Very unstable comp.

[Christoph]

I've got a computer that's been giving me some major headaches (random reboots and rendering Win98 unusable) and when I came here, people said to get a new PS to replace my BrandX 250W PS.
My specs are as follows;
A7M266 mobo
Duron 700@700 1.75 Vcore (backup for Athlon 1600+)
256*2 MB PC 2100 Crucial RAM
Gainward CardEXpert GF2 MX 400
LiteON 12,10,24 CD-RW
BrandX 50x CD-ROM (unplugged)
IBM Deskstar 20GB HD
Maxtor 20 GB HD (unplugged)

My problem is that I'm still getting all of the same problems as before (lots of blue screens, some random resets).
Normally I'd be content to wait for the new Big 'n' Beefy 400W AMD approved PS that I ordered, but I never had this problem before I upgraded to an XP 1600+ from an Athlon 1.4. Shouldn't my comp be stable with a slow Duron? What could be the cause of this?
BTW, please don't tell me to upgrade XP and 2k. They look great, but (1) I plan on moving to Linux as soon as possible (2)those MS OSs are way too expensive, and (3) I'm sure that this is a hardware problem.

[klosters64a]

I trust that the Duron ran OK with the 250W PS before you plugged the T-Bird and XP into the board? How old is your Win98SE installation? Have you tried removing one 256 Mb DDR module from the mobo? Do the reboots happen truly at random or while leaning on the system?

If you look at AMD's recommended PS's for Duron 700's, can you find your 250W PS?

If the box still exhibits antisocial tendencies after replacing the 250W with an AMD approved for T-Bird/XP 400W PS, wiping the C:\ drive and reinstallng SE-- you got me, pardner!

Is the Asus mobo known to be rock solid with two DDRDimms?

[Über~PhLuBB]

Originally posted by IdeaMagnate
...
Normally I'd be content to wait for the new Big 'n' Beefy 400W AMD approved PS that I ordered...

So you havn't gotten the new PSU yet, how can you expect a spontanious solution? Wait for it to come, and your problems will most likely go away.

[Christoph]

I know that I may seem impatient, but the exact same setup was prefectly (as much as it could be w/ Win98) stable. The only difference between this setup and the stable configuration is the CPU, and that's slower and should take up less power (Duron 700 vs Athlon 1.4).
I'm also worried that the $US 58 PS I just got won't solve my problems.
I know that the new PS will at least allow me to run all my drives with no problem.
I'll be messing with the RAM, I guess. I'd hate to have to RMA anything, though. Thanks.

Edit: Just realized that I'm repeating myself. Guess I'll just wait for the new PS and pin my hopes on that if the RAM isn't a factor.