ECS K7S5A v3 - no video - modem prob?

[bujin]

I recently bought an ECS K7S5A v3 motherboard and have had endless problems with it which I won't bore you with.

The current problem I have is that when I switch the power on, I do not get anything on the monitor - it switches off.

I have narrowed the problem down to the network card and/or modem. Without these two installed, the system boots up. With them installed, I get the monitor power-off problem. Now, to confuse matters even further, if I have these cards installed and use SD RAM, they work. If I use DDR RAM, they do not.

Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks.

System as follows:
ECS K7S5A v3 m/b
Athlon XP2100+ cpu
512Mb DDR266 RAM
GeForce4 Ti4200 128Mb graphics card
SB Live 1024 sound card
Ethernet LAN card (unknown make/model)
ESS 56k V.90 modem
2*Maxtor HDDs (10Gb + 40Gb)
DVD drive
CDRW drive
300W PSU

 

[paparazi]

Bad stick of DDR ram?
It's usually the other way around with the K7S5A, they usually have issues when used with SDram and problems are often cured when the ram is swopped to DDR. Martin Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[bujin]

I have 2 sticks of DDR RAM and it does the same with both of them or either one of them alone. I originally thought it was a RAM problem and had one of them replaced, so I've tried 3 different sticks of DDR in it and I still get the same problem.

Also, if I remove the modem and network cards but leave the DDR RAM installed, it works.

 

[gargouille]

How do you have the wake-on states set in the BIOS? (turn them off)
Have you set the BIOS to automatically handle IRQ's?
Sounds like a resource issue, doesn't it?
Are you able to use the slot next to the agp slot?
That slot doesn't usually share well, and usually it shares the same IRQ with the video card. Try moving the cards to different slots...the slots IRQs are usually hard wired.

Also: Martin,
is this ALWAYS an issue with the motherboard? I'm asking because I finally talked a customer into upgrading rather than fighting a PCI video card on a mismatched cobbled together rig he has almost $800 invested in...and he insisted on finding something that would utilize his PC100 RAM...so last nite I ordered a K7S5A. He has (you may have guessed, different brands) 2 sticks of 256 MB ram to use.
We're building him a new system, practically a piece at a time.
That may be the final thing I need to shake him away from hanging on to his POS system.
Tried to sell him on DDR anyway.