And that answer takes me full circle because that was my original thought.
I'm still trying to understand why It will POST with the 3, just not load windows, or reboot when trying to load windows. It almost seems too easy to blame the CPU.
Now in rechecking the memory config for this board.... I told you I need to slow down sometimes....It says 64-bit RAM uses slot 1, slot 3 or slot 1 and three. 128-bit would be slot 1-2, slot 3-4 or slots 1-4
The BIOS says the RAM is 64 bit. Is this because it's running single channel, and would that be another indicator of a bad controller.
ANd Yeah, I tried two "matched" sticks (one dual channel set) in slot 1-2, which is dual channel 1 and it failed. So now the question is, do I return the CPU and all the hassle that goes with it, or just get a couple of 1 GB sticks, since I reall should add more RAM anyway. I can live with the "performance hit" so long as my computer doesn't lock up or randomly reboot, which it's not doing. It's running great other than that glitch.