Brownout?

Hey, I have an Antec TruePower 480 PSU. This is my system.

Guts
Mobo: Asus A7N8X
CPU: AMD 2400+
Memory: 512MB Mushkin pc3200(DDR400)

Display
Video: Radeon 9700 Pro
Capture: TV Wonder VE capture and TV-tuner


Drives
Burner: 52x CD-RW
Burner: 4x DVD+RW

Storage
HDD: Western Digital 80GB
HDD: Maxtor 120GB
Flash: Flash media card reader
a floppy

Lights
4LED's on cpu fan grill
12" cold cathode
2 usb powered lights

The 120GB HDD is fairly new, and the DVD+RW is very new, I have only burned 2 dvd's with it. The DVD stopped encoding and the computer began to run painfully slow and everything would stop responding that I opened up and the HDD light would stay on. Anyhow I tested my 80GB(windows) drive and it checked out ok. I tested cpu, mobo, and memory after that. All ok. I reloaded windows XP but I still got the same crap. I disconnected my 120GB HDD and all problems went away. I have yet to test the 120GB, but with all of the things I have does anyone think I am short on power and are "browning out". I don't see how the HDD could affect it because I had no windows files on it...only storage. So I am thinking I may need to beef up my PSU. What you guys think?

Sorry about the double post... ALSO I MADE A BIG ERROR!!!!!! I have a 380W POWER SUPPLY!!!!!! NOT A 480!!!!

I had similar problems when using the default nvidia drivers for the nforce2 on my Aopen board - when copying large files the hard drives would also spin down without warning. Fixed it by changing the drivers to the MS standard dual pci controller, but the newer nforce2 drivers are working a little better than the older ones for me.

If not that, perhaps you could try putting the 120 on the secondary IDE or changing the cable. I don't think the PSU is at fault in this case, but if nothing else works perhaps an upgrade to the True 430 or better would be in order.

Hey whatcha know. Only a couple hundred cylinders into the test the hard drive came back failed. Looks like its about time to do some data transfer and get Best Buy to give me a new F****ng 120GB Hard drive. Usually I have gone with Western Digital only, but I thought maxtor was good too....oh well guess just a bad egg. Thanks to Oklahoma Wolf for the info.

You're welcome

I've had trouble with both Maxtor and WD in the past, so I guess no drive make is absolutely perfect. I had a Deer 250 that was chewing up my WD 45gb no matter how often I RMA'd it, but the True 380 is a far cry from a Deer in quality