Realtek 8111e vs. Precise

[compdoc]

> I picked up an ASUS m/b, but after I had installed it and was bringing the
system up, I clicked on one of the options in the BIOS setup and the video
went dead.  I rebooted several times but nothing ever came back and even the
m/b speaker beep never happened.


I'm testing a brand new system this morning with an Asrock board, and it did
not like the Kingston ram I put in. I would enter the bios and set the speed
to the proper setting, but the system refused to boot afterwards. I kept
having to reset the cmos to get it to boot again. I decided to use a lower
speed ram and just go with that.

Sometimes a firmware update will fix these kinds of problems, but that
didn't work in this case. 

By the way, one nice feature with this Asrock board is that you can d/l and
update the bios (called UEFI now) directly over the internet without having
to copy to a floppy or cd or usb stick.


> Is it possible that too much thermal grease between the CPU and its cooler
can cause this kind of failure?


I don't think so. I always spread the paste evenly over the top of the cpu,
rather than place a drop in the center of the cpu and hope it will spread
out. Most coolers come with the paste already installed for you.

But just watch the cpu temp in the bios. If something were wrong with your
cooler or paste, it will get too hot as shown in there. And a memory test is
one way to exercise the cpu and get it up to operating temp.