Hi,
I am brand new here and no expert on computers. I usually have either my husband or bro in-law do all the hardware stuff while I configure software and bios.
I recently had a new computer built (I will list all the parts in a few moments) and I am running XP service pack 2.
The computer has 2 gigs of SD Ram (Corsair xms2 2gb (2 x 1gb) 240-pin ddr2 sdram, ddr2 800 (pc2 6400) and ran fine, but when I had the 2nd set of ram put in ( bought two sets) so I would have 4 gigs of ram (yes I am also aware XP will only recognize 3 gigs) the computer ran awesome for a day. Everything loaded real fast and I was thrilled. Then I shut the computer off and didn't use it for a few days.
Well the next time I turned it on it started acting real funny. I kept getting error messages saying that it recovered from a serious error in the registry (couldn't figure out what from since I didn't install anything).
I am also running MS Office 2007 pro and for some crazy reason after the extra ram was installed when I would boot the computer it would go right into Outlook. Don't know how that happened, but I spent some time disabling that. I think it had something to do with the keyboard and I changed the keyboard settings and that ended that problem.
Next the computer kept wanting to reboot itself. Windows wouldn't load all the way or when it did it would last long and then would reboot again.
I got it to reboot in safe mode and went into system restore and restored it back a couple of weeks to see if that would fix the problem. Nope still same thing computer wanted to keep rebooting, sometimes hanging and sometimes getting all the way into windows and then reboot again.
Eventually it stopped going into windows and just hang in no where land, finally I gave up and shut it off.
I asked my husband to take the sticks of ram out that he installed and after he did computer works fine again!
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Going back a little further this same thing happened when this computer was built. Almost the exact same problem. My brother in law thought it was the Motherboard or CPU and I had them sent out to be tested. Everything came back fine. Then we thought it was two sticks of RAM and I sent those back to be replaced and the new ones that came back are the ones my husband reinstalled the other day. I am figuring this RAM is good.
My brother inlaw thinks the problem might be my power supply which is 450 watts and he's thinking maybe my computer needs more watts?? He gave me a 500 watt power supply to try, but I haven't attempted that yet. I figured I'd do some looking around on the internet first to see if anyone else had a similar problem.

Ok now onto all the parts that are in this computer:
Case: Apevia x-plorer ATXB8KLW-BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Case
Motherboard and CPU: GIGABYTE GA-M55SLI-S$ nVIDIA nFORCE4 SLI chipset ATX Form Factor
2xPCI-E(X16)/3PCI-E (X1)/2xPCI/4xDDR2 W/SATA2 RAID, LAN(Gb), 1394, USB 2.0 &AUDIO (CPU TYPE:AMD - SOCKET AM2)=AMD ATHLON 64 X2 5600+ - WINDSOR
COOLER Master Real Power 450W ATX 12V UL & FCC Power Supply for ATX cases
Mem: Corsair XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) - bought two sets for 4 gigs
Video Card: EVGA 256-P2-N615-TX GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
I also have a couple of WD hard drives (SATA), CD/DVD player and a CD?DVD burner, an extra fan
Don't know if you need to know the models of these?

I am running WinXP service pack 2, MS Office 2007 Pro, and Photo Shop Elements (not sure which version? Think the latest one??)

This computer is not online yet. It was built to replace the older model I am using at the moment and just waiting the switch them out.

Don't know what other info anyone might need, just ask.

Any help would most greatly be appreciated. As I said I know very little about hardware. I just bought everything one day (thought I had done enough research, evidently not) and I gave it to my brother in law to put together for me.

Computer is running great on 2 gigs of ram, but ran SO MUCH faster with the other two gigs (while it was working) and would like to have that speed again.

Another question .. Could I try 3 gigs of ram instead of 4? Haven't tried that yet. Didn't know if you can do that or not???

Sincerely,
Jeannie