location: somewhere dark Posts: 5,974 Rep Power: 60 System Specs	Well, every review I've read had good things to say. Heh, I wonder what the forums would look like if everyone with a GOOD experience posted, also. __________________ *Digitalis 3.3* Athlon 64 3000 // ASUS K8V SE Deluxe // 1024MB PC3200 (2-2-2-10 1T) ATI All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro // 20" Dell 2005FPW (DVI) M-Audio Revo 7.1 + Philips Acoustic Edge // Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 320/16 Western Digital WD3200KS + 120/8 Seagate 7200.7 NEC ND-3550A 16x DVD±RW + Lite-On 52x24x CD-RW Antec Sonata case // 480W Antec TruePower personal bests \|\| Aq'3: 46796 \| 3D'01: 20461 \| 3D'03: 6336 \| 3D'05: 2677 \| PC'04: 4605 \| PC'02: 7691,9092,1250

Jan 8, 2003, 09:50 PM	#17
generalstupid Guest Posts: n/a	Update: He paid $50 to someone to install Windows XP. And all they did was instal it, they didn't do anything special to do it. they just installed it the right way. My friend will NEVER live that down. N-E-V-E-R

Jan 9, 2003, 10:05 AM	#18
JavaFox E Pluribus Unum Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 3,203 Rep Power: 0	I have owned two K7S5As. My best friend has one, and I've used at least that board on at least two other instances, besides. And my experience with those five K7S5As? They are fine. They are pretty good boards.

Jan 10, 2003, 08:43 PM	#19
misterman87 DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: New Jersey Posts: 52 Rep Power: 0	Well it sounds like your memory but does ECS boards are alittle tricky to setup sometimes thats my own opinion LOL