IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error - computer automaticly restarts

[MrHappyMonkey]

My WinXP Pro system has recently been restarting all of a sudden for the last week or so. This is extremely anoying since when it does this I am doing important job-related stuff. I disabled WinXP's feature of automaticly rebooting when it gets a BSOD error, the error it gave me was: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. I recently formatted and am using the same hardward and software as I was before I formatted. Is this an IRQ conflict?

help!!!

 

[krnpfunch]

/sigh look under the "operating system" section, i think i saw it there

 

[MrHappyMonkey]

<< /sigh look under the "operating system" section, i think i saw it there >>



?? this IS the operating systems forum...

 

[bacillus]

have a look here as the same applies to XP!

 

[Lunitixx]

I bet you have an MSI motherboard.

 

[MrHappyMonkey]

<< I bet you have an MSI motherboard. >>



Nope. Intel referance design P4 board (Dell machine).

 

[rbaibich]

Check if your computer isn't overheating, and if this is not being caused by some defective hardware driver. This kind of error can be caused in many ways...

 

[MoleX]

I have got this BSOD once in a blue moon. I know for a fact it is caused by Hercules Fortissmo 2 1.02 drivers
It also happens when transferring large (+2GB) files over the IDE bus of my K7S5A

MoleX

 

[Justtaint]

If you ever got an answer to your problem please PM me as I've been having this problem also.

 

[SpeedTester]

Dang, I have been having the same problem on my Win2000 Server/Pentium 3 computer.
If anyone has any info on this please post it.

 

[kp1126]

same problem here...except its only on XP, everything works fine in 2000.

 

[eloric the 2nd]

hey glad i found this thread i am tracking down the same problem myself.... in my XP pro. system... for a long time i thought it was my voodoo 5500 agp, buts its not THANK GOD!!!! but i did track down the file it listed at the bottom of the BSOD and it is related to the on board sound of my epox 8kha+.... don't have time right now to post more details but i will soon.... good luck and if anyone has any luck fixxing these erros let us all know



Eloric

 

[Darein]

I had this problem, among others, with random lockups and BSOD's and a fresh install fixed everything, not much help, but an idea.

 

[leozh]

<< hey glad i found this thread i am tracking down the same problem myself.... in my XP pro. system... for a long time i thought it was my voodoo 5500 agp, buts its not THANK GOD!!!! but i did track down the file it listed at the bottom of the BSOD and it is related to the on board sound of my epox 8kha+.... don't have time right now to post more details but i will soon.... good luck and if anyone has any luck fixxing these erros let us all know



Eloric >>



This wouldn't be the C-Media onboard soundcard, would it?

I have had these crashes too and I am wondering if that is the problem.

 

[eloric the 2nd]

leozh
its for "avance AC'97 audio for VIA (R) Audio Controller"...... the file name shown in the BSOD is ALCWXWDM.SYS anyone here have this problem with the same file????

Eloric

 

[leozh]

Hmm, I don't think mine shows a filename.

 

[eloric the 2nd]

hmm.... mine is on the bottom of the BSOD... not in a very conspicous place.. but i did some searching and on the CD that came with my MB there is a C-media folder.... so some of that could have got installed.... to be honest i didn't pay that much attention when i was installing the audio drivers....so it very well could be the same thing.... also i noticed that none of the driver folders had XP listed... hmmm... i know epox has some sort of new audio drivers on thier web site... wondering if they would help....hmm...


eloric

 

[smashinbum]

I had the "IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" problem when I had to modify PCI latencies (or something like that) so that I could get my Vortex 2 sound card to work in XP. I pretty much became tired of the errors, so I reformatted and bought an Acoustic Edge.

Do you have ACPI on? Some people have been having problems with it on.

 

[eloric the 2nd]

hmm.. ineteresting that you mention that bout the vortex 2 card as i am still running a storm platinum sound card... but i didn't adjust anything to get it to work.... i installed it.. it didn't work so i thew in the audio drivers on the MB cd... viola it worked... hmm....i was never sure why i had to have the on board sound drivers installed to get a sound card to work.... cause my speakers are connected to the card not the MB.... might take out the sound card and reinstall all audio drives for the MB and see what happens... *wonders if i have an old sound card lying around to*... now jsut need the weekend to get here so i can actually do some of this.... stupid classes get in the way of my real education on anandtech


eloric

 

[chaswood]

<< hey glad i found this thread i am tracking down the same problem myself.... in my XP pro. system... for a long time i thought it was my voodoo 5500 agp, buts its not THANK GOD!!!! but i did track down the file it listed at the bottom of the BSOD and it is related to the on board sound of my epox 8kha+.... don't have time right now to post more details but i will soon.... good luck and if anyone has any luck fixxing these erros let us all know



Eloric >>



Have you tried disabling the on-board sound in the bios? This should keep the drivers from loading in XP and help you isolate the problem.

 

[eloric the 2nd]

actually i haven't tried that yet... surprisingly i havent thought bout that either....been a rough week but i will give that a shot... thanks for the idea

Eloric

 

[Force21]

I have had the same problem before too. I have an Epox 8K7A+ and don't even have the onboard audio enabled or any of the drivers loaded for it. I use a Sounblaster Audigy Gamer and a GeForce3 vid card. I think I finally tracked mine down to over aggressive memory timings because when I adjusted them back a notch, it hasn't reoccured. I didn't notice what file was listed at the bottom of the BSOD before it rebooted, but if I remember right, it was pointing to one of the driver files for my Audigy sound card. I had a friend who suggested I adjust the TRP and PH value in my BIOS up by 1, and it worked. Left my CAS value at 2 and the problem has not reoccured in over a month.

A little weird that all of these errors are pointing to different audio drivers on different chipset variations isn't it?

Jim

 

[worth]

Try reading the AnandTech Hardware FAQ. It's amazing what you can learn if you actually read the main site, instead of just the forums, eh?

 

[Nagumo]

I seen this message before, it happened during the installation of Windows XP. The set up was a Duron 750Mhz 256MB PC133 SDRAM, Asus A7V bios rev 1009. I tried everyting, defaulted the BIOS, setting the SDRAM down to 100Mhz, but nothing would work. If I reset the computer 5 times; it would go through and load windows xp. I tried different RAM, HD, and disconnecting all PCI device (modem, sound, nic). I was even thinking about changing the Mainboard, but I decided that swaping the CPU was easier. The minute I installed the Duron 950Mhz, quick format NTFS, then it finally went thru the installation with no problem. I don't know if this will help, but that is my 2 cents. Also, during the many times of installing XP on the Duron 750Mhz. I would get a SEVERE Win XP error, and I quick detail on the error, it said someting about a minidump error.

 

[RKattke]

I am fortunate enough to run into this problem, on a computer that will not Boot in Safe Mode (or any other way) but hangs on attempted Safe Mode and displays this Error. So - I have researched
Boot disks,
ASR,
Verifier (utility tool) (May find an offending driver)
Recovery Console (starting from CD)

And have found
Re: Boot Disks - "Windows XP Setup boot disks are available only by download from Microsoft. "
Re: ASR ( Backup tries to back up your whole File system )
Best to use Backup file on HD and Associated floppy disk.
Re: Verifier (must be run on command line in C:\Windows\System32\Verifier - if you want to look at the output - Else you get just a flash )
Re: Recovery Console ( When booting from CD Rom, you must wait until all the loader files have loaded before pressing "R" )

It is a good bet that this is a Driver problem, but I've seen alot of posts saying it may have something to do with USB communication, or ACPI.