K7SA5 motherboard problem?

[FIRE-DRIVE]

Hi there, i recently have had a problem with my computer, it started off when i tried to start it one mourning and everything seemed to turn on but no video signal. I thought it may be the power supply so i replaced it with a new one i had.

The computer turned on fine and seemed to be ok, so i surfed the net abit then when i went to play MOHAA online it loaded up then locked up when the game started.

I tried this 5-10 times and it locked up eveytime i used a 3d game but the desktop and the net i could use fine.

I noticed some of the fans on the cpu and the video card (XFX Gf4 4600 128) had abit of dust on them so i cleand it of to see if it was a cooling problem, but the cpu temp were still fine before i cleaned them.

Well it semmed to work becuase i could play alittle longer before the system locked up, but now the system wont get past the memory check.

The system stops at the memory check and says checking NVRAM, well i dont think it used to say NVRAM so i dont know if the memory is bad or the motherboard.

I tried removing both 256MB PC133 pieces and putting one in at a time but i still get the checking VNRAM and it just stops and hangs.


This has been a very wierd problem and im not sure how to test everything out any help would be great.

Thanx for any help.......

[Ritalin Kid]

I've had this problem before with a K7S5A and a GF2 Ti... turned out that I had to install an update driver for the AGP controller of the motherboard.. some AGP vxd driver.. Took me weeks to figure out and one day I was surfing on the ECS website and gave it a try.. just downloaded the newest drivers from ECS including the AGP vxd driver and everything was great.

[FIRE-DRIVE]

Actually i was going to d/l that when i was updating drivers and checking for virus, but i thought it was for the on-board agp which my card doesnt have.

I guess i should have d/led it then becuse i cant even get past the mem check now lol.

Ok thank-you for the advice, i guess ill see if i can get past the ram check to d/l the drivers.

[JPMiller]

another issue may now be the new Power Supply... these boards are known to be fussy about memory and PSU's... if you bought a generic or budget brand PSU it may be your newest problem... list what the maker and model NO# are as well as wattage

[FIRE-DRIVE]

The old PSU was an GLC model: MAV-350P-P4 350w, the new PSU is an OKIA model: OKIA-420ATX 420w.

Actually when i was messing around with the comp the wire harness from the new PSU i put in fell down abit and hit the cpu fan and stop it from rotating. So when i turned it on and ran MOHAA it locked up and i started to smell alittle bit of smoke .

So maybee i should just change this power supply back to the old one and see what happens. I may have made i small problem into a major issue .

Thanx for help guys, this is bugging me lol.

[FIRE-DRIVE]

Well i put the old PSU back in and it did the same thing as the first time, it turned on but no video signal.

I reset it a few times and finally the video signal came up, i cleared the cmos earlier and i hit the optimal settings.

I restarted and it seemed to take awhile to get past all the checks then went black before the window screen. I restarted again and it got to the windows screen and took awhile to load, finally got to desktop, and i began check things with sandra and d/led the agp driver.

I started up MOHAA and realized that i had no sound because the cmos loaded the onboard as default, but i started up a game and begane to play i played for 10mins without a lockup.

So i decided to go back into cmos and change the onboard sound to disabled and i set agp apeture to 128. I restarted but now im back to no video signal.

I took out the SB card and still nothing, i didnt load the agp driver up becuase i couldnt tell what bridge i was supposed to load it to.

So im back to headache time , also can i use an older p2 PSU in this comp since its not a p4?, im thinking maybee the PSU's are both bad.

Thanx for any input i'm confused lol.

[John Prophet]

(this is why I never..ever...recommend this board to someone who doesnt like to fiddle, lol...and someone with spare parts)


maybe the supplies arent "bad"...that board is just hyper picky

[FIRE-DRIVE]

Well funny thing is this board and system have worked flawlessly since i built it about 1-2 years ago.

I had a Gf2 MX400 in it untill 6 months ago when i got the Gf4 4600ti 128, and every thing has worked great untill now.

And ive had coputers that have had bad PSU and one that actually had a capacitor blow like a fire craker and it still worked for a week till it died lol.

So that why i think it may be the PSU, but i have know idea it could be the board as well, but i woulndt think they would just go without warning.

Guess ill try more things till i see some smoke and kill everything and have to upgrade lol.

[John Prophet]

ahhhh..it worked fine till you added a stronger vid card....the stronger vid card also draws more juice from the power supply...seems liek the psu doesnt have enough or 'good enough" voltage to consistently kick the video card on.

get an enermax or antec and that will at least answer the psu question

[Peter M]

And you already confessed to have overheated the CPU. The recent processors, with their tiny .13 micron structures, do not like this AT ALL.