Won't boot

[JeffO]

I put some RAM into a Dell Precision 420
that were apparently bad. I got a memory error and then a
BSOD inaccessible boot device, which is wierd since I
didn't touch the hard drive. I pulled the RAM out and put
some 64MB sticks in that have been working in another
computer and it no longer gives errors.
Problem is it hangs before the logon screen.
Last known good hangs the same place.
Safe mode hangs the same place.
Repair install hangs at the beginning.
Boot to Recovery Console hangs at the point where I choose
to access "1 C:\WINNT"

I've never heard of a situation like this. The drive is
there, Recovery Console can see the Windows installation,
the drive is obviously being accessed because a normal
boot will have Windows start to load from hdd to memory.
You get the colorful splash screen and the progress bar
goes all the way to the right - and it stays there
forever.
Since it hangs even at the Recovery Console level, I'm
stumped.

Anyone have an idea what to do?

 

[Mike]

-----Original Message-----
I put some RAM into a Dell Precision 420
that were apparently bad. I got a memory error and then a
BSOD inaccessible boot device, which is wierd since I
didn't touch the hard drive. I pulled the RAM out and put
some 64MB sticks in that have been working in another
computer and it no longer gives errors.
Problem is it hangs before the logon screen.
Last known good hangs the same place.
Safe mode hangs the same place.
Repair install hangs at the beginning.
Boot to Recovery Console hangs at the point where I choose
to access "1 C:\WINNT"

I've never heard of a situation like this. The drive is
there, Recovery Console can see the Windows installation,
the drive is obviously being accessed because a normal
boot will have Windows start to load from hdd to memory.
You get the colorful splash screen and the progress bar
goes all the way to the right - and it stays there
forever.
Since it hangs even at the Recovery Console level, I'm
stumped.

Anyone have an idea what to do?

.

I've seen similar problems that turned out to be a damaged
motherboard. Depending on the memory, the buffers/drivers,
etc. the wrong or damaged chips, or the act of replacing
them may have damaged something on the memory bus.
The system will work up to a point where the memory is
accessed or a parity fault is generated. If you have a
floppy based memory test that might eliminate this
possibility.