New CPU+New Board=Problems!

[IceT]

About a week ago, I have put together a new system:

DFI LanParty UT nF3 with Athlon64 3200+ with 2 sticks of regular DDR400 256mb RAM; the rest of the components are stuff from my P4 2.8 machine; hooked up using a Vantec 350w PSU.

---------Normal------------
So OK, the system has been up running XP SP2 no problem 24/7, with intense gaming and application usage, no single crash whatsoever. CPU temperature is around 50 degree C @ max load, no overclocking done, everything @ stock.

----------Abnormal---------
Last night I decided to restart Windows, so I did....After I did that, weird things started to happen-STOP error in the middle of loading XP. So I turned off the PC and started again in 1 minute, same thing happened, I pushed the RESET button, this time, it's even more weird-the computer itself KEEP ON RESETTING itself (I can see that my optical drive's lights keep on flashing and flashing).......I turned off again, this time trying to get into safe mode, can't load it and STOP occur.

---------Interventions---------
So what I did was put in new power supply and new set of RAM. Reformatted the HD and reinstalled WinXP. Installation went smoothly...got into windows...After another restart, the STOP error came back (Machine_Check_Exception).

---------No idea---------------
This is definitely not fun @ all...Do you think I have a bad board or bad CPU? Or something else?? I am really hoping you guys can share some ideas with me!!

Thanks for reading my stuff, and am looking forward to see your replies!

.ERiC

 

[IceT]

I changed my power supply to another one which works perfectly fine in another machine. I also formatted the HD and reinstalled XP again. It installed fine, activated Windows....however, the STOP screen comes back again after another restart. I notice the STOP message says Machine_Check_Exception.

Could it be the board?

Thanks again!

...I just put in new sets of RAM...testing in progress....

 

[IceT]

This is rather strange....I put in 2 new 256mb DDR400 RAM, ran Prime95 torture test all night WITHOUT any error! So OK, I decided to format and install XP once again!! Like before, installation went smoothly, after I installed the nVidia unified driver for my DFI board, restarted and boom, Machine_CHeck_Exception is back!

So do you think it's the board itself that is causing this or the CPU? Is it rare to see CPU die like this?

.ERiC