As you may have guessed, DMA (Direct Memory Access) is a nasty error Night. It can sometimes be caused by a PCI/AGP card but in these cases, there error normally comes with a DMA number, which would tell you which card it is. To make sure, leave nothing but the graphics card in your expansion slots (if you haven't already tried), or try using another graphics card just certain it is the motherboard (even though motherboard is most likely, since this is where the DMA Controller is placed). I have been with ASUS and AMD for a long time, and I have found them very reliable. Did the packaging of the motherboard appear to be open when it arrived?

Edit : sorry about the delay, I had three art quizzes to take online, and had to make that a priority. Even then, I missed a quiz. :s

Upon closer recall , no , the package was not sealed. Upon examination of it now... ( I use a letter opener, leaving two halves of any seals on a package stuck there) there is no seal on it. I have already attempted to contact mwave, as they have sold this to me as a genuine new item from asus, but have recieved no replies to my emails. ASUS also informed me that there is usually a purple sticker on all of their motherboards with the serial number, and the absence of one on this motherboard was disturbing.

I am very upset now as I think mwave was very fraudulent with me. I am sending the motherboard to ASUS to get a replacement, but if it is not authentic , I fear it will not be covered under their warranty , and I wasted 150 bucks. There was no number on the DMA error, just appeared as I wrote it. I didnt use a dos program, just referred to the state the computer was in when it gave me the error... you know... black screen, little bit of graphics, like the American Microsystems or w/e icon , and white text.

To be more accurate about the crashes, it seems more like a freeze. Just... freezes. Unresponsive.

It's always a good idea to check out these companies first or at the very least, their return policy. Treat this as a learning experience we have all been through at some point. The CPU does normally have an authentification seal to open the box, but I've not seen an ASUS board with one myself, unless it is something they have just started doing. Don't worry too much.