Ecs K7s5a V3.1

[dood]

Received this board to be repaired due to bad caps. Replaced all of the caps 1000uf and higher. Not all caps were bulged, but all were OST.

First two pics are of the board as it came to me. Last two are of the recapped board.











Caps used:

(10) Nichicon HE 2200uf 6.3v 10mm
(6) Panasonic FM 1500uf 6.3v 10mm
(2) Panasonic FM 1200uf 6.3v 10mm
(2) Panasonic FM 470uf 10v 8mm
(1) Panasonic FM 1000uf 10v 10mm (used 10mm due to height restriction between AGP and PCI slots)
(1) Panasonic FM 1000uf 10v 8mm

[arneson]

Re: Ecs K7s5a V3.1

It's great how sparkly it looks after the recap.
Good work and fire it up, er um, turn it on.

[dood]

Re: Ecs K7s5a V3.1

It's been fired up, loaded with WinXP, and testing for quite a number of days, now. I just hadn't gotten around to making this thread . Seems to be working quite well, though I couldn't get it to POST with a stick of SDRAM that I have... I had to rob a stick of DDR from another machine, and it worked fine then. Not sure if my SDRAM is dead, or if it's a problem with the board. Interesting that it has both types of slots, though you can't use both types simultaneously. Must have been made during the crossover from SD to DDR

[nsx29]

Re: Ecs K7s5a V3.1

great soldering. How many watt iron did u use?

[MD Willington]

Re: Ecs K7s5a V3.1

That's actually a PCChips M830 or Matsonic equivalent, with the K7S5A bios in it, the orange blob chipset heatsinks are the same too, only the name is changed...

Elite Group color scheme:
V1.x Black/Brown PCB
V3.x Black/Brown PCB
V5.x Purple PCB

OEM/PCChips = Tan/gold color scheme

Many boards didn't work with SDRAM, or had issues.

yes it was developed during the transition from regular SDRAM to DDR.. provided a decent upgrade path without ditching the mainboard when DDR was more mainstream.

There is a fairly new bios for it (2004) I can give you a link if interested.

BTW the board will work just fine with mobile XP's...

The fastest chip that works is the XP-M 3000+, runs at 2.2Ghz without OC...

[Rainbow]

Re: Ecs K7s5a V3.1

I've fixed an tested a lot of these boards and they always worked with SDRAM - at least with mine (8-chip 128MB M.tec 6ns).
You were lucky that the MOSFETs were not shorted. Maybe those OST caps are better - I've seen fried MOSFETs only on boards with G-Luxon caps.

[MD Willington]

Re: Ecs K7s5a V3.1

Yep, it really does depend on the memory with the chipset...

I never had a problem with mine as I bought the memory listed in the manual as tested from Micron, I'm about 6 hours from the Micron Fab...

[arneson]

Re: Ecs K7s5a V3.1

Sure, Micron Fab, is code for nearest Hooters.

[dood]

Re: Ecs K7s5a V3.1

I've yet to test this board with any other SDRAM... I'm going to have to try to dig some up somewheres.

nsx29- I have a Weller WLC100 that I bought from Sears. It comes with a 40w iron, and variable temperature control. For most of this recap I had it set on 4 out of 5, mostly because this board has some large ground planes that soak up the heat.

[dood]

Re: Ecs K7s5a V3.1

Here's a shot of the soldering on the bottom of the board. Note the large grounding traces... You can see where the board is slightly discolored in places. Normally I would not have had the iron so hot, but I didn't have much of a choice...

[gonzo0815]

Re: Ecs K7s5a V3.1

Good, recap. But i have had no luck with the Weller WHS 40 Digital, wich has 40w too. I don`t get the solder melted quite well, even at 450°C

Those SIS based boards are all somhow pitty regarding memory. E.g none of my variouse SIS board (ECS and Asrock) will work wit some Samsung memory, whereas the absolut cheapest oem memory worked fine on the K7vza and the k7s5a.

[Rainbow]

Re: Ecs K7s5a V3.1

I recapped these with my 25W iron - the point is to add a bit of solder to improve heat transfer between the tip and board.
These boards were cheap but are good - except the caps...
BTW. M.tec was cheapest memory available here - and I was very surprised by its quality. It's marked PC133 but has 6ns chips (at least according to the marking), runs fine at 133MHz CL2 and even 150MHz CL3. I keep one 128MB stick for testing (have 256MB one in one of my machines) - and it ran in all boards without any problems.

[arneson]

Re: Ecs K7s5a V3.1

Agreed it looks as good as any I've done, nice job, should be encouragement for others.

[dood]

Re: Ecs K7s5a V3.1

Well, this is my 13th board recap, plus a few PSUs under my belt, so I'm getting better at the technique at least .

[MD Willington]

Re: Ecs K7s5a V3.1

Sure, Micron Fab, is code for nearest Hooters.

LOL... no hooters near here... well maybe up on campus when the sunshine is out...