weird motherboard problems

this is really weird...ive finaly hit a wall
there has never been a problem that i havent beena ble to conqueror

i recently bought an ASUS mobo...top of the line for socket A

i had problems with its IDE controller....i would try to install windows and it would hit the O section of installing files and give me errors like "cannot find file" or "cannot write to drive"...i would hit escape and get the blue screen

replaced the mobo and had the same problem
i tested every other component in that box, power supply, processor, cables, drives, cards...everything

so i put that box aside and bought a new P4 celeron and Intel board.....
same problem, different cables and drives then in the asus box....

replaced every part in that box and i would still get errors....


ive tried 4 different CD's, Xp home, Xp pro, 98se, Slackware 10
*linux gave me endless kernel panics

there is only 1 thing that is the same in each box...thats the ram

both corsair 512 33 sticks...value select....

put them in a box that works and tested using the memory scan on the buisness card linux distro.....both sticks pased


1 stick i bought 2 years ago, the other one at the time i bought the asus board....

they are the same stick...but the older stick has chips on both sides, the new one on 1 side

if you need more info just ask...



its just weird that both comps are having the same problem...


the intel board is the
D865GRH

the amd board is the
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe




thanks everyone for your time

3 things you didn't mention that are suspect (it's not the motherboard since you tried a different one, and it's not the processor since you tried a different one of those too) -

1. Check the XP cd for scratches - it's possible that cd has a problem.
2. Swap out the cd-rom you're using for install with a known good cd-rom.
3. If those two fail, suspect the power supply - odd voltages or voltage spikes will cause that problem.

sorry i wasnt specific enough

all the distros ive tried were clean cd's...any scratches i found i used my cd cleaner on it
i tested 3 different cd-roms
and 2 power supplies

every single part in that machine has been tested and works in other comps

in regards of power i have my cpu fan, 3 80mm light fans, 1 120mm fan, a light 120mm fan on power supply, and some cathode lights.....powersupply is a 350 watt....do you think they might be draining power?


in the P4 system i have a 250 watt....with cpu fan and 1 80mm fan

I have enountered the same error before. I was installing Red Hat and in the middle of the installlation it said it couldn't find certain file. I knew the CD was fine because i had installed it on another machine not too long ago with no problems. So I tried a few times and it kept coming up with the same error. Until it finally worked. I would think that it was a bad CD-ROM drive. Because after a few times I finally ran the MEDIA CHECK that the Red Hat installtion comes with. And it said the Media was damaged, and of course it wasn't. So I would suspect it was the CD-ROM drive that wasn't reading the CD burned spots correctly. I mean, the CD-ROM worked but didnt work perfectly, maybe if you clean it (the CD-ROM DRIVE) then the installation might go smoothly... if not you can try a different CD-ROM drive.
If that doesn't work and if your using the same hard drive then its possibly the hard drive. And
Have you tried just using one memory stick? If it does the same thing, take one out and replace it with the other one. Could it be that they are conflicting with each other? Are they both DDR SDRAM?

Honestly at this point, if you've tried everything and swapped everything with a known good, it must be haunted. Get redundant; go back and retrace every step starting from zero.