I just want to confirm what I think it might be, and see if anyone else had this experience.
I built a system a couple years ago, which included an AsiaPro (now ASYS) case and 450W Power Supply. Recently, the computer would intermittently and at odd random times just freeze up. The monitor would say "No Sync" (meaning there was no signal from the video card) and go into standby. The fans were all on, the lights on the front (tubes) on, and the hard drive light lit steady but none of the usual sounds from the two hard drives. Turning the computer off was impossible. One would have to use the power strip. Then after turning it back on, sometimes it would boot into Windows or Linux, then a few moments later do the same thing. Sometimes it would be ok. Sometimes it wouldn't even get to the POST screen. A couple of times, I hit the power switch and there was no power whatsoever.
I wonder if it also could be a problem with the motherboard (A-Bit IS-10 with Intel chipset and Intel P4 2GHz CPU)?
I ran a hard drive test on the main drive, and it was fine. When the system does work, it seems to work fine.
The power supply has went through some nasty power problems in the past. The apartment I was in, eventually the outlet on the opposite wall the computer was plugged in started sparking when the computer was turned on, then stopped when I turned the computer off. Computer ran great though anyway up until I turned off and unplugged the computer after the sparking happened (I called the fire dept. then and they turned off power to the apartment and I had to move that moment). The complex wasn't in great repairs. The building I was put in after, another neighbor had a sparking outlet problem in that same building.
When I moved to my new home, the first 4 months we had an average of two power interruptions (power goes out and back on two seconds later) per month.
Then a few days before the problems I started having, the power went out when I was playing an online game. It took the utility company 3 hours to put the power back on. After that, I started having problems (computer was plugged in the whole time, and into a surge protection power strip, which still shows that the surge protection and ground is OK).
I hope to get the power supply tested at a local shop in a week or so. But I'm just curious if others ran into this (I searched, couldn't find any reference to these symptoms). And if not, at least maybe if someone else in the future has these problems, they can find this thread.
Anyone else have this happen and find that a new power supply solved the problem? If not, what would one check next? Motherboard? Other?
