Help! AMD64 random crashes. Can't see a pattern.

[kgmf]

to summarise: My PC crashes so randomly and with such varying reasons i can't figure out which bit is faulty/set up wrong/incompatable.
here's some more detail...
Its quite long but i read somewhere that the more information the better, so bare with me please!

I recently built the following PC:

AMD Athlon 64 2800+ 1.8 GHz
MSI K8N NEO Platinum Edition
Corsair Value S. PC3200 DDR-DIMM 512MB Unbuffered, Non-parity, 64Megx64, CL2
Gainward GeForce 6800 128MB DDR 2.8ns AGP, "Ultra/2100 Golden Sample
Western Digital Caviar 120GB IDE ATA/100 8MB cache 7200RPM
PSU/12V 450Watt ATX P4 2.03 smartpower Dual fan

The PC is currently running XP home, but similar problems occured on win2k.(just win2k reboots before i can read the error). All graphics&mobo drivers and bios up to date.

ok here's the story. I put the PC together and it booted first time.
Installed win2k, it crashed at some point in the installation( i wasn't watching)
then, it just kept crashing randomly. no errors.

so i wiped that and tried XP. was a _b**ch_ to get it to install. crashed so often in the install. eventually got it. and its more stable than 2k. But it still crashes a _lot_
always in the same way. It performs a system stop or halt and gives a reason like
bad_pool_caller
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
etc.
the one i got just now says:
problem caused by the following file:nv4_disp

So i thought memory problem and ran memTest. It failed, BUT it failed in a way that impied the test might be flawed (it failed only one test on EVERY memory location and documentation warned against this).
So i took my graphics card and memory to another machine. All ran smoothly. even did the memtest and it passed on this machine.
I tried another hardrive and although the crashes were less frequent, they still happen. The crashes seem to get more frequent as time goes on.
The system temps are normal as is the gpu & cpu temps. Nothing is overclocked in any way, i even tried setting my BIOS to "failsafe defaults" but it made no difference. I dont' know enough to try change things like FSB and clocks manually so i wont' try. I don't know if somethings faulty, and if so which BIT is faulty. and if not, i have NO idea whats wrong. Please help. I'll be eternally grateful!

[mazdarx7-64]

What kind of power supply do you have??

[kgmf]

I knew I'd forget something from the spec. Sorry
Its a 450W Antec

PSU/12V 450Watt ATX P4 2.03 smartpower Dual fan (taken from the site i bought it on)

[mazdarx7-64]

Well then, I though that it may have been a power thing, the 6800 loves power, but that sounds good, let me think here....

[kgmf]

I thought that too. Or a temperature thing. But it doesn't just shut off. It displays the blue screen o death with the error until i reboot.
Also worth mentioning, I tried knoppix and it didn't start. and mandrake and it wouln't install.

[mazdarx7-64]

Weird, have you tried a different CD drive to install off of??

[originel]

have you tried a different video card? also, did you feed a dedicated line to your video card? I was having troubles with crashes on my 5900 ultra a while back and it turned out that i had to much other stuff on the same power line drawing power. I re-did my power setup, giving the vid card it's own line with nothing else on it and it fixed it.

Another thought...what is the CAS latency too? you might try backing it to 3 if it's on something faster.

I've got the exact same mobo and processor, and i remember having a few issues too. Which reminds me, try taking out each pci card one by one, and also as a group. I had a wireless g card go out and it wouldn't boot if it and another pci card were plugged in at the same time. Also when you're done, make sure to update to the newest bios, there were a couple of bugs (such as incorrect temp reporting) that have been fixed since v1.2.

[kgmf]

I only have one other card i can try and thats an old MX. I think a non nVidia would be prefferable to try. And yup there's nothin else on the power line. OK....whats CAS? And where do i change it?
Yeah I also have a wireless card. Its the only thing in it at the moment, but it has the same problems before the card was in. And yeah, i tried to add a PCI TV card btu then it refused to see _either_card. So i took out the TV card. I think its a different issue to be honest.
And i checked that out too. I have the most up to date BIOS.
And finally yes i have 2 different CD drives and i swap them every now and again. I think this is my 5th install and none have been stable.

[mazdarx7-64]

Try a different IDE cable??

[kgmf]

On my hard drive ide? Or re-install and try a different CD IDE?