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de_la_Nae:
also let me make sure, since i'm tired and don't speak German, but there's 4 RAM slots on the motherboard, right? And you have installed two sets of two different kinds of RAM?

It at least used to matter a little (or at least make things easier) if same RAM was put into paired ports. In my experience certain ports (such as 1 and 3, then 2 and 4) are linked together in some way that i don't know (i've usuallys een them marked or color-coded when that's the case), so making sure your RAM is done up in the paired parts (if this is even still applicable these days or with this equipment you're using i have no idea) might help. though i imagine you've been fitting them every which way trying to get a different result already

de_la_Nae:
A summary of things to try if you haven't already, though i get the feeling it's more basic than where you're at

https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000996.htm

Case:
@Nae:

This is a failure of the board' to complete its POST (Power-On Self-Test)
* The failure first occurred with the two sticks of old ram, which prompted me to buy the two sticks of new ram (the HyperXblabla), to no avail.
* I then 'breadboarded' the system, meaning I took the motherboard out of the chassis and disconnected everything except the Power Supply (PSU), the CPU, the diagnostic speaker and the on/off connector - > same pattern (three longish beeps, restart after 30 odd seconds, three longish beeps, keeps running). At this point I know it can't be anything to do with USB devices, or the graphics card or whatnot.
* Then I took one stick (or DIMM) of the new RAM, and tested it in each of the four slots - > same shit.
* Ditto with the other stick of new RAM.

As to the three beeps: They are definitely three beeps of equal length, spaced at equal intervals (I trust my ear here - I was a bassist in an earlier life). The only time the AMI beepcodes list (my first post in this thread) speaks of three beeps, it says 'three short beeps' - I can't be sure, but if memory serves, they are longer than the one short beep that used to signal successful completion of the POST. No, it's not one long, two short, I certain of that (and yes, it'd be bad if it was).

So it's not the RAM sticks. I'm pretty sure it's not the PSU, because ... symptoms of Power-supply problems tend to be  much less specific and consistent. Also, this is a 630 Watt BeQuiet Monster PSU (I always splurge on the PSU, after that one time that I didn't), if anything, it's bored to tears driving just the board, CPU and RAM.

Which leaves only the CPU or the board.

One uncertainty I have left is that I'm not sure what the 'memory failure has occurred in the first 64K of RAM.  The RAM IC is probably bad' -thingy is supposed to refer to: The CPU has its own superfast onboard memory (i.e located on the die itself ) - the L1-, L2- and L3-caches. Even the smallest of the three, the L1-cache, has a size of 64k (the L3-caches boasts a sporty 8mb).

So could it be that three beeps mean that the L1-cache is fr**ked? I don't think so, because that'd be useless information, as there is no way to exchange the L1-cache without replacing the entire CPU, and since the L1 is involved in basically anything the CPU does, it'd be bored beyond recover anyhow. But ... I don't know.

The IC part is funny, too - except for the odd capacitor, the entire board is a collection of Integrated Cirquits, as is the CPU, or the RAM for that matter. So that doesn't really help me in locating the mysterious 'RAM IC'. All non-trivial electronics have been ICs since the 1950s.

Case:
@Nae & bhtooefr: Thanks for your help so far!

So I've looked around for a functional LGA1150 board to test my CPU in, and:
*I could buy one from Amazon & return it after testing.
*A local repair service keeps some of those oldies around for testing purposes, but they want 30€ just for that functionality check.
*The 'involuntary Master of the Cluster' of one of the groups on my floor was kind enough to offer me one of the two nodes they'll replace soon. Drawback is that I won't be allowed to keep the board, much less remove it from Uni premises, and that the replacements will arrive 'within the next two weeks, probably'.

I've also decided to give up on LGA1150 - The only halfway decent boards left are more expensive today than their state-of-the-art grandchildren. By the same token, a used i7-4770K goes for 150-200€ on eBay.

Refurbishing my old system costs 210+€ (New 16Gb DDR3 RAM + board).A brand-spanking new AMD Ryzen 5 2600+, plus new cooler, plus ASRock B450 pro motherboard, plus 16gb DDR4 Ram costs ~390€.

If I return the DDR3 Ram I bought on Amazon andif the CPU is still good andif I manage to sell it for 150€ on ebay, I'm just 130€ away from a system that's future-proof for the next few years, and has warranty for three years.

Drawback:
* TWO! WEEKS! without my machine.
* Selling shit on ebay brings out my inner Brun. No likey at all!

de_la_Nae:
urf

godspeed, brave hardware warrior

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