I am having an odd issue that I cannot seem to resolve.
I have the following setup:
Asus P5M2/SAS motherboard
Core2 Quad Q6600 processor.
8GB of matching DDR2 ram (4x2GB)
Initially this system had only 2 GB of ram (1x2GB) I ordered 8GB ram so I could reach recommended requirements for Windows Server 2012 Essentials. While waiting for my new ram to arrive, I installed WS2012E on my machine with only 2GB of ram installed. Everything installed without a hitch but was obviously slow due to only having 2GB of ram.
When my new ram arrived my system would not boot after installing new ram. It would just stop at the teal windows splash screen logo and the indicator would spin forever. I tried various configurations and found that the system would boot if I only had 1 stick installed, or if I mix and matched my new sticks with 1 of my old sticks up to 3GB. However, if I installed 2x2GB sticks or more the system would hang at the splash screen.
I was able to boot with all 4 of my new sticks as long as I only had one installed.
Thinking this might be some sort of ram incompatibility, I purchased more ram at a premium that was specifically listed on the motherboards approved memory compatibility list.
I tried to reinstall Windows Server 2012 essentials, but found the same behavior with the installer. The installer also stops at the teal windows logo splash screen if I have more than 3GB installed.
As a trial I ran memtest86 overnight with all 4 sticks installed with no errors.
As another trial I installed Windows 7 on the system with all 4 sticks installed. Everything installed perfectly and the system sees all 8GB of memory.
As a follow up test I plan to install Windows 8 tonight if no other solution is found to see if it experiences the same issue as essentials. I assume it will since they have a similar boot loader.
So this seems to be something with the Windows Server 2012 Essentials boot loader, although I can't imagine what it would be.
All of my hardware checks out fine, will install older versions of windows, and will even install and boot Windows Server 2012 Essentials as long as I have less than 4GB of memory installed.
I would really like to run 2012 Essentials on this machine but I cannot seem to find a solution. I have invested a good bit of money now between Windows Server 2012 essentials, plus 16GB of ram I have purchased trying to make this work.
It is crazy to me that it behaves differently if only the amount of ram is changed.
Any ideas?