VOGONS


ECS boards not posting

Topic actions

First post, by bionicle_159

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I have the board K7S5A, I have tried four different power supplies of varying age and have not been able to get the board to post. The I know the CPU works (Athlon Xp 2600+) and the ram does as well. I have been using the voodoo 3 2000 pci primarily whilst trying to get it running but have also tried a rage 128 agp as well. The first time I powered it on the speaker went beep beep, beep beep and shut off. When I tried a different power supply it would stutter on power up (this one had 25 amps on the 5v rail) with the fan behaving erratically. I tried clearing the CMOS, then powering up and it would power on then instantly shut down. Tried a new battery and it would do the same thing. I turned it off for a few minutes to let the charge go from the caps and tried turning it on again and it now turns, on spins up and doesn’t beep or display anything on the screen.

Work Rig - Ryzen 2700X, 16GB 3200Mhz, MSI B450 LN91340, HD 7970 Ghz (I know...), SB 1500
XP Rig - C2Q Q6600, 4GB 800Mhz, GA-P31-DS3L , GTX 750Ti, SB 0820
98SE Rig - AthlonXP 1700, 512MB 166Mhz, NForce A7N8X-X, V3 2000 PCI, Aureal Vortex 2 SQ2500

Reply 1 of 14, by SSTV2

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

An used, cheap ECS board from capacitor plague era, that powers on erratically, what could it be, hmm... 🤣

Reply 2 of 14, by bionicle_159

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

The guy listed it booted into windows, the other board I have got into the bios and worked with the multiplier set correctly until I took the board out of the case

Work Rig - Ryzen 2700X, 16GB 3200Mhz, MSI B450 LN91340, HD 7970 Ghz (I know...), SB 1500
XP Rig - C2Q Q6600, 4GB 800Mhz, GA-P31-DS3L , GTX 750Ti, SB 0820
98SE Rig - AthlonXP 1700, 512MB 166Mhz, NForce A7N8X-X, V3 2000 PCI, Aureal Vortex 2 SQ2500

Reply 3 of 14, by Horun

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Yes look close at the caps for bloating, specifically the big ones near the ATX power connector and the VR chips. The green OST branded ones are well known to fail.

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 4 of 14, by bionicle_159

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I’ve checked the caps on the new board and they look fine and haven’t bulged, the one next to the atx connector was replaced so I don’t understand the issue since there is no big load on anything

Work Rig - Ryzen 2700X, 16GB 3200Mhz, MSI B450 LN91340, HD 7970 Ghz (I know...), SB 1500
XP Rig - C2Q Q6600, 4GB 800Mhz, GA-P31-DS3L , GTX 750Ti, SB 0820
98SE Rig - AthlonXP 1700, 512MB 166Mhz, NForce A7N8X-X, V3 2000 PCI, Aureal Vortex 2 SQ2500

Reply 5 of 14, by jamesp15

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Capacitors can go bad without leaking or bulging... if your comfortable/able to replace them it may well fix the board.
I have had a few "capacitor plague" era boards that had bad caps that didnt leak/pop/bulge/etc.

Reply 6 of 14, by Horun

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Which rev of the K7S5A is the board ? Rev's before v5 (v1.1 and 3.1) usually need a BIOS update to run the XP2400+ and 2600+ as the stock supplied BIOS only support up to about the 1800+ from my experience.

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 7 of 14, by bionicle_159

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
Horun wrote:

Which rev of the K7S5A is the board ? Rev's before v5 (v1.1 and 3.1) usually need a BIOS update to run the XP2400+ and 2600+ as the stock supplied BIOS only support up to about the 1800+ from my experience.

The old board was a v3.1 and had a bios labelled 165 whereas the new board’s bios is labelled 155 but I can’t find the Rev version as it isn’t in the same spot as the old board. I know the old board worked with the cpu even when the multiplier was set correctly.

Work Rig - Ryzen 2700X, 16GB 3200Mhz, MSI B450 LN91340, HD 7970 Ghz (I know...), SB 1500
XP Rig - C2Q Q6600, 4GB 800Mhz, GA-P31-DS3L , GTX 750Ti, SB 0820
98SE Rig - AthlonXP 1700, 512MB 166Mhz, NForce A7N8X-X, V3 2000 PCI, Aureal Vortex 2 SQ2500

Reply 8 of 14, by SSTV2

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
jamesp15 wrote:

Capacitors can go bad without leaking or bulging...

Definitely. Test capacitors around CPU's buck converter circuit first, at input and output stages. It's also possible that one of the el. caps is shunting to ground, in such case PSU won't even start due to overcurrent protection.

Reply 9 of 14, by bionicle_159

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Well the board only just arrived so I could enquire about getting a refund, hopefully he won’t ask for me to ship it back. But I am curious as to what the beep code meant, I can’t find a definitive answer online, plus I am wondering if I should try swapping the bios roms between the boards in case the old board was flashed to a newer version hence why it was able to start up before. I don’t have a multimeter and wouldn’t be able to get one shipped to me in time before the guarantee ends on the listing.

Work Rig - Ryzen 2700X, 16GB 3200Mhz, MSI B450 LN91340, HD 7970 Ghz (I know...), SB 1500
XP Rig - C2Q Q6600, 4GB 800Mhz, GA-P31-DS3L , GTX 750Ti, SB 0820
98SE Rig - AthlonXP 1700, 512MB 166Mhz, NForce A7N8X-X, V3 2000 PCI, Aureal Vortex 2 SQ2500

Reply 10 of 14, by Horun

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Yeah you can try swapping the roms, make sure to also clear cmos again before powering up. AND as always: make sure you disconnect the atx power connector before doing the rom swap. AMI BIOS: 4 short beeps = System timer failure.

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 11 of 14, by bionicle_159

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
Horun wrote:

Yeah you can try swapping the roms, make sure to also clear cmos again before powering up. AND as always: make sure you disconnect the atx power connector before doing the rom swap. AMI BIOS: 4 short beeps = System timer failure.

Yeah, I don’t think I’m gonna be able to get them roms out with the stuff I have. Thinking back to that beep code, were the battery holders known to have issues back then? Because they don’t look like they’re making the best contact with the board. I have tried pushing the positive clip against the battery to make a better connection on both boards but I don’t think my interference is helping with the conductivity of the CMOS. If that’s not the issue then I guess I can try getting in touch with the seller tomorrow, it just seems odd that it only stops working when it comes to me... especially when I go out of my way to keep things in good condition and safely handle them 😢

Work Rig - Ryzen 2700X, 16GB 3200Mhz, MSI B450 LN91340, HD 7970 Ghz (I know...), SB 1500
XP Rig - C2Q Q6600, 4GB 800Mhz, GA-P31-DS3L , GTX 750Ti, SB 0820
98SE Rig - AthlonXP 1700, 512MB 166Mhz, NForce A7N8X-X, V3 2000 PCI, Aureal Vortex 2 SQ2500

Reply 12 of 14, by deleted_nk

User metadata
bionicle_159 wrote:
Horun wrote:

Yeah you can try swapping the roms, make sure to also clear cmos again before powering up. AND as always: make sure you disconnect the atx power connector before doing the rom swap. AMI BIOS: 4 short beeps = System timer failure.

Yeah, I don’t think I’m gonna be able to get them roms out with the stuff I have. Thinking back to that beep code, were the battery holders known to have issues back then? Because they don’t look like they’re making the best contact with the board. I have tried pushing the positive clip against the battery to make a better connection on both boards but I don’t think my interference is helping with the conductivity of the CMOS. If that’s not the issue then I guess I can try getting in touch with the seller tomorrow, it just seems odd that it only stops working when it comes to me... especially when I go out of my way to keep things in good condition and safely handle them 😢

I've always found that the CMOS settings start to be lost on the K7S5A at a relatively good voltage, around 2.5v on the coin cell. Also something to note, the 2600+ CPUs weren't always compatible with the K7S5A (especially on an older BIOS), try with a cheap Duron or something instead just to be sure.

On caps, my NOS K7S5A worked perfectly for a good while, until recently when it started becoming very unstable. I strongly suspect the caps have gone bad, even though mine haven't bulged.

Reply 13 of 14, by Horun

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
bionicle_159 wrote:

Yeah, I don’t think I’m gonna be able to get them roms out with the stuff I have. :

A very small flat blade screw driver works well to pry the DIP style BIOS chips out but the board cannot be in a case, it seems one end is always a bit easier to to start on then the other.

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 14 of 14, by bionicle_159

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

The seller was considerate enough to give me a full refund for the board. Since I’ve got a ton of stuff going on with college and getting stuff for birthdays I’m gonna set both boards aside for now, when I do return to them it will be a polymer recap of the board, especially around the VRMs, hopefully from that I’ll get one working board. Until then I’ll be more than content with my ultimate WinXP machine I just built myself, got a hd7970 for really cheap and it’s been flying through every title! (GOG really is a lifesaver for people like me who don’t wanna track down ISOs and game cracks online)

Work Rig - Ryzen 2700X, 16GB 3200Mhz, MSI B450 LN91340, HD 7970 Ghz (I know...), SB 1500
XP Rig - C2Q Q6600, 4GB 800Mhz, GA-P31-DS3L , GTX 750Ti, SB 0820
98SE Rig - AthlonXP 1700, 512MB 166Mhz, NForce A7N8X-X, V3 2000 PCI, Aureal Vortex 2 SQ2500