BAD HARDWARE WEEK

None of this had any effect. This PC would boot after RTC reset, and then get stuck at the POST memory test on a subsequent restart. At one point, I thought the problem might have been metal on the underside of the GeForce 8800 GTS graphics card, which was resting right atop the CMOS battery. (It's that battery which maintains the RTC.) I applied a little electrical tape (sure to be a gooey discovery several years hence) between the two, which is good practice anyway. But it did nothing to solve the problem.

Realizing finally that I had to do some investigation, I hit the online forums, including Asus's own. It quickly became apparent that many of the newer systems -- specifically, cutting-edge motherboards running ultra-fast DDR3 memory -- have issues with getting full compatibility in place. Namely, much of this stuff is so new, it takes time before, say, motherboard X, is compatible with memory from each and every vendor. Perhaps that's why the Asus manual contained a list of DDR3 SDRAM specifically approved for use with the mobo. I had wondered about that, because I rarely recall seeing such lists before. It did concern me that my Crucial Memory modules were not on that list -- though they are listed as being compatible on Crucial's Web site -- but not too much, because, again, who really pays attention to the stuff?