K7S5A (3.1) & EVGA NVTV Compatibility Issue

Hello, Thanks in advance for any wisdom or suggestions - I am sorry for such
a long post.

I own (2) K7S5A (Rev 3.1) based systems that have performed very well for a
couple of years now, yes of course both boards had to be re-capped about 6
months ago - but I have to say they have both been VERY stable.

I decided it was time to see how I liked Windows XP Media Center Edition
2005, so here is what I did:

I took my exisiting VERY STABLE "poor mans" Multimedia system running
Windows XP Pro - and removed the TV Wonder VE card.

Here is the system configuration.

ECS K7S5A Revision 3.1 - Last Official BIOS (030811) Stable - (Re-capped),
suing on board LAN.
384MB of Generic PC2100 RAM
MSI/NVIDIA MX4000 128MB Graphics card.
Seagate 40Gig 7200 RPM HD ST340016A (Primary - Master)
Artec DHM-G48RC 16x DVD ROM (Secondary - Master)
1.44 Floppy drive
Antec SL300S Power Supply.
Creative Soundblaster Live 5.1 Sound Card.

I installed Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, installed latest updates,
latest MCE compatible video drivers, WInDVD 6 DVD Codec - Decoder. Ran the
system for about 2 weeks, very stable.

Purchase a brand new retail EVGA NVTV Single Tuner card.

HERE IS THE PROBLEM

With the NVTV installed in ANY PCI slot, the SECONDARY IDE controller won't
detect any devices if the system is first powered on.

I disabled just about everything in setup, both serial ports, the parallel
port, the midi controller, one board sound had been disabled. Pulled the
Sound Blaster - tried every slot - still would not detect the devices on the
secondary IDE controller.

Tried changing RAM settings to safe, tried the bus speed at 100 Mhz, still
no luck. I disabled the 2nd IDE channel - moved the NVTV card to the
secondary on the primary controller. Disabled the

Installed the drivers for the NVTV card, the system locked up within 5
minutes - even when not running Media Center - it will lock up in IE or even
just idle. Almost everything has its own IRQ, the video card is on 11 and
the NVTV is 3 - moved the NVTV to other slots, still the PC locks up.

I disabled the on board IDE and used a Promise PCI IDE controller - detects
drives on both IDE channels as it should - system still locks up.

IF I DISABLE THE NVTV CARD in Device manager - the system is stable.

I removed the Promise card and put the drives back to hard drive as primary
master, and DVD secondary master. I noticed that if I disabled the the NVTV
card in device manager and rebooted - the motherboard would detect the DVD
drive on the secondary IDE controller at POST!

I updated more drivers, tried older drivers for the video card, tried almost
every hacked K7S5A BIOS - the system still locks up!

I don' recommend this for kids but if I boot the system and simply start
explorer and the NVTV card is enabled - the system will lock is anywhere
between 5 and 15 minutes - IF I PULL THE NVTV CARD OUT QUICKLY AND
STRAIGHT - THE SYSTEM WILL NO LONGER BE LOCKED UP. I have only done this
twice and realize its risky.

This same issues happens with my another K7S5A (3.1) system also - does
anyone have a K7S5A with this tuner - is this an issue between the NVTV and
the SIS 735 chipset - I have seen issues with the NVTV and VIA chipsets?

I have tried even more things than I can post here, I won't say I have
"tried everything" because if I did - it would obiously be working.

HELP - Dave

"David J. Pittella" <> wrote in message
news:MKiIe.142$...
> Hello, Thanks in advance for any wisdom or suggestions - I am sorry for such
> a long post.
>
> I own (2) K7S5A (Rev 3.1) based systems that have performed very well for a
> couple of years now, yes of course both boards had to be re-capped about 6
> months ago - but I have to say they have both been VERY stable.
[snip]

Sorry I can't help on your problem.
I was just curious if you replaced the caps yourself or had it done.
If you did it yourself, what is the proper way to do it?
If you had it done, what was the cost?
I replaced one cap on a mb and it was tough, but successful.(Perhaps I didn't
have the right tools.)
Any links on how to do it?
Thanks.
PS: I hope you get your problem sorted out.
Maybe you have 'duplicates' (devices or drivers) in your Device Manager that is
causing problems.

Hello,

On Wed, 3 Aug 2005 23:35:55 -0700, "David J. Pittella"
<> wrote:

>Hello, Thanks in advance for any wisdom or suggestions - I am sorry for such
>a long post.
>
>I own (2) K7S5A (Rev 3.1) based systems that have performed very well for a
>couple of years now, yes of course both boards had to be re-capped about 6
>months ago - but I have to say they have both been VERY stable.

Own one myself (second hand and since a week, but destined to be used
by my son)
>
>I decided it was time to see how I liked Windows XP Media Center Edition
>2005, so here is what I did:

I myself have no experience with MCE.
>
>I took my exisiting VERY STABLE "poor mans" Multimedia system running
>Windows XP Pro - and removed the TV Wonder VE card.
>
>Here is the system configuration.
>
>ECS K7S5A Revision 3.1 - Last Official BIOS (030811) Stable - (Re-capped),
>suing on board LAN.
>384MB of Generic PC2100 RAM
>MSI/NVIDIA MX4000 128MB Graphics card.
>Seagate 40Gig 7200 RPM HD ST340016A (Primary - Master)
>Artec DHM-G48RC 16x DVD ROM (Secondary - Master)
>1.44 Floppy drive
>Antec SL300S Power Supply.

The official minimum for MCE 2005 is 250W so...
>Creative Soundblaster Live 5.1 Sound Card.
>
>I installed Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, installed latest updates,
>latest MCE compatible video drivers, WInDVD 6 DVD Codec - Decoder. Ran the
>system for about 2 weeks, very stable.
>
>Purchase a brand new retail EVGA NVTV Single Tuner card.
>
>HERE IS THE PROBLEM
>
>With the NVTV installed in ANY PCI slot, the SECONDARY IDE controller won't
>detect any devices if the system is first powered on.
>
>I disabled just about everything in setup, both serial ports, the parallel
>port, the midi controller, one board sound had been disabled. Pulled the
>Sound Blaster - tried every slot - still would not detect the devices on the
>secondary IDE controller.
>
>Tried changing RAM settings to safe, tried the bus speed at 100 Mhz, still
>no luck. I disabled the 2nd IDE channel - moved the NVTV card to the
>secondary on the primary controller. Disabled the
>
>Installed the drivers for the NVTV card, the system locked up within 5
>minutes - even when not running Media Center - it will lock up in IE or even
>just idle. Almost everything has its own IRQ, the video card is on 11 and
>the NVTV is 3 - moved the NVTV to other slots, still the PC locks up.
>
>I disabled the on board IDE and used a Promise PCI IDE controller - detects
>drives on both IDE channels as it should - system still locks up.
>
>IF I DISABLE THE NVTV CARD in Device manager - the system is stable.
>
>I removed the Promise card and put the drives back to hard drive as primary
>master, and DVD secondary master. I noticed that if I disabled the the NVTV
>card in device manager and rebooted - the motherboard would detect the DVD
>drive on the secondary IDE controller at POST!
>
>I updated more drivers, tried older drivers for the video card, tried almost
>every hacked K7S5A BIOS - the system still locks up!
>
>I don' recommend this for kids but if I boot the system and simply start
>explorer and the NVTV card is enabled - the system will lock is anywhere
>between 5 and 15 minutes - IF I PULL THE NVTV CARD OUT QUICKLY AND
>STRAIGHT - THE SYSTEM WILL NO LONGER BE LOCKED UP. I have only done this
>twice and realize its risky.

Definitely too risky.
>
>This same issues happens with my another K7S5A (3.1) system also - does
>anyone have a K7S5A with this tuner - is this an issue between the NVTV and
>the SIS 735 chipset - I have seen issues with the NVTV and VIA chipsets?

"Could be"
>
>I have tried even more things than I can post here, I won't say I have
>"tried everything" because if I did - it would obiously be working.

You are a born optimist ;-)
>
>HELP - Dave
>
Very interesting problem. Of course I cannot help you from my own
experience but foun some interesting texts:

Here comes somebody with freeze problems with mce and your tuner card
too:
-------------------------------------------------
I've been playing around with Windows MCE 2005 for a couple months now
trying to get everything perfect and in working condition to my
likeness. I've experienced one particular frustrating problem that I
will describe below.

First off, here's my MCE Box specs:

Pentium 4 1.7ghz (I know, should be higher but have not noticed any
extremely noticeable performance hits)
784mb of PC2100 DDR (this helps the slow processor a LOT)
Sapphire NVIDIA FX5200
EVGA NVTV Single Tuner
Creative Soundblaster Audigy Gold
Windows Media Center Remote 2005

This is all hooked up to my 27" presentation monitor with a VGA input
(blows S-Video OUT of the water, plus I already have a HDTV ready
box!) and my RCA 5.1 Surround receiver through digital coax.

My problem is this: Anywhere from 30mins-2hours or running time,
whether idle or watching/recording TV, the screen will either lock or
go black with the blinky cursor business, and I am forced to Alt-F4
and Ctrl-Alt-Del out of the MCE application and restart. When the
screen simply "locks" (ie i cannot move or select anything with mouse
or MCE remote), I am able to just restart the MCE app. When it goes
black, upon restarting the app I get the "Your video drivers are not
valid DirectX 9 drivers" or some such error, and I am forced to do a
full restart of the system.

Now before anyone says "Your TV TUNER SUCKS" or "It's the tuner!", I
will present you with the following evidence otherwise:

I was recording the season finale of "24" and the *beep* thing locked
on me. I had not watched a single frame of the show and was about to
lose it in anger that the thing locked on the last 10-15 minutes of
it. I decided to just wait until the show ended before i kicked the
stupid thing.

After the show ended, I rebooted my TV (that sounds SO ridiculous) and
discovered that it had recorded the ENTIRE show. That immediately told
me that the Tuner was working just fine, in fact the system was
running flawlessly, I just lost video. The reoccuring "DirectX 9
video" error also told me that it was the card that was failing, and
nothing else.

Now it's reached the point where I am unable to use the MCE for
anything. After just five minutes the system goes black and I have to
restart, just to do it all over again when the video board crashes.

I've decided to trash the stupid FX5200 board as it was the WORST of
Nvidia's video board series' and am patiently awaiting my ATI 9800SE
128mb instead. I've always been an ATI fan anyway and I have a strong
feeling that all my problems will disappear as soon as I get the new
board installed.

Has anyone else had problems with the FX5200 boards?
----------------------------------------------

And then there are these urls:

list of supported hardware

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/m...erlisting.mspx

How to build a multimedia pc:

http://adam.theficus.com/archives/20...o_build_a.html
------------------------------------------------

I hope that you find a solution for your interesting problem.

Max M.

>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

A couple of things,

Buffalo - I did recap the boards, I did spend a part of my life as a
bench tech. The right way to do it would be to use a "real" desolding
tool which would have enough heat and vacuum to handle the board. The
first motherboard I recapped was an ABIT BF6 quite a while ago - and it
actually didn't seem all that difficult using wick and a good solder
sucker. The ECS K7S5A has a great deal of copper on those runs - and
isn't fun without a good soldering iron that is able to recover from
the heat loss.

Take a look at this site - http://www.badcaps.net/, there are some tips
about using a stainless steel dental pick. I can tell you many would
probably say this is not the ideal way to do it. But without an real
desoldering station - a good soldering iron, braid, solder sucker, and
a dental pick - AND BEING REASONABLY CAREFUL - you can do it.
The only negative is that a brand new Socket 462 board is pretty cheap
today. But I am pretty cheap to good luck !

Max - thanks for your feedback. I forgot to mention that the processor
is an AMD 2400+ and I do have Microsoft remote also. The MX4000 card is
not a great choice for performance.

One thing that I have read while researching my problem may help you -
have you tried the older NVIDIA drivers for XP - I think they are
version 66.73. If I remember properly if you go to the NVIDIA site -
you have one driver listed for XP MCE 2005 - and its something like
version 72.XX, if you just select video drivers for XP - there is the
66.XX version and a new 77.XX version. I have tried all of them. No
help - I did notice that the 72.XX version did cause some odd cosmetic
isses with video - I currently have the 77 version (lastest for Windows
XP) - obviously my issue is different, my system essentially hard - no
matter what you are doing - good luck!

"Buffalo" <eric(nospam)@nada.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:M46dnSTkToTgrm_fRVn-...
>
> "David J. Pittella" <> wrote in message
> news:MKiIe.142$...
> > Hello, Thanks in advance for any wisdom or suggestions - I am sorry for
such
> > a long post.
> >
> > I own (2) K7S5A (Rev 3.1) based systems that have performed very well
for a
> > couple of years now, yes of course both boards had to be re-capped about
6
> > months ago - but I have to say they have both been VERY stable.
> [snip]
>
> Sorry I can't help on your problem.
> I was just curious if you replaced the caps yourself or had it done.
> If you did it yourself, what is the proper way to do it?
> If you had it done, what was the cost?
> I replaced one cap on a mb and it was tough, but successful.(Perhaps I
didn't
> have the right tools.)
> Any links on how to do it?

i have successfully replaced the 6 caps near CPU on two v3.1 boards ( i am
cheap too)
i am an amateur solderer at best, i dug through the links that OP gave and
i used the
advice and tips to do following (for myself)

0. mantra - biggest problem is too much heat or heating for too long
1. bought a decent 25w soldering iron and some ***solder wick*** and
solder resin
2. practice removing / installing CAPS on some old trashed radio ,vcr and
PSU circuit boards
3. Tried two different approaches;

3A. Method: Cut the CAPS and install new one to the exposed posts.
Clip caps (on mobo) 1/2 down the can
clean off CAP material exposes 2 metal posts
trim leads on new CAPS
solder *NEW* CAPS to the 2 metal posts

** This looked like crap but it worked and some electronics x-pert
would probably fing fault with this method.... the exposed posts and all

3B Method: Desolder and solder new ones in place (**Obvious**)
heat one post while pushing the can sideways
repeat for other side
use wick to clean solder out of holes
***problems here ***
some holes would not clear enough and the new cap leads would
not go into holes
so i had to find some way to clear holes.... a cheap plunger
desolderer cleared some
and using some old heavy duty resitor leads to push through
hole while heating helped others

any way it worked but i do not know how well solder flowed into
holes as CAPS are pushed to mobo

HTH

"Davep" <> wrote in message
news: oups.com...
> A couple of things,
>
> Buffalo - I did recap the boards, I did spend a part of my life as a
> bench tech. The right way to do it would be to use a "real" desolding
> tool which would have enough heat and vacuum to handle the board. The
> first motherboard I recapped was an ABIT BF6 quite a while ago - and it
> actually didn't seem all that difficult using wick and a good solder
> sucker. The ECS K7S5A has a great deal of copper on those runs - and
> isn't fun without a good soldering iron that is able to recover from
> the heat loss.
>
> Take a look at this site - http://www.badcaps.net/, there are some tips
> about using a stainless steel dental pick. I can tell you many would
> probably say this is not the ideal way to do it. But without an real
> desoldering station - a good soldering iron, braid, solder sucker, and
> a dental pick - AND BEING REASONABLY CAREFUL - you can do it.
> The only negative is that a brand new Socket 462 board is pretty cheap
> today. But I am pretty cheap to good luck !

Thanks for the feedback. Hope you get your problem solved.

"robm" <> wrote in message
news:BTyIe.3282$ .net...
>
> i have successfully replaced the 6 caps near CPU on two v3.1 boards ( i am
> cheap too)
> i am an amateur solderer at best, i dug through the links that OP gave and
> i used the
> advice and tips to do following (for myself)
>
> 0. mantra - biggest problem is too much heat or heating for too long
> 1. bought a decent 25w soldering iron and some ***solder wick*** and
> solder resin
> 2. practice removing / installing CAPS on some old trashed radio ,vcr and
> PSU circuit boards
> 3. Tried two different approaches;
>
> 3A. Method: Cut the CAPS and install new one to the exposed posts.
> Clip caps (on mobo) 1/2 down the can
> clean off CAP material exposes 2 metal posts
> trim leads on new CAPS
> solder *NEW* CAPS to the 2 metal posts
>
> ** This looked like crap but it worked and some electronics x-pert
> would probably fing fault with this method.... the exposed posts and all
>
> 3B Method: Desolder and solder new ones in place (**Obvious**)
> heat one post while pushing the can sideways
> repeat for other side
> use wick to clean solder out of holes
> ***problems here ***
> some holes would not clear enough and the new cap leads would
> not go into holes
> so i had to find some way to clear holes.... a cheap plunger
> desolderer cleared some
> and using some old heavy duty resitor leads to push through
> hole while heating helped others
>
> any way it worked but i do not know how well solder flowed into
> holes as CAPS are pushed to mobo
>
> HTH

Thanks, I even had a little problem applying the solder so that it did not go
across several traces.
I guess I need a video.

"" wrote:
> Hello, Thanks in advance for any wisdom or suggestions - I am
> sorry for such
> a long post.
>
> I own (2) K7S5A (Rev 3.1) based systems that have performed
> very well for a
> couple of years now, yes of course both boards had to be
> re-capped about 6
> months ago - but I have to say they have both been VERY
> stable.
>
> I decided it was time to see how I liked Windows XP Media
> Center Edition
> 2005, so here is what I did:
>
> I took my exisiting VERY STABLE "poor mans" Multimedia system
> running
> Windows XP Pro - and removed the TV Wonder VE card.
>
> Here is the system configuration.
>
> ECS K7S5A Revision 3.1 - Last Official BIOS (030811) Stable -
> (Re-capped),
> suing on board LAN.
> 384MB of Generic PC2100 RAM
> MSI/NVIDIA MX4000 128MB Graphics card.
> Seagate 40Gig 7200 RPM HD ST340016A (Primary - Master)
> Artec DHM-G48RC 16x DVD ROM (Secondary - Master)
> 1.44 Floppy drive
> Antec SL300S Power Supply.
> Creative Soundblaster Live 5.1 Sound Card.
>
> I installed Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, installed
> latest updates,
> latest MCE compatible video drivers, WInDVD 6 DVD Codec -
> Decoder. Ran the
> system for about 2 weeks, very stable.
>
> Purchase a brand new retail EVGA NVTV Single Tuner card.
>
> HERE IS THE PROBLEM
>
> With the NVTV installed in ANY PCI slot, the SECONDARY IDE
> controller won't
> detect any devices if the system is first powered on.
>
> I disabled just about everything in setup, both serial ports,
> the parallel
> port, the midi controller, one board sound had been disabled.
> Pulled the
> Sound Blaster - tried every slot - still would not detect the
> devices on the
> secondary IDE controller.
>
> Tried changing RAM settings to safe, tried the bus speed at
> 100 Mhz, still
> no luck. I disabled the 2nd IDE channel - moved the NVTV card
> to the
> secondary on the primary controller. Disabled the
>
> Installed the drivers for the NVTV card, the system locked up
> within 5
> minutes - even when not running Media Center - it will lock up
> in IE or even
> just idle. Almost everything has its own IRQ, the video card
> is on 11 and
> the NVTV is 3 - moved the NVTV to other slots, still the PC
> locks up.
>
> I disabled the on board IDE and used a Promise PCI IDE
> controller - detects
> drives on both IDE channels as it should - system still locks
> up.
>
> IF I DISABLE THE NVTV CARD in Device manager - the system is
> stable.
>
> I removed the Promise card and put the drives back to hard
> drive as primary
> master, and DVD secondary master. I noticed that if I disabled
> the the NVTV
> card in device manager and rebooted - the motherboard would
> detect the DVD
> drive on the secondary IDE controller at POST!
>
> I updated more drivers, tried older drivers for the video
> card, tried almost
> every hacked K7S5A BIOS - the system still locks up!
>
> I don' recommend this for kids but if I boot the system and
> simply start
> explorer and the NVTV card is enabled - the system will lock
> is anywhere
> between 5 and 15 minutes - IF I PULL THE NVTV CARD OUT QUICKLY
> AND
> STRAIGHT - THE SYSTEM WILL NO LONGER BE LOCKED UP. I have only
> done this
> twice and realize its risky.
>
> This same issues happens with my another K7S5A (3.1) system
> also - does
> anyone have a K7S5A with this tuner - is this an issue between
> the NVTV and
> the SIS 735 chipset - I have seen issues with the NVTV and VIA
> chipsets?
>
> I have tried even more things than I can post here, I won't
> say I have
> "tried everything" because if I did - it would obiously be
> working.
>
> HELP - Dave

i just got an xfx nvtv card and also had problams with it. my problam
was related to a conflic with my old aver tv tuner card and wouldnt go
away with anything i tried, that is until i moved my files over to my
second hdd and reinstalled windows xp. i did have a big problam with
the bios after all this where the system wouldnt boot up anymore i had
to restet my bios also, after that everything ran fine and is
continuing to do so. the only problam i have now is i cant turn time
shifting off in the nvidia forceware multimedia prog so i cant play my
xobx or ps2 on my pc atm

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Hey, sorry for bumping this topic
I have an ECS K7S5A Pro 5.0 mainboard, and the NVIDIA EVGA NVTV t
tuner card, and I'm having the same problem. Watching TV, it'l
suddenly lock up; idling, it'll take longer to lock up but stil
will

I tried both MCE 2002 and 2005, both had the problem

I'm going to try it in an old Gateway computer of mine, see if i
works

Wish me luck :

Sent via Archivaty.com

"ahanix1989" <> wrote in message
news:86edncNCIvCre-PeRVn-...
> Hey, sorry for bumping this topic.
> I have an ECS K7S5A Pro 5.0 mainboard, and the NVIDIA EVGA NVTV tv
> tuner card, and I'm having the same problem. Watching TV, it'll
> suddenly lock up; idling, it'll take longer to lock up but still
> will.
>
> I tried both MCE 2002 and 2005, both had the problem.
>
> I'm going to try it in an old Gateway computer of mine, see if it
> works.
>
> Wish me luck

what is your regular video card ? is it AGP ?

i think there are problems with using 1st PCI slot if you have AGP slot used
, there is a website (can't remember link) that has a great summary of the
PCI AGP slots on K7S5A , shws why you can expect problems is you install
card in PCI slot 1 and AGP slot .

the solution is to use some other (not 1) PCI slot

And there may be other problems with other slots depending on the IRQ setup
you want etc....

HTH
rob