to cut things short,
-i got a BSOD,
-rebooting didn't work, in XP it would auto restart just after start up, in linux, it wouldn't even load the kernel.
so i swapped the ram onto another slot.
-booting into windows, after about 5 minutes, the BSOD appeared again.
-in linx, it was ok, until i let it idle, 5 minutes later it hanged.
swapped back to original slot
-hang after running memory test
after few times
won't even run memory test.
so i let it rest. because this has happened before. after resting for half an hour, it has managed to boot into both OSes fine. i'm waiting to see if the BSOD will return.
so could it be that the RAM chip has gone screwy?