Could junk ram scramble system files?

I installed some no-name pc2400 in my girlfriend's computer (would have gotten crucial pc2100 but they didn't have it at Fry's. Also she doesn't overclock.) Anyway, several system files were "not being read as the right size... ie they were overlapped and writing into each other" Windows 98se tried to autofix 'em but no go. Then I spent 4 hours trying to reinstall win98 with all kinds of problems (many of them write protection problems, although I formatted every time an install failed. Sometimes just graphical anomolies, but with and without the new ram.). Eventually I got it installed so my girlfriend could install WinXP home upgrade version over it.

We took the ram out to get the OS's going. I'm still trying to figure it out. She thinks she had a virus, and even remembers a suspicious file which she tried to open (was supposed to be a sound file someone on AOL gave to her, but wasn't). The ram identified correctly. And even when it was taken out, I still had problems getting win98 to install. I don't think it had anything to do with the problems we had, so I'm going to test it out, now that winXP home is working. Still confused... maybe it was heat-related? or a virus?

memory

Must've been a virus. Got the new stick working and winXP running fine now.

Bad ram can definitely scramble system files. It's the only thing that's ever managed to crash my workstation at home. The primary slot used a stick of 256M PC133 went bad and corrupted users, profiles, shortcuts and a portion of the registry. No repair options would work and the ram read fine in post initially, later failing completely. I pulled the ram and repaired using only the second 256, to salvage some recent data, but ended up reloading as a precaution.