Norm Why wrote:
Yes and yes.

The problem seems to be that the BIOS program does not respond to my PS/2
keyboard. I have BT keyboard and mouse. That seems a goofy idea. I have a
USB mouse but no USB keyboard. I suppose device selection can be done in
BIOS program.

Once the BIOS program decides nothing is happening the PC shuts down.

I sent a message to seller. The PS/2 connections go through the IO shield
to the mainboard. It is independent of any connections to MX300-X gaming
case.
My bad. I had one stick 500 MB RAM installed. I removed that and installed
two 4GB RAM sticks in dual channel configuration. Now keyboard and BIOS
program work.


Ooo. Memtest errors. Maybe Q8400 is bad?

Are the RAM sticks "enthusiast" RAM or regular RAM ?

Regular RAM doesn't have heatsinks - that's one possible indicator.

Enthusiast RAM has a voltage spec. It indicates whether the
RAM is fundamentally high voltage or low voltage. An example
of high voltage RAM, was the winbond 2.5V RAM that could
run at 3.3V to 3.6V or so. Basically, it had a ton of headroom.
Other RAMs, a 2.5V stick runs at 2.7V max. The reason that
limit exists, is the RAM has an internal voltage regulator
and it starts to get hot if you raise VDimm too radically.

On enthusiast RAM, the "rated" parameters are not loaded into
the SPD. Lower values are used to ensure the operator can get
into the BIOS. When the lower values are being used, it is
hoped that no voltage boost is needed. But perhaps a
small tweak won't hurt.

There are two voltages you could adjust. There is VDimm,
which is the 1.35/1.5/1.8/2.5/3.3V value (depends on DRAM family).
There is also Vnb, a Northbridge voltage on setups where there
is still a separate Northbridge chip and it has the memory interfaces.
That's what you're using at the moment.

I bumped the Vnb on my X48 chipset by a couple of the smallest notches,
perhaps 0.050V or so total, from its nominal value. That removes
errors on my setup. The RAM, the nominal is 1.8V and the
enthusiast (Corsair) voltage is 1.8V too. It doesn't need to be
boosted to run DDR2-800 5-5-5-18, and considering the age
of the hardware, there's nothing to be gained
from abusing it. If I was having trouble with the RAM,
I could try 1.9V or if necessary 2.0V.

Some Intel systems that run 1.5V RAM, the memory controller
is on the CPU, and the CPU has a 1.65V Max spec. Intel
doesn't want warranty damage on the CPUs, so it has a spec
out there for the kids so they won't ruin stuff. And this
meant that when the enthusiast makers made RAM for those
setups, they no longer dabbled in "extreme" voltages.
There were no more "winbond style" experiments. No
senseless shooting for the moon stuff.

*******

You should be able to test the sticks, one stick at a time.
I do tests that way, so the test result ("which DIMM is bad")
is unambiguous.

The following is for "thoroughness of testing".

My favorite way to test, is two sticks in single channel mode,
so that the "upper stick" is 100% tested, while the "lower stick"
is 99% tested. You swap the two sticks and repeat the memtest
single pass, so that the stick now sitting in the high slot
gets 100% tested too. This is mainly for stuck-at faults, to make
sure any 640K reserved locations don't harbor bad RAM.

Don't forget proper etiquette when RAM testing. Power
off, wait 60 seconds (or until the green LED goes out),
before pulling the RAM sticks and pushing them in again.
That's to make sure there is no power in the slot.

*******

This is what I'm running at the moment. I used to have four
sticks of Kingston CAS6 (that failed). All I could find
at the time in a CAS5 was this stuff, so that's what is
in the machine at the moment. Four 2GB sticks. The
Northbridge is probably the flakiest part of the setup now.
I think I was pretty lucky to get this (I might have
asked at the computer store and they still had some). Usually
what happens, is after a memory generation is "Done", all
the CAS5 disappears and only some crappy CAS6 is left.
It's pretty hard to find fancy memory ten years after
the motherboard came out. By crappy, the Kingston I
bought ran abnormally hot, and the voltage wasn't
over stock. I even added a cooling fan over the
RAM just in case, for the Kingston stuff. The Corsair
right now is cooler and isn't scaring me on temps.

It doesn't look like it's still in circulation.

https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Catego...N2X4096-6400C5

Sometimes, the chipset is also a limitation. It's possible
the X48 can't run below CAS4. That's if you could find
some RAM that low. So eventually, the timing inside the
Northbridge doesn't allow "cranking CAS to zero". It has
a limit too (a minimum CAS value).

Paul