How bizzare - well, I guess we got lucky. My original though was that it had to do something with the memory controller for channel 1. The one on my chip is dead from me trying to delid it with the vice method.

Turns out that Costa Rica chips, at least the one I have have really strong glue - might be a different type all together. So I ended up damaging the edge while gently hitting it and I did it properly, not a hack job. The top part of the surface flaked off completely, about 2-3 mm from the the edge, about half way of the side I was hitting.

When I popped it back in, it would not boot. So I tried on dimm slot at a time and it turns out, that channel 2(both slots) work perfectly fine, while if anything is inserted into channel 1 - no post.

So this is my little 'miracle' chip I guess. Few years from now, when I kill a chip, I can see myself saying "They sure don't build them like they used to"