Cooked old lady's puter part 2 (K7S5A board question)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dr. J. Smith
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Dr. J. Smith

Memory refresher: I cooked the AMD 1.40GHz cpu on wife's K7S5A MB
Current status: Back's sore from sleeping on the couch

I went to the place where she bought the system (a different city of course)
to get the fastest cpu I could get for the 266-fsb. He asks which version of
K7S5A is it? There is nothing on the board, the bill or the box to indicate
it is anything other than a K7S5A so I say, you installed it you tell me (it
replaced a failed K7AMA so it's still under warranty). He can't be sure but
he looks on the web and tells me the fastest chip I can put in it is an XP
1800+ which he doesn't have. I come home and look up the MB and find this...
http://www.ecsusa.com/downloads/k7s5a.html which seems to indicate it'll
take a 2600+ cpu. Is anyone familiar enough with this MB to clue me in as to
what's what?
 
" Is anyone familiar enough with this MB to clue me in as to what's what? "


I've had a 2600+XP 266FSB running on a K7S5A Pro for nearly a year now. It
is the fastest CPU the board can take, but they aren't in production any
longer, so you'll need to shop around on-line for one.

K7S5A V1.x: http://www.ecsusa.com/products/k7s5a.html
K7S5A V3.x: http://www.ecsusa.com/products/k7s5a_v3.html
K7S5A Pro: http://www.ecsusa.com/products/k7s5a_pro.html
K7S5A BIOS updates: http://www.lejabeach.com/Pro/k7s5aProBIOS.html
A good K7S5A forum: http://pub140.ezboard.com/bk7s5amotherboardforum
Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) usenet newsgroup:
alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.elitegroup
 
Dr. J. Smith said:
Memory refresher: I cooked the AMD 1.40GHz cpu on wife's K7S5A MB
Current status: Back's sore from sleeping on the couch

I went to the place where she bought the system (a different city of course)
to get the fastest cpu I could get for the 266-fsb. He asks which version of
K7S5A is it? There is nothing on the board, the bill or the box to indicate
it is anything other than a K7S5A so I say, you installed it you tell me (it
replaced a failed K7AMA so it's still under warranty). He can't be sure but
he looks on the web and tells me the fastest chip I can put in it is an XP
1800+ which he doesn't have. I come home and look up the MB and find this...
http://www.ecsusa.com/downloads/k7s5a.html which seems to indicate it'll
take a 2600+ cpu. Is anyone familiar enough with this MB to clue me in as to
what's what?
Click to expand...

Return the board for a refund or exchange
there some bugs ! however the PRO version of that board is OK.

I know the K7S5A PRO can take up to an XP2600+
I have such a board and it works fine

if you have the PRO version of the board, then you should be OK
 
Memory refresher: I cooked the AMD 1.40GHz cpu on wife's K7S5A MB
Current status: Back's sore from sleeping on the couch

I went to the place where she bought the system (a different city of course)
to get the fastest cpu I could get for the 266-fsb. He asks which version of
K7S5A is it? There is nothing on the board, the bill or the box to indicate
it is anything other than a K7S5A so I say, you installed it you tell me (it
replaced a failed K7AMA so it's still under warranty). He can't be sure but
he looks on the web and tells me the fastest chip I can put in it is an XP
1800+ which he doesn't have. I come home and look up the MB and find this...
http://www.ecsusa.com/downloads/k7s5a.html which seems to indicate it'll
take a 2600+ cpu. Is anyone familiar enough with this MB to clue me in as to
what's what?
Click to expand...

Ive seen people post that theres something on the board somewhere
thatll tell you whether its a version 1 or 3 the two versions they
seem to single out.

All the boards I have , have a sticker or some the version number on
the board somewhere like inbetween the PCI slots or on the other side
of the board etc.

Ive seen people post say that they even have the 1.x board and with a
bios upgrade they were supposed to be able to run the 2400. Im sure
the 2600 is included - with the 266 FSB.
 
Memory refresher: I cooked the AMD 1.40GHz cpu on wife's K7S5A MB
Current status: Back's sore from sleeping on the couch

I went to the place where she bought the system (a different city of course)
to get the fastest cpu I could get for the 266-fsb. He asks which version of
K7S5A is it? There is nothing on the board, the bill or the box to indicate
it is anything other than a K7S5A so I say, you installed it you tell me (it
replaced a failed K7AMA so it's still under warranty). He can't be sure but
he looks on the web and tells me the fastest chip I can put in it is an XP
1800+ which he doesn't have. I come home and look up the MB and find this...
http://www.ecsusa.com/downloads/k7s5a.html which seems to indicate it'll
take a 2600+ cpu. Is anyone familiar enough with this MB to clue me in as to
what's what?
Click to expand...

There may be a small (white?) sticker on the left side, towards the
bottom.

If the motherboard isn't at least the Pro version, rather is the
earlier V1 or V3, I would advise you to not use it, do not limit the
new CPU purchase to what the board can handle but instead take
advantage of the opportunity to get a different motherboard.
 
Dr. J. Smith said:
I cooked the AMD 1.40GHz cpu on wife's K7S5A MB

I went to the place where she bought the system (a different
city of course) to get the fastest cpu I could get for the
266-fsb. He asks which version of K7S5A is it? There is
nothing on the board, the bill or the box to indicate it
is anything other than a K7S5A so I say, you installed
it you tell me (it replaced a failed K7AMA so it's still
under warranty). He can't be sure but he looks on the
web and tells me the fastest chip I can put in it is an XP
1800+ which he doesn't have.
Click to expand...

ECS's web site is out of date about CPU-motherboard compatibility, but
even it says that an XP2600+ will work in the oldest Socket A
motherboard listed there.
But before replacing it, check the board for damage or a new CPU may
be instantly destroyed. Look for obvious signs, such as burn marks,
discolored power transistors (their black epoxy bodies turn brown or
grey when grossly overheated), bulging or leaking electrolytic
capacitors (aluminum cylinders covered with plastic). Such parts must
be replaced before the board can be used again, and if any capacitors
are bulgling or leaking, replace every one in the voltage regulator
circuit -- see www.badcaps.com for more information.
Bad capacitors often appear normal when tested with an ohmmeter or
even a capacitance meter, and only an ESR meter may detect them, but
an ohmmeter can completely diagnose bad power transistors and diodes.
See www.repairfaq.org for information, but realize that most computer
technicians aren't qualified to do electronics repairs (and that one
seems particularly unqualified). If you live near a Fry's
Electronics, look into buying a whole new motherboard with CPU because
almost every week they have a low-cost combination for only a little
more than a CPU alone may cost. Newegg.com sometimes has similar
deals.

I wouldn't flash the BIOS unless I knew for sure that it would prevent
a new CPU from working, but if you ever need a boot disk for this, see
www.bootdisks.com.

I've never seen the K7S5A ver. 1.x, only the 3.x, but according to the
ECS online manuals the most visible differences are in the BIOS chips.
The ver. 3.x uses a 32-pin rectangular chip with 2 rows of pins
(socketed on the ones I've seen), while the ver. 1.1 has its BIOS in a
much smaller chip that appears to have pins on all 4 sides of its
package, possibly soldered to the board. Otherwise the layout looks
very similar, right down to the positions of the header pin sets. The
K7S5A discussion boards at
http://pub65.ezboard.com/bk7s5amotherboardforum should have more
information.
 
ECS's web site is out of date about CPU-motherboard compatibility, but
even it says that an XP2600+ will work in the oldest Socket A
motherboard listed there.
But before replacing it, check the board for damage or a new CPU may
be instantly destroyed. Look for obvious signs, such as burn marks,
discolored power transistors (their black epoxy bodies turn brown or
grey when grossly overheated), bulging or leaking electrolytic
capacitors (aluminum cylinders covered with plastic). Such parts must
be replaced before the board can be used again, and if any capacitors
are bulgling or leaking, replace every one in the voltage regulator
circuit -- see www.badcaps.com for more information.
Bad capacitors often appear normal when tested with an ohmmeter or
even a capacitance meter, and only an ESR meter may detect them, but
an ohmmeter can completely diagnose bad power transistors and diodes.
See www.repairfaq.org for information, but realize that most computer
technicians aren't qualified to do electronics repairs (and that one
seems particularly unqualified). If you live near a Fry's
Electronics, look into buying a whole new motherboard with CPU because
almost every week they have a low-cost combination for only a little
more than a CPU alone may cost. Newegg.com sometimes has similar
deals.

I wouldn't flash the BIOS unless I knew for sure that it would prevent
a new CPU from working, but if you ever need a boot disk for this, see
www.bootdisks.com.

I've never seen the K7S5A ver. 1.x, only the 3.x, but according to the
ECS online manuals the most visible differences are in the BIOS chips.
The ver. 3.x uses a 32-pin rectangular chip with 2 rows of pins
(socketed on the ones I've seen), while the ver. 1.1 has its BIOS in a
much smaller chip that appears to have pins on all 4 sides of its
package, possibly soldered to the board. Otherwise the layout looks
very similar, right down to the positions of the header pin sets. The
K7S5A discussion boards at
http://pub65.ezboard.com/bk7s5amotherboardforum should have more
information.
Click to expand...

This board has a 32-pin rectangular chip so I assume 3.x as apparently the
Pro board is plainly marked. No signs of damage to board visible. Thanks for
the ezboard link! ~Dr.J.
 
Got it worked out. Put my AMD1000 in it and flashed the BIOS. Windows fired
up but Windows Explorer didn't function. Non-XP chip? Put a 2400XP+ in it
and everything seems to run fine. Thanks to all who helped!
 
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