Is Windows software preventing me from booting?

[peterjp10]

Hi-

I'm running a valid copy of Win XP Pro with a Gigabyte GA-7vrxp mobo and AMD Athlon proc. I was running with 512M RAM and wanted to upgrade. I did my research and picked up a 1024M stick of RAM. I installed the 1024M stick alone and fired up the PC (with much anticipation). But, about 10 seconds into boot, after the Windows logo displays, my PC would reset. It would continue this cycle, tartup - windows logo - reset, until I powered off the system. So, I pulled the 1024M stick of RAM out and re-installed the 512M. At this point I figured I had purchased a bad stick of RAM. On startup with the 512M my PC went through the chkdsk process got to the Windows logo during boot and then it showed the same symptom. The PC reset and continued the cycle (minus the chkdsk) until I powered off the PC.

At that point I was pretty confused. I was planning on upgrading to Media Center and had the install disks handy so I fired up the PC to boot off the media center CD with the 1024M stick of RAM. The PC started fine so I figured this was not a hardware problem. I installed Media Center on a 2nd hard drive and all seems to be running well.

I don't know what caused the original problem, the PC resetting during boot after the RAM upgrade. A friend mentioned that the problem might have been caused by Windows Genuine Advantage software (or something similar that verifies the validity of windows software). He suggested it may have created a signature based on hardware components which was no longer valid after I upgraded. And not having a valid signature, the PC would be prevented from bootting. I don't know if this is what caused the problem so I thought I would ask here to see if anyone could shed some light on the cause of the reset.

Thanks in advance,

[-pops-]

The first thing is to check to ensure that you have not disturbed anything (connectors to drives, motherboard components etc.) whilst you were changing the RAM sticks. Easily done and often missed.

[cozofdeath]

I agree with pops, I've had it happen many times. But I don't think it would be a WGA problem with only changing the RAM. Usually it takes several hardware changes to make a major change in the hardware hashes. But you never know. Was there any different beeps when the computer was starting?

[peterjp10]

I didn't notice any different beeps.

I was pretty careful about not disturbing hardware connections but I didn't specifically verify that after the problem occurred. Booting off the install disk also convinced me I didn't have any hardware problems. I wouldn't be able to run without the cpu and ram connected properly. The video card is AGP so that isn't going anywhere. Would I be able to boot off the install disk if the hard drive connector came loose?