To me, it sounds like somewhere along the way someone did stick EDO into the machine, and it's borked its memory controller - and you're getting random intermittent errors of all kinds, everywhere.

I think your idea of grinding up the 7200's motherboard into a fine powder is a good idea. Maybe not the snorting. Save much much hassle!

Still - you did the best you could, and came out with wasted time - it does happen!.

Can you get pics or video if you set the logic board on fire?

Dana