irql not less or equal

K

K3Y

New member
hi, recently (since my fresh install of windows) most times when i try to run an adobe app (premiere, audition etc) within a minute i get bsod (always irql_not_less_or_equal). Now, i re-installed because i got a new board and memory (the ones from pyro, pny ram and cfx3200-dr board) and thought may aswell, but i cant pin the problems on either of those because...

...previously, i had only run photoshop, and this does not happen with photoshop! only other adobe apps which i didnt run before!

now, looking on the internet this error is usually assosiated with bad ram, well ive ran memtest for 8 hrs 44 and have 19 passes and 0 fails.....

....so whats next? anyone any suggestions? i might just re-install windows and see if that helps but id really hope for a quicker solution.
 
everything is stock at the moment, not had chance to overclock as yet, and since memtest has no errors in nearly 9 hours i cant really see it being the ram. thanks anyway tho. any other suggestions?
 
i just google'd it and found this..

Most annoying problem. Ever. You're just working happily along when all of a sudden BAM, the Blue Screen of Death pops up and "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" very prominently appears. Generally with a cutesy little hex error towards the bottom of the screen. STOP: 0x0000000a, or something like it.

Sadly enough, every time I've run into it it's been a hardware error. Most commonly it is the CPU overheating. A close second would be bad RAM. The first thing I would do if you have this issue is to run the machine till it gives you that error, then immediately reboot it, go into the BIOS and check the CPU temperature. 3/5 times it will be way too hot. Go to the store, buy a fancy new heatsink with a ball bearing fan (don't need it binding like a bushing fan will eventually do), pick up some thermal grease while you're at it, and install. Your problem will likely go away.

If not, get some memory that you know is good, and test that out in the system for a while. Be sure to pull out all memory that is currently in the system, or this test will do nothing. If it stabilizes after that, then replace the memory permanently, shoot the old like a clay pigeon and have a nice day.

Sometimes though, especially with the IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error, even that is not enough. This is where you get hardcore with the troubleshooting. In the BIOS, load Fail-Safe defaults, disable the onboard modem, sound, and LAN (where applicable). Take out all the cards, with the exception of video, and run the machine for a while. If the machine stays stable, then start adding/re-enabling the devices one by one. Keep in mind that modern motherboards share IRQ's across PCI slots, so try not to put a sound card and a modem right next to each other. They don't seem to think that's funny every once and a while. Anyway, do this one by one until you start crashing again. Whatever you put in last is the culprit.

Also, many newer motherboards' northbridges are actively cooled. Almost always by a bushing fan. Bushing fans tend to bind after a while. Since this chip controls the data stream between the RAM, video, and CPU, I'd say it's pretty important. If it's overheating bad things are bound to happen.

I hope this helps some. That is a list of the steps that I go through when I run into this blasted problem. If only the error messages were more specific...
Click to expand...
 
ah thanks. I dont have any spare ram and there are no cards in my pc except gfx, but i will try disabling things in the bios tomorrow and see if that gets me anywhere.
 
What does "Event Viewer" say about the BSOD's? Do they produce a minidump file in C:\WINDOWS\Minidump? If so you can use windbg to load up the minidump and it from that you can figure out what caused the BSOD. There are a number of forums with instructions for using winbg just search for "minidump" and "windbg" or post here if you're having trouble.

For example.. My last BSOD was a driver issue cause by my onboard sound, windbg told me the name of the driver file and a quick google told me what that driver file was for, I installed updated drivers and had no more BSOD's since.
 
re-install of windows didnt help, so i have windbg and am currently downloading the symbol pack from m$ (10mins remaining :( )
 
right, here we go:

windbg said:
................

*******************************************************************************

* *

* Bugcheck Analysis *

* *

*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck 1000008E, {c0000005, 805bf3c2, ac4d0970, 0}

Probably caused by : ntoskrnl.exe ( nt!HalpGetFullGeometry+6f )

Followup: MachineOwner

---------

0: kd> !analyze -v

*******************************************************************************

* *

* Bugcheck Analysis *

* *

*******************************************************************************

KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M (1000008e)

This is a very common bugcheck. Usually the exception address pinpoints

the driver/function that caused the problem. Always note this address

as well as the link date of the driver/image that contains this address.

Some common problems are exception code 0x80000003. This means a hard

coded breakpoint or assertion was hit, but this system was booted

/NODEBUG. This is not supposed to happen as developers should never have

hardcoded breakpoints in retail code, but ...

If this happens, make sure a debugger gets connected, and the

system is booted /DEBUG. This will let us see why this breakpoint is

happening.

Arguments:

Arg1: c0000005, The exception code that was not handled

Arg2: 805bf3c2, The address that the exception occurred at

Arg3: ac4d0970, Trap Frame

Arg4: 00000000

Debugging Details:

------------------

EXCEPTION_CODE: (NTSTATUS) 0xc0000005 - The instruction at "0x%08lx" referenced memory at "0x%08lx". The memory could not be "%s".

FAULTING_IP:

nt!HalpGetFullGeometry+6f

805bf3c2 8b4048 mov eax,dword ptr [eax+48h]

TRAP_FRAME: ac4d0970 -- (.trap 0xffffffffac4d0970)

ErrCode = 00000000

eax=00000000 ebx=00000010 ecx=fdffffff edx=86011011 esi=86011010 edi=85488940

eip=805bf3c2 esp=ac4d09e4 ebp=ac4d0d48 iopl=0 nv up ei ng nz na po nc

cs=0008 ss=0010 ds=0023 es=0023 fs=0030 gs=0000 efl=00010282

nt!HalpGetFullGeometry+0x6f:

805bf3c2 8b4048 mov eax,dword ptr [eax+48h] ds:0023:00000048=????????

Resetting default scope

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT: 1

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: DRIVER_FAULT

BUGCHECK_STR: 0x8E

PROCESS_NAME: explorer.exe

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER: from 805409ac to 805bf3c2

STACK_TEXT:

ac4d0d48 805409ac 0000000b 00096a40 00000001 nt!HalpGetFullGeometry+0x6f

ac4d0d64 7c90eb94 badb0d00 0137fd38 00000000 nt!RtlIpv6StringToAddressW+0xe9

WARNING: Frame IP not in any known module. Following frames may be wrong.

ac4d0d74 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 0x7c90eb94

STACK_COMMAND: kb

FOLLOWUP_IP:

nt!HalpGetFullGeometry+6f

805bf3c2 8b4048 mov eax,dword ptr [eax+48h]

SYMBOL_STACK_INDEX: 0

FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: nt

IMAGE_NAME: ntoskrnl.exe

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 45e5484a

SYMBOL_NAME: nt!HalpGetFullGeometry+6f

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: 0x8E_nt!HalpGetFullGeometry+6f

BUCKET_ID: 0x8E_nt!HalpGetFullGeometry+6f

Followup: MachineOwner

---------

0: kd> lmvm nt

start end module name

804d7000 806e2000 nt M (pdb symbols) C:\WINDOWS\Symbols\exe\ntoskrnl.pdb

Loaded symbol image file: ntoskrnl.exe

Image path: ntoskrnl.exe

Image name: ntoskrnl.exe

Timestamp: Wed Feb 28 09:15:54 2007 (45E5484A)

CheckSum: 001FB950

ImageSize: 0020B000

Translations: 0000.04b0 0000.04e0 0409.04b0 0409.04e0
Click to expand...

so it all points to ntoskrnl.exe, which google says is "ntoskrnl.exe is a critical process in the boot-up cycle of your computer although should never appear in WinTasks whilst under normal circumstances"...

...so i dont understand how something involved in the bootup of windows is giving me this error?

any help, im not very good with this sort of stuff :(
 
I believe ntoskrnl is the windows kernel process, if you're wondering what a kernel process is, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel_(computer_science)

I believe the dump is indicating a problem which has occured at the kernel level, triggered by the process explorer.exe.

It mentions functions like: RtlIpv6StringToAddressW which deal with IPv6 addresses, so this may be related to networking, perhaps a network driver?

It also mentioned HalpGetFullGeometry but that is a function internal to the windows kernel itself and isn't likely to be where the fault lies.

I thought you were getting IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, this minidump shows a KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M instead.

How many minidump files do you have?

If you have several minidump and they're all something different I think that suggest bad memory, overheating, bad PSU, .. all of which cause 'random' problems.

If you have several minidumps and they're all the same thing that's more likely to be something consistently wrong like a bad driver or something.

Is this one the latest (sort by date) one?
 
oops, didnt notice that. since i started the thread, i have reformatted. I had 6 original minidumps which were all (im sure, at least half were certainly) for the irql_not_less_or_equal. the dump i analyzed was since the format, and when the bsod happened it was still on automatic restart, so i didnt notice a different error flagged. so now i have this one minidump.

i will trigger the problem (just by opening adobe premiere, audition or encore) and see what it gives me this time.

Edit: I just opened premiere then got BSOD "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" Im not sure if the previous one i posted is unrelated, or just had a different trigger, but the minidump is completely different...

minidump2 said:
....................

*******************************************************************************

* *

* Bugcheck Analysis *

* *

*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck 1000000A, {4, 1c, 1, 80501996}

*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for win32k.sys

Probably caused by : win32k.sys ( win32k!_SEH_prolog+31 )

Followup: MachineOwner

---------

1: kd> !analyze -v

*******************************************************************************

* *

* Bugcheck Analysis *

* *

*******************************************************************************

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (a)

An attempt was made to access a pageable (or completely invalid) address at an

interrupt request level (IRQL) that is too high. This is usually

caused by drivers using improper addresses.

If a kernel debugger is available get the stack backtrace.

Arguments:

Arg1: 00000004, memory referenced

Arg2: 0000001c, IRQL

Arg3: 00000001, bitfield :

bit 0 : value 0 = read operation, 1 = write operation

bit 3 : value 0 = not an execute operation, 1 = execute operation (only on chips which support this level of status)

Arg4: 80501996, address which referenced memory

Debugging Details:

------------------

WRITE_ADDRESS: 00000004

CURRENT_IRQL: 1c

FAULTING_IP:

nt!MiGatherMappedPages+290

80501996 894204 mov dword ptr [edx+4],eax

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT: 2

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: DRIVER_FAULT

BUGCHECK_STR: 0xA

PROCESS_NAME: Adobe Premiere

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER: from 80501a6b to 80501996

STACK_TEXT:

aaef7c98 80501a6b ffb3b4c0 ffffffff 2c39a55f nt!MiGatherMappedPages+0x290

aaef7cb4 804fafe7 ffb3b4c0 ffffffff 00000000 nt!MiGatherPagefilePages+0x7f

aaef7ce4 80535043 00000000 00000000 00000000 nt!MiDispatchFault+0x693

aaef7d00 8644d2b0 ffb3b4c0 ffffffff 85ef9578 nt!KeRestorePAT+0xa

WARNING: Frame IP not in any known module. Following frames may be wrong.

aaef7d1c 80535540 aaef7d64 1af8fbdc bf8010df 0x8644d2b0

aaef7d3c bf800b1e 8644d2b0 00000001 bf8010eb nt!MiReplaceWorkingSetEntry+0x2d

aaef7d58 805409ac 00000003 1af8fc1c 7c90eb94 win32k!_SEH_prolog+0x31

aaef7d64 7c90eb94 badb0d00 1af8fbd8 ab92fd98 nt!RtlIpv6StringToAddressW+0xe9

aaef7d74 ab92fdcc 00000000 00000000 00000000 0x7c90eb94

aaef7d78 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 0xab92fdcc

STACK_COMMAND: kb

FOLLOWUP_IP:

win32k!_SEH_prolog+31

bf800b1e ?? ???

SYMBOL_STACK_INDEX: 6

SYMBOL_NAME: win32k!_SEH_prolog+31

FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: win32k

IMAGE_NAME: win32k.sys

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 461b6dfe

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: 0xA_W_win32k!_SEH_prolog+31

BUCKET_ID: 0xA_W_win32k!_SEH_prolog+31

Followup: MachineOwner

---------
Click to expand...
 
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL is caused by either a hardware failure or issue, or software/driver incompatibility. I was getting it with my old motherboard after I messed around with RAM settings. The errors were pointing to my video driver, so I replaced it and it seemed to fix the error. My recommendation for you is what I do to solve 90% of my Windows critical process errors: If you can't find out how to fix it within a few days, you've wasted enough time. Just reinstall Windows and start anew. And the lesson that you learn from that method is... nothing. You don't learn how to fix future problems, but it potentially saves a great deal of time and frustration.
 
during one of the many reboots i noticed that usb, graphics and network share the same irq. could this be a route cause of any problems? i still find it strange to only happen in a select few adobe apps tho.

and tuco, i have re-installed windows with no luck

edit: triggered it again, this time with encore, and unless its a different error with each adobe application, the errors on this install of windows are all completely different :S
 
The 2nd minidump also mentions RtlIpv6StringToAddressW. I think that function call made by either the windows kernel via explorer.exe or premiere is causing the BSOD.

I googled this thread:

http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windows/t-15900-Win32ksys.html

It links to this one about video corruption:

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic35211.html

And this about bad memory:

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic35422.html

I'm not convinced it's either (especially as you're run memtest already), I think it's a bad driver, possible network related. What happens if you disable your network card(s) (in the bios if possible) reboot then run premiere?

More info on reading minidumps, maybe I'm missing something:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35246
 
name='K3Y' said:
during one of the many reboots i noticed that usb, graphics and network share the same irq. could this be a route cause of any problems? i still find it strange to only happen in a select few adobe apps tho.
Click to expand...

I think there is a strong possibility that it involves the network in some way, either bad hardware or as you suggest an IRQ conflict.

In your bios do you have plugnplayos true or false, try switching it the other way and see what happens.
 
its the dfi lanparty cfx3200, ill have a look at that option now. I also just tested with the same and different ram (ocz platinum) in all different slots and still the same error, so im sure ive ruled out ram :D .
 
Found this which suggests a hardware fault, mem or cpu:

<quote>

One of those has crashed at IRQL 1c, and this is a strong sign of a hardware problem. The major cause is RAM then CPU.

You can try running Memtest, or a better test is to only run one stick of RAM at a time. Swap them over if it still crashes, or after a period of time where it hasn't crashed.

BugCheck 1000000A, {4, 1c, 1, 805017ea} <-- IRQL 1c

Probably caused by : ntkrpamp.exe ( nt!KiTimerExpiration+88 )

</quote>
 
name='K3Y' said:
during one of the many reboots i noticed that usb, graphics and network share the same irq. could this be a route cause of any problems? i still find it strange to only happen in a select few adobe apps tho.

and tuco, i have re-installed windows with no luck

edit: triggered it again, this time with encore, and unless its a different error with each adobe application, the errors on this install of windows are all completely different :S
Click to expand...

Bad memory can cause a bad install of windows which would then crash in weird and unusual ways.

This thread, post #5 suggests memory is the most likely cause:

http://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread.php?p=379077#post379077

Have you tried moving the ram to different slots, perhaps the ram slot on the mobo is at fault.

Just found another tip, start, run, "verifier". I'm not sure how to drive it but you might find something there, instructions...

http://www.techspot.com/vb/post420964-16.html
 
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