odd computer problem.

i just bought the parts for my new computer from tiger direct, everything showed up, seemed fine. i installed everything into the case, and turned it on. the first time i turned it on i was seeing weird actions by the case fans i purchased. they are led fans, and 2 of the 3 fans were flashing their lights on and off. also, when i insert 4 sticks of ram, the comptuer will not even POST, it turns on, the fans light up, led's on front come on, but nothing comes up on the screen, the monitor remains in standby. if i use 3 sticks of ram, it boots up fine. i checked to make sure i hadnt exceeded the max ram, since i had 2 gb, but the mobo specs say it can take 4 gb max ram.
so i decided to run it for now on 3 sticks of ram. so i booted to a floppy, partitioned and formatted the 120gb harddrive, and went to install windows xp. i boot from the cd, and it does the loading files things, and then it says "setup is starting windows", which then goes to a black screen and stops there everytime.

i was originally thinking a power supply problem was the cause, due to the flashing fan lights, and not booting with 4 sticks of ram. but now im not sure, because it consistently stops at the one spot in the xp install process.

ive tried subsituting different rams, it made no differece. i also switched vid cards to one i knew works, which i am using in this computer, but it also made no change. i removed all of the pci cards and still.....no change.

any help would be great.
thanks in advance.

computer specs:
Intel D875PBZLK Socket 478 Motherboard
P4 3.2 Ghz processor
4x 512mb Ultra 400mhz ddr ram
seagate 120gb harddrive
nvidia xfx 5200 vid card

any other info i can get...just cant remember the specifics of anything else thats important

oh wait, a vantec stealth 420W powersupply with 3 fans, all of which seem to be operating fine.

i just updated the bios on the mobo, but still no change...

im thinking its either the hard-drive, or the ram.
still lost though......

sometimes the motherboard needs to have the same amount of ram in each of its dimms or slots. be sure your board supports 4 GB! most single processor boards only support max of 3Gb of DDR 3200, and 4 of that DDR 2700.

earlier this afternoon i pulled out the other stick of ram, and left 2 in, and xp booted well and is running now. i then took the other 2 sticks and substituted them for the 2 installed to make sure it wasnt that one was damaged, and they also worked. now all i have to do is figure out how to get it to boot up with 4 sticks installed. the specs i read said up to 4gb, and even if it is 3gb, i only have 2gb, so it should work...

ill keep trying different things, it is running pretty well on 2 sticks though. :-D

also, for anybody reading this, is 31*C a good temperature for the cpu to be at? that is when the computer is just idling.

31C is a good idle temp for a p4. Low to mid 40's under load.

ok cool, i was running a "BurnInTest" and it levelled out at 42-43 C

still cant figure out that ram though.

Hiya,
The problem with alot of motherboards now is they state "Can take 3Gb of ram" what they don't say is it can take 3Gb of DDR 333 but only 1GB of DDR 400 check yor mobo manual for the small print. If you look around you may be able to find a bios altered by a 3rd party which allows the board more ram support, although I take no responsibility for damages that flashing the bios cause's. Although I am curious why do you feel you need 2Gb of ram ? Is the build for intense video editing ?

~Hot-Stuff~