baffling probs HELP

[syconub]

ok.so heres the deal. I get all my parts and i assemble them.It works for a little bit, then windows fvks up and i haveto reinstall. So i pop in my windows cd, and it cant find random files. So then i change out the hard drive with the SAME kind. Ok so that doesnt work. I change out my ram from pc3200 to 2700. I get windows on there. When ever i turn it on, it goes realy slow. About 90% of the time, after the green bars with the widnows sign goes, it goes to a black screen with my curser, and then restarts in a infinate loop of restatation. So I go to comp U.S.S.R. (formaly known as comp u.s.a.) and they test out my mobo and memory. The guy says its fine, but he says he will try and put a hard drive on there and boot up an operating system. He wont come back till monday! So i ask if they can do it, and i get the response. "uhhhh i dont know what our tech guy did, so youll haveto wait till monday." So i take my hard drive that i got windows to get on there, but doesnt really work (byt he way one partition has home edition on it, and the other has professional, but its not fully installed casue of installation problems with pro, but home edition is on there fully). So i put it in my working computer downstairs, and it does waht it alwasys does, THE INFINATE LOOP OF RESTATATION. So i put in an old p2 hard drive with windows ME on it, and it boots up just fine. So I want to know whats up. What is wrong?? is comp U.S.S.R. lying, and it really is broken?? (by the way they didnt test out ide cables on hard drive, cause i haveto wait till the guy comes back, and i also lve about 29 miles away so it sucks driving there.)


specs of computer that is killing me:
msi KT4AV motherboard (says it is ddr400 compatible, but doesnt get as fasr in windows install)
Nvidiafx5700LE video card
200GB seagate hard drive
pc-3200 ram PNY (but didnt get anywhere with it, but comp U.S.S.R. says it works fine, but when i put in pc-2700 i got farther in installation)
400watt power supply
AMD 2500+processor
two 80mm fans


if i forgot any info tell me, PLEASE HELP!!!11

 

[mechBgon]

Maybe the computer caught worms through your Internet connection. Was it protected with a firewall at all times during Windows installation? Infos here with what I'm getting at.

Also: 400W power supply, is it a high-quality 400W or a generic-ish 400W? What voltage are you giving the RAM?

 

[earthman]

Are you sure your CD's are good? How about your CD-ROM? Did you try new IDE cables. Sounds like there's a few things you need to check. I doubt it's the hard drive.

 

[vskagentsmith]

Yeah, I'm gonna agree with Earthman on this one, it sounds like it could be one of the following:

Your CD is scratched, smudged, or just needs to be cleaned.

Your system is overheating, did you properly install the thermal paste and compound? (I'm guessing this because if you ran slower RAM and it ran better/got further, then the slower clock speed of the RAM might have been why it didn't overheat as fast)

You have a bad clock setting, either a jumper or switch on the CPU, or something in the BIOS is misconfigured.



That's the only things that come to mind, may want to check all those out before you try it again, let us know how things go!