Would a bad PSU do this

Being somewhat of inexperienced as to what problems a bad PSU can cause I figured I'd ask those that know better:

I have a Gigabyte K8N
AMD 3400+
2 GB Crucial DDR400
DVD/CD-RW
7800 WD Hard drive
BFG 7800GS
120 mm Zalman CPU fan
2 80mm Case fans

I'm running this off a 300W Antec PSU.

My problem began with enabling triple buffering on my video card, I began to get random reboots (no BSOD, just a soft boot) while playing EQ. I checked both video card and CPU temps and they were no where near any cause for concern.

I decided to test my ram with Memtest86. I set it up to test, left it for the night and came back to find it frozen in the middle of a test.

Great, I figured, RAM error.

When I tried to reboot I would only get a black screen, the monitor would not even light up like it does when it receives a signal from booting up. Would not boot into BIOS or anything. The fans started up fine, I could hear the hard drive rev up, and the good RAM light came on.

I tried with only one of my 3 RAM DIMMS and cycled through them one at a time.

I checked for excess dust. I changed out my video card to an ATI one I had laying around. No good

I reset my CMOS, no good.

On a whim I actually turned off the switch on the back of my PSU.

Well now, as you can see because I'm typing, it booted up.

I finished all my RAM tests one DIMM at a time with no errors. I have my BFG back in.

Would a inadequate or bad PSU cause this?

 

I think you need a power supply unit, with 450W at least.

 

300 watts isn't really going to cut it with today's systems.

 

That's typical behaviour of an overloaded PSU.

 

Cool, I jsut bought a Antec 450W.

Not the best name brand, but I'm in Alaska

 

Antec makes good psus. Which one did you get, exactly?

 

Antec 450 Watt SmartPower 2.0

 

Thats a very good psu u wont b disappointed, and just to let ya know Antec makes very good quality psu's!

 

LOL ok you make me feel good about my purchase

Told ya I was a PSU newbie

 

Yeah, you might want to get a better power supply. Also, check to make sure that your fan in your PSU is rotating. I got a new PSU and after a day my comp was having errors and problems. I looked in the inside of my power supply and the 120 mm fan was not spinning (NOT A GOOD THING!!). Just check to see if your fan is spinning or not.

 

ROFL. ROFL.

 

well i have a 480w psu. and when i enable triple buffering and i hit alt + tab, i restart automatically. just adding this

 

Well honestly, all my problems have been solved by the triple buffering one. Shame too, makes the game look so nice.

I've tried OC'ing the card, stock speeds, apature sizes, checked cooling, and every driver from I could find on this site, including the dxTweak.

Havn't tried any drivers from the BFG site yet but doubt that would make a whole lotta difference. Also havn't tried a clean install yet, saving that for the weekend.