Failed Vista Installation and Random Freezes

[deadringer]

Hi i was wondering if anyone can help me out, any help would be greatly appreciated.

well heres my story:

i built this system from the ground up. i tried installing vista and for some reason it would keep freezing at the completion of the installation so it wouldnt get fully installed. At one time, it finally installed, but it kept crashing on me giving me blue screens of death.

assuming that vista was buggy, i tried to install xp home and it went on without problems. unfortunately after a while it became unstable and kept freezing on me. it freezes on me on installation of some things (windows updates, some programs), and when automatic updates turned on, it freezes, and sometimes when my antivirus is updating it freezes, and when burning things, my computer freezes.  Watching movies sometimes makes my computer freeze (the screen will freeze, but audio will run for about a min then break up). Also, sometimes just totally random freezes.

also upon freezing, when i click my restart button, xp sometimes freezes on the loading screen. i have to try 2-5 times sometimes in order to successfully get into desktop.

another thing: my computer seems really unstable if i put more than 2gb ram. ive heard xp home cant run 4gb ram, but i tried it, didnt recognize. i tried 3gb ram, xp recognized 3gb but was really unstable (program crashes but no freezing)

i dont know whats happening and its really frustrating, any help appreciated.

specs:
ECS nforce650iSLI
core2quad q6600 2.4ghz
PNY Nvidia 8800gtx 768mb
G Skill 2gb RAM (2 sticks 1gb each)
Western Digital WD2500KS 250gb
Samsung DVD Burner
Thermaltake 850w psu

programs i run:
AIM
MSN
firefox
computer associates antispy and antivirus (packaged with att yahoo dsl service)
utorrent (sorry if its on the "no-no" list, hehe)

other notes/questions:
-if my RAM was incompatible with my motherboard, could it cause this?
-all available updates updated (graphics, sound, windows updates)
-ran a quick microsoft memory test once and it cleared
-tried a harddisk checker once and it cleared

again, thank you for any help

[robit]

OK.... Have you done a Memory test yet....if not... goto  http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp - this is a memory diagnostic program which you can down load to a cd... hope this helps...

[deadringer]

hi yeah ive done a memory test, but i think i may have solved the problem.

apparently the RAM i bought was not completely compatible and had issues with my ECS nf650iSLI board. the combination is highly unstable that lead to a lot of freezes. i talked with my RAM manufacturer (Gskill) and they said manually increasing the voltage should solve the problem.

so i increased my voltage from 1.9v where it was automatically set, to 1.95v and my computer was much more stable and i was able to install vista.

so yeah its a really weird problem that i couldnt find the answer for anywhere.

i still have some freezing once in a while, so i might just get a new motherboard. (for some reason my board cant hold more than 2gb and the 3rd memory slot gives me BSOD)

thanks guys