And I stress - Major issues... to start, here's the setup

Soyo SY-P4X400 Dragon Ultra
Intel Pentium 4 2.53Ghz
1GB Corsair nonECC ram
Toshiba DVD ROM
GeForce Ti??? 128MB
Western Digital 120GB hdd (x2)

now the problem: I can't install any Operating System. Everytime I try it eventually tells me that it can't copy a file (the file is always a different one) and that I should clean the CD. I got this error even after copying the CAB files onto the hard drive. I've tried installing Windows 95, 98SE, 2k Pro, XP Home, and XP Pro as well as Red Hat Linux 9.0. Here's a list of what I've tried to fix the problem so far:

Used different hard drives
Used different CD ROMs
Used different cables
Flashed the BIOS (first thing I did)
Fdisk'ed and formatted several times
removed everything but what's needed to run the comp
Disabled all onboard devices
Even got another motherboard, exact same model

Right now I'm at the point of using a stream of four letter words about Soyo. This is my first experience with them, and I'll NEVER buy from them (this isn't my computer, it belongs to my boss).

Any ideas, short of going on a killing spree?

Might try reseating the RAM, or as sngx mentioned, the RAM might be bad. Might also try using only one stick of RAM, then try the other.

Good idea... even though it's Corsair, it could be bad... I've downloaded the program memtest and it's running right now. I removed one of the sticks as well... so we'll see about that.

I ran the default tests with only one stick installed, and it said there were no errors... so I tried installing XP Pro and ran into the same problems... now I'm running the most thorough tests I can... in other words, it'll be tomorrow by the time i get the results. I assume it'll take a good 6 hours.

You have tried clearing CMOS right?

Yeah, I cleared CMOS, Loaded fail safe defaults, customized stuff so that no shadowing or bufferring or cacheing was turned on... I'm beginning to wonder if it isn't just that the board doesn't like this particular RAM chip... but I don't know, I can't seem to connect to SOYO's site.

Well, I'm completely stumped. Ran a memory tester all night... went through 130 passes of 17 test, not one error returned. Right now I'm trying one last time to clear CMOS (removed the battery)... if this doesn't work.... I'd call it junk.

Resolution

I solved it.... it was the chasis. I took everything out, it's all sitting on the workbench right now, and plugged it all in loose, and it's running like a piano string through warm butter. Got the idea from a friend, and by god it worked.

Now my question here is - does anyone know why certain cases and motherboards don't work together? The boss won't authorize the purchase of a new case until he knows WHY this happens.

maybe it was because you forgot to use offsets(or didn't install them correctly) when you screwed the Motherboard into place?

by offsets, you mean the spacers? Cause I've redone those a few times.

Today I bought a brand new case, hooked it all up and surprise surprise... nothing. So I'm at a complete loss here.... any other ideas? anyone?


... i'm probably going to go up a few ranks on this board just posting in this thread alone lol

I figured it out.... the mounting that holds the heatsink and fan down, the one that's screwed down - The heatsink was touching the screws. I put electrical tape over the screws and I've since had no troubles like what I started with... now it's just a matter of dealing with Windows XP Media Center.... time to start a new thread.

So anyway, this thread may RIP now