Didn’t imagine that a mainboard (in this case an MSI X38 Diamond and for testing a P35D3) would be so bitchy when the CPU revision (in this case a Wolfdale E0) is a bit newer than the old BIOS supports – at least it should start DOS to allow a BIOS update, but no, it’s gotta hang with full-screen logo during memory or USB initialization and ignore any keypress, except when occasionally asking whether to reset the BIOS setup, just to hang after that, or sometimes turn itself off and back on every few seconds until you unplug it, or… or… or…
So it’s remove CPU, search an older one, install, update, remove, install new one, phew, works. The first major step towards my new work PC is done…