I resently bought a barebones system which includes:K7S5A MB(SiS 735 chipset), 256 Mb DDR memory, Athlon XP +1600 cpu, 300 watt PS. The MB has video, sound and ethernet intergrated. I disabled video and installed an Asus Geforce2 MX AGP-7100 video card. I also disabled sound and installed a Soundblaster Platinum 5.1 sound card. I installed a Maxtor ATA100 40 Gig. HD, a Cd burner and a DVD player. I have Windows 98SE running. The cpu runs great at 1 GHZ but is supposed to run at 1.4 GHZ which is where my problem is. The system seems to get threw post but sometimes hangs just before the Windows screen or it goes into safe mode or I get a black screen with a Windows protection error (While initializing device CONFIGMG or IOS. restart your computer) Any suggestions what's happening. Thanks

The 300 watt power supply may not have enough juice to run your CPU at 1.4GHz after making the video and sound card upgrades.

You can check this by going into Safe mode, open Device Manager and remove the sound and video cards from the list, shut down the computer, remove the cards from the MB, re-enable the onboard sound and video cards, and set the CPU at 1.4GHz.
If the system runs, then replace the PS with a 400 watt unit.

Welcome threeaces....

Please check the Mboard for the Bus Speed jumper. 100/133. It will need to be set at 133.

With a default CPU multiplier of 10.5 this will give you a CPU clock speed of 1400.

Otherwise if the jumper is set at 100 you are only going to realize a clock speed of 1050.

Have a feeling what you may be doing is trying to bump things in BIOS to make the CPU read 1400. In BIOS set the RAM at 100/33.

BTW it would be advisable to go to the ECS website and check into the latest upgrades for the BIOS on the K7S5A. Check on the fixes that the upgrades are used for.

The Windoz protection error that you are getting is telling you that the CPU isn't configured properly.


Luck. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

------------------
....How long is a minute... depends on which side of the Bathroom door you're on. ......Indecision may or may not be my problem......
..........

Hi Ski Thanks for the reply. I did take the sound card out but couldn't do it with the video card because I needed an adapter for my monitor to make it compatible with the com port on the MB. But I still had no luck, I tried other things which eventually lead to more problems like screwing up the registery. I talked to a guy today who builds and repairs computers and he thinks this unit should run with a 250 watt PS. If I can't get it going 100% soon I'll take it to him and see if he can do it.

Hi Ranchdog, As far as I could tell the MB has no speed jumpers and the mainboard user guide doesn't specify that there are any. The only jumpers are for keyboard power selector and clear CMOS. The only things I am not sure of is in CMOS setup. Like timing setting mode, SDR/DDR CAS latency, Auto Detect DIMM/PCI CLK, and Clk Gen Spread Spectrum. These are not explained and only say to best leave at default. I couldn't find any technical support on the web site. Just seemed like they were more into selling how good their MB is but I found a download site with a newer BIOS file. I've never installed a new BIOS before and I'm a little sceptical. I understand if not done right I could screw up the MB and have to send it back to the maker to fix, I don't need that. If you have any tips on installing the new BIOS, I'd be greatfull. Thanks for your reply.

Please click here http://www.amdmb.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=24 and read all thru this Forum on the K7S5A.

Especially the posts concerning MemTest86. Heck just read everything.


http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

------------------
....How long is a minute... depends on which side of the Bathroom door you're on. ......Indecision may or may not be my problem......
..........

[This message has been edited by ranchdog (edited 12-20-2001).]

Thanks for the link ranchdog. There is a lot of info there, both good and bad. Hopefully I'll get my system going 100%. Thanks again

Here is a link to the latest BIOS update (http://www.ecs.com.tw/support/support.htm) for your motherboard.

Enter BIOS settup by pressing delete after the POST starts go to the CPU PnP setup page (should be the second entry in the left collum) change the CPU Frequency from 100 to 133 and check the CPU Ratio to be sure it is set at 10.5 and CPU Speed set at 1400 more information on this is on page 32 of your motherboard manual. Also
pressing page up while the system is booting will replace these settings with the default settings

Don't use the settings in the manual they are for a 700MHz CPU

------------------
I think Windows XP and Microsoft use more of my bandwidth than I do!

[This message has been edited by rond36 (edited 12-21-2001).]

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif Thanks to all of you for your help. I've got it going. When I received the system the seller took off the heat sink and taped it securely to the case(I guess just so it wouldn't damage the cpu). When I put it on I didn't realize it was on wrong and with no or very little thermal paste. He (the seller) didn't give me any documention so I just put on thinking that was good enough. Good thing there are lots of forums here and on other sites or I wouldn't have picked up on the paste. I bought paste and another heat sink and installed them and now I'm running 100%. Thanks again. Happy New Year!!!!!!!!