Oh so many problems...

System specs: AMD Athlon XP 2600+ 333FSB Arctic Silver 5 Thermaltake Volcano 11 MSI K7N2 Delta-L nForce2 mobo ATi Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB Antec TruePower 330W power supply Seagate Barracuda 40GB 7200RPM Samsung DVD-ROM 2x256MB Corsair XMS PC3200 I just put together this PC from scratch and I've had misc problems booting and during windows setup. Sometimes the computer will not boot, and when it does and I get into windows setup it will claim that some random file is missing or corrupt from the installation CD. It's been suggested that the RAM or power supply could be at fault for these problems, so I've been scouring forums all day looking for answers. I ended up downloading and running memtest86, to some success. With one stick of RAM I got one error the first time I ran test 4, then memtest froze up the second time through. On the same stick of RAM I ran test 5 two times though, netting 86 errors, then a crash on the third time through. Just running it straight through, I got 250 errors in test 4 before it crashed (no errors in tests 0-3). With the other stick, the computer rebooted itself partway through test 3. On test 4 it found 2 errors before crashing and leaving me at a flashing cursor. Test 5 ran without crashing, but found about 250 errors at the end of each cycle (I ran it 5 times). After running that 5 times I tried running test 6 and the computer rebooted. With both sticks in memtest would crash always at 3% in test 1, if I can even get it to boot. Am I running the right tests here? I have never used memtest before, but I looked over some of the stickies and one suggested running test 4 and 5, so I did. The BIOS settings are basically default as far as timing goes. Forgive me for making this so longwinded, but I am trying to be thourough so that it is easier to see my problem. Let me know if there is anything I have neglected to include or if there is anything you can suggest that I do to remedy my problems. This is the end of day 2 with no progress in my PC build!:ar: Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

Update: Ok, I set the ratio to 1:1 and underclocked to 133 (266) FSB. Results of memtest86: Stick 1, DIMM 3, DVD-ROM unplugged - 2506 errors, ~2400 in test 4, rest in test 5 Stick 2, DIMM 3, DVD unplugged - 33 errors test 4, 343 errors test 5, 1 error test 6 Stick 2, DIMM 3, DVD plugged in, clock to 166 (333) - 8426 errors test 4, 60 errors test 5, froze part way through test 6 I then plugged in stick 1 in DIMM 3, but I wasn't able to boot. I then placed stick 2 in DIMM 2 and ran memtest (so both stick were in). It froze at 100% in test 3. From here I tried installing windows again. First time I got past "windows is loading setup" and to a STOP screen that said installation had been stopped to prevent damaged to the computer, and to restart. It mentioned some hex codes and acpi.sys. I reset the computer, and this time windows setup claimed fds.sys (or something similar) was corrupt and to reboot. Third install I got all the way to the disk partitioning phase of setup, then I got the blue screen (not standard BSoD) from the first time I tried, but no mentino of acpi.sys. This all occurred with everything plugged in and a 1:1 bus ration of 333. (I had never tried setting FSB/DDR ratio to 1:1, DDR was always at 400 before). I am going to try again, but if this sets off any triggers for possible problems, let me know. Thanks again for your help.

ok, nobody seems to be answering, but I'll update you one more time here in hopes someone can help me out. I tried a stick of Mushkin PC2700 RAM and got the same errors in Windows setup as I had before with the Corsair. These problems primarily include a "missing/corrupt" file error (there are no missing or corrupt files on either copy of win XP pro I have tried to install), or a dar kblue screen that pops up with a "STOP" message saying it is sopping to prevent damage to my computer. This usually includes an error message like "BAD_POOL_CALLER" or "DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL". So are there any know compatibility issues with the Corsair XMS PC3200C2 RAM (and Mushkin PC2700 cheap stuff?) and MSI K7N2 Delta-L mobo that could be fixed by flashing the BIOS to 5.6 (I am currently using BIOS 5.4, but haven't flashed to the newest BIOS because I can't get windows installed, so I can't get a DOS prompt and I haven't risked using RAMdisk yet because I thought the RAM may be faulty). What do I do?:eyebuldge

thank you RAM GUY, I'll try that.

well, I contacted MSI and they sent me a copy of their 5.71 beta BIOS... I was able to get it all working once I flashed to the newest version! Everything is looking good, thanks for you assistance RAM GUY!

Of course, I spoke too soon. I was able to get windows to load up on the computer, but now it will crash randomly in windows or while windows is loading. I ran memtest86 again, and it froze in test 4 after finding 3 errors (on 2 separate occasions). Test 5 found 33 errors. I also get an InitializeMemoryFailed error when I try windiag ([url]http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp[/url]). I was able to run that once before getting the error, and it was constantly finding troubles in the LRAND test for that. What do I do? I have the newest BIOS. All I can think of is bad RAM, too low power supply, or a cooling problem.

Here are some memtest86 results which baffled me. Note that I have 2 sticks, so I was testing each individually. DIMM 3 - if I run test 5 first, it will encounter no errors, but if I run test 4 afterwards, test 4 encounters errors around 99%. If I do test 4, then test 5, test 4 will report no errors, but test 5 will report some. DIMM 1 - only tested 1 stick, but it reported a few errors each run through test 5, but test 4 reported no errors. Seems odd to me. !?

get hold of some no name memory pop it in your machine run memtest and you will most likely receive no errors after five passes, this is what i have done with three machines after taking out corsair memory and putting in cheap stuff (funny that)

Believe it or not I was able to fix the problem by unplugging the temperature sensor from the CPU fan. It must have been creating a short or something.