computer crashes when installing

when i try to install games, they reach about 25-50 percent and bam!. it crashes. An another problem is that files become corrupt.
I'm not really sure if this is a hardware problem or software problem. I've got a Epox 8kta3 pro mainboard, 1200 amd processor, 64 mb geforce 2 card, soundblaster live 5.1 card. 512 sdram. I am currently using Win 2k professional.
I have gotten error messages saying that files were corrupt, usually the files from whatever i was installing. I have also gotten internet explorer.exe errors.
If anyone might be able to help i would very glad.

Live long an well

 

Ever do a virus scan? Check your hard drives available space also.

 

i've done virus scans many times ... nothing showed up.
Well ive got 15 gb... so that shouldnt be a problem

 

If you have done a scan, are your definitions up to date? I would also run a scandisk on your drive to make sure there aren't any problem areas.

 

Are you closing all other running programs (Ctrl/Alt/Delete), except explorer and systray and turning off screen savers prior to installation attempts?

 

well I tried that now when trying to install BG2... it didn't even start to install. It failed initializing kernel.exe or something like that. Could any of these problems have something to do with my Ram? not that I don't have enough, but whenever I do something that requires a small amount of memory it screws up and restarts.

 

Hi Ove T,Have you tried the repair IE option.Go to control panel,add and remove programs>highlight IE>click the remove button>the dialog box will pop up>put a click in repair IE>click ok.Would also be helpful if we could see what is starting up.Dont know how that works with win2000,i know with 98 and Me,you type msinfo32 in the run box>click on software environment>startup programs>edit>select all>edit>and copy and paste the page back here.

 

<a href=http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q281967> This</a> may be worth checking on, too. I've seen the empty Oem.inf files causing quite few freezes on installs of all sorts of software and hardware recently.

 

I had a problem like that one time and I clean my cd-rom with a cd cleaner and that fixed it. might be worth a try