My k7s5a got burned by poor powersupply

onthetopo

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Hi guys,
My k7s5a got burned by a poor 250 W supply once. Fortunately my athlon xp 1600+ and 2*128M pc133 are still working. So i just bought a new k7s5a and a new 300W powersupply. Now the problem is that my pc hangs a lot for no reason! This is driving me crazy. Since my mobo got hit once I'm suspecting that some of my components such as cpu and ram are also half-dead. How do I locate the problem? My top suspect is my ram, 2 pieces of different brand 133mhz 128m. However my pc can unrar huge files just fine. Also, I just bought a new radeon 7500 DDR and my pc freezes even more often. Anyone has any idea about what the problem is?

Btw, my cpu gets around 56C and my system gets 46C degree. Aren't that too high? My new 300W P4 power supply is also damn hot.I measured the temperature on the surface of my power supply and it's 40C.
Thanks!!
<font color=blue> Boys be ambitious </font color=blue> <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by onthetopo on 08/14/02 09:49 AM.</EM></FONT></P>
 

Spitfire_x86

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Your ram or motherboard may be guilty. I think the motherboard, because it seems that you've used these two different modules together before.

ECS K7S5A is well known for problems. I will advice you to return this mobo and buy a new mobo like MSI 745 ultra or MSI KT3 Ultra and some DDR RAM (PC2100 CL2.5 Kingston is recommended for value and reliability)

These temps are not too high. One of my friends are running his AXP 1700+@65 to 70C in a MSI nForce board without any stability problems.
 

CMRvet

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Please return that motherboard if you are able to do it!
Pay the difference and get MSI KT3 Ultra. I've installed many of them with no problems at all.

About the temps:
CPU: would like 50-52ºC instead of 56, but think it's fine.
System: a little bit high. What temps do you have at home? How many case fans do you have?

<b>(<font color=yellow>as good as it looks</font color=yellow>)</b>
 

onthetopo

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thanks
I have two fans. One on cpu and one on powersupply. I think that my powersupply is absurdly hot.The surface temperature of the top of my cases is 40C. I'be never seen one powersupply as hot as mine.

By the way, how is the compatibility of k7s5a with radeon my brand new 7500 64ddr? My experience is bad. Does k7s5a has bad clock generator or bad electric filter to mess up my new video card?

<font color=blue> Boys be ambitious </font color=blue> <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by onthetopo on 08/14/02 07:26 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 

lhgpoobaa

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if your power supply is pumping out buckets of heat then its most likely working too hard.
a struggling PSU would also account for system instability.

additionally, not all 300W PSU's are equal. infact there is ALOT of difference between a generic psu and a quality name brand one.

run the program Motherboard Monitor (free online). check out the voltages of your system, especially the 5v line. watch the 5v line as you go from idle to full cpu load. if it dips below 4.8v then yes, you PSU is really too weak.

the K7S5A board is renown for not working very well with poor quality/ poor wattage Power supplies.


<b>Before visiting THG i was a clueless noob. Now im still clueless, but look at my nice title!<b>
 

onthetopo

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Thanks for letting me know the importance of PSU
Well I bought my new psu at CDN$33+tax.
My 5v value is 4.919 which is fine. What surprises me is that the SB3V value is at 3.5v which is nearly a 20% overshoot. Also the -12V value is at -11.39. How does the data tell about my PSU

<font color=blue> Boys be ambitious </font color=blue>
 

lhgpoobaa

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hmmm. u sure its 3v or 3.3?
ive seen 3.5v before on the 3.3v line and it wasnt too much of a problem.
also bear in mind that motherboard monitor occasionally missreads voltages, it thinks the 3.3 line is the 3v or the 1.5v is the 5v line etcetc.
a bit of manual correcting is usually required.

very little current is used for the -5 and -12v lines, so their importance is minor.

and the 3v line may well be due to the motherboard, not the psu.

three further questions:
A. what BRAND is that PSU?
B. when running at full load, how would u describe the exhaust airflow? cool? warm? hot? scalding?
C. does the 5v line dip at all when you run a CPU intensive application?

<b>Before visiting THG i was a clueless noob. Now im still clueless, but look at my nice title!<b>
 

nja469

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Yanna what? Before coming to these board I usually ran whatever PSU came with the case. Finally though I took everyones advice about PSU's and bought a $70 Antec PSU and it came DOA! It turned on, the fans spun, but it would consistently power cycle the system and never worked.

My $11 jank piece of [-peep-] no name 400W PSU started the system right up. Only reason I bought the Antec is because everyone talks about how important a name-brand unit is, but the "good one" didn't even work. So I'm not as easily convinced anymore as it appears no-name can be as good as or better than brand name. I've even found $8 c-media based sound cards that outperform sound blaster Live 5.1's. Name brand over prices stuff isn't always worth it. So I sticking with my 400W no-name PSU and $8 6-channel sound card that performs better than SB Live 5.1 :eek:)

"Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one"
 

CMRvet

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I have two fans. One on cpu and one on powersupply. I think that my powersupply is absurdly hot.The surface temperature of the top of my cases is 40C. I'be never seen one powersupply as hot as mine
An <b>extra case fan</b> would be very helpful in your case. I think the PSU is hot because it’s taking out all the hot air of the case and the CPU is hot because it’s being cooled with hot air too.

By the way, how is the compatibility of k7s5a with radeon my brand new 7500 64ddr? My experience is bad. Does k7s5a has bad clock generator or bad electric filter to mess up my new video card?
I think that K7S5A is not able to feed all the power to some hungry video cards (just a thought). Anyway, personally don’t trust in K7S5A anymore.


<b>(<font color=yellow>as good as it looks</font color=yellow>)</b>
 

onthetopo

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Thanks everyone but I just solved the problem
I just found that one minicapacitor on my no name ram is broken.It's amazing that I can boot up into winxp without any problem!
What's the function of that? What caused it to break?Anyone knows?
Thanks

<font color=blue> Boys be ambitious </font color=blue>
 

CMRvet

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Good to hear that.
Anyway I would suggest you to go for other more reliable motherboard (MSI KT3 Ultra is at $75 at newegg.com)

<b>(<font color=yellow>as good as it looks</font color=yellow>)</b>
 
"Hey there guys, I ran out of petrol!"

"Ahh well, best get a new car anyway!"

The mobo was not at fault !!!!!!!!!!!!

Shush and leave it be!

<b><font color=blue>~ Gotta question? Tried searching the boards first? Good! Ask away! ~<font color=blue></b> :wink:
 

CMRvet

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Built a couple of K7S5A systems though. No probs!
That's the opposite of my problem: I built a couple too, but with lots of problems with my customers, so I don’t use it anymore.

A question for you: if a customer asks you for reliability and stability with a reasonable price would you risk your name with ECS or PCchips? Don’t think so.


<b>(<font color=yellow>as good as it looks</font color=yellow>)</b>
 
Nope, but in both cases budget was the issue. If budget isn't an issue, I'd go for a mobo with some decent extras.

In this case Crucial RAM is as cheap as any and is reliable and the 400W PSU in the case I bought came at the same price as the 300W one the shop I got it from.

So for no real expense, I have a heavy duty PSU and secent RAM, so why not go with the K7S5A.

<b><font color=blue>~ Gotta question? Tried searching the boards first? Good! Ask away! ~<font color=blue></b> :wink: