BSOD, IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, seemingly random times, Win7 64 bit

Trencha · 17 Jan 2013

I've been frequently getting a BSOD error over the past few weeks. The message it gives is IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. The bluescreen message doesn't persist long enough for me to recall much beyond that. I can't seem to find any specific pattern to the occurrence: sometimes it happens while I'm playing a game (no particular game, happens with multiple), sometimes when I'm browsing the web, sometimes when I don't have any application open. It doesn't seem to be any sort of "after computer has been on for X time" thing, either.

I'm not very knowledgeable about these issues, so I don't really have much of an idea about how to go about fixing it or testing for problems, but I've done the things I could think of that might help fix it, including re-installing the drivers for my video card, running a virus scan (Avast free antivirus, both standard scan and boot-time scan), and running CHKDSK, but none of those have helped so far.

My computer's set to save a Kernel memory dump, I've attached the files from the Diagnostic Tool. If there's anything more I can give that will help solve the problem I'll see what I can do to provide it.

Dsprague · 17 Jan 2013

Hello and welcome to the forum Trencha, I took a look at the files you provided and it seems that most of them point to memory corruption, though this could be caused by a driver I would like to at least first rule out a hardware problem. On that note I would like you to run Memtest86+ for 8 or more passes here is a tutorial on how to do that:

RAM - Test with Memtest86+

Tip: you should do the Meme test over night it takes quite a long time.

In the mean time if you could please Enable Driver verifier and post back with the new crash dumps if/when you get a BSOD after eanbleing driver verifier. Here is a nice tutorial on how to enable Driver Verifier:

Driver Verifier - Enable and Disable

WARNING: If you can not boot normally after enabling Driver Verifier please boot into Safe Mode and then Disable Driver Verifier

Vir Gnarus · 17 Jan 2013

Consistently showing up your ATI drivers in the rawstack for each crashdump. It's dated Sept 27, which I'm sure there has been an update for it since then. Update it and see if that resolves things. If not, turn on Driver Verifier and let the system crash some more, then send us the new crashdumps.

Trencha · 18 Jan 2013

Hi,

I've been using Driver Verifier for a bit more than the past 24 hours (I haven't been using the computer for all of that, but it's been turned on), but I haven't had any more BSODs yet. Is Driver Verifier supposed to give me BSODs by itself, or is it supposed to wait for me to get another BSOD normally and then become useful? If the latter, I'll keep using it until I get more BSODs and come back with the information, otherwise it doesn't seem to be doing anything.

It also seems to be messing with any kind of file download: images, YouTube videos, and installer files are all failing to download past about 0.2MB, and I wasn't having any sort of problem before I started using Driver Verifier. Is this expected?

Can you tell me specifically which ATI drivers are showing up with Sept 27th? If memory serves, the only ATI component in my PC is the graphics card; I downloaded the drivers for it straight from the internet when I installed Windows 7 in early December, without using the CD that came with the card, and the installer file for those drivers was dated October, so it puzzles me that an ATI driver would show up as being last updated in September.

I'm yet to get a good opportunity to run Memtest86+, but I'll get around to it if I haven't solved the issue before then and report back.

Dsprague · 18 Jan 2013

I've been using Driver Verifier for a bit more than the past 24 hours (I haven't been using the computer for all of that, but it's been turned on), but I haven't had any more BSODs yet. Is Driver Verifier supposed to give me BSODs by itself, or is it supposed to wait for me to get another BSOD normally and then become useful? If the latter, I'll keep using it until I get more BSODs and come back with the information, otherwise it doesn't seem to be doing anything.

It also seems to be messing with any kind of file download: images, YouTube videos, and installer files are all failing to download past about 0.2MB, and I wasn't having any sort of problem before I started using Driver Verifier. Is this expected?

What driver verifier does is, if a driver does something it is not supposed to be doing it will cause a BSOD and give us insight into what what driver it is that is causing your system instability, think of it as a way for us to diagnose what is going on behind the scenes in your computer, and yes often times Driver verifier can have some funny effects on your normal day to day operation that is why once it causes a BSOD we have you disable it.

Can you tell me specifically which ATI drivers are showing up with Sept 27th? If memory serves, the only ATI component in my PC is the graphics card; I downloaded the drivers for it straight from the internet when I installed Windows 7 in early December, without using the CD that came with the card, and the installer file for those drivers was dated October, so it puzzles me that an ATI driver would show up as being last updated in September.

It is possible that windows automatically updated the driver on its own, but because of the age of the driver it is now best to go and manually update the driver.

I'm yet to get a good opportunity to run Memtest86+, but I'll get around to it if I haven't solved the issue before then and report back.

please post back your results when you do get a chance to run this.