First,
Here are my computer specs.
i7-920
GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
SAPPHIRE 100297L Radeon HD 5830 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ ATI Eyefinity Technology
OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply compatible with core i7
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8T-6GBRM
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM
These are all new components that I am using to build a fresh new computer with a fresh windows 7 install. Here is my problem. I hook everything up, and try to install windows. Once it installs and reboots to finalize the installation, I get a BSOD with a BAD_POOL_HEADER message. If I try to re-install windows, the same error message pops up at the same installation point each time.
My first troubleshooting activity was to test the RAM. So I removed two sticks which left me with one stick of ram (2GB). When I tried to reinstall windows it worked! Problem solved right? Bad RAM! Once windows installed and I was able to get to the windows desktop I turned off the computer and I reinstalled all 3 sticks of RAM. Windows recognized all 6 gigs as did the mem post during boot. Then the computer was very flaky. I ran into several more BSODs including once when ejecting a CD, and putting a thumb drive into a USB port. That night I ran memtest86+ from a bootable USB. Memtest ran overnight and found 0 errors. So now I'm kind of clueless.
I've heard there are driver issues with Windows 7 so I began updating drivers. After I reboot my computer after installing new drivers sometimes windows fails to boot and asks me to repair my windows install which takes a while. I've run video stress tests with zero problems, but at the same time, I'll play an MP3 on windows media player and the computer will shut down unexpectedly.
Please help!