Using the E-Scanner, I have been making assumptions about why certain Research do not complete.
It seems the values neon, xp, time, and support have to reach zero.
It also seems these values only decrease until the value reaches zero or its corresponding s-value (sneon/sxp/ssupport) reaches zero. (Except time which was probably written first and so is different.)

For most items (which I have E-Scanned while it was researching), the s-value starts higher than the value, and so the value will reach zero and the s-value will not. This is fine as the Research completes and most folks do not care.

For some items the s-value (sneon) starts lower than the value (neon), and when the s-value hits zero the value stops decreasing, and so the value (neon) never hits zero. This is not good.
[ When I first wrote this up, after having a failure on MM Core and MM RAM, many items were failing to complete. After a fresh restart, those items now complete. I suspect that a failed research may affect the next research, as I suppose, a successful research could affect the next one. ]

For Master Memory, when sneon reaches zero, neon is still at 76872. The other values (support and xp) are at zero, and the other s-values are at ssupport=394,sxp = 218.

For Master Memory, when sneon reaches zero, neon is still at 83194. The other values (support and xp) are at zero, and the other s-values are at ssupport=120,sxp =15.

For Flash Server, when ssupport reaches zero, support is still at 112. The other values (neon and xp) are at zero, and the other s-values are at sneon=1808808,sxp=315.
When I hit the X, the values for Flash Server are
sneon 118408 / neon -1
ssupport 288 / support -1
sxp 315 / xp -1

The fastest I can E-Scan it after it starts the values are:
sneon 118372 / neon 9564 -- neon will finish
ssupport 252 / supprt is 364 -- support will NOT finish
sxp 315 / xp 0 -- xp is already finished

For Energy Cell, before I even insert the required items, I can tell that it will work.
sneon 118408 / neon 115200
ssuport 288 / support 120
sxp 315 / xp 0 -- xp is already finished.
It did work.

I hope this helps. I know I will be E-Scanning before I insert items from now on.

I now believe my assumptions were incorrect.

I connected my T1 directly to the Water Turbine, and the sneon value started going up.