ECS K7S5A motherboard, voltage problems!?

[acidosmosis]

I recently bought a ECS K7S5A motherboard from maincomp.com, and have been having problems. I was using on board sound at first and would be in a game and all of the sudden a "shriek" would occur and my computer would immediately freeze. Sometimes I have to reinstall sound drivers, sometimes not, and sometimes I have to reboot 2-3 times to get my sound working. I then went and bought a sound card and disabled on board sound, uninstalled all sound drivers and installed drivers for the sound card. I've done everything possible as far as that. Today I noticed there was a system monitor program on the motherboard cd.. After installing and opening the program, I immediately got a warning saying 12v and 5v voltage was too low and could damage my system. The program is called "SiS System hardware monitor" btw...

Under the 12V section it is showing 6.78v, and under 5V it is showin 4.04... all I have plugged into the power supply in my system is the motherboard, 2 hard drives (10gig and 4gig), and a processor fan is hooked up to the motherboard via the cpufan connector.

Are these levels bad???


I/O voltage and Core Voltage are in the blue (so the program is saying its ok)
I/O voltage: 3.31v
Core voltage: 2.74v

In the red (supposedly bad)
12V: 6.78v
5V: 4.04v


Help? lol

Not too much of a big deal cause I decided to ditch this new motherboard and get an Asus pretty soon. Also getting a Radeon9700 Pro real soon so I DO NOT need power supply problems.


Oh yea, the power supply is a 400watt. Obviously cheap because it came with the crappy case.. the case + power supply was $27 + tax. HA, nice eh? Getting a Vantech 420w PSU soon though after I get a new motherboard.

 

[Vehementi]

What makes you think it's your system board?

It's definitely your PSU. It's faulty. I would say order that Vantec 420W now.

Just as a bit of reference, my $50 Enermax 350W PSU outputs 26A on the 12V rail, as opposed to your $100+ Vantec 420W's 18A. 18A should be fine, but I'm just saying you could get more for your money, and 3 fans on a PSU is not practical. Read my PSU thread in Other Hardware for more details.

I wouldn't reccomend running this PSU with your system further for fear of something exploding, and very possibly

 

[acidosmosis]

If anything explodes, MainComp.com will have a lawsuit on their hands and they will pay for this computer. They are the *****s that gave me a crappy psu. Dont buy from them, you will wish you hadn't.

 

[acidosmosis]

current psu

The current PSU I have in this case lists these specs:
ATX-400W

5v: 30a
12v: 15a
-5v: 0.5a
-12v: .08a
+3.3v: 28a
5VSB: 2a

Doesn't sound too great to me, and who in the heck is "King Yes". I've never even heard of that company. (It is the one that made this PSU). I guess I got what I paid for. The case + psu was $27 + tax. It would seem that the person you buy these things from should tell the customer that its not good enough for the system when they BUY IT. @*&#*&@ *****s!

By the way I am running Athlon XP 2100+ 1.73ghz, 2 HD's, geforce2, cd burner, and sound card... thats the whole system basically.. but thats temporary. Need a temporary case for the motherboard, so I went cheap.

 

[young&wild]

Re: current psu

Originally posted by acidosmosis


Doesn't sound too great to me, and who in the heck is "King Yes". I've never even heard of that company. (It is the one that made this PSU). I guess I got what I paid for.

Must be one of those crappy Taiwanese companies making PSU.

 

[acidosmosis]

motherboard monitor specs

I checked motherboard monitor and these are the readings that I am getting. Good or bad? Again I'm running an Athlon XP 2100+ 1.73ghz on a ECS K7S5A motherboard (all temporary).


Current CPU Temp: 114'F-116'F
Core 0: 1.76v
Core 1: 2.46v
+3.3v: 3.26v
+5v: Lowest recorded 3.47v, Highest recorded 4.83v
+12v: Lowest recorded 11.79v, Highest recorded 12.43v
-12v: Lowest recorded -12.43v, Highest recorded -10.49v
-5v: Lowest recorded -5.22v, Highest recorded -4.45v

 

[Vehementi]

Re: current psu

Originally posted by acidosmosis
By the way I am running Athlon XP 2100+ 1.73ghz, 2 HD's, geforce2, cd burner, and sound card... thats the whole system basically.. but thats temporary. Need a temporary case for the motherboard, so I went cheap.

Take a look at my system in my profile. I had alot of trouble with a 400W PSU that delivered 15A on the 12V rail. And I have a pretty similar system.

Voltage deviation may be a little too much. My Enermax currently deviates no more than +/- .1V on the 12V rail, .2V on the 5V rail, and .05V on the 3.3V rail.

But 6.78V is disasterously low for 12V and 4.04 is too.

And I doubt you can sue the company from which you bought a defective product from. I read at THG that a couple of PSU's switching regulator capacitors exploded when put under stress. This could very well happen with yours. Whether or not it would damage your components, I don't know, but chances are it will since of course your PSU doesn't have an automatic shutdown feature

I must say again that you could probably save some money by buying a 350W PSU. I got my Enermax for $53 (inc shipping) from newegg. Check out my specs too, I probably have alot more peripherals and fans than you do. You do not need a 420W PSU.