well, it would seem that you didn't pick out all that great of a
power supply to replace your old one. I don't know if that's the
problem or not, but having a low-quality power supply can cause all
sorts of problems, and can cause damage to your other components.
Apevia has yet to make a good power supply. Their power supplies
are rated for higher wattages than they can handle, they're cheaply
made, and their voltage regulation is terrible.
Here are some excerpts of reviews dealing with Apevia power supplies:
In the review of the Apevia Warlock 900watt power supply at Jonnyguru.com:
JonnyGuru.com: For overrating the unit by a good 100W, for
nearly cooking itself in the cold tests on test five, for blowing past
those pesky ATX specs without even trying to shut down, for failing in
the hot box, for using Japanese capacitors purely as a marketing bullet
point without addressing performance, I wave my magic wand and bestow
this unit with a dismal 4.[out of ten]
In the review of the Apevia ATX-AS500W-BL power supply at Hardocp.com:
Hardocp.com: Test #3 sees the bad from Test #2 only get worse. 12v1 and 12v2 are
both now out of ATX specification with 12v2 dropping as low as 11.08v
at 100v. The efficiency has plummeted to between 65.37% and 66.60%
while exhaust temperatures have jumped to between 67c-68c. At this
point the unit has also begun to melt and smell horrible.
On the performance
side of the load testing, the Apevia was a wreck. Neither unit would
power up with any load greater than the Test #3 numbers which may be a
good thing as the units were melting during Test #3. With only a 50%
load the unit violated the ATX specification for output voltages, and
during the 75% test the units 12v rails dropped as low as 11.08v.
Output voltages at this level would most likely result in unstable
systems if the systems would boot at all. To make matters worse the
units efficiency was never good only peaking at 72.59% (50% load at
120v) while dropping as low as 65.37% (75% load at 100v).
There is no application that the Apevia ATX-AS500W-BL would be suitable
for and it could indeed be outright dangerous hardware due to its
electrical performance and due to how the unit’s physical construction
operates at elevated temperatures (such as our testing range of 45c).
The Apevia ATX-AS500W-BL is priced at $59.99 (currently $54.99) but simply can not be recommended at this or any other price point.
From the review of the Apevia X-QPack 420watt PSU at Jonnyguru.com:
JonnyGuru.com: The
internals of the power supply changed very little over a year's
time yet
somehow Aspire is
now able to boast 6 more amps on the 3.3V, 3 more amps on the
5V, and an additional 12V rail. Right. Chalk these
guys up as another plaintiff in my class action lawsuit against
false power supply labeling. It couldn't do 300W, the voltages
were way out of spec (the 12V dropped to 10.65V with only a 192W
load on the combined 12V rail,) the efficiency stinks, there's
no PFC.... How much worse can it get?
Needless to say, this power supply is a total bust.
The
Aspire Dark-Side 600W (Apevia used to use the brand name Aspire), and
Aspire 680W Beast power supplies also failed miserably in testing at
Jonnyguru.com.
I have yet to see any Apevia power supply work
at their labeled specs in a review. As you can see from the reviews I
mentioned, even at loads much lower than the ones the power supplies
are labeled for, the voltage regulation is terrible. The 420watt power
supply above couldn't even put out 200watts without dropping the
voltages way out of spec.
Also, due to their cheap
construction, and lack of protection(like over power, under voltage,
over voltage, etc), these power supplies are actually quite likely to
damage your computer. In fact, some of the power supplies in the above
reviews claimed to have these safety features, but testing revealed
that that was a complete fabrication.
Currently, there are a couple power supplies on sale that should be able to handle your computer fine:
The Antec Earthwatts 430watt power supply is on sale for $30 w/ free shipping right now at newegg.
It's a high-quality seasonic-made power supply with high efficiency and
a quiet fan. You can read a review of an Antec Earthwatts power supply
at JonnyGuru.com.
The OCZ StealthXStream 500watt power supply is on sale for $35 w/ free shipping right now at newegg.
It's a good quality FSP-made power supply, although the fan isn't as
quiet as the Antec Earthwatts fan. You can read a review of an OCZ
StealthXStream power supply at HardwareSecrets.com.
Since
your computer actually only draws around 320watts at max load, you
don't need a really high wattage power supply, you just need a good
quality one that has enough watts to cover that(with some headroom),
that is honestly rated.
I hope you figure out what the problem
is soon. I think I've covered the power supply problem possibility
pretty well. Does anyone else have any other ideas?
Also, you
said that the computer made a ringing sound when the card was not in.
Do you mean a long beep? I think that a lot of motherboards will beep
continuously when there is no video card inserted. Does your
motherboard have integrated video that you were using(or trying to use)
when the video card was not plugged in? If the sound was not coming
from the motherboard, could you try to determine where the sound was
coming from?
There
is always the unfortunate possibility that
your original power supply may have damaged your computer components,
but that seems somewhat unlikely the way you described the problem.
I'd say, just get the Earthwatts 430watt PSU for $30, and try it out.
Hopefully that'll solve your problem.