Startup problems.

Hey everyone, I have been away from the forums for a while, but now I'm back

I've been having a problem with my desktop for a while now and I can't figure out what's wrong. Here is the setup (it's pretty old, but I still love it) :
Foxcon motherboard (I'll have to check the exact name)
Athlon XP 1600+
512Mb of ocz ram
450W Enermax PSU
2 ATA HDDs 7200rpm (WD and Seagate)
1 CD burner
1 DVD reader
ATI Radeon 8500 (no it hasnt desintegrated yet!!)
phlips PSC706 soundcard
an ATA card where i plug in my storage drive and the dvd drive.

The problem is as follows :
About a month ago I bought the motherboard because my old one got fried.
Now, once in a while, when I turn the pc on, it doesnt get past the memory check and sometimes not even past the CPU detection.
I've tried everything from lowering fan speeds, speeding them up, unplugging usb devices etc..
I think it might be a problem with the new mobo working around with the USB devices and their demand for power, because when I unplug the USB hub I have (4 plugs), it works most of the time.

Could I get your input? Thanks.

Try another stick of ram. And/or put that stick in another computer and memtest it.
check around the mother board for bad caps.
remove all pci drives
Also what do you mean most of the time?

This also sounds like a PSU issue. Try another PSU and see what happens. It could be that your PSU was bad to start with and took out your MB.

Actually it's not most of the time, its maybe 1 out of 4 morinings when I turn it on.
My PSU and Ram were working perfectly before I got the mobo.
Do you think it could be the USB hub? Sometimes I don't plug the Hub into a power socket and just plug it into the USB on the PC. That might be sucking out too much power at startup. Is this possible?
I will be checking the next few days to see if this is the problem
Thanks for your help.

I can't shed any light on your problem, but I have a recommendation. My first AXP was a 1600 and I bought a Gigabyte GA-7ZXE motherboard at the same time, well that was many many years ago and I have nothing but praise for that m/b I still have it and it is in daily use in my HTPC (with a Sempron XP which it shouldn't even support but does ). So if you find you need a replacement m/b why not give the Gigabyte one a go.

Yeah. I had to replace the m/b a while back as I said. I opted for the cheap way out because I am thinking of building a new setup pretty soon and making the old one a media center style pc. That is why I chose a microATX m/b, but it's sitting a friken ginormous Chieftec server tower.
I will give you an update asap.
Im pretty sure its the usb port tho. I tried it a couple of times today and it worked without it.