Win7, 64bit - BSOD within minutes of startup - IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

Hi there, newbie here.

I've been getting the IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error. Originally the computer just froze and had to be restarted about once or twice per day, but it soon became the BSOD resulting in multiple freezes, restarts and system restores... If it doesn't happen within 10 minutes it won't happen until I next turn on the computer.

Windows 7, 64bit, full retail version. About 2-3 years old. I haven't installed any new devices recently.

Sorry if I've made a mistake in the details. I kinda struggle with much of the technical stuff. :/

Thanks for any help in advance.

Spybot and McAfee Security Scan Plus should be removed. Spybot is a bit antiquated and is not the best security. McAfee Security Scan Plus does not provide real-time protection and may cause conflicts with the system. I recommend either of these two setups:

• Microsoft Security Essentials - Free Antivirus for Windows
  
  
• Good and Free system security combination.

Download and install the security setup of your choice, update the software, and then run a full scan of your system for viruses and malware. If you only install MSE, I would also suggest installing and updating Malwarebytes : Free anti-malware, anti-virus and spyware removal download, but do not start the free trial/full version of Malwarebytes. Run a full scan with Malwarebytes after updating it. Post back the results.


The crashes are indicating your network drivers. Your drivers are out of date. Unfortunately, I am unable to find more up to date drivers for your chipset. You could try going through all nForce drivers in Drivers - Download NVIDIA Drivers and seeing if one works. Make sure to create a system restore point before attempting to install any of those drivers.

Thanks for the response writhziden!

I had installed MSE and Malwarebytes shortly after my post because of the recommendations of forum members here :P, but now I've uninstalled Spybot and McAfee.
Neither MSE nor Malwarebytes found any problems.

I downloaded the nForce Series 9 drivers (as well as something called "ForceWare Network Access Manager"). So far nothing bad has happened even with the computer restarts to install the software, so fingers crossed it worked. I guess I'll report back in the next few days or if another crash happens.

You're wecome. Let us know if the problem is solved in a few days, as well. :) Best of luck!

Unfortunately, the problem isn't quite fixed. It has been four days so I've turned the comp off and on four times.

On the first day since downloading the new drivers, the screen froze after I opened firefox so I forced a restart. When I opened firefox, again it froze and this time the screen became badly pixelated. After another restart it was fine, and I noticed nothing strange except some things like pictures were loading differently or failing to, but I don't think that was driver related? :P
The two days after that were fine, no problems on startup, and I didn't notice the same problems with pictures I thought all was good.
Today I got a BSOD, with the error PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA.

I attached the minidumps from that crash. So, have I installed the wrong drivers or is something else wrong? :/

Please fill in your system specs to get better help. Do you have a laptop or desktop?

Fill in your specs in your profile (not in a post in this thread). System Info - See Your System Specs can help with filling them in.

I have updated the system specs, though not every field has been filled in, is that all right? It's a desktop.

Thank you for filling in your system specs. Now we will have an idea of what troubleshooting steps we can recommend safely. :)


The latest crash .dmp file indicates hard disk errors.

• If you are overclocking any hardware, please stop.
  
  
• Run Disk Check with both boxes checked for all HDDs and with Automatically fix file system errors checked for all SSDs. Post back your logs for the checks after finding them using Check Disk (chkdsk) - Read Event Viewer Log.
  For any drives that do not give the message:
  Windows has checked the file system and found no problems
  run disk check again as above. In other words, if it says:
  Windows has made corrections to the file system
  after running the disk check, run the disk check again.

Great, anything that will help

I ran Disk Check and attached the reports. Corrections were made in the C drive so I ran it twice.

Also, do you think the new drivers I installed earlier are fine to keep, since I don't seem to have had problems with it?

The new drivers should be fine if they installed without error. Normally, if drivers are not supported, the driver installation will give a message that it did not find appropriate hardware for the installation. Your crashes also did not indicate them as a likely problem.

Disk checks look good. See how the system behaves for a while and post back how it is responding or if you need help.