Hello, I am new to the forums and hope anybody can help me out. I just recently purchased a new case, a Antec Sonata II with the 450watts Antec power supply (2.0 SmartPower) and I'm having a few problems.
1. After installing everything in it, I fired up the PC and it would turn on but no video was being sent to the monitor and the CD rom light was green. It would do that a few times but eventually it gets into Windows XP just fine. I left it at that thinking it was fine but then it started crashing when I tried to surf the Internet or if I play a game for 5-10 minutes it crashes.
2. I've even had it to the point that when I pushed the power button it would run for two seconds and then turn off. It would do that a few times, then run fine all the way into Windows.
3. Another issue I'm having is that if I just slightly move the case it turns off.

Now in my old case, I had a StarLogic 450watts and it ran fine though the issue with moving the case and the computer turning off would happen if I did that. But since I dont do much moving it never was a problem. But now that I can even get it to run.... its a bit of a bigger issue. I would imagine the new Antec power supply would be enough to power my system. When I get home though (as I am at work) I will put my old power supply in to test and possibly switch video cards. I'm leading towards thinking my motherboard is shot and this new power supply just pushed it to its limit.. <shrugs> Any suggestions/help would be greatly appricated. Thanks! =)




My system Specs:
Antec Sonata II with 450 2.0 Smart Power Supply
Gigabyte GA-K8NSNXP-989
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (Temps: 44 idle, 48-50 underload)
2x 512MB of Crucial Tecchnlogy SDRAM DDR 400
eVGA Geforce 6800GT 256MB AGP 4X/8X (Temps: 50ish)
Western Digital 250GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0GB
Sound Blaster X-Gamer

2x 120mm Antec TriCool at full blast
ThermalTake HeatSink

I have the latest version of Symantec AntiVirus and Spysweeper as well.

Hi Evilfurrypanda,

Welcome to The PCHF,
The most concerning thing about your post is that the pc shuts off when you move the case, this in my experience can be caused by contact between the bottom of the Motherboard and the case tray. Please check to see that nothing is touching/shorting just to be safe.
The rest of the symptoms do seem to point in the power supply. Let us know how you get on with your old PSU test.

Well when I got home, I went ahead and took out the motherboard and layed it out on a flat piece of wood. I hooked up a old TNT 2 Ultra video card with my video card, and tried both power supplies. It seems like I may have bent the motherboard, resulting in cracking something just enough to short out the motherboard when I turn it on. The reason why Im saying that is becuase it is still turning off if I just happen to bump the table I have it placed on or it just turns off it by itself after running for a few seconds. I think by taking it out of the old case and installing it in the new one increased its death. =(

Sooo, I'm leaning at purchasing a new motherboard for my current system (I dont want to upgrade to PCIe yet). Any idea's on a good old AGP motherboard that wont hit the wallet that bad? Thank you. Any idea's or other suggestions be great.

This is bit of a better update. I took it to work for some other people to take a peak at it. (not in the case) I placed it down on the work bench at work, hooked up the old video card, my hard drive and the new power supply(the antec one). One of the guys went over and pushed down on the DPS unit and the ATC power cable going into the motherboard. It looks like its working fine now. I can bump it now, hit the table. etc (not that I would do that on a regultar basis) But it is running perfectly now... I am happy. =) But Ill have to see what happens when I place it back in its case at home. But It would make sense why it would work sometimes and the other times it would not if I happend to move it a little. Weird, eh?

Hi,
I know these boards are UK prices but they give you an idea of what's out there so you can check around closer to home.
Let us know what you decide on. Just remember that if you do get a different board to what you hev at the moment you will probably need to reinstall your O/S so try to back up all your data before you do.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...x1y0z1p0s0n0m0
All the best

Update:

Well... I have it at home back in its case. Comptuer was working the entire night, played BattleField 2 with no problems, burnt some cds, and surfed the next. The next morning I powered it up, went into another room and came back and it was turned off. I went ahead and powered it back on, and while it turns on with all the lights on, it does not boot. Just sits there running.... I replaced the power supply, video card, and it still does it. Any ideas? I guess Im going back to the idea of the motherboard being bad. =( Though it does work after I power it up and off a few times.

Hi again,
Well what you are describing does seem to point at the motherboard, but, there are couple of other things that you might want to check out first.
1) the CPU is seated well and the heatsink is ok with a good thermal paste base (not too thick but covering the cpu).
2) the memory is seated and works ok ( you would normally get a beep code from the board but worth checking anyway) there is a good test here http://www.memtest86.com/