Odd Problems with a new build

[Hawk Tuah]

I've recently built a new PC and am having some very unusual problems with it.

The spec is

Asus T2-AH1 Skt 939 Barebones
- North Bridge: ATI™ Radeon® Xpress 200
- South Bridge: ULI M1573
- Realtek AC’97 6 Channel ALC655
- Onboard Radeon® X300 Graphics

Athlon XP 3000+
2x 512mb Generic PC3200
200gb Maxtor SATA HD

PS2 Logiech Keyboard
USB Microsoft Mouse

I've managed to get XP and now SP2 to install, I've updated the BIOS to the latest version, updated every driver for every part of the system.

Problems are occuring with data becoming corrupted. When I downloaded SP2, it would fail whilst unpacking saying the file was corrupt. Also things like installing AVG would fail whilst unpacking, and almost anything else that unzips itself comes up with an error.

I've tried using winzip and winRAR to unpack the files, but they both come up with exactly the same errors. Then if I copy the file to another PC, it turns out that the file is actually corrupted.

However if I download a file on another PC, test it works. Then copy it to the problem machine, it wont work. Then copying it back, it is corrupt.

My first thought was the ethernet, but I've used different methods of transferring data still to no avail.

I've performed a thorough surface scan of the HD which didn't show any problems. I havent swapped out the memory yet (was my next step).

Anyone had anything similar or know what could be causing these problems?

 

[lucifersam]

try checking your harddisk using the smart function, also might be worth trying something like superpi or another floating point testing program to make sure your CPU is calcualting threads correctly

 

[senorstealth]

Sounds very much like a memory problem, would explain the currupted downloads, and failure to unpack.

Try running with one stick and see if the problem still occurs, then try with the other. Or you could run memtest to check the ram

 

[Hawk Tuah]

Thanks guys. I tried using just one stick and it was still not working.

Swapped the memory over for different stuff, and hallelulia it works fine.

Ran a memtest on the sticks and they were both faulty! Never had that before. Bad batch perhaps. Either way they have been RMA'd.