I'm just a bit curious - are there settings/registers in northbridges which can seriously brick a mainboard and/or RAM (physically) if abused properly?
I'll start testing my 440BX code soon, so I'd like to know what I have to expect...
I don't think you can. I have over the years tried a lot of wrong ram settings, and only ever seen temporary failures. We have in 7 1/2 years never seen anything that looked like damage due to bad ram programming.
Have you ever seen any damage from programming something else incorrectly though? It's a typical programming mistake to write to the wrong register ;-)
That said, on modern hardware, it's almost impossible to damage the hardware by software alone (for example, if you accidentally turn off the fans (or don't turn them on), most chips will automatically shut off).
Segher
p.s. Be careful with high-power voltage regulators though ;-)