New parts, new problems - HELP!

Yesterday I got a new mobo, RAM, and CPU to beef up my system. The mobo is a Gigabyte EP45-UD3R, the RAM is 2x2G OCZ something or other 1066 DDR2 (the ones with the funky heatsink on the top), and the CPU is an intel quad-core Q6600 2.4GHz. Swap everything out and install a fresh XP. I set it up, no problems, configure everything, works great, except it's not picking up one of my DVD drives. I think I simply didn't have it connected to power all the way and it fell out or something. No big deal, the other works and I don't need it immediately.

Today, I started it up, noticed my GPU, which didn't have problems yesterday, was now running hotter than normal (idles at 40C normally before upgrade and on the first day, it was idling at 60C this morning). So I finish downloading some stuff and shut it off and have dinner.

I open the case, take out the GPU and put it back in (~;p) and also plug in the other DVD drive. I press power, nothing shows up on the monitor and it's making a continuous POST error beep. It does that for a few seconds, restarts, and starts beeping again. It does that continuously until I turn the power off.

At this point I've unplugged both DVD drives and it's still doing that. The manual says that it's a "power error" according to the beeps. A quick Google search comes up with results for people having problems with the memory that mess up the power supply. I'm going to try that right now, but why would it suddenly start having problems after working fine for a day!?!

EDIT: Cripes, taking out one of the memory sticks fixed it. :bomb: But how does that happen???

Do you mean the CPU? GPU's are on graphics cards and you usually don't take them out. It seems like you may have fitted the heatsink and fan incorrectly. I would advise that you get some new good quality thermal compound on there, clean the old stuff off and start afresh.

Ensure your power supply is of sufficient wattage to power that lot.

I meant the whole graphics card, not just the chip...

EDIT: Switched the memory sticks after I tested them separately (both worked). It's working again. :/

Stupid machine spirits...

When building a system up from new parts (or even old ones that have been laying around idle for a while), I've often had weird random problem behavior. Often it's just oxidation on the contacts, causing intermittent connections. Once I started adding/removing/replacing any edge-card connection devices (RAM modules, video cards, etc.) repeatedly up to six or eight times, which wipes off the oxidation on the contacts, I've had lots fewer new-machine issues.