Trouble with new computer

[Gregory Boyce]

On Wed, 21 Oct 2009, KyleL wrote:

>
> Hi everyone, I am back again looking for your wisdom.
>
> I just purchased a new machine.
>
> A barebones from TigerDirect Intel DP55WB Socket LGA1156 Motherboard,Intel
> Core i5-750 2.66Ghz 8M LGA1156 CPU,OCZ 4GB DDR3 PC3-10666 Platinum Low
> Voltage 2x2GB, Seagate 750GB Serial ATA HD 7200/16MB/SATA-3G, Ultra LSP750
> 750w Power Supply.  I threw in another 500 gig hdd, a generic sata DVD-RW
> and an x300se from an older HP Media Center I stripped down.
>
> I assumed everything should work ok, but as with computers it does not.
> Here are the issues I am running into.  Intermittently I get an error with
> the video card, it won't work but it does work occasionally. Next, when I
> try to install an OS onto either drive the computer just restarts.
>
> Here are some scenarios - Win7 (RTM), Computer turns on boots to DVD,
> Copies the files, then stalls in expanding at 0% till it restarts itself.
> Win Vista Same issue only it will expand
> Win XP Hangs formatting.
>
> Now at one point, I was able to get Win Vista (x86) to start to load but I
> then got a PFN_LIST_CORRUPT blue screen.
>
> I have ruled out a overheating processor by letting it sit on the bios
> hardware monitor and it never got over 39 degrees C.

With random failures like this, I'd guess either heating or bad memory. 
If you've already ruled out heating, I'd try running memtest86 and see if 
any memory errors trigger.