Blank screen on booting

[simonH]

Hi,
Can anyone help with a problem with my computer running windows XP home.
I installed a new soundcard, and when I restarted the computer it appeared to start normally until Windows started to load when the screen went blank; there was no flash of colour or windows logo.
I have tried these things, but with no success:

Boot in safe mode; half a screen of files come up in black and white, the last being "WINDOWS\AppPatch\Drvmain.sdb" then nothing else happens
Boot options "Enable VGA", "Enable Boot Logging", and "Last good configuration" all lead immediately to a blank screen
Booting with my windows installation disc; a blue screen, and sequential messages saying a number of files have loaded, but then a blue screen with the message "File setupdd.sys could not be loaded. The error code is 4."
Boot with a linux cd that runs entirely from RAM; I get 2 lines of files, and then a blank screen
I have swapped the graphics card with a working one from another computer, and the result is exactly the sameThe computer has an AMD Athlon 1250MHz processor on a K7S5A mainboard, and an Ati radeon graphics card.
I don't know what to try next.
Thanks
Simon Harrison

[NickInTheNorth]

try removing the new soundcard and rebooting

[simonH]

Hi Nick in the north,

I tried all the things in the first post with the sound card out; with no success.
Thanks for the suggestion

Simon Harrison

[simonH]

Hi all,

The problem was caused by a failed stick of RAM.
Dare I try the sound card in?

Simon Harrison

[Mr_Me19]

If the problem was with RAM then there is no reason to worry about putting the sound card in. The chances of it causing the fault in RAM are very slim. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Of course that is just my own opinion.

[simonH]

Hi Mr_Me19

Your were right. The soundcard is back in, and it has not affected the remaining stick of RAM.

[Mr_Me19]

No problem. Glad to be of service.