Windows crash after RAM install

Hello Group:
I'd appreciate some advice.
The system:
ASUS A8N-SLI
Windows XP SP2, all updates
What I did to cause the problem:
I added 2 DIMMs 1G each PC400 to my already existing 2G. All
Supertalent RAM. That should have brought it up to 4G. The system ran
fine, but my when Windows and Everest both showed only 2.75G of RAM,
my curiosity got the best of me and I reseated the DIMMs, thinking
that might have been the problem. This requrired removing one of the
two video cards. All the mechanical stuff seemed to go fine and was
done carefully, replacing the bridge between the cards and assuring
proper seating of the RAM.
But... windows would not boot. Wouldn't boot into safe mode. Tried
changing setup to defaults. Tried last known good. (I didn't have a
restore point, sadly).Booted from Win XP CD and copied "system"
(after renaming) from the repair\regback folder back to
%windir%\system32\config.
None of these measures helped for very long. I'd get the Windows
splash screen, then blank.
Soooo, I restored the boot drive from a DOS ghost copy on another
drive (two months old, unfortunately) and manually updated what I
could.
So the system is back up. But I'm wondering what the heck could have
happened? I don't want this to happen again.
Any ideas?
I'd love to at least get some education out of this experience. And
yes, I'll create a restore point now.

Jack

.

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