LOTS of problems after installing Win98

[x0lution]

I was having some problems with my computer, so I decided to format the c drive (after saving anything important to the other partition) and reinstall Windows. Everything went well at first (or seemed to anyway), but after using it for a while, Explorer crashed. I thought nothing much of this (it always crashes), but when i restarted the computer it would crash every single time I would hit the start button. Then I tried installing the patch for Tribes, and another application crashed, then i tried installing DirectX 8 and it crashed. After restarting my computer, I got a message saying something about my registry not being able to be read by the computer, restarted again and everything was like I had just formatted the drive. The drivers were disappeared from the registry, everything. Any body have any ideas?

PS
I don't think it's a hardware related problem, because whenever I boot into Linux, it could run for days and days without any problems. But windows seems to crash every time I so much as glance at the screen. Thanks for any help anyone can provide.

 

[HotWire]

Did you remember to disable your "BOOT VIRUS PROTECTION" in the bios before installing windows? Also your programs have to be on the partition that windows is also on or your going to have to open them up on the drive they are located on.

 

[x0lution]

The boot virus thing is disabled in bios. I've always had my computer set up so that windows & most of my other applications were on the first partition (the c drive) and games,downloads, and mp3s on the other partition (the d drive). It started screwing up a week ago, so i finally decided to format the drive and reinstall windows, now windows is completely screwed. any ideas?

 

[compuwiz1]

Please post system specs.

 

[x0lution]

CPU- 400MHz AMD K6-2
RAM- 128MB PC100
HDs- 4GB & 2GB (both WD)
OSs- Win98 & RedHat 6.2
Snd- Monster MX300
Vid- 16MB RivaTNT AGP
Mobo- FIC PA-2013

 

[boomerang]

I had a similar problem with a system I built for one of my wife's employees.

Registry errors up the ying-yang with restoration to previous version of registry.

Ended up being the RAM.

Don't know a thing about Linux, but I'll bet that Windows uses WAY more ram than Linux.

 

[x0lution]

I forgot to mention in the earlier posts that I had added a 32MB dimm just before the problems started. I'd forgotten I had added it . But I took it out earlier today and reinstalled windows without any errors (for the first time in a while) and it was all going smoothly until just a few minutes ago. Explorer crashed when I tried to resize my taskbar. So I don't know if it's fixed now and that was just one of windows little random errors, or if it's still screwed up... I'm about ready to just buy a bunch of parts and build a new computer.