[rescue] Mobo won't post with new (old) ram stick

[microcode at zoho.com]

On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 08:47:01AM -0500, Andrew Hoerter wrote:

> BIOS memory tests usually fail to detect problems in my experience, I
> can count on one hand the number of times I've seen bad PC memory fail
> to POST.  You can run with bad memory for a long time and never
> notice, depending on how much load the machine is subjected to.

I can believe there may be some error with the RAM, even though it didn't
show any problems until today. I realize sometimes you have to catch it just
right to see an error. I don't have enough experience to know if bad RAM
could stop a machine from posting if it wasn't totally dead, which
presumably it isn't, but at least you have seen something like that happen,
so that does point to the RAM.

These mobos flake out very badly when the battery dies. A few years ago both
boxes I have built on this mobo failed to post the same day, and it turned
out to be the batteries. It was REALLY weird but today after I had the
problem with this box I restarted the other box I have on the same mobo that
I had powered off while I was swapping RAM on the other 2 boxes because I
don't have much room and didn't want to bang into anything while it was
running. When the other system (the one I wasn't working on) came up it 
hung at some point and didn't go further. And now after a few tries of
swapping the sticks in various slots to try to narrow things down I get a
CMOS checksum error on the box in question and the BIOS menu never appears.
So before I do anything further I am going to replace the battery and maybe
everything will work. Normally I wouldn't believe it but the way this mobo
is designed, maybe that is actually the problem and not the RAM.

More to come after I get the battery.

Thanks for the post.