I’ve seen several questions like this, but my experiences so far may provide some more detail for this specific issue.
The problem has many facets. Primarily I will lose video output (monitor goes black) during or a while after startup. Sometimes my PC won’t properly boot at all giving a long-short-short-short beep code. Other times it will give the OK beep just to hang a moment later giving out continuous short beeping. During any of these problems my PC does not shut down.
The weird thing is, once I have the PC running it will continue to run for hours unless I really stress the hardware (by playing certain games).
My first instinct was to suspect the video card (GeForce 7900 GTX). However my PSU (Antec 450W that came with the Sonata II) was also giving a high pitched sound which made me decide to return it. I received a new one and the problem was gone.
Several months later I tried the Crysis demo and my screen went black again. Since this moment, all issues described above are happening again consistently.
Again I’d suspect the video card if it wasn’t for the fact that the symptoms are exactly the same as before and that replaced PSU fixed everything.
Has anyone experienced problems like this? I have seen a lot of people complaining about the Antec PSU’s, but I can’t help feeling that there is more to it.
I will buy a new PSU of another brand tomorrow and update you with the results.
PS I’m pretty sure it’s not a temperature issue. The cpu, case and video card never get near critical temperatures, even after heavy stress.
System:
Intel Pentium D 3.0 GHz
Asus P5LD2 Deluxe
Geforce 7900 GTX
Maxtor 300 GB SATA II 7200 Diamond Max 10
Antec True Power 450W PSU
2GB RAM (Corsair VS2GBKIT667D2)
Windows XP Mediacenter SP2
