possible power supply problem?

[charlescpc]

I started hearing a clunk and then my system would lock up. I thought it was disk driver going bad. So, I decided to upgrade my system while I was at it.
Got a new motherboard, memory harddrive. I reinstalled in my old case(about 7 or eight years old.
Still have it happening. Reinstalled XP home since I went with a new chip set and downloaded SP and all of the updates.
Sometimes it will stay up for hours and I think it is fixed but will crash later.

Could this be a powersupply ? I thought they would either go out at once. Maybe, it gets a load and then craps out.

Like I said I have replaced almost everything else. Even removed cdroms and just ran with the one hard drive.

I will probably go ahead and get a Case and Powersupply since that is all need to make two computer now anyway.

Just wanted some input on whether power supply act like that when going out.
If it ain't that I have no idea what it could be.
Any help would be appreciated.....

[NooNoo]

PSU's either go out with a bang, or make your pc appear to have any kind of hardware problem except the psu...

Varying voltages, spikes and dips all go towards creating errors that look like cpu or ram problems...

[charlescpc]

Thanks for the Reply Noo Noo

Well, I'll get another power supply and see what happens..

I need another case and powersupply to have enought to make another computer....

Thanks

[craigmodius]

I just had a friends PC doing that to me.

The system would lock up at weird times scandisk, memory checks and all the other fun stuff revealed nothing. I was trying to clean the tons of spyware off thinking that was the problem when it kept locking up.

I decided to give up for the night and when I disconnected the PC I caught a whiff from the power supply and it had a faint "burning electrical" smell, but everything still powered OK and *acted* like it was working.

I swapped in a Antec 300W PSU from Staples and after that it ran like brand new.

[Stalemate]

Have you checked your fans (case and CPU) to see if any are damaged?

[charlescpc]

YEA !!!!!
Seems to have been the power supply....
That was the very last thing I checked....
Thanks for the advice......

I thought the power supply would go out all at once...
I should have figured it out sooner but.....
I learned something......

So, I'm happy till something else goes wrong.

TANKS AGAIN

[NooNoo]

pleasure!