[Cheap MoBo Update]

It depends...

on how few that $$ is...

Maybe something like $ 10 ?

[STORY: Weird memory behaviour after hardware upgrades!]

LoL

Message "DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" isn't enough to determine which hardware or what settings caused the problem, every hardware problem or misconfigured settings can lead to that message.

Even a high-skilled Microsoft technician wouldn't be able to answer to "What's causing the problem?" on the phone, if You only gave him that message for the problem indication

[Standby Modes.]

AFAIK, before entering S3 mode, everything (including processor's current state) is saved in memory, and thus memory is the only component that's still getting fully powered, because it holds all the data needed to return from S3 state to normal state.