Abit AX8 - motherboard problem?

[dartiss]

Ok. I'll admit defeat - I just can't work out what's wrong with my PC.

I built it under 2 years ago myself. However since day 1 I've had problems, notably around the fact that the system wouldn't always return successfully from standby or hibernation - it would often lose CMOS settings when doing this.

More recently it's been hanging during the startup sequence (right at the beginning with just a blank screen and cursor) and then a creeping problem of the machine alarming (which on my ABIT AX8 motherboard indicates a voltage issue). This latter problem became more and more frequent until eventually my PC wouldn't boot at all. Swapping the PSU cured this and it's currently in the process of being swapped by the manufacturer. Meantime I have a temporary replacement, which has been fitted for a matter of weeks. Now the PC has started hanging during reboot again and yesterday the alarms went off again. Since day one of the new PSU, it's not been returning from standby/hibernation properly.

Oh, and I've already had to change the CMOS battery once.

I'm beginning to think that my PSU's failure was caused by something else. The motherboard seems the most obvious.

Here are the hardware specs:

The motherboard is an Abit AX8 3rd Eye, running an AMD Athlon 64bit 3200+ processor. 1GB of Crucial PC3200 DDR memory is installed. Power was provided by a HiPer Type R 480w PSU but this is now a Silver Power SP-400P1B 400W. A Maxtor Diamondmax 10 300GB hard drive is installed, along with a Lite-on CD-RW and an LG Dual-layer DVD-RW. Graphics are powered by a Sapphire ATI Radeon X300SE. The whole thing draws less than 200W, even when running an intensive 3D benchmark.

Any suggestions?

David.