I just bought a Elite K7S5A mobo with 1.4athlon and 256mb ddr. when I come to switch the comp on, the power goes on, fans spin but there is no beep and it doesn't load anything it just hangs with nothing on the screen. I know the athlon isn't fried because it works in my mates pc. Any help will be appreciated

Daniel,

Try taking any cards other than the video card out and booting like that. I know I had problems with my DVD decoder card hanging the system at the "Check NVRAM" stage.

What kind of power supply are you using, brand and wattage rating?

its a 300W psu. It hangs before anything happens, there is no beep but fans are spinning and there is nothing on the screen at any point

Daniel,

Who makes the 300W PSU in your system? All PSU's at a given wattage rating are NOT created equal.

I have the exact same motherboard, processor, memory, and problem©
The fans spin and I know everything is getting power
but nothing happens with the monitor©
I managed to get it working by turning off the power switch
on the back of the power supply, then I hit the power
switch on the back, then quickly the front, which worked for a while©
Eventually it stopped working©
After interchanging the parts with known good ones, I determined the problem was with the ram, so I ordered more, when replaced, it allowed me to use the same trick to get it going again, but it would still not power on properly©
I still don't know how to solve it correctly, sorry©
Also, the power switch on the back must be off for a while ¥10-20 minutes¤

When I say it stopped working, I mean that it started taking longer and
longer time that the power supply switch on the back of the computer
had to be off longer and longer until it was into the days

Hope my advice works even though it doesn't really solve anything

Also there's a possibility that turning down the ram speed settings could
help, but it's not worth mentioning since the computer won't turn on at all©

I had the same problem with my k7s5a...I started off with a 235w ps and moved up to a 35w but still got the same thing...fan spins up but nothing on the screen...eventually I sent the board and cpu back after trying about 10,000 different things (memory, video card, ps, case etc), got a replacement and now it boots up (even with the 235w ps). The only problem now is that if I try to run it at a clock speed of 133mhz instead of 100 it either gives me a blue screen or a windows protection error (I'm guessing that its the memory...256mbs ddr Samsung 151 but even the book recommends the same brand at 128mbs?)...

err...typo in the last post...I upgraded to a 350w ps

I too am having problems with this motherboard. Like one of the other posters, I had a problem in which I was getting no screen display, but the fan, etc. were receiving power. After 10,000 combinations of solutions, I had my motherboard replaced.

Also, like the original poster, my configuration is 1.4G Athlon, 256mb DDR. I also have a NDVIA Geforce II card, modem, DVD-ROM and Samsung CD-RW.

My new problem is that I've been experiencing what I would call a "short". I can connect power from the PS and obtain power simultaneously to all peripherals, but the second I hook up the HD to one IDE and one of the CD-ROM drives to the other... I lose power to those objects, and they become unrecognized.

I have tried using different IDE cables and a bunch of combinations without success.

Also, I occasionally get the BIOS checksum error.


I'm really hoping to have better luck with this board.

Sean

We all seem to be having problems without alot of solutions.
I am having a problem with any 3D video card, I've tried PCI and AGP cards with no success. A non 3D PCI card works fine but as soon as you put in a 3D card (PCI or AGP) it auto finds it as standard graphics adapter and allows you 16 colours only and 640x480 resolution.

I also have the same problem with my 1.4 Athalon only running at 1050, and as soon as you up it i get blue screen of death until i drop it to 100/100.

Any help would be appreciated.

Paul.

I have the same board. I dont have those problems, but I have read many posts around about them. This may have already been posted, but the two things that have solved the most problems with setting FSB to 133 it seems to be, are the power supply and/or better cooling of the chipset.

I dont know alot about video cards, but i think it will always be first recognized as a standard VGA display. It should boot to 16 colors, then you install the drivers, then change the display to higher setting.

This is strange so many people with problems using this M/B. I just bought one today and I too have the same problem! I wonder if there is a shipment of faulty boards going out?

I bought mine from a computer fair in London UK. How about everyone else? My manual says at the 1st page Revision 1.0 June 2001!!!

I bought a Athlon XP 1700 - and it just didn't boot up - no response from my monitor, after trying several different combos (i.e. swapped graphics cards/memory etc) I finally tried putting my older 1.33 CPU in. It worked! BUT after it did all the initial boot up (DOS) a blue screen appeared :

"A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your PC. It says this could be because of a hardware change/new hard drive etc (which is correct as I changed the M/B and processor).

The techinical code is:
STOP:0x0000007B (0xF9E64640,0xC0000034,0x00000000,0x00000000)"

I'm guessing this is some kind of Win XP security thing (I have Win XP Home onthat drive), as in the past with Win 98 etc it would re-install the new M/B settings and reboot, and all would be ok.

my other thoughts that it could be I am using an old Maxtor 20GB drive and it may be trying to read it at ATA 100? I think the drive is around 2 yrs old so its defo a 66UDMA. I've connected it using the blue IDE, I'm gonna try using an ordinary and see what happens.

If anyone can shed some light that would be superb.

Else tomorrow I'm going to take my case to the company I bought all the stuff from and get it sorted! Looks like I may just have a bad board/CPU - I guess it does happen every once in a while!

Clear your cmos using the jumper, make sure you have connect all the wires to your devices, replace your cmos battery with a better brand, update your BIOS, make sure your memory is not generic. Those were what I did to have my K7S5A works flawlesly until now

Just to add to my previous post, my PS is:

EAGLE 300W ATX
+3.3v = 20A
+5v = 30A
+12v = 13A

It has both P4 and AMD power connectors.
My memory brand is Samsung DDR (using for testing/trying to get the PC to work)

I have to say I am horrified at the amount of posts regarding problems with this motherboard. I've spent the last 3 hrs reading up on it. I'm building this machine for a friend, and I am considering to change the board as I'm concerned about it playing up later on (read in another post on this forum). Only thing he has PC-133 memory, and he need this machine by Monday Latest!

You will always hear about the dis-satisfied customers and never the happy ones.

I have recently upgraded to Athlon XP1600+ which meant a new mobo. K7s5a was recommended so I got it fitted at a comp fair in UK. The guy said existing PSU wasn't good enough so I got new 350w case. He did it all for me.

Having read the above posts, you need to consider certain areas.

1. Don't boot up using old HDD if it has old data on it. It will confuse you system. Re-format, load OS and start from scratch. Mine never worked properly until I did complete new install.

2. RAM. I had PC100 whereas board was PC133 so it ran at 1.05Ghz instead of 1.4ghz. Also generic. Get decent brand. Now have Crucial 256Mb DDR as it loves it.

3. Graphics. It should boot up under 16 colours if you have done fresh install. If using AGP card you MUST load AGP drivers from mobo cd before loading g/card drivers. Mine went stupid for ages and I was pulling my hair out. Went back to basics, fresh install, re-load AGP driver then used Detonator drivers (cd with card froze system) and it worked. Need to tweek it but I get 1024x768 32 bit and higher (64Mb Geforce2 400MX).

4. Be logical. Mine was driving me mad but I thought it through, got loads of advice on this forum and guru3d.com and went through it bit by bit.

Keep at it and don't forget the 6 P's.

All,

I have had exactly the same problem with this motherboard. I changed it 5 times (yes, that's not a typo) and have come to the conclusion that there is a manufacturing problem. Coincidentally I also bought mine from a computer fair in London.

When I only install the graphics card, then everything works fine... hard disks and dvd's etc. all work fine.

As soon as I install a PCI card (any PCI card - I tried a Creative modem and a Creative SoundBlaster) the PC stops working. The fans are spinning, but nothing else happens. And this exact same problem has happened on all 5 boards.

I then had one that worked (with the modem installed)... except at the highest setting. So my Athlon XP 1800+ was running at the same level as an Athlon 1200.

My final solution was to replace this board with a SOYO Dragon Plus! I have never had this much trouble with any board and will never purchase this brand again.

I've got the ECS board running well on a 235 watt PSU. The board wouldn't do anything on a 1.4g tbird and had the symptoms described: fans power on but no video. I popped a Duron in and it was fine. I have 10 day uptimes before having to reboot for kernel compiles and such. I flashed the BIOS with the Duron but haven't tried a tbird since then but that is what i suspected to be the culprit.

zoom boom,

Sorry to hear about all your aggravation, not much fun when you want a system that works.

Just wondered what psu you were using? Not that it would help at all.

My mobo works fine so I'm a `happy` customer but it is a fairly cheap board and subject to faults I suppose.

Keep on truckin'.

My K7S5A w/ 1600+ works perfectly after I upgraded BIOS (previously had problems with using two PC133 SDRAM sticks).

It seems like the PSU's are a problem. Compare to this from ECS support:

Base on our lab testing. we are recommend your power supply
must have:
1. 300W or above ( depend on how many device you have).
2. +3.3V output need 28A or above.
3. +5V output 30A or above
4. +12V output 15A or above.

Make sure you're within these limits.

I wish I didn't rush to judge it was the psu, after spending $70 on a nice psu, I think it was my netgear ethernet card. 10 restarts in a row with no probs. after removing it from the pci slot. I recommend trying that, I decided to try it after I noticed in one of these threads that someone began to have trouble once they installed broadband. Fortunately is has an on-board LAN port so I didn't need it anyway.

That's great that that was all it took!

I have now built 3 systems using this motherboard and will not be using again. The first two builds went quite well except for minor Irritating issues like random reboots. The third that i built was for myself and have had nothing but problems like the ones reported by other users on this page.

First i could not get the computer to post, i just got the light flashing on the cdrw drive, then i took all my cards out and just installed one stick of 128 Crucial sdram and the graphics card (savage4) but still the computer would not post. I then tryed my new xp 1800+ in my mates computer and it worked fine, so i knew that the processor was fine. I then took the mb out of the case and set it up on the floor on mb back case panel and pluged in the agp card and connected up the power supply and it booted to my surprise. So i thought that the mb was fine so i put it back into the case and tryed again, no luck the computer would not boot.

I then thought that it might be something to do with the case not letting the cards sit correctly in the agp slot so i started flicking the agp card and pulling it out slightly which got it working and i was able to boot. I then plugging in my voodoo2's and got the same problem but after flicking the agp card the computer booted, So far so good. I then tryed to install my tv card and modem and no matter what i did i could not get the system to boot with these in my system.

So its been three weeks of trying to sort everything out and still cant get my tv card and modem working in this board. It just wont boot with the these card installed and then theres the random reboot probelm, when ever the system is under heavy load (running flask and photoshop) it reboots. Ive contacted ecs and they recommend 425 watt power supply which cost more than the motherboard. I am currently using a mercury 300 amd approved unit - i would not recommend anyone to use this power supply with this motherboard.

I think im going to save up for a new motherboard or get a new power supply.

Any idears on how to solve these problems would be welome but im losing fath as ive already scan most forums and just seem to find people with the same problems but no solutions.