I recently put in a new power supply, cpu coolong (thermaltake v1 ax), 1TB Hard drive 32mb cache seagate barracuda, and 4 gbs of ram from 1gb. 2Main problems. Can't figure out how they are related... I attempted to install windows XP into my computer and I would get the problem that either halfway through the installation of the files I would get the physical dump memory screen or it finished installing the files reboots to continue the installation then the physical memory dump would occur. Also during the installation of the windows XP files I would get the message that a file could not be found, Press Enter to continue, did that and the installation continued but the Dump would occur a bit later. I thought it was the CD so I made a backup for my installation CD. Same thing I thought then that it might be XP might be the problem and tried to install Vista. Same thing, physical memory dump. Anyone know why? Spent 3 days trying to figure out why...

You have something wrong with the hardware, usually memory, or you are feeding install a wrong device driver. See if you can capture the stop error then google it. You should try stripping out the ram to minimum to see if you can complete an install.

Sounds like you got some bad RAM. You didn't mention the make/model but it would be best to manually configure the memory settings in the BIOS rather than just using AUTO. The settings *should* be on the label...for instance: DDR2-800, 4-4-4-12 @ 2.1v. Proper voltage setting is important. Did you test the RAM with memtest86 before attempting to install XP? If not, that's the next thing you should try after configuring the BIOS settings. If any errors are found, try to determine which stick of RAM is bad & remove it, then run memtest again. If it comes up error free, try installing XP. http://www.memtest86.com/download.html

The ram is DDR-800, kingston. Not sure about the voltage settings. But I did set it up in the BIOS already, but I will try the memtest later As a another possibility, could it be a problem with my hard drive since it didn't come with a bootable CD that is used initially? Thanks

1. Double check your RAM settings. The timings & voltage *should* be printed on the label. If not, go to the manufacturer's website (I assume it's brand name RAM?), look up the specs, then configure your BIOS settings accordingly. http://images.bit-tech.net/content_... 2. run memtest86. 3. it's not the HDD.