trouble extracting archive files

I am at the end of my rope, next thing to do is get a hammer and just start whaling on this thing.

This is my problem:
I download multi-part archive (normally rar) and when i try to extract the archive i get errors that it is corrupt.

Things that puzzle me:
I try to unpack and i get an error in, for example, the *.010 piece of archive, so i try again and this time it is in the *.001 piece. then sometimes i get no errors at all when i try again.

Things i have tried:
i have moved the archive to several different hard drives; same problem. i have moved the archive to a different hard drive then repaired all pieces using WinRAR built in repair tool; same problem. i have bought a new hard drive and re-installed my OS and then tried the previous things again; same problem. through the course of all my experiments i have even bought a new motherboard; same problem. the only thing that has worked is moving the archive to a completely different computer and then run the WinRAR repair tool. sometimes i get lucky and the archive has a recovery record so this method works, other times i am not so lucky. PLEASE advise! Thanks

 

two things:

*its possible that the file is really corrupt
*its possible that file you dl'd is not "complete dl'd file"

Try to redl'd, if same things happen again, its really corrupt

BTW, welcome aboard to the headquaters

 

the fact that the archive piece changes kinda makes me think it is not the file. when i file is being extracted using WinRAR what all happens. example: crc or checksum, are these done with different software/hardware, if so could that be corrupt?

 

i believe to have found the problem, a bad RAM chip.