What motherboard brand and model are You talking about?
If it is a 486 motherboard, a lot do not support 72pin EDO ram, just Fast page.
The fact that You are talking about EDO indicates either a late 486 motherboard or a Pentium 1 era motherboard.

Specs, Windows version, and what programs do you have on it?

its a ga586hx(which is a Pentium mobo) and using windows 98.

cnpr wrote:

its a ga586hx(which is a Pentium mobo) and using windows 98.

Anything installed?

He's having a problem at POST and it even freezes in the BIOS setup, where the OS and software aren't yet in the picture.

Make absolutely sure that every jumper is set correctly. Voltages, clocks and bus dividers could be causing this.
If you have a multimeter, try measuring voltages (you can measure the PSU's 5v and 12v rails from the molex connectors, other measurements are more difficult but do them if you know how).
If you can get it to run memtest86 then definitely do that.
Try setting the jumpers/BIOS to very conservative settings, and even consider underclocking the CPU and FSB. Remove some of the RAM and other unnecessary components. If lightening the load like this makes it more stable, but no one particular component can be blamed for the change, then it could be a power problem (not necessarily the PSU - it could also be bad power regulation on the motherboard).
Gigabyte used bad capacitors in the P2-P4 eras, not sure if their caps on this board were any good or not. Check if any are bulged.
If none are bulged, that doesn't necessarily mean they're okay but they become a lesser suspect.
Does it behave better when it's warm? Failing caps sometimes work better as they heat up.

Do you have another board to test the ram? Sometimes it is not the ram that is bad but the board is being very picky. Try cleaning the contacts on both the ram and maybe the ram slots.