Help! L7S7A2 freezing IF 1) mouse moved quickly, 2) in WinXP, 3) not clocked down.

[Pickle6]

Here's the scoop:

ECS L7S7A2
Barton 2500+
512 MB K-Byte PC2700
Older PCI Video Card
30GB WD HDD
CDR
400W PowMax
Bios 2/27/2003

I first hooked up the motherboard in an older case. The Bios recognized the CPU as a 1900+. It would boot and function fine that way.

When I set the Bios FSB to 166, it then detected the CPU as a 2500+. It would boot fine into Win98. But when booting into WinXP Home, as soon as I rapidly moved the mouse, it would freeze. If I moved it slowly, then it would be all right, at least for a little while.

ECS has a utility on their driver CD that reads the CPU temps and voltages. The utilitie's readings for temps were grayed out, and it said that my voltages were wrong. The 12V line was under 7V. Two of the other three voltages were a little low, but not that low percentage wise. The inner core voltage occasionally nudged up a little too high.

Thus I figured out I needed a new power supply. So today I tried hooking it up to a PowMax that arrived Friday. Low and behold, nothing's changed!

The 12V line is still less than 7V, it boots fine into Win98 at either speed and the mouse's movements cause no problems, it freezes instantly if I move the mouse too rapidly in XP at 2500+, it seems to be all right if I move the mouse sloooowly, and everything's fine at 1900+.

I'm not a novice, but this has me a bit baffled. What do I do?

Strange. ecsusa.com shows no drivers available for download for this board, but ecs.com.tw does. Just noticed that. The IDE driver looks old, but the AGP driver is relatively new, from May. Could it be an AGP driver problem?

The Bios indicates that the temp is fine, around 130°F.

Thanks for your help!

[beppodmime]

Well, I'm no power expert, but if your mobo is only getting 7V out of the 12V line, and you've tried two separate PSU's, then there's a couple things that could be the problem.

Try running a different voltage monitoring programs, like Motherboard Montor, which you can get here:

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/fil...id,7309,00.asp

If that program is still reporting low voltages, then I'd try RMA'ing the board if possible. You may also want to have the PSU tested as well, just for laughs.

Also, 130 F is ok, but I'd try and get that a little lower. What kind of HSF are you running? You're going to be running hotter under a full load, and you're already getting up to the point where you should start sweating.

[Pickle6]

Thanks for replying.

I've noticed that the Bios doesn't give a reading for the 12V line, so I'm thinking that maybe that utility that came on the drivers CD doesn't work with this motherboard. I'll try the program you suggest, and see how that works.

I'm not sure what HSF is. What is that?

All I've got hooked up is a HDD and CDR, and the older PCI video card.

[sm8000]

HSF = heat sink/fan combo

Are you using a thermal pad or thermal paste?

[paul9]

you culd also disconnect your cd, floppy and any other non essential stuff (sound, modem tv card etc) and see what effect this has. if your voltage goes back up, then reconnect one at a time until you find a culprit. also check for a bios update for your mobo.

[Pickle6]

I'm using the HSF that came with the retail box 2500+. Thus I'm using a thermal pad rather than paste.

Since the Bios tells me that the temp is well below the problem threshold, and since mouse movement causes it to freeze at start up, while no mouse movement allows it to keep running, I don't see how it can be temp related.

I flashed the Bios with the latest this morning, and it still doesn't work at 2500+. Also installed the latest AGP drivers that don't exist for the L7S7A2 on the ecsusa.com site, but do exist on the ecs.com.tw site. No go.

There is no modem attached, or TV card, or floppy, or anything other than the PCI video card, WD HDD, and CDR. I'll disconnect the CDR, but I don't think that's the problem. Since the Bios didn't have a reading for the 12V line, I don't think there is supposed to be a reading for the 12V line, which doesn't make sense. Why would the utility that came with their driver CD give a reading for the 12V line when the Bios doesn't?

At this point I'm not too impressed with ECS.

[Pickle6]

I tried it without the CDR, and with Motherboard Monitor instead of the supplied utility.

Still freezes at 2500+.

After disconnecting the CDR, the 12V line did at some point get up to 10+ V, and then went down to below 9V.

I noticed that I didn't have the K-Byte memory in, so I swapped the 512 MB PC 2700 for a 256 K-Byte PC2700. Still freezes at 2500+.

[Peter M]

So, you already found out that your power supply isn't, well, supplying. Use a multimeter to see for yourself, and if you read the same low voltage on the 12V rail, then ditch it.

[Mr. NoOne]

I had a similar problem, it turned out to be the old PCI VGA.....
As soon as I moved the mouse the computer would freeze...


try using another VGA & see if that's causing the freezing....

Actually I ended up putting an even older VGA that worked fine...It was just the first one that was incompatible.

[Pickle6]

I'll try a volt meter, but this PSU is a brand new PowMax 400W, and it's reading the same as the first PSU I tried, which suggests that it isn't the PSU. If two PSUs read the same, one brand new and one old, I think that means that it isn't the PSU.

I'll try a different VGA card.