All over computer hardware problem

[n8bme]

OK people check it out:
System:
Gigabyte GA-7DXR w/raid - raid not used
Athlon 1.4
(2) PC2100 - 256mb sticks
Radeon all-in-wonder 32mb DDR
100Gig Western Dig 7200rpm HD
One DVD drive
One CDRW
One 3.5 flop
400W power

Every central component is practically brand new or has been replaced within the last week or so. Hard drive is 3months old and all other drives are 7months old.

Problem:

Started a few weeks ago. System could not handle processing large memory consuming files (backups etc... ) Blue screen of death would say something like could not do something because of something and Memory dump.
So, I thought ok must be bad memory. I run the test on my memory (corsair pc2100). Sure enough its coming up bad. Easy fix no prob... Replace the mem with new stuff - actually bought second stick and sent the other in under warranty. So slap it in and decide to do a fresh install - its my play computer - so I do. I format everything on the hard drive down to the boot sector and then I have the utility disk write zeros to the entire thing - took 10 hours. I then go for the install and massive problems - mainly cant format partition because it cannot read it - the drive was practically brand new. So I take out the drive and try and install it on my other computer. Everything worked just fine on the other system. I put it back in the problem system and tinker with it some more. I end up formatting with 32bit instead of NTFS - Win2k - just to see if it will work. Bam it works and installs. Well, works for a few days and bam same problem. Run test again - mem test - bad sectors. Well heck I'm thinking must be a bad motherboard so I send the ver 1.0 DRX7 in and get back a DRX7 ver1.1 - Cool, right? Put it all together again and still having hard time getting the install to read the partition to install to - or any partition for that matter. The install disk is fine because it installs on other systems without problems.
I reformated, rewrote 0s to the hard drive, erased boot sector etc... nothing is working. I haven't tried installing Red Hat on it yet but am expecting the same deal. This problem - when it started - occurred when I was running partition magic on the old parts before I replaced anything. The large memory load that the program makes triggered the event. Could this be a virus? I've cleared the cmos. Any suggestions? I'm losing my mind here !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Help!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah, I reran the memory test - from a boot up disk - and the memory is just fine on the new motherboard.

~

 

[Mulga]

I would say definitely hardware, I very much doubt any virus could survive what you have done. Seems you have eliminated RAM, Motherboard and HDD so try working through what is left. My best guess would be power supply, however it could also be one of your ROM drives, your floppy, even your CPU. I recently had an intermittent problem on a Win XP box, apps freezing, BSOD etc. Turned out to be a faulty keyboard, although the keyboard worked fine.

 

[edfair]

Based on experience, I would still suspect memory problems. Either because of memory , or the M/B not handling it correctly. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[gazzad]

Are you overclocking the system? recheck all motherboard settings, put bios to defaults etc.

 

[n8bme]

Nope, Its not overclocked.
I've now tried two other name brands of memory with same results.
Thanks anyway.

 

[n8bme]

Thanks for the help but I think I figured it out. The new MB works - the old one had a memory resource problem or something. The hard drive - the new one, however, was defective - go figure. This has been a really horrible experience that I hope nobody ever has to go through.

Later
n8