I think I was able to pinpoint the source of the problem. The memory module installed is a 256mb PC133 SDRAM, when I replaced it, it behaved differently, did not crash at first and was able to boot, but still had some artifacts on screen, I used a different one but in both cases the 356mb ram modules are recognized as 128Mb ones! ...plus the 2nd ram bank when ram is placed, the system does not boot...maybe a faulty module or memory bank ?

TonyStark wrote on 2022-02-12, 10:12:

I think I was able to pinpoint the source of the problem. The memory module installed is a 256mb PC133 SDRAM, when I replaced it, it behaved differently, did not crash at first and was able to boot, but still had some artifacts on screen, I used a different one but in both cases the 356mb ram modules are recognized as 128Mb ones! ...plus the 2nd ram bank when ram is placed, the system does not boot...maybe a faulty module or memory bank ?

Just checked my end with the pictured 2 x 256MB sticks (for full 512MB) and still no problems - a single stick should work in either slot and the 128 / 256MB thing sounds like a memory density problem + maybe try to clean the slot contacts. What's the brand / part number of your memory?

I use to use a Dual head AGP Matrox G450 in HP Kayak with dual slot-1 BX440 motherboard. Originally I think it came with a Matrox G200 graphics card.
So HP did did like to use these Matrox video cards in their high end workstations along with the ELSA video cards.

I've added 2 modules signle sided of 256mb each, the system sees a total of 256mb, sprayed it with contect cleaner before I installed them and for some odd reason, so far it works !....I don't know what to say...I'll keep an eye out and let you know.
most likely, what you said it's memory related