Computer Crashes

[tzvii]

I've been having this problem for at least a few months now. My computer will crash all the time, it usually seems pretty random and not connected with anything, but also a lot of the time it will crash the second I bump into the computer case.
Sometimes when I try to boot it up, it will get stuck in a loop of crashes. It will start up, get to the desktop, then immediately crash. After a number of tries ( Anywhere from 1 to 10 or more) it will start up right. This happens on cold and hot starts.
I know that this isn't a software issue, as I have reformatted more than once in an attempt to fix this.
I'm thinking that it is either the motherboard or the power supply. My motherboard has one defective memory slot that will not recognize memory put into it. I don't think it will start with memory in that slot, either, but I kinda forget.
Anyone have any possible fixes?

My specs:
Operating system: windows xp service pack 2
Grapics card: EVGA 7900GT
RAM: 3gb Corsair
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-965G-DS3
CPU: Intel C3D E6300
HD: WD 250gb
PSU: Hiper 580W

 

[KSoD]

Hello,

What operating system? Cant quite help if we dont know if we are working with XP or Vista.

Cheers,
Mak

 

[tzvii]

It's running xp service pack 2

 

[S0ULphIRE]

I'll just throw out some 'possibilities' here, see if you can rule any out.

If it crashes when you bump the case, it could be that your hard drive is dying and is becoming *delicate*. It would also cause the computer to crash randomly, so that'd explain it.

Bad psu.

Very long shot, intermittent short somewhere on the mobo? (very doubtful)

 

[tzvii]

Don't PSU's usually smell bad/make noise/ect when they go bad? This one seems like it's fine...

 

[KSoD]

Don't PSU's usually smell bad/make noise/ect when they go bad? This one seems like it's fine...

That is not always true. That is the PSU's the fry. Not those that die. Those that die will throw out BSOD errors and several other errors to Windows.

Cheers,
Mak