Bad memory?

[Flow]

Hi, I'm having this strange problem. About one week ago my system started acting strange. After booting into windows (xp professional) it would shut down all of a sudden at random times, but only once! After shutdown it would reboot and act normal....
However, since yesterday evening the system is shutting down at random times with an average of say...10 times per hour
Sometimes it won't even post, other times it takes half an hour to crash. I didn't touch my system for more than a month (on the inside ), nor did I install new software lately.
Anyways, I managed to get into the BIOS long enough to disable quick POST. After that the system won't post at all, saying something about failing the memory test.
Sooooo.....my guess is bad memory but I would like to hear some other opinions before I blow some hard earned $$ on a new stick.
Any thoughts?

Thanks.



Windows XP prof.
Asus A7V8X
Hercules Geforce III Ti 200
512 MB DDR PC 2700, 333 Mhz

 

[snvpa]

try running mem test to see if tour memory is bad. however if your computer won't even post then that is a problem. I'd say its your memory. try reseting the cmos to eliminate any overclock you have and see if it boots correctly.

 

[mbentley]

do you have any ram sitting around that you can temporarily replace it with or borrow some from a friend???

 

[CSaddict]

Or if your 512 is 2 different sticks try one at a time.

 

[Flow]

Well, I've done some testing and it seems that the main problem is the PSU!
Probably destroyed my memory too. According to memtest it was, erh, damaged

Thanks!