I recently built 2 almost identical machines. only difference is one has an original Geforce 256 DDR 32mb ram and a USR 56k. modem one has an extra NIC. A friend is experiencing the same problems with the same case, processor, MoBo, Ram, Hard Drive. Another friend had zero problems with his AMD 1.4 and the K7s5a, same ram (different batch number I believe though) not sure of other components

Enlight Case with 340w Power supply ATX (AMD Recomended)
ECS K7s5a with lan/on-board sound
AMD 1.4GHz Athlon 266FSB Retail
256mb Crucial DDR Ram PC2100 (Crucial's part # CT3264Z265.16T and Micron # MT16VDDT3264-265A1 PC2100V-25330-B1 CL2.5)
MSI Geforce2 Pro 64mb DDR Video Card
Using On-Board Sound and NIC
Dlink 530TX additional network card.
Sony 52x CD-Rom
IBM 40GB ATA100 7200rpm Hard Drive

Both machines run stable under clocked to 1.05GHz with 266FSB (Though SiSoft Sandra says the bus speed is 200 regardless of bios settings of 100/133 FSB). Once I clock it up to normal 1.4 with 266FSB I get wierd seemingly memory related errors. (says a file is corrupt running 3dmark2001 though it runs fine in 1.05GHz. Other programs like Quake 3 for example will not load bots at 1.4 everything else plays fine it just wont load bots, at 1.05 it does everything fine. Though at 1.4GHz and 266FSB SiSoft Sandra recognizes the correct bus speed of 266. It does not recognize the ram maker though.

I am running the latest bios 01/09/20 I believe (Bios revision has removed Trendaway anti-virus). I installed the AGP driver using the .inf method (v.1.06)

According to the Bios temp monitor (SiSoft reads the same) @ 1.4GHz the cpu temp is around 40-42C under minimum load and reached 50C after an hour of Quake 3 (I got the bots to load one out of 10 tries @1.4GHz) with the system temp was near 28C at most times never seen it higher than that though.

When I go to Mainboard info in both, 1.05GHz and 1.4Ghz, the performance tips say...

Notice--SMBios/DMI information may be inaccurate
Warning--FSB exceeds chipset rated speed. Reduce FSB.

When attempting to install an OS while clocked at 1.4GHz was almost impossible. Cab read errors would slow installation from cd-rom and Hard drive, if it did finish the windows setup would come up with errors and FUBAR the OS. Tried WinME, Win981st, Win98SE all the same. Underclocked the thing to 1.05 and install of Win98SE went fine.

Anyone have any ideas to get this thing running at the recomended speeds? I have played with various bios settings but no luck. This mobo has been really bothersome. Though another friend had zero probs getting his up and running. Thats 3 out of 4 that are a pain or we are doing something wrong and dont know it. Just dont seem it likes anything @266FSB since @1.05GHz 266FSB SiSoft Sandra reads it as a 200FSB. Clocked to 1.4GHz 266FSB the machines flakes out.

Any help is much appreciated

Note MBM5 with K7s5a patch says I am only getting a core voltage of 1.71 Core 0 voltage. Shouldn't this be 1.75? My mainboard bios reads it at 1.744 to 1.760. This power supply is certafied by AMD...

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Rav on 10/07/01 05:20 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

One last shot before I RMA these boards...

mayby you should lower your ram timings
do you use the 80pins connector for you harddrive and cdrrom
also the keybord poweron jumper on the mobo should be disabled



i've also a k7s5a with a 1200mhz tbird

runs like a charm


We are not ICKY !

Oh no.. I just bought the same thing, almost the same setup too, case, mobo, cpu, ram are identical.
Hopefully it will not be a problem when I build it. I wonder if the HSF from the retail CPU is good enough to cool it properly...

The RAM may be identical, but not all samples will run at the same speed when pushed too hard. Are your BIOS RAM settings beyond the specifications of the RAM? Are you running CAS2.5 RAM at CAS2? Again, this will work with some samples, and won't with others, even of the same brand.

<font color=blue>This is a Forum, not a playground. Treat it with Respect.</font color=blue>

I'm having a bit of problem with this Mobo too similar to Rav's. I'm not sure which is causing the problem (Mobo, CPU or PSU). After several attempts to install OS (win2k, win98, winnt4, winxp) finally got win98 to install at 1.4Ghz, but when I try prime95 it reported back to me that my cpu is producing incorrect result. It's kinda unstable running at 1.4Ghz but evertying works fine when underclock to 1050Mhz.

Enlight 7237 Case with 340W PSU
ECS K7S5A with lan/audio (bios updated to latest)
AMD 1.4Ghz Athlon 266FSB Retail
Swiftech MC426A HSF
256MB Crucial DDR PC2100 RAM
VisionTech Geforce 3

Just wondering where did you get your components from Rav?

I'm gonna get another K7S5A and see if the same problem is still there.

weird, i got kinda the same setup:
1.4 tbird (retail)
1gb infineon cas2
gf2
in-win q500n fulltower w/400 sparkle psu
only problem i've had is on a cold boot it'll restart a couple times, but i don't have a big enough psu, gotta go and get a 3rd one. i'm gettin enermax's 651.

400W not big enough???

What kinda components?

"If you teach a child to read, then he or her will be able to pass a literacy test" - George W.

After a swap to another ECS K7S5A everything is working great at the moment, prime95 works at 1.4Ghz

time to test other stuff...

There is a thread in the motherboard section if you're curious what components he has, but the 1 GB of memory should give it away. He's running close to 300W of components which a 400W system really can't handle. You always want to keep it around 30%-70% of your powersupply being used for good stability.

<font color=red>God</font color=red> <font color=blue>Bless</font color=blue> <font color=red>America!</font color=red>

whats this? someone might actually need a 550W psu??? *grins*

Religious wars are 2 groups of people fighting over who has the best imaginary friend.

hehe, ya, now i'm up with the big boys
my 3rd psu upgrade, luckily i'll be able to use this 400 for my other machine, and the 350 for my sister's.

Its the power supply. This board needs a good quality power supply. It also has issues with Windows 2000 that are fixed with the most recent BIOS release.

the issue with it+w2000 was access of the floppy drive. which i don't see how it took them that long to come up for a fix for it. when i put it all together, i figured i'd hold off on the bios update to see if i really needed it. well i did indeed, locked up as quick as grease lightning.

Oh.. i got a 1.4 a couple of weeks ago.. and i have the same problem...

it gets internal errors at 1.4 but at 1.0 its fine..

at first it was ok running at 1.4.. but then i had to restart the bios...then it started to fux up whenever playing games...

hmmm.. Rav or Kiseroses.. did you guys get your problems fixed?

please update on your situation and how u managed..

ppl r saying psu.. but would ppl seel systems with a un-balanced ps?

anyways.. anyone else with suggestions give me a reply..thanx

Did you buy a complete system from a reputable dealer, did you build the system yourself, or did you mod a combo?

Just make sure the powersupply in your system isn't overstressed. If you are running a 1.4 Ghz T-bird the processor alone is pulling roughly 75W. If you have half a gig of memory, that's another 50W. A graphics card will be roughly 30W-50W, so you can see that a you will need a decent wattage powersupply to keep your system running.

It's a big difference between a 800 Mhz Duron with 128 MB of memory, one hard drive, and a 16 MB AGP card and the system these guys are running.

<font color=red>God</font color=red> <font color=blue>Bless</font color=blue> <font color=red>America!</font color=red>

yep. thats one leason ive leart well.
a good stable computer starts with a good stable power supply.

or to put it another way...

crap in, crap out

Religious wars are 2 groups of people fighting over who has the best imaginary friend.

RMA it. I've read a *lot* of posts of people having trouble with this board.. mostly solved by RMA-ing it. I even read of someone who has an internet cafe, and ordered 10 identical machines (well, componentes) inculding 10 K7SKA's.. Three of them didnt work properly, the other 7 worked perfectly. As does mine.

---- Owner of the only Dell computer with an AMD chip