Weird IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error

[bradly1101]

I have an occasional blue screen crash in Win 7-64, and it only happens in Firefox with around 15+ tabs open. It's the above error and the file is usually ntfs.sys and rarely ntoskrnl.exe.

I'm stumped. The RAM passes MemTest, all the drivers are current. I've researched the bug check codes and looked for others who've had similar problems and all I get is, "Test your memory, update your drivers..."

Has anyone else here had this problem? I know I could probably limit the open tabs or use a different browser, but I'd like to figure this out.

It happened back when my HTPC hardware was being used as the desktop (except with 5850's in XF), but it hasn't happened on that system since then and I don't use Firefox on it now.

It never crashes in games or when the CPU/GPU is taxed with video rendering or at any other time. This is on a newly installed OS or when it's older.

 

[sandorski]

Haven't seen that error since Win98. Was always a Hardware conflict back then, but IRQ management is pretty much automatically handled by the OS these days. Do you have any Old Hardware connected?

 

[bradly1101]

Haven't seen that error since Win98. Was always a Hardware conflict back then, but IRQ management is pretty much automatically handled by the OS these days. Do you have any Old Hardware connected?

Thanks. No, nothing older than my G15 USB keyboard. The monitor has a card reader, but that's disabled.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Haven't seen that error since Win98. Was always a Hardware conflict back then, but IRQ management is pretty much automatically handled by the OS these days. Do you have any Old Hardware connected?

IRQ_LEVEL is a concept in Windows NT, it doesn't (directly) have anything to do with hardware IRQ numbers. It has to do with pre-emption, nested calls, and priviledges in the OS kernel.

Generally, the problem is due to (bad) drivers, or flaky hardware.

Edit: It can be caused by overheating or a poor-quality / bad / flaky PSU too, I think.

 

[sandorski]

IRQ_LEVEL is a concept in Windows NT, it doesn't (directly) have anything to do with hardware IRQ numbers. It has to do with pre-emption, nested calls, and priviledges in the OS kernel.

Generally, the problem is due to (bad) drivers, or flaky hardware.

Edit: It can be caused by overheating or a poor-quality / bad / flaky PSU too, I think.

Ahh, ok, thanks for the clarification.

 

[mikeymikec]

The fact that it's usually citing ntfs.sys would suggest it's something disk/storage related, however as VL said, other hardware issues can "trickle down" and cause Windows to crap out when doing something storage related.

Probably the most common command I type on this forum:

chkdsk C: /f /v /r

 

[redzo]

I'm stumped. The RAM passes MemTest, all the drivers are current. I've researched the bug check codes and looked for others who've had similar problems and all I get is, "Test your memory, update your drivers..."

1 memtest pass is usually not enough. Fire up memtest in the evening and let it run overnight just to be sure!
A lot of bad modules fail memtest only after a long period of memtest stress testing.

 

[Ketchup]

Memory sounds like a probably cause here, since you said it mainly happens when a lot of tabs are open in Firefox. A lot of tabs + a lot of add-ons = high memory usage.

Memtest can take a good bit of time to find problem areas. You might just want to try 1 or two sticks at a time (not sure how many you have) and see if you can replicate the issue.

 

[bradly1101]

1 memtest pass is usually not enough. Fire up memtest in the evening and let it run overnight just to be sure!
A lot of bad modules fail memtest only after a long period of memtest stress testing.

I ran it overnight and it completed four passes.

 

[redzo]

Then move forward and check the system disk status: chkdsk windows_system_partition: /r

Is this the same pc from your forum signature? It looks like you already own enough hdd's.

Simply install windows on a different drive without damaging your current windows instance and see if the OS still bsods! This way you'll make sure that the issue is not software/os/driver related.

 

[Mr Evil]

Both AMD and nVidia have had driver bugs that cause Firefox to crash. If that's the cause (probably not if it's ntfs.sys, but you never know), then a possible workaround is to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox (Options->Advanced->General->"Use hardware acceleration when available")

 

[bradly1101]

The fact that it's usually citing ntfs.sys would suggest it's something disk/storage related, however as VL said, other hardware issues can "trickle down" and cause Windows to crap out when doing something storage related.

Probably the most common command I type on this forum:

chkdsk C: /f /v /r

Then move forward and check the system disk status: chkdsk windows_system_partition: /r

Is this the same pc from your forum signature? It looks like you already own enough hdd's.

Simply install windows on a different drive without damaging your current windows instance and see if the OS still bsods! This way you'll make sure that the issue is not software/os/driver related.

It's been so long since I've had to really troubleshoot something, I neglected the basics! If what's below isn't the answer I'll try an install on the RAID array.

Chkdsk found some stuff (the OS is on the Corsair SSD, programs and the Windows Page File are on the Intel SSD):

So I think that was probably it, Thanks! This is on a pretty fresh Windows installation, and I wonder what might cause that. We haven't had any power problems. Oh well, I'll keep an eye on it.

This is the OS drive's SMART status (anything to worry about?):

I ran ChkDsk on the programs/PageFile drive, but for some reason I can't see its log in the event viewer. From what I saw while it was running it didn't find anything. Its status:

Both AMD and nVidia have had driver bugs that cause Firefox to crash. If that's the cause (probably not if it's ntfs.sys, but you never know), then a possible workaround is to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox (Options->Advanced->General->"Use hardware acceleration when available")

When I first checked the bug check codes it seemed to point to video drivers, so I tried that early on, no effect (AMD or Nvidia HW made no difference). Thanks though!

I forgot to mention that in the details of the error the phrase kept coming up, "The system attempted to access paged memory in the non-paged area." This error occurred before I got the Intel SSD and after. So it didn't seem to matter where the page file was, but when I turned off the page file the BSOD's stopped. Unfortunately some of my SW didn't play nice with that.

 

[mikeymikec]

The chkdsk results look fine, though I've seen it before where serious enough filesystem issues were corrected without anything useful being put in the log. Something obvious like a bad sector usually gets mentioned though.

If the problem disappears immediately after the chkdsk, IMO it's reasonable to assume that chkdsk had something to do with it.

How does the summary at the end of the wininit entry look? Hopefully it'll say 0KB in bad sectors.

 

[bradly1101]

The chkdsk results look fine, though I've seen it before where serious enough filesystem issues were corrected without anything useful being put in the log. Something obvious like a bad sector usually gets mentioned though.

If the problem disappears immediately after the chkdsk, IMO it's reasonable to assume that chkdsk had something to do with it.

How does the summary at the end of the wininit entry look? Hopefully it'll say 0KB in bad sectors.

I'm in the other room now on my tablet waiting for Mr. Sandman, but yeah it said 0k in bad sectors. I tried to force the error after the Chkdsk, and I was able to add tabs with abandon.

 

[bradly1101]

With the stand alone Flash player removed, and using Chrome with its built-in Flash, everything seems fine now.

 

[John Connor]

Do you have hardware acceleration on in Firefox?

 

[Ketchup]

With the stand alone Flash player removed, and using Chrome with its built-in Flash, everything seems fine now.

Good news! Thanks for the update!

 

[bradly1101]

It was only OK for a while. I was getting the same error in Chrome. I finally came across a post where someone had success by just bumping up the voltage a little, so I increased the DynVcore by .055v and after a long time testing, no errors. This is why I had no problems in games or anything demanding because the voltage was higher due to the workload.

The temps. haven't changed much and peak at 67C crunching through video conversion.

 

[bradly1101]

Do you have hardware acceleration on in Firefox?

Sorry this took so long, but for informational purposes I tried HW acceleration on and off and had the same error.

 

[bradly1101]

I have run Driver Verifier, which caused it to crash, and it came up with this. Does anybody know how to update tcpipreg.sys?

*******************************************************************************
* *
* Bugcheck Analysis *
* *
*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck C4, {0, 0, 0, 0}

Probably caused by : tcpipreg.sys ( tcpipreg!InterfaceAddressRegKeyChangeHandler+109 )

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

6: kd> !analyze -v
*******************************************************************************
* *
* Bugcheck Analysis *
* *
*******************************************************************************

DRIVER_VERIFIER_DETECTED_VIOLATION (c4)
A device driver attempting to corrupt the system has been caught. This is
because the driver was specified in the registry as being suspect (by the
administrator) and the kernel has enabled substantial checking of this driver.
If the driver attempts to corrupt the system, bugchecks 0xC4, 0xC1 and 0xA will
be among the most commonly seen crashes.
Arguments:
Arg1: 0000000000000000, caller is trying to allocate zero bytes
Arg2: 0000000000000000, current IRQL
Arg3: 0000000000000000, pool type
Arg4: 0000000000000000, number of bytes

Debugging Details:
------------------


BUGCHECK_STR: 0xc4_0

CURRENT_IRQL: 0

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT: 1

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: VERIFIER_ENABLED_VISTA_MINIDUMP

PROCESS_NAME: System

ANALYSIS_VERSION: 6.3.9600.17336 (debuggers(dbg).150226-1500) amd64fre

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER: from fffff80003d134ec to fffff8000387f400

STACK_TEXT:
fffff880`08430488 fffff800`03d134ec : 00000000`000000c4 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : nt!KeBugCheckEx
fffff880`08430490 fffff800`03d13f2b : fffffa80`0acc1500 fffff800`038ab54c 00000000`00000202 fffff800`0388571a : nt!VerifierBugCheckIfAppropriate+0x3c
fffff880`084304d0 fffff800`03d24a58 : 00000000`6547654c 00000000`00000080 00000000`00000010 00000000`0000003f : nt!ExAllocatePoolSanityChecks+0xcb
fffff880`08430510 fffff800`03d24cc7 : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 fffff980`6547654c fffff980`1e624fec : nt!VeAllocatePoolWithTagPriority+0x88
fffff880`08430580 fffff880`0c3635a1 : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 fffff980`1e624fd0 fffff800`03d2020c : nt!VerifierExAllocatePoolWithTagPriority+0x17
fffff880`084305c0 fffff880`0c3627bb : fffff880`0c369c20 fffff980`1e624fd0 fffff980`164d4f90 fffff980`1e624fd0 : tcpipreg!InterfaceAddressRegKeyChangeHandler+0x109
fffff880`084306f0 fffff880`0c361a59 : fffff880`00000001 00000000`00000103 fffff980`164d4f70 00000000`00000001 : tcpipreg!TcpipRegQueryAndUpdateKeyValue+0x363
fffff880`08430780 fffff880`01d60754 : fffff880`0c367a60 00000000`00000004 00000000`00000000 fffff880`0c36a318 : tcpipreg!TcpipRegStartRegistryKeyNotification+0xbd
fffff880`084307d0 fffff880`0c362293 : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 fffff880`0c36d073 : NETIO!RtlInvokeStartRoutines+0x34
fffff880`08430810 fffff800`03c7d476 : 00000000`00000006 fffffa80`19bdd920 fffffa80`19cab000 00000000`00000001 : tcpipreg!DriverEntry+0x257
fffff880`08430860 fffff800`03c7d875 : fffff880`01a6f2b8 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000001 00000000`00000001 : nt!IopLoadDriver+0xa06
fffff880`08430b30 fffff800`03889749 : fffff880`00000000 ffffffff`80000698 fffff800`03c7d820 00000000`0000055a : nt!IopLoadUnloadDriver+0x55
fffff880`08430b70 fffff800`03b17bc6 : 00000000`050f6d6a fffffa80`17fcdb50 00000000`00000080 fffffa80`0cda3040 : nt!ExpWorkerThread+0x111
fffff880`08430c00 fffff800`038716a6 : fffff880`03917180 fffffa80`17fcdb50 fffff880`039221c0 fffff980`09470900 : nt!PspSystemThreadStartup+0x5a
fffff880`08430c40 00000000`00000000 : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : nt!KxStartSystemThread+0x16


STACK_COMMAND: kb

FOLLOWUP_IP:
tcpipreg!InterfaceAddressRegKeyChangeHandler+109
fffff880`0c3635a1 4c8be0 mov r12,rax

SYMBOL_STACK_INDEX: 5

SYMBOL_NAME: tcpipreg!InterfaceAddressRegKeyChangeHandler+109

FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: tcpipreg

IMAGE_NAME: tcpipreg.sys

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 506c62be

IMAGE_VERSION: 6.1.7601.17964

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: X64_0xc4_0_VRF_tcpipreg!InterfaceAddressRegKeyChangeHandler+109

BUCKET_ID: X64_0xc4_0_VRF_tcpipreg!InterfaceAddressRegKeyChangeHandler+109

ANALYSIS_SOURCE: KM

FAILURE_ID_HASH_STRING: km:x64_0xc4_0_vrf_tcpipreg!interfaceaddressregkeychangehandler+109

FAILURE_ID_HASH: {45cf6425-6374-4552-149c-70174323fa61}

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

6: kd> lmvm tcpipreg
start end module name
fffff880`0c35f000 fffff880`0c371000 tcpipreg (pdb symbols) c:\windows\symbol_cache\tcpipreg.pdb\2E2DF5F7FC39481BBAF303EBD91BB0721\tcpipreg.pdb
Loaded symbol image file: tcpipreg.sys
Mapped memory image file: c:\windows\symbol_cache\tcpipreg.sys\506C62BE12000\tcpipreg.sys
Image path: \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\tcpipreg.sys
Image name: tcpipreg.sys
Timestamp: Wed Oct 03 09:07:26 2012 (506C62BE)
CheckSum: 00010902
ImageSize: 00012000
File version: 6.1.7601.17964
Product version: 6.1.7601.17964
File flags: 0 (Mask 3F)
File OS: 40004 NT Win32
File type: 1.0 App
File date: 00000000.00000000
Translations: 0409.04b0
CompanyName: Microsoft Corporation
ProductName: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
InternalName: tcpipreg.sys
OriginalFilename: tcpipreg.sys
ProductVersion: 6.1.7601.17964
FileVersion: 6.1.7601.17964 (win7sp1_gdr.121003-0333)
FileDescription: TCP/IP Registry Compatibility Driver
LegalCopyright: © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

 

[Mr Evil]

Looks like you are triggering KB2550576.