Tom's Hardware: Topic Popping sound on K7S5A & Good replacement mobo?
Tom's Hardware > Forum > Motherboards & Memory > General Motherboard > Popping sound on K7S5A & Good replacement mobo?
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OK, first off here are my current rigs specs:
AMD Athlon XP 1900+
ECS K7S5A mobo
Mushkin 512MB DDR2100
Antec PP403x 400W (245 TCO) and Antec PP303X 300W (180 TCO) PSU's
Diamond Viper V770 Ultra AGP 4x
Myself and a friend are having the well documented popping sound issue with this mobo. I have updated all drivers (AGP, Sound and Display), purchased a SB PCI 16 and disabled onboard sound, flashed my BIOS with the latest and oldest versions, all to no avail. I also swapped my AGP video card with a PCI one, which only made the problem worse. So unless anyone has a resolution for this prob I plan on purcashing a new mobo. I plan on keeping this system for 5+ yrs with no upgrades, and will not do any OC'ing. I also do not need a KT333 board, since my CPU would just be a bottleneck. With all that said, now for the questions 
(1) Does this problem happen on any other mobo (ie is it a prob with the AC 97 sound)? I read a review in which a user said he was having this same prob on an EPoX board as well.
(2) The 2 boards I am currently considering are the FIC AN11 and Soyo SY-K7V Dragon+. I was curious if I would still need my 400W PSU for either of these boards, or could I use my 300W with no problems? Also, I searched and could not find any reviews for the FIC AN11 board, what do you guys think about it?
(3) Are there any other boards that you guys could recommend other than these two? I've only heard great things about the Dragon+, but the $150 price tag is a bit much to swallow. If the 300W PSU will suffice I can return my 400W (which set me back $100) and put that towards the board. Therefore any board that could run my specs with the 300W PSU would definately be a bonus
Many thanx in advance for any help, and sorry my first post is so long
peace,
cyrussd
So does that mean that any board with AC 97 sound will have this problem, and why did I have the same prob when I disabled the onboard sound?
Also, I forgot to ask earlier, but is my RAM (Mushkin 512MB DDR2100) high quality? It's the second best Fry's has, but that's not saying much )
peace,
cyrussd
ATTN HonestJhon: You are correct, it does have heatspreders on it So the RAM shouldn't be causing my probs then? I only ask because I've heard this board has probs with cheap RAM.
ATTN dhlucke: It only pops when running a select few programs, but I used to run these same proggy's on my old P233 and never encountered this prob, just slow framerates 
ATTN Ncogneto: Sorry for sounding nieve, but what do you mean by better cabling?
Whew! 
peace,
cyrussd
> have you tried moving the sound card to a different pci slot?
I'm currently using the crappy onboard sound (SIS 7012), but tried installing a SB16 PCI and disabling the onboard sound, with no new results 
(
> and as for cabling...i dunno...maybe he is talking about
> the cdrom audio cable? in which case doesnt really apply
> here...but i dunno...
Yeah, thats what I thought as well and didnt see how this was relevant :-\
> Just to eliminate software, have you reformated the drive
> and reinstalled windows?
Yep, when I built the new rig I formatted and reinstalled everything.
I'm pretty much to the point where I don't expect this problem to be resolved and simply believe this board is a POS. My biggest concern however is if this problem will persist if I purchase a different mobo (currently I plan on getting the Soyo SY-K7V Dragon+), or if it's an issue with any of my other components.
I also wanted to say that I really appreciate all the help you kind folks have lent, many thanx for all your time
peace,
cyrussd
have you moved the sound card? the onboard sound was junk, which it basically is. so you put in a new card. but did you try different pci slots? there are 5 pci slots, an agp slot, and an amr.
also, just a random thought, is it your speakers? have you tried diff speakers and maybe headphones plugged directly into the card?
also, if you are using winxp, or have a way to monitor the cpu load, have the monitor running, and then do what you normally do when it makes the popping sounds...that was just a random 1:25 am thought tho...lol...but worth checking out. 
-DAvid
-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-
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