Question IBM xSeries 342: All memory faults on power up

[stegoman]

I have 3 nearly identical IBM xSeries 342 rack servers. They have been sitting long enought for the CMOS batteries to have died. I have replaced the CMOS batteries, re-seated all DIMMs, PCI cards, and VRMs. All three systems immediately display the MEM error and the light for each of the 4 ram slots lights when powered on. I've tried swapping DIMMs and using only 2 instead of 4. No luck.

Does anyone have any idea what might be going on?
These were good, workhorse servers and should not die just from sitting for a couple of years. I'm now at the point of stripping them for the useful parts and scrapping the rest as I need the space if I can't get them working.

 

[stegoman]

Problem Solved!
At some point, one of the techs played with the memory in these systems and did NOT put them back in correctly!

The MB has 4 DIMM slots, numbered 1, 2, 3, & 4.
The CORRECT way to populate this particular MB is:
Slots 1 & 4 first
Slots 2 & 3 second

The memory in Slots 1 & 4 MUST BE THE SAME SIZE AND TIMINGS!
This memory in Slots 2 & 3 MUST BE THE SAME SIZE AND TIMINGS!
The 1-4 pair does not have to be the same size or timings as the 2-3 pair.