Power Supply Prob?

[jakuum]

Well over the past week I've been experiencing some weird problems, which has turned for the worse today. My symptoms are:
1) The comp won't even post or,
2) The comp will begin posting, but the small LED number thing on the bottom of the board stops at 1d and beeps or,
3) Computer goes past 1d but stops at 2b or,
4) Computer will post, start loading windows, but when I beleive that it is almost done the screen will turn black and then analog/digital will display on my screen, and the the monitor will go to standby or,
5) (rare) Computer will completely boot, and I can login, but after about an hour or so I will get the black screen, get analog/digital, and then standy. Hard drive activity seems to cease also.

1-3 happen most of the time, at one time the LEDs on the BFG 6800gt would not light up completely, they were kind of dim.

To me it seems as if it is more than likely a PSU issue, which I will test tomorrow when I borrow a PSU from work, but I would like the opinion of others. System specs are as follows:

Athlon XP 2500+
Epox 8rda3+ Rev 3.1
1.5gb pc3200
1 160gb seagate PATA
1 120gb western digital PATA
Audigy 2
BFG 6800GT OC
2 120mm fans
Zalman 7000 AlCu
Benq 1640 and a Liteon cdrw, dunno what model.
Antec SL400

Nothing is overclocked, all stock

I would appreciate any responses.

 

[E4g1e]

It could very well be a PSU problem. Your older Antec 400W Solution Series PSU just does not quite have enough amperage capacity on the +12V rail to run a 6800GT AGP card, two hard drives and two optical drives all at the same time. Its maximum amperage capacity on the +12V rail is only 18A - and even an AGP 6800GT is a current-hungry card.

 

[jakuum]

What is kinda weird is that the comp has been just fine for several months after I got the 6800gt. These problems have manifested themselves only in the past week or two. What power supply should I get then if it is the power supply? I'm thinking of going to Best Buy and just buying a TruePower 2.0 or something along that line and testing out my computer using that.

And if does turn out to be that I'm leaning towards getting an Xclio or FSP Bluestorm if those would be fine with an Athlon XP. Finally got the comp booted in safe mode with networking enabled. Scrolling sucks .

 

[E4g1e]

What is kinda weird is that the comp has been just fine for several months after I got the 6800gt. These problems have manifested themselves only in the past week or two. What power supply should I get then if it is the power supply? I'm thinking of going to Best Buy and just buying a TruePower 2.0 or something along that line and testing out my computer using that.

And if does turn out to be that I'm leaning towards getting an Xclio or FSP Bluestorm if those would be fine with an Athlon XP. Finally got the comp booted in safe mode with networking enabled. Scrolling sucks .

That's exactly what I was thinking (but did not quite get out of my tongue). With a slightly underpowered (or in your case, underpowered on the +12V rail) PSU, your system may run fine for weeks or months, and then all of a sudden - program crashes, inability to boot, instability, you name it.

Speaking of the TruePower 2.0 at Best Buy, they have only the 430W model - which should be more than adequate for most systems (including yours). As davidhammock200 said, that PSU can handle a combined +12V amperage of up to 31A (remember, the TruePower 2.0 is a dual +12V rail design).

 

[jakuum]

That's exactly what I was thinking (but did not quite get out of my tongue). With a slightly underpowered (or in your case, underpowered on the +12V rail) PSU, your system may run fine for weeks or months, and then all of a sudden - program crashes, inability to boot, instability, you name it.

Speaking of the TruePower 2.0 at Best Buy, they have only the 430W model - which should be more than adequate for most systems (including yours). As davidhammock200 said, that PSU can handle a combined +12V amperage of up to 31A (remember, the TruePower 2.0 is a dual +12V rail design).

That may very well be true. Gonna test out the power supply tomorrow as well as the motherboard, just in case. And I'm assuming it would be fine running an Athlon XP on a newer spec power supply, since the XP runs off the 5v line if I remember correctly.