ram problem wtf

did you install 64 bit win 7 or 32bit?

re-seat your ram. I am guessing only one is installed properly.

See which slot the detected RAM is showing up in. Then switch the sticks to the opposite slots.

If the system detects only one stick of RAM in the same slot, you may have a problem with the other slot. If it detects only one stick of RAM but in the other slot, there's a good chance you have a problem with the other stick of RAM.

Also download and run memtest86+, it can often tell you if there is a problem with one of the physical sticks of RAM themselves.

edit: also, your original problem (random crashing, random freezing) sounds like something that COULD be caused by a stick of RAM going bad. It's possible that's what was going on, and now it's just unable to be recognized at all.

Yes.

It should be fine. The manufacturers' specs usually just mean components that they have optimized them for and then actually tested them on, but with a few exceptions, DDR3 RAM will work on any DDR3-compatible setup; do a quick search and you will read of people running that exact set on i5 systems and even AMD systems.

What the compatibility list means is that you just may not get the full rated speed on a non-approved system unless you configure it manually in the BIOS. Often with high-speed RAM it will include a built-in XMP (extreme memory profile), which basically is just a way of automatically forcing the system to increase the voltage and clock speed, or in other words, an auto-overclock. If your system can't read that automatically, you have to set it yourself.

So what may be happening is that your RAM is designed to run at 2400 MHz and 1.65V, but your system ignores the information contained in the memory profile and defaults to something like 1333MHz/1.5V or 1600MHz/1.5V (1.5V is the stock default for DDR3 RAM; your sticks require more because they are "performance" parts that basically overclock themselves to gain speed). Anyway, undersupplying voltage is one of the major ways to cause the kind of random freezes and crashes that you describe. My advice would be to go into the BIOS and manually set the timings and voltage to the 2400/11-13-13-35/1.65V listed in your set's specs. If it is on "auto," disable that and set them yourself.

One other item of note with RAM ... the effective speed is, in simple terms, the clock speed divided by the latency. So when you go to DDR3-2400 with an 11 latency, it's not much different from DDR3-1600 with an 8 latency. Most of the increase in clock speed is eaten up by the higher latency on most models. So if you're really looking for performance, at the 2400 MHz level you'd want a 10 latency instead of 11. But really DDR3-1600 with 8 latency is going to be virtually the same but less costly and with much less hassle.

By the way, if your RAM slot has a problem, there is not much you can do except try blowing it out with compressed air, or replacing the motherboard. That's not common, though, and I think you'd be much better looking at the settings first.

wait wait wait wait ... you're trying to boot the system with all four sticks of RAM installed? They're mismatched and use different voltage. The Kingston is 1.5V and the Teamgroup is 1.65V. Those will never work together.

What happens when you boot with just the Kingston RAM installed? Does it work?

If you have just the Vulcan RAM installed, did you use the XMP or try to do the settings manually? If you just go to XMP it might not work. See if setting them manually does the trick. Especially pay attention to the voltage. If it sets to 1.5V by default, that's your problem. Set it to 1.65V. If ti still doesn't work, try 1.67V or maybe even 1.69V. Sometimes it takes a little extra to get high-performance RAM to agree with a board that's not used to it.

Definitely don't use both different sets of RAM at once.