Hi, first time posting here but I'm at a bit of a loss as to what is causing this issue. Apologies for the length of this post! I've just spoken to Nvidia who said try it in another PC (don't have one - and I'm not sure what that would actually tell me as the graphics card works in certain situations, but not others) or buy a new graphics card (which may not solve the issue if it's not the card that's actually causing the issue) ?
Summary
I get multiple BSOD errors on startup if my Zotac GeForce 210 Synergy Edition graphics card is connected to my Asus X99-S motherboard, but only if all 8 RAM slots are filled... If I use 6 or 7 RAM sticks, Windows 10 boots up flawlessly. If I use 8 sticks of RAM and disconnect the graphics card, it boots up flawlessly. As soon as I try and boot with the graphics and all 8 RAM sticks, all hell breaks loose.
I've tried the graphics card in PCIe slots 1 and 3 as per the manual, which doesn't seem to make any difference. It doesn't matter which 7 RAM sticks I'm using, it always works with just 7 of them hooked up, so I don't think it's faulty RAM?
Details and Troubleshooting
A few months ago, my machine suddenly started giving me blue screen crashes on startup, often multiple times with various error codes, before finally sorting itself and successfully booting up. The codes are as follows:
0xC0000218 - this is the most common one that I see on pretty much every startup. The others seem to appear at random.
IRQL Not Less or Equal
System Thread Exception Not Handled
Kernel Security Check Issue
I can’t remember which of the above textual descriptions it was, but in Reliability Monitor it says that one of the BSODs related to 0x0000007e.
It's always some combination of these codes, I haven't seen any other codes come up. Reading up on these errors, the general consensus seemed to be that it was likely a RAM issue, so I removed all but one ram stick and, as per the manual for the X99-S, left the single ram stick in slot D1. The system loaded fine with no BSOD errors (at this point the graphics card was also still installed and my display was working fine), so I gradually added more RAM sticks back into the slots. I was able to run Windows 10 stably with 6 sticks in A1, B1, B2, D2, D1 and C1. When I tried to add the final two sticks, I got the crashes again. Swapping A2 with C2 didn’t help, and I don’t think it’s the specific sticks that are the issue because I took out two that had worked in the 6-stick configuration and swapped them with these last two, and the computer booted no problem with the 6 sticks. I then tried 7 sticks, and the system ran fine, and shows that there are 56GB installed (correct). It doesn’t matter if the 7th stick is in slot A2 or C2, nor does it matter which of the final two sticks I use - both work individually. However, as soon as I insert the final stick into the empty slot (A2 or C2), I get the BSOD problem again on startup.
None of the items in Device Manager have a warning triangle, they're all up to date, and I’ve deleted all USB devices and restarted but I still get BSOD errors if there are 8 sticks.
Fast forward to today, and I thought I'd just test it without the graphics card installed and suddenly I can boot up with all 8 sticks (all of which are detected in the BIOS and in the RAM info in W10 it's showing all 64GB) and I can control the machine using Microsoft Remote Desktop from my Mac.
So I then started reading up on the graphics card issue online, deleted the Nvidia drivers and software from the PC via the device manager and uninstalled the GeForce software. I tried to reboot, but still get the crashes if 8 sticks of RAM are installed and the graphics card is hooked up. I then went to the Asus site to get the latest drivers, but can't find the right graphics card in their search system - it pulls up a few when I type 210, so I used the first one and downloaded the 64-bit Windows 10 file. When I try and run it though (without the graphics card installed as otherwise I can't access W10 due to the looping BSODs), it says that the software isn't compatible with this version of windows and that no compatible devices have been found. So I removed one stick of RAM, re-inserted the graphics card and booted up windows fine, then installed the driver. Shutdown, and reinserted the final RAM stick, and once again I'm greeted with BSOD after BSOD after BSOD.
The bios has been updated to the latest version, and displays all the RAM correctly and also shows the graphics card in the correct slot.
So to summarise my RAM situation:
– 7 sticks with either A2 or C2 empty works flawlessly. Windows correctly registers that there is 56GB of RAM detected & BIOS shows the sticks in the correct slots. I can have the GPU connected and run windows.
– Inserting all 8 sticks (64GB) gives me BSOD on startup if the GPU is connected. Sometimes there’s just one BSOD, then it reboots automatically and sorts itself out. Other times it has one BSOD, restarts, then has another (usually a different error code/description), then another, and the cycle continues. Sometimes it loads up the Startup Repair dialogue so I ask it to diagnose startup issues but always get a message back saying that it couldn’t repair the system. I reboot the system and eventually get through the BSODs into W10, which shows 64GB of RAM available. If I disconnect the GPU, I can run the system with 64GB of RAM and control it from Microsoft Remote Desktop from my Mac.
Does anyone have any advice on what my next steps should be, or any suggestions as to why I'm getting this issue?
Firmware, Software etc. are as follows:
Asus X99-S / BIOS v4101
Zotac GeForce 210 Synergy Edition / Version 342.01
Intel i7-5930K
Crucial, CT8G4DFD8213, 8GB*8, DDR4, 2133MHz
Windows 10 64 bit / Firmware 10.0.18363
