DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

[ferretgruff]

my computer started crashing intermittently sometime after christmas. id formatted and reinstalled windows around the same time. it would crash to blue screen with DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL and some numbers displayed - but no driver was listed.

the problem was getting worse and worse (crashing pretty much every 2 days) so last week i formatted and reinstalled windows (id read that the error could be caused by a device driver, and a format may get rid of it) and thought id cracked it - it lasted the better part of a week before crashing again. same as before, blue screen, same error message but no driver listed.

is anybody able to help? would really appreciate it, cos its starting to bug me, and the past few times after ive rebooted ive had to run chkdsk and fix some errors that have developed on my harddrive.

my system specs are:

p4 3.2ghz
asus p4c800e deluxe
2048mb ram
ati radeon 9800pro 128mb
creative audigy 2 zs

everything is running at factory settings.

thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

ps after reading another thread along these lines i downloaded and ran mpsreports and have generated a .cab file. i have also located the minidump that was created when my computer crashed. in case either of those are required.

 

[imported_booradley]

Its not uncommon for standard, non-ECC ram to error at quantities over 1gb. Although I doubt that's the problem, it might be a start. I don't see any other reason that would happen.

 

[FlyingPenguin]

How many sticks of memory are you using? If that's a dual channel memory board you should only be using no more than two memory sticks. Dual channel mode is VERY fussy about timing. Memory sticks must be matched to run in dual channel.

There's absolutely no reason to have more than 1Gb on a system unless you're a Photoshop power user, or you're usign it for CAD or VMWare workstation. For gaming 1Gb is optimal.

Run MEMTEST86+ all night and see if your ram is stable.

Check your voltages in BIOS (usuallu called the PC Health menu). Make sure the 12 and 5 volt rails are within 5% of their proper voltages.

Make sure you motherboard, video, audio, and NIC drivers are up to date.

Hope this helps...

 

[duckdown]

exactly what was suggested.. from my experience, the IRQL BSOD is always RAM related usually, and would show up when I would OC too far.. Adjust the timings & run MEMTEST86 all night like FlyingPenguin suggested to rule out the RAM issues..

 

[ferretgruff]

i forgot to mention - before i reformatted my computer i did run memtest for 15+ hours to make sure this wasnt the cause... left it on all day while i went to work and even while i went out to the pub after work. didnt report any errors.

im not too sure how i would adjust the timings, i just put them in and did nothing else. i was using this ram for a while (a good few months at least) before i started getting this error, if that means anything. ill check the voltages in the pc health thingy in my bios.

i do find the extra ram useful, but if you suspect it may be the problem then ill take it out if i can find no other solution. thanks for your help so far.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: ferretgruff
i forgot to mention - before i reformatted my computer i did run memtest for 15+ hours to make sure this wasnt the cause... left it on all day while i went to work and even while i went out to the pub after work. didnt report any errors.

im not too sure how i would adjust the timings, i just put them in and did nothing else. i was using this ram for a while (a good few months at least) before i started getting this error, if that means anything. ill check the voltages in the pc health thingy in my bios.

i do find the extra ram useful, but if you suspect it may be the problem then ill take it out if i can find no other solution. thanks for your help so far.

Send me the minidumps in c:\windows\minidump, plus run MSPReports and send me the resulting yourcomputer.cab file, and I'll see if I can find what's going on.

 

[ferretgruff]

will do, thanks.

just to add - i checked the 12v and 5v voltages in my bios, and they were well within 5% - in fact i think they were within 0.5%...

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: ferretgruff
will do, thanks.

just to add - i checked the 12v and 5v voltages in my bios, and they were well within 5% - in fact i think they were within 0.5%...

The debugger says a driver caused it, but not which, and I'm not sure how to find out which...

If you boot in safe mode, does this happen?

If you remove all non-Microsoft drivers (ie right after a fresh install) does this happen?

If you disable all non-critical devices (say, sound card, firewire on card/MB, USB on card/MB, etc.) in the BIOS (or pop them out of the box) does this happen?

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: dclive
If you boot in safe mode, does this happen?

If you remove all non-Microsoft drivers (ie right after a fresh install) does this happen?

If you disable all non-critical devices (say, sound card, firewire on card/MB, USB on card/MB, etc.) in the BIOS (or pop them out of the box) does this happen?

And if you remove (not just disable - you must completely remove it) the Outpost Firewall you have on there, does anything change?

 

[ferretgruff]

hmm, ill give those things you mentioned a try. starting with the outpost firewall - i had wondered if that was the problem, because it sometimes tells me the database is corrupt after ive rebooted...

 

[ferretgruff]

well, i dont want to tempt fate, but it hasnt crashed since i uninstalled outpost on monday. which is now 4 days, the longest its gone without crashing for ages.

could i ask what made you suggest outpost may be the problem? does it have a history of this? because it was recommended really highly to me...

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: ferretgruff
well, i dont want to tempt fate, but it hasnt crashed since i uninstalled outpost on monday. which is now 4 days, the longest its gone without crashing for ages.

could i ask what made you suggest outpost may be the problem? does it have a history of this? because it was recommended really highly to me...

It's a non-Microsoft kernel driver, and it has access to and can easily bluescreen the box if poorly written.

I'd stick with the MS firewall, or just (better idea!) get a hardware router and also run MS's AntiSpyware tool.

 

[ferretgruff]

yeah im using a router, have been for ages. just not sure how safe it would be to turn off my software firewall... ive stuck sygate on for now, its ok so far. with a bit of luck i wont get any more trouble from it!

may check out that antispyware tool though, i dont have anything at the moment...

 

[Scrubber]

What were you doing exactly when you got the Stop error (DRIVER_IRQL...etc.) ?

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: ferretgruff
yeah im using a router, have been for ages. just not sure how safe it would be to turn off my software firewall... ive stuck sygate on for now, its ok so far. with a bit of luck i wont get any more trouble from it!

You have a software firewall *and* you're behind a router? ?? The only thing I can see that helping with is to notify you of packets leaving your machine, but typically that's spyware, so if you run antispyware tools to begin with, the problem is solved. But yes, others have different opinions on that; that's just another opinion to consider.

I stick with a router and MS's antispyware.

may check out that antispyware tool though, i dont have anything at the moment...

That would be worth looking into if you use a web browser.

 

[ferretgruff]

Originally posted by: Scrubber
What were you doing exactly when you got the Stop error (DRIVER_IRQL...etc.) ?

nothing in particular, it would occur seemingly at random. playing games, browsing the internet, listening to music, watching movies. but it hasnt happened since i uninstalled outpost firewall, which was last monday, so it seems to have been fixed. i hope...

Originally postyed by: dclive
That would be worth looking into if you use a web browser.

i do have a program called spywareguard running, but nothing that i can use to scan my computer. spywareguard just secures internet explorer and prevents spyware from executing in the first place...

 

[dclive]

<shudder>

I suggest MS's Antispyware.

Anyway, glad the blue screen/crash is fixed.

 

[Scrubber]

Originally posted by: ferretgruff
well, i dont want to tempt fate, but it hasnt crashed since i uninstalled outpost on monday. which is now 4 days, the longest its gone without crashing for ages.

could i ask what made you suggest outpost may be the problem? does it have a history of this? because it was recommended really highly to me...

That error is actually mentioned on their site @ Agnitum.com but was supposedly fixed in build #292/307

 

[dclive]

Can someone briefly go over the logic of why you'd need a third-party firewall if you've got a router, MS's SP2 firewall, and antispyware software installed?

Hopefully something more in-depth than "So you can monitor outgoing packets" since I really have to doubt that anyone agressively does that, and since the MS Antispyware bit should keep the machine clean. Does everyone using this really want something else to monitor?

 

[cornholio2]

Hey! How dee!

Yeah, the message I get when it shuts down is really getting technical. Some says San Diego has a cold bug. Cold Bug = doesn't work well when CPU is cold. My mobo is at 34C when Idle and 37C when loaded. CPU is 40C Idle and 47C loaded.
I e-mailed ASUS today and this is the message I get when it shuts down and start up again but not always.

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

and

TECHNICAL INFO:

STOP: 0x000000D1 ( 0x3F3F3F67, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0xEE6117A8)

SYMTDI.SYS - Address EE6117A8 base at EE602000, Datestamp 4252d4ac

Weird right? All is at DEFAULT and AUTO. I updated the drivers for the Videocard. For M$ I'm updated but I don't know about the hardware compatibility. When I was loading the software, Windows is giving me incompatibility issue with Raid driver and the Leadtek software. For the mobo bios there's a beta bios but not sure if that bios is for experimental only. Is that the reason why they name it Beta? My mem is at 2-3-3-5 2T at 2.7v.
Which memtest 86+ should I download?


** Memtest86+ V1.55 (03/28/2005) **

* Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.gz)
* Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip)

* Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable Binary (.gz)
* Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable Binary (.zip)

* Download - Pre-Compiled EXE file for USB Key (Pure DOS)

* Download - Pre-Compiled package for Floppy (DOS - Win)

or this one?



** Memtest86+ V1.55 (03/28/2005) **

* Download - Memtest86+ V1.55 source code (.tar.gz) - 139.8 KB - GPG Sign : Here - Public Key : Here
__________________________________

 

[ferretgruff]

i think your problem is the symtdi.sys driver. what that is, i dunno. for memtest you will probably want the precompiled bootable binary or bootable iso (iso is for a cd-image, in case like me you dont have a floppy drive)

dclive - im not sure how good my router is, i guess it would probably be sufficient on its own (its a usrobotics one, supposedly pretty good). but i dont really want to let all my programs have access to the internet, which a firewall can be useful for...

scrubber - im not sure which build of outpost ive been using. i guess it must be previous to the one you mentioned, but i dont wanna risk trying out the new version anyway...

 

[Scrubber]

Originally posted by: cornholio2
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

and

TECHNICAL INFO:

STOP: 0x000000D1 ( 0x3F3F3F67, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0xEE6117A8)

SYMTDI.SYS - Address EE6117A8 base at EE602000, Datestamp 4252d4ac

All is at DEFAULT and AUTO. I updated the drivers for the Videocard. For M$ I'm updated but I don't know about the hardware compatibility. When I was loading the software, Windows is giving me incompatibility issue with Raid driver and the Leadtek software. For the mobo bios there's a beta bios but not sure if that bios is for experimental only.

What sort of RAID setup are you running? And over how many hard disks?

Originally posted by: ferretgruff
i think your problem is the symtdi.sys driver. what that is, i dunno.

Symtdi.sys is part of the Symantec Client Security package. More info on that one here (do a CTRL+F to spring directly to it).