An old ASUS P5N-EM HDMI motherboard could not recognize memory.
A new memory module was installed and it worked perfectly.
The old memory modules still could not be recognized when installed in the remaining memory slots but were working in another motherboard.
Solving this problem was difficult and was really not productive use of time.
First the motherboard was removed to check the back side for burnt traces.
No burnt traces were found but something even worse.The stock Intel cooler that uses push pins was exerting pressure on the motherboard and the result was that the motherboard was warped and as a result memory modules would not sit properly in the slots and could not be recognized.
The cooler was removed immediately and the motherboard was installed and fastened inside the PC case so that it would straighten.
It was obvious that a cooler with backplate was needed and it was not certain that it would fix the memory problem.
A new cooler with backplate for LGA775 costs over $30, a backplate only $5 but shipping time is over 20 days. These solutions were either too costly or too time consuming.
Instead a drawing was made of the backside of the motherboard and a piece of plywood was cut in the shape of a common backplate and four holes were drilled.
Four drilled plastic spacers were installed on the holes to prevent the plywood from contacting the back side of the motherboard.
Next the push pins were removed from the stock cooler and replaced with countersunk screws installed on the plywood.
The motherboard was removed from the PC case and the plywood backplate installed with the four screws protruding through the holes to the front side of the motherboard.
Finally thermal paste was applied on the cooler and it was placed on the processor and firmly secured by four nuts on the protruding screws.
There was no noticeable warp on the motherboard. So the motherboard was fastened inside the PC case and after properly installing all the needed connectors the memory modules were tested again.
All 4 Gigabytes of memory were recognized and worked perfectly. Moreover the CPU temperature remained low even after some hours of memory testing.
The most important lesson learned from this experience is that a backplate is absolutely necessary and if a proper cooler with a motherboard backplate had been installed at the time of purchase all this trouble would have been avoided and additionally it would be possible to safely overclock the processor because of the lower temperatures compared to the stock cooler.
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