Good idea. That worked so well for the surge suppressor.

Through trial and error and error and error, I was able to isolate the errors to one particular stick of RAM. Machine seems to boot and remain stable without it while I have another one on order.

Of course, to do the testing, I had to dismantle the whole freaking thing and replace the Zalman cooler with the stock one. Machine sounds like a B-29 now.

I hate Zalmans.

Sn sn sn sn.

Tin?

when i had my pc put together a couple of years back by a tech, he suggested buying a Zalman cooler for the Q6600; i said ok.
a few weeks later i threw the Zalman out and installed a good one; i did not even want to give it to someone else, thinking it would amount to a poison gift.
those Zalman sure look good, but that's not what a cooler is supposed to be about.

I'm so sorry Tom.
I couldn't keep reading any further b/c i was laughing so hard.
That's just awesome.

I had a buddy who once mashed a slice of pumpkin pie into his keyboard as he rushed to the door and it quit working too. I still laugh at that one and he still has the keyboard.
(he couldn't bear to part with it)

I had a similar problem with RAM a few years back. I was starting to wonder if the motherboard had power regulation issues since it went through 2 sticks of RAM before the 3rd set finally worked as expected. The vendor didn't have any problems replacing the RAM though on the third try i did ask them if this was typical or not.

As for Zalman, i've used some of their vidcard coolers, northbridge/southbridge passive coolers in the past with great success.
Quiet absolutely, but check the online reviews for the ones that are effective coolers.