BSOD, now freezing after a few mins of being on.

My friend built my computer for me a couple years ago and I only just started having issues. I just got a new computer desk and set everything up. My computer was idle and when I went to use it, it was frozen, which I don't recall it ever doing before. I restarted my computer and got a blue screen of death that said "IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL. I opened the case to make sure everything was pushed in all the way. Then everytime I powered on my pc, it would freeze after a couple minutes of being on. I decided to test the ram by removing one stick. When I powered it on, the computer froze almost immediately after Windows loaded. I removed that ram and put in the other stick and my computer was working fine for the last week. I decided to upgrade to 4gb of G.Skill ram but my computer ran very slowly then went to a BAD POOL HEADER bsod. I don't have a lot of experience with this, so I contacted G.Skill and they said it wasn't compatible with my motherboard, which is an Asus Striker Extreme. Also, since I'm using WinXP 32bit, it can only read 3.5gb of ram anyway. So I'm in the process of returning that ram and purchasing two 1gb sticks of A-Data ram. My computer has been running fine with my one 1gb stick of Super Talent DDR2-800 PC6400 until today... I tried to launch Sims 2 and my computer froze, and now it's back to freezing after a couple of minutes of being on. I'm not even sure if this is a ram issue, but after my computer had been working for a week, it seems to have something to do with it. My processor isn't great, Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 1.86GHz and after checking Sims 2 requirements, it says 2GHz is needed. Not sure if I have to change something in bios settings but I don't like messing around with it since I don't really understand what everything does. Please help! :>

You're most likely going to need to change BIOS values to get your system stable. The #1 cause of BSOD's and freezing problems are RAM issues. A lot of these issues are just caused by the RAM not getting enough voltage when using "auto" settings in the BIOS. It's always a good idea to manually set the RAM speed, timings, and voltage to their rated values in the BIOS and then run Memtest86+ overnight to test for RAM errors.

What exact A-Data RAM kit did you get? If you give a link for it we can look up the speed, timings, and voltage that you should set in the BIOS.

That RAM runs at the DDR2 standard voltage of 1.8v, so you shouldn't have to change the values in the BIOS. If you did have to, the motherboard owners manual will have a section that describes how to change the values, though.

Okay, so I got the new ram but when I tried to use my computer I got a bsod. I put in each stick individually, with no freezing or blue screens even after a few hours of use. I tried putting both sticks back in and neither the bios or Windows will load, but the lights and fans work. Just using one stick for now. Any suggestions?

Go back to the original RAM. Then pull up Task Manager and check CPU Utilization in the Processes tab. Look for anything consuming an inordinate amount of CPU cycles.

I've had that give me freezes.