older pc keeps frying RAM memory sticks?????

I resently acquired an older PC for the purpose of softmoding my original Xbox with xbmc and a 1tb hdd. It worked fine the first time I booted the PC to windows xp but then the PC blue screened and then would not output video or boot up. Early tonight I started to think it might be the RAM are to blame and then remembered that I have two spare stick's of the exact same make, model, and speed of RAM lying around. So I removed the bad RAM and installed my spares and it booted up and was outputting video but as windows was midway through booting up the
PC blue screened again and now I'm
back to no video output and not
booting up. I did learn the motherboard is a Micro-Star ms-6390, the CPU is an AMD Athlon single core processor, and the PSU is
250 watts. The RAM came with the PC when I got it but was not installed in the motherboard. Which leads me to think it's not the factory RAM or it might have been an overclocked gaming PC with the voltages for the RAM cranked up in the BIOS. I check all the caps on the
motherboard and none are blown or leaking. Also I looked up the date of manufacture for the motherboard and CPU and they were both made in 1999 so a 250 watt PSU seams a little overkill which leads me back to thinking it's an over clocked gaming pc. Any thoughts?

Have you tried clearing the BIOS, re-seating the CPU, VGA card and swapping out the Power supply? I would doubt that either the original or replacement RAM is faulty, even if overclocked. I have yet to see any BIOS allowing you to go so far as to destruct components. My money is on the Power supply

I agree, the PSU is the most likely cause - probably supplying too high a voltage on one or more of the rails.

Have you checked that the ram sticks are within the rated speeds the mobi is built for. Might be stating the obvious here but have you tried doing a diagnostics test in the bios or wouldn't the mobi let you into the bios after the blue screen, can you say what you saw after trying to boot after the blue screen.

tunedwolf said:

Have you tried clearing the BIOS, re-seating the CPU, VGA card and swapping out the Power supply? I would doubt that either the original or replacement RAM is faulty, even if overclocked. I have yet to see any BIOS allowing you to go so far as to destruct components. My money is on the Power supply

Click to expand...

Hi

I agree...except, the mobo has an on-board video controller. If a separate VGA card is used, then they should check that the on-board video controller is disabled in the BIOS.
I think you're right though, op should clear bios, and remove the VGA card (if it has one), then check the RAM, it should be PC2100/DDR266 or PC1600/DDR200, then try to boot.

Come to think of it....I don't think you can get PC2100 or PC1600 memory anymore..

anyway...good luck

eT