It turned out to be unrelated to memory. Just as I posted it had to do with what I last had in my hand. Apparently plugging one of the IDE ribbons pulled out another tiny plug. I can't tell from the terrible little quick reference that comes with that intel board what the heck it was. It appears to be a connection for front USB 2.
I've posted a picture with 2 arrows. A red one showing the memory cards to orient the viewer and a green one indicating where this tiny plug is. My grandson did the honors holding back the extra junk. -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
