Refurb K7S5A @ Newegg $29.00

[Gaard]

I was wondering if anyone else is having this problem...or if it's even a problem at all. I received a Ver3.1 board so I went to ECS's site to download the manual. I chose to download the manual for Ver3.1 but as it was downloading the little window that shows the progress of the download said "xxKB of 353KB downloaded". Now the manual for the Ver3.1 board is 537KB (not 353), but the manual for Ver1.0 is 353KB. So I'm assuming I'm getting Ver1.0 manual instead of Ver3.1. Are there many drastic differences between the two? Could someone check out the dl page at ECS's site (here) and verify what I'm saying about the sizes of the downloads?


And did anyone get a bad board this time?

 

[woshiagni]

I got a bad board, blown component on the motherboard near the case led/pw switch headers (looks like maybe a power regulator?) and a cap near the memory slots was missing one lead.

Sent it back, boards are OOS now (of course) so I just got a credit... =(
Any suggestions for sub $40 boards?

I'm looking at either of those Gigabyte boards, the 7VTXE and the 7VRX, don't know the major differences between the two.
Geez, the last time I was into motherboards Asus' A7V133 and Abit's KT7A were big news...

 

[Gaard]

Well...2 different power supplies, CPUs, video cards, memory sticks (in different slots), and playing with all the jumpers (particularly the CMOS jumper) and not getting this board to POST I've requested an RMA# from Newegg.

Doesn't piss me off in the least. In fact, I'll buy refurbished from them again....can't beat the price!

 

[cheetoden]

I fooled around with both of the 2 I ordered for a couple days and finally got the damn things stable. The only thing I'm stumped with is that neither board would post with my Crucial PC2100. That DDR works fine in my Epox 8KHA+. But they ran fine on some cheap PC133.

I tested both boards on my Newegg refurb Enlight 7237 with 340W power supply. It was $50 shipped and was missing the bay rails and screws. I've used plenty of these cases and just happened to have spare parts from them.

 

[Bill00]

Originally posted by: Gaard
I was wondering if anyone else is having this problem...or if it's even a problem at all. I received a Ver3.1 board so I went to ECS's site to download the manual. I chose to download the manual for Ver3.1 but as it was downloading the little window that shows the progress of the download said "xxKB of 353KB downloaded". Now the manual for the Ver3.1 board is 537KB (not 353), but the manual for Ver1.0 is 353KB. So I'm assuming I'm getting Ver1.0 manual instead of Ver3.1. Are there many drastic differences between the two? Could someone check out the dl page at ECS's site (here) and verify what I'm saying about the sizes of the downloads?


And did anyone get a bad board this time?

I got what appears to be a new retail-boxed v 3.1 manual and board. Everything is in it and I can't tell it was ever installed before.

I installed it today in an Enermax case w/300w PS and put in 256mb of PC133 and it came up fine. I have another one I bought a year ago and have used both PC133 and DDR 2100 in it with no problem.

On the manual, due to the heads up earlier in this thread, I downloaded what is purportedly the v 3.1 update, but it still looks the same to me. One GLARING error in both this manual and the year old one is the connection diagram for the FP1 Connector. In the v 3.1 manual I have, it is on page 9, and as laid out, it is impossible to do: for instance, it is physically impossible to plug a dual connector over pins 5 & 8 as outlined in the manual. Still the same in the version I downloaded.

The correct connections for FP1 are: 1 & 3 - IDE LED; 2 - 4 Power LED (my 2 Enermax cases both have 3 hole plugs with the 2 wires to the 2 outside plugs. To get it to work, I had to cut the plug in the middle so I can get the right holes over the right pins.); 5 & 7 - Reset; 6 & 8 Power switch; 9 - not used; 10 - blank (no pin).

I haven't checked the rest of the manual closely for errors. Just sort of winged it, and the machine is up and running great with Win XP Pro on it. Still have to add some odds and ends of hardware and install some software, but this is the second Enermax/K7S5A combo I have put together and am well pleased with both. [Probably not as pleased as younger daughter will be when she gets this one for Xmas! ]