[Afflixion]

I've been building computers for a while now...I'm more of a hardware guy than software but i guess I sort of know my way around software. The problem is I built a new computer when I was on R&R from Iraq, The whole time I was home the computer worked great never any BSOD or anything. Two weeks after I went back, my wife stated that it was getting the BSOD after like 15minutes of the computer being on. So I told her to leave it alone and like any good wife she brought one of her friends over who was a self-proclaimed computer expert and now it won't even get past the boot screen before it gets the BSOD, so I tried to reformat and do a fresh install but half way into copying of files it gets the BSOD. This led me to believe it was a hardware error, so I took it get diagnostics on it and they said the hard drive was no good, so I got a new hard drive and still the same problem, so I took it back and they said the RAM was no good so I changed that out, same problem so I figured hell maybe she fried the motherboard so I replaced that and nothing only now it won't even load the windows installer before it gets the BSOD. THe error messages it throws are HK_Key_registry or whatever. and system_service_exception. Is this a BIOS error or something else? I'm thinking about getting Win7 and see if its just the OS doesn't support the motherboard? Or could it possibly be the CPU but I figure if that was out it wouldn't even start past bios setup?

EDIT: Forgot to post I'm currently using Windows Vista Home Premium. 64bit version

[brandonbr]

It could be that the bios is out dated. Also make sure your ram are in the correct banks. I had my ram loaded into the wrong banks and had the same problem until I figured it out.

[Afflixion]

Hm, I guess I could check the placement of my RAM, although the fact that it is a brand new motherboard I find it kind of difficult to believe that the Bios is outdated, also how would one update their bios without windows being installed? the computer currently has no OS