windows problems

[centralharbor]

Hi

 

I've been having weird things happening to my computer recently. I've put together my system around 7 months ago. It's been working fine until around a week or two ago. Here's the specs:

 

First problem occurred when, while using XP, the system profile went missing, so I tried to repair it with the Windows CD. Whenever I try to repair it, right before the loading ends, it either hangs up and freezes, or it BSOD. So I decide to plop my HDD into an external enclosure, backup my info (the drive was perfectly functional) and reformat the drive and go to Vista Premium. Well, I'm trying to install Vista and a few problems come up:

 

1. Error winload.exe is missing or corrupt

2. Error ndis.sys is missing or corrupt

3. BSOD with something else (forgot)

 

I run the windows memory test and it always says there's a hardware defect, but it never finishes. I've ruled out the HDD since it works in an external case, the disc drive is spinning and reading, the psu is functional, and I'm not sure what else would be wrong. I've changed the timings on the ram to the 4-4-4-12 (I can't find voltage settings in the bios) and the bios is the most recent. I've also switched the modules around to the different slots (not individually though).

 

$1,000,000 question: should I RMA?

 

Thanks for reading

[RAM GUY]

Please make sure that you have the latest BIOS for your motherboard and then load optimized defaults and set the Memory Voltage to 2.1 volts and then set the timings to 4-4-4-12 (CAS-tRCD-tRP-tRAS) and then test the modules one at a time with http://www.memtest.org! Please allow memtest to run 2-3 passes on each module. If you still get errors, we will be happy to replace them! However, if you get errors with both modules that would suggest some other problem and I would test them in another system or MB to be sure.