[PLUG] more hardware trouble

[Russell Senior]

Installed a P4 2.53GHz and a gig of RAM in an Intel D845GBVL
motherboard[1] and am having a lot of trouble getting it to POST.  I
seem to have BIOS version P01.  Attempts to reflash BIOS[2] to more
recent version (P17) have failed because, seemingly, the motherboard
is having trouble talking to RAM.  Every power on I see a different
quantity of detected RAM.  This is fresh, newly arrived DDR SDRAM from
crucial.com, 512meg on a stick.

Now, that all seems to superficially point to the RAM being the
problem.  Howver, I have tried removing one stick, trying different
sockets, all permutations and have not seen an improvement.  What is
the probability of getting two bad sticks at once?  Not large.
Secondly, Intel's website says that my processor (actually, _any_
processor isn't supported until BIOS P02).  So, how am I supposed to
get said BIOS onto the box unless it will run long enough to load it?

Any ideas?  

[1]  <http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/bv/>

[2] to P17, using the "eyes-closed" BIOS recovery procedure, see
    bottom of:

     <http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/standardbios.htm>

-- 
Russell Senior         ``shtal latta wos ba padre u prett tu nashtonfi
seniorr at aracnet.com      mrlosh''  -- Bashgali Kafir for ``If you have
                         had diarrhoea many days you will surely die.''