Glad you found the problem, it took me almost two months and about a dozen 
attempts to install seven or eight different distributions before I found my 
bad stick of RAM. Think I said just about the same things you did, in 
triplicate! 


Randy Clarksean writes: 

> Just a follow-up to let everyone know the outcome to this problem. 
> 
> Two bad sticks of RAM!  System would boot, do its own check, report 2GB, and
> then continue on startup ... why RH8 installed I have no idea. I booted with
> Knoppix and ran memtest ... within a few seconds errors started jumping out
> at me ... some fun ehhh? 
> 
> So ... all I have to say is *&$( @#(*) *#&@#)! ... more than a time or two
> .. grrrr. 
> 
> Fedora Core 3 is on the system ... it is running fine ... all updates have
> been downloaded and installed.  Hell of a deal isn't it? :-) 
>