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I have encountered some strange issues in a new build and think it may be a bad RAM slot on the motherboard. The board I have is a GIGABYTE GA-X48-DQ6 and the RAM is CORSAIR Dominator DDR2 1066 (4 sticks totalling 4 GB). Processor is Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 and PSU is Antec NeoPower 650.

I initially wanted to test the power so I booted it up with only the motherboard, video card, RAM, and monitor. It continually rebooted itself. So I left in only 1 stick of RAM and it booted to the POST screen, which is good. I then tried each stick in each slot (all 16 combinations) and every time it booted to the POST screen, with the exception of one specific slot which only booted to the initial BIOS splash screen. When I put all 4 sticks back in, it booted all the way to the POST screen, which it didn't do originally.

Everything seemed okay, so I installed Windows XP Pro (with SP3) and had no problems. For unrelated reasons I reformatted the hard drive and attempted to reinstall Windows. This time it froze during the installation and kept doing so no matter how many times I tried. I then took out the RAM in the suspect slot and it installed right away.

Also, Windows only ever recognized 3 GB (even though it supports up to 4 GB), however the BIOS does recognize 4GB when all 4 sticks are in -- which I would think would not be the case if the slot is bad. Additionally, everything was done in a cool basement and under minimal (or no) load so I doubt heat is an issue.

So I am unsure what the problem really is -- please help me in determining and fixing this issue. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Judging by what you've said, the slots may not be faulty and neither should the sticks themselves be. Voltage is the key.

It's easy to "fatigue" motherboard circuitry when fully loaded with 4 RAM modules. Increase voltage by 0.1, and if that doesn't work, add 0.2 V instead. It shouldn't be necessary to go beyond that.

And in regards to Windows only seeing 3 GB of your RAM you may want to read this thread: Dude, where's my 4GB?

Windows doesn't like to install with 4GB of RAM in your machine. You want to put in 2GB, install Windows, then put the other 2GB in. Then it should work without much of a problem. If you suspect an issue with the slot, you can put one of the sticks that tested well in the other slots and move it to the "bad" slot, then run memtest on it for a while and see what it comes up with.