Doc M: ECS K7S5A question:

[KRSESQ]

Dr. Mordrid:

I've been experimenting with this motherboard with the Athlon 2000+ and 512 MB PC2100 RAM and Win 98 SE.

The problem I've observed is that the BIOS periodically resets itself to default settings, dropping processor down to 1250MHz and re-enabling on-board sound, LAN, date to 8-27-01, etc.

A visit to ESC's website reveals only that several other people have observed the same problem. No solution forthcoming from ECS.

Have you observed this behavior? Any suggestions?

[Dr Mordrid]

Never seen it myself and I have 3 running now....all with the latest BIOs update (k7s5a020626.exe)

While not having this problem with my ECS boards I did have something similar with some of my Asus and Gigabyte boards a while back.

This frequently can be caused by a weak onboard battery. Sometimes this will also cause the clock to run slow or reset, but not always.

The root cause can be something as simple as the use of a cheap battery or environmental problems during shipping/storage of either the battery itself or the assembled mainboard.

Dr. Mordrid

[KRSESQ]

I'm going to try replacing the battery (always fix the cheapest thing first!) and if it doesn't work I'll try flashing to the BIOS version recommended by the crew at ocworkbench.com.

I'm not overclocking this unit but reading the forums over there, it seems this is a recurrent problem for quite a few users of this board. This one specific BIOS revision seems to address the issue.

Thanks,

Kevin

[Dr Mordrid]

Make sure the battery contacts are clean as well. You never know for sure what they're made of and how fast it'll form an oxide layer.

Dr. Mordrid

[DJ]

I have built 6 systems with this board and most of them have this problem also. If you get a fix, let me know.

DJ

[KRSESQ]

Going to try flashing with bios revision 020429, and disable quick boot. Many users report this fix works. Time will tell, I guess.

Kevin

[K6-III]

Get a new cmos battery....worked for me...