ECS Motherboards

[php_professor]

I just bought an ECS 915P-A motherboard. When I plugged in my new Radeon X800 Pro video card, I got no signal. The store told me that the card is good, though, and that my mobo is to blame.

I can use old nvidia cards with this mobo with no problems. However, if I plug in a GeForce 5900XT *and* my USB hub at the same time, the computer reboots over and over before getting to Windows.

I can't find ANY BIOS updates for this board....hopefully because it's so new. The date on my BIOS says June 2004. It's almost impossible to contact ECS. Can anyone tell me what they know about ECS, the quality of their motherboards, and if there are known issues with the newer video cards? BTW, I'm using AGP cards for now. This board can handle both AGP and PCI-Express.

Thanks,
Matt

 

[etp777]

Never had good luck with ecs baords, used to be at over a 50% return rate. WOn't ever use them again.

 

[o1die]

What brand and rating of power supply are you using?

 

[ksoth]

I've had bad luck with ECS as well.

--
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<A HREF="http://images.southparkstudios.com/media/video/707/slurpees.mov" target="_new">South Park</A>

 

[Cybercraig]

Nail on the head! Works with lower power card, stick in high powered card and add sudden USB draw and wham, short volts/amps on one or more rails. What are the AMP ratings on each rail of this power supply? 3.3v/5v/12v

Abit IS7 - 2.8C @ 3.4ghz - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - Yellowtail Merlot

 

[php_professor]

I'm not so sure it's a power issue. I have a 500watt power supply. Plus, that USB hub has it's own power cord. In fact, I can take the four USB devices from that hub and plug them all into my mobo...and the problem will be solved.

The USB stuff had no effect when I had the X800 video card, though.

Here's the info on my power supply:

Brand: PCMCIS
Maximum Power: 500W
Input Voltage: 115/230V AC
Input Frequency Range: 60/50Hz
Input Current: 10/5A
Output: +3.3V@35A, +5V@61A, +12V@28A, -5V@0.5A, -12V@0.5A, +5VSB@2A

I'm not sure what "rails" are or how they correspond to these numbers...

Thanks,
Matt

 

[endyen]

ECS makes mobos mainly for whitebox oems. The boards do have a high failure rate, but 90%+ are reasonable.
You may have a psu that says 500 watts, but I've never heard of them. Google for mbm5, and load it. Keep an eye on the +3.3v, +5v, and +12v indicators. If they go down by 10% , ie 3v, 4.5v or 10.8v, your psu is crap.

 

[khha4113]

I've had bad luck with ECS as well.

So do I. When I booted my ECS mobo (N2U400-A) up with Ati Radeon 9600XT, the screen was filled up with all unrecognized texts, but it booted OK with my old Nvidia GeForce3.
However, it still ran unstable (crashed a lot) until I got rid of it and changed to MSI K7N2 Delta-L mobo.

Good or Bad have no meaning at all, depends on what your point of view is.

 

[Crashman]

I don't trust generic power supplies to maintain stable voltages under ANY load.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[php_professor]

According to MBM, the voltage readings for my 500w power supply are

+3.3 = 3.30 V
+5.0 = 4.95 V
+12.0 = 10.11 V

That last one is the only one that seems to be low. Is this bad? I bought this power supply before the 915 and 925 chipsets were released by Intel. This power supply was made for Xeon motherboards, and it has the 24pin connector.

From what I've seen so far, it's not a good idea to trust ECS *or* ATI. I think I might return this ECS board for an MSI equivalent and get the PCI-Express 5900XT (and use that until the newer PCI-E cards come out).

I really liked the way this ECS 915P-A board has an AGP slot *and* a PCI-Express slot. Nobody else seems to have that. Ugh.

 

[Cybercraig]

You get + or - 5% for variance on your 12v rail. You have 18% and it's on the LOW side. No wonder that Vid card hates you! You need a REAL power supply with the right voltages. Get a Sparkle, TT, FSP, Enermax, etc. 28a is a great output for a 12v rail but not at 10.11v!

Abit IS7 - 2.8C @ 3.4ghz - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - Yellowtail Merlot

 

[php_professor]

You know, I had a 480w Thermaltake PSU at first (with the same video card issues), and then I switched to this 500w PCMCIS PSU because it had the 24pin connector and boasted more juice. However, the problem didn't go away.

I'm not sure I like the idea of using a 20pin to 24pin adapter for the motherboard's power. What do you guys think about that?

Thanks,
Matt

 

[Cybercraig]

I thought about it but I've never tried the conversion. The problem with the 480 TT supply is that they left the same 12v rail output (18a) on it that they put on the 420TT. The 12v rail tends to be the most critical and 18a is close to the minimum output you want there. You may as well spend less money and get the 420TT. The results will be the same.

Abit IS7 - 2.8C @ 3.4ghz - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - Yellowtail Merlot

 

[php_professor]

Wow. Hmonitor says that I'm getting only 9.6v out of the 12v rail. Which one should I believe? MBM (10.11v) or Hmonitor (9.6v)?

I just purchased a Vantec 520w power supply that has the 24pin connector. This thing is supposed to be pretty nice.

 

[php_professor]

Well, I just bought a Vantec 520w 24pin power supply that gets nothing but rave reviews. Stupid MBM and Hmonitor say the same damn thing about the 12v rail, either 10.11v or 9.61v. I think I'll stop using MBM, Hmonitor, and ECS altogether...for good. Ptooey.

I'm gonna return this ECS mobo for an ASUS equivalent (that costs twice as much .

Thanks for your support.

 

[ejslulu]

Well, I'm a novice PC guy (meaning I've never built my own PC; in fact, i've never posted to one of these forums, so forgive me). BUT, last weekend, I built my own ECS 915P-A based PC. I had several issues including:

1) in only supports certain AGP video cards. the first one I bought (i think it was a radeon 9600) did not work. i thought the mobo was bad since the screen was black but it POSTed fine, so i checked the mobo instructions, and they list the video cards that work in the in the AGP Express port. i ended up buying/using the radeon 9200, which now works great.

2) the power supply that came with the case i bought was 20 pin, and Fry's didn't have the converter, so i invested in a heavy duty 500W, 24 pin beast, and it works great. let me know if anyone wants the model name of the PS.

3) just recently, a day or two ago, ECS posted updated drivers and BIOS for the board (rev 1.1) (www.ecs.com.tw), which the US version of the website does not have. apparently, there are two differnt versions of the board. i have rev 1.1

4) in 5 or so days of running constantly, the thing has only unexpectly crashed once. can anyone venture a guess as to why? i heard my secondary (old) hard drive spin up right before that. why did it spin down in the first place?

5) there was only one IDE port on the mobo, which sucks 'cause all my old hardware which i want to continue to use is IDE. so i had to buy a PCI card with 2 IDE connectors on it. then again, all the other socket 775 mobos at Fry's had 1 IDE port as well.

6) although the audio sounds great, i can't get the mic_in port to work well. the audio barely gets picked up when i speak into the mic. i have to end up yelling. anyone know how to fix this?

7) overall, i am happy with it. (except for issue 6). but building it wasn't cheaper than buying the same thing from dell. then again i paid retail for parts at Fry's.