Windows crashes on startup only when powering on system

I tried it with my other RAM stick. Something happened.... The Windows logo appeared in this graphical horror LSD looking puddle that looked as if someone sat on it. I'm actually kind of scared.

If you see that long red band/line at the top of the screen, that happened again after I tried booting again with that other RAM stick, when trying to boot into Safe Mode.

Strangely, I can hear the case and CPU fans picking up speed when this happens.

I'm going to try with just the one stick again. I'm going to assume the other stick is bad if I can boot with it again.

Tried with one stick again and it booted successfully into Safe Mode, now. So I guess that other stick is bad, too?! This can't be happening to me.

Is it more likely that there's something wrong with the RAM sticks and not with the DIMM slot? If there's something wrong with the slot and I have to RMA another motherboard and wait another month for it... sigh.

I guess I'll try putting each "bad" stick in the first slot and see what happens, and if the same thing happens, I'll know it's the RAM, not the slot.

Either way, I'm this close to drowning myself in both booze and sorrow.

Well, the stick that caused the discoloring still caused it even if it was the only stick, so that's garbage. Although, I'm trying the other bad stick right now on its own and it hasn't crashed yet. I'm going to continue to test it, though.

I put the supposed "bad" stick in slot one. It successfully booted with no freezing or crashing about 4 times.

So now, I'm annoyed. Something has got to be wrong with one of these sticks, but I don't know which one, now. They both can power on the machine. When I have 2 sticks of RAM in the slots, the system freezes. However, I don't know why, but the BSODs stopped. I haven't seen one in a while. All that seems to be happening is the Windows logo freezing. or auto-restarting.

Safe Mode freezes too, but it also doesn't crash to a BSOD anymore.

What in the hell is going on here?

I tried that, except only with the bad stick in the "Good" slot. I didn't try only putting the "good" stick in the "bad" slot to see what happens.

I need to stop right now because I'm losing my mind. I'll check back later in case any more ideas come up from others. I can't keep working on this all day and go crazy doing it.

Thanks, man, you've been a big help, I appreciate it.

Well, I figured I'd still thank you, lol.