Realtek 8111e vs. Precise

[MR ZenWiz]

On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 5:11 PM, compdoc <compdoc at hotrodpc.com> wrote:
>> Anyone have a recommendation/preference on ASUS vs. ASRock motherboards?
>
> Asrock has great quality and great prices. I like Asus, but I rarely buy
> them now that they are in the upper price ranges.
>

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 have reconstructed my older box enough to have it running (with an
older copy of my home stuff and a fresh installation of Xubuntu
12.04.2 plusupdates, and the video card works with that one just fine.

OT: It was really odd not having a home desktop for a couple of days.
I found out how little I care for laptops - nothing can replace a big
monitor and a real keyboard.  But I digress.

I'm torn between finding the problem by normal troubleshooting methods
(inspect all components, put the minimum system together, add on until
something breaks, etc.) and just taking back all the upgrades (m/b,
CPU & p/s) and just going on with my old setup in the new box.  Not
only am I out the cost of the parts and hours of back strain with the
boxes, but also money for gas just going back and forth to the store.

Is it possible that too much thermal grease between the CPU and its
cooler can cause this kind of failure?  I wouldn't think so, but I'm
open to any possibility here....

Thanks all.

PS: Once I have access to my real home directory, I'll publish the
lshw from the MSI m/b whose LAN died that started all this.  I almost
wish I had just stuck with that m/b and a plug-in NIC - it was
working, albeit slightly crippled (and not at all dead).  <sigh>