I have an intel desktop 965 board (i forget all the numbers, a couple years old). that seemed to quit on me 4 months back. It stopped coming up. I don't recall what post codes or other I had, I did not take notes (i usually do, but this one caught me in the middle of a publishing project ...and had to git 'er done. CPU 2.4 core 2 duo (E6300? I think). Retail package CPU with Intel cooler, and it is working.

first try was new ram set. did not work. then to mobo and all.

i replaced with with an Abit AB9Pro (which turned out to be a mistake I am living with). with a 3.0 Core 2 Duo. the idea was that I could revive the older one later for home or as backup.

now I want to revive the old box for new duty.

new Corsair 480 PS, new GeForce 880 video, but old ram and old mobo.

My theory was that the previous PS wimped out on me (An Anitec 350, it would subsequently not work with the new mobo back then either) so for purposes of the revival I am using the Corsair 480 (which I bought for the replacement but it did not power all the drives and ports on the abit--which a PC Power and Cooling 750 does nicely<G> ). the revived box won't have anywhere near the same port/hardware load. I don't think. ANyway...

I have 6GB of ram, all Patriot. 2GB are "deluxe" flavor, with heat sink. I was told these were the trick stuff when I bought them a couple years back, PC6400, DDR2 800. the intel was using 4GB of these sticks.I don't know the numbers, but 4-4-4-12 is on the lable/their site given the part number.

After the failure, I bought lesser "quality" Patriot ram, without the heat sinks, 4x1GB sticks. Also supposed to be DDR2-800. the new ram did not work in the intel mobo either back then, and never worked in the Abit either.

back to the resurrection attempt.

plug in new PS, insert vid car and ram: if I use any of the available sticks in the intel board, I get 3-beeps post code...no memory present. in pairs, or single, channel 0 or 1. it does nto see them. beep-beep-beep.

I swapped out a pair of the shielded ones from the running abit machine into the intel. 3 beeps.

am I correct to think that it is the mobo memory manager or the whole mobo that is faulty and I should just get new? Or could it really be ram?

the 800 ram only runs at 533 on the Abit. any slightest attempt to overclock kills it (on the abit). but if I leave it the heck alone -- 2GB is plenty on an XP pro system for my non-gaming applications--it is stable and happy. the ram that works on the abit is the heat shileded stuff, the "plain" ram won't be seen. on the abit.

one more piece of info: the intel had been running 4GB of the heat shielded ram when it died.

Can a Mobo cripple a ram stick? kill it or reduce it's response in some way? I really do not want to buy new ream only to have the intel board zorch it again...if that is what might be happening.

comments, please....! (TIA!)

c'mon...nobody knows? if a mobo can damage ram or loose a slot?

I'll repost it as a shorter "story" (yes...it was too long a posting!)