Now I’m stumped.  As I

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November 24, 2010 at 9:50 pm #2530
captain_video
Participant

    Now I’m stumped.  As I previously indicated, I ran MemTest86 on the two 2GB SDRAMs and it failed.  I returned the DIMMs to Newegg and ordered another set of the exact same memory sticks.  They were kind enought o revise my RMA request to a refund instead of replacement DIMMs.  I received them today and installed them as before.  Before starting up Media Center I decided to run MemTest86 first to make sure the new memory was good.

    To my surprise, the memory failed the test again and caused the PC to reboot at exactly the same spot (Test 0, 28% complete).  I swapped positions between the 2GB sticks and the 1GB sticks with the same result (i.e., DIMM channels 0 and 1).  I ran the test again with just the two 4GB sticks and it failed at 40% of Test 0.  I then tried it using a three DIMM configuration (two 1GB sticks in DIMM slots 0 and one 2GB stick in channel A of DIMM slot 1).  I got the same result as with the two 2GB sticks (failure at 40% of Test 0).  For some reason this motherboard does not like the 2GB SDRAMs even though they appear to meet the required specs. 

    I’m not sure what to do with this now.  Is the problem with the memory or could it be the motherboard?  There’s a good chance that the 2GB sticks are fine but simply not compatible with this board.  I’m not sure how Newegg is going to feel about me returning DIMMs that may otherwise test perfectly good.  It’s just too coincidental to have two identical pairs of DIMMs test bad in exactly the same way.