Built a new computer, keeps crashing for no reason

Hey guys, my girlfriend decided she wanted a gaming computer so we went out and got her some parts. I've installed everything perfectly and the installation of her 32bit Vista went flawlessly, but now when i try installing the chipset drivers, nvidia drivers, audio drivers, or any sort of driver the computer will crash then restart itself. Ive done a clean install twice to see if there was something wrong, but it does the same problem consistently. A friend of mine told me to install the Hotfix for vista machines running 4GB of ram. He said for me to remove 2gigs, reinstall windows then apply the hotfix then reinstall the ram, but ive not seen this hotfix anywhere. can anyone help me? and if anyone could link me to this hotfix, do you think it would also fix the problem with installing the other computer drivers?

Here are the specs of her new computer:
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Motherboard
Intel 2 Quad Core Q6600
1000W PSU
4 Gigs or Patriot Ram
8800gt
500GB HDD

 

the hotfix will be included in sp1. you can get that here

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...2a-9c9b-4579-b64a-09146a0ba746&DisplayLang=en

you should try installing xp to see you have the same problem. if you do then it is a vista problem otherwise there is a problem with the computer. also the 1000w psu was a little overkill, you could have gotten by with a 600w.

 

yeah so ive heard =\ but it came with the case that my gf wanted. can that affect any of the components in a bad way?

 

if it is a cheapo psu and it fails it can take out the motherboard cpu and other components. but it seems that the psu is working fine. what case and psu did you get?

 

it was a coolmaster stacker 830 SE and it came installed with a 1000W Real Power Pro Power Supply

 

sorry for the double post but, I just tried downloading the SP1 from the new computer and it crashed during the Download. what can cause that?

 

there could be alot of things happening. over heating, bad parts. run core temp and check the cpu. the heatsink might not be seated properly and that could cause it to everheat. also you might try swapping out parts with extras to see if one of your parts is bad.

 

well im going to run rivatuner and everest first to see if it can be the CPU overheating first.


update:

the ambient temperature in the computer is 36c
the CPU temperature in the computer is 35c

does that mean the heatsink is alright?

 

those temps are alright. try xp of linux and see if you still have stability problems.

 

i downloaded the SP1 from another computer and transfered it to the vista PC. it seems to be installing okay, no crashes yet

 

for the quad core e6600, it came with a standard heatsink, would you recommend me using it? is it even effective at cooling the CPU if its being used for gaming? cause right now im using a zalman cooler

 

if you are not overclocking then it should be fine. but if you are then an after market cooler would be a good idea. have you gotten sp1 installed yet.

 

its more than half way without crashing yet, hopefully it finishes, ill post again if it worked or not

 

well it finished installing, restarted, finished installing process 3 of 3, restarted again, then boom, took me to windows manager or something and told me that i needed to insert my disc and repair it.

it also gave me this:

File:\windows\system32\winload.exe
status:0xc000007b

 

if you have the disc you should do a repair. thats weird that windows screwed it self installing its own updates. lol

 

strange... i turned the computer off, then on again, and its finishing configuring SP1...

 

thats weird. how is stability? has it crashed again?

 

yeah it crashed... jesus im getting frustrated with this thing. when i first turned on the pc after putting it together, it ran just fine, no crashes or anything, but it was right after we tried updating it all hell broke lose... i just want to try a clean install..

how do you wipe the harddrive clean without having to go within windows to do so? cause whenever windows starts up, it always tries to install SP1 but it crashes every single time.

 

the vista dvd should have an option to wipe the drive when you reinstall. if it doesnt you can download gparted live cd. it is a free partitioning program that boots from a cd.

 

if i change the thing in bios from CD to USB can i use it through usb? cause i dont have any black CDs or anything.