BSOD IRQL LESS OR NOT EQUAL 0x0000000A windows7 startup (ntoskrnl.exe)

yelgo · 23 Sep 2016

hi and thanks by advance for any help provided, i'm new to this forum and encountering a problem with my computer,

my computer has been running without any issues for 3 years now, i don't do any overclock and i take care of it and i'm not a crazy program installer, i don't update my drivers when everything is working and use avira for antivirus and check with malwarebytes my drives every week, i check my event viewer and smart status every day ( yes i'm a bit crazy )

only things i can add is :

3 weeks ago i change my video card for a gtx 1060 msi gaming x, i didn't change anything else since neither i installed any new drivers.

last week i got a power cut and my upc didn't last long enough ( i was outside ) so i had a hard shutdown.

eveything was ok since the power cut and my smart status didn't show any sign of problem.

Yesterday i start my computer and got BSOD at windows 7 startup ( during logo )
i can't boot windows same bsod at every boot

tried to repair but nothing, i can access the safe mode and checked my smart status first ( nothing seems wrong ) i thought my ssd was the problem ( i have the crucial M4 since almost 4 years running almost 24h/ day )

tried removing one of every ram module ( same problem ) memtest 2 pass no errors

the dmp file indicate a problem with ntoskrnl.exe+f20d4

here are the screens and a link to my dmp file :

Visionneuse images - Noelshack

Visionneuse images - Noelshack

Visionneuse images - Noelshack

my dmp file : 092316-7737-01.dmp :: Free File Hosting - File Dropper: File Host for Mp3, Videos, Music, Documents.

from my research this bsod is usually cause by a bad driver, but i didn't install any new drivers recently so i was thinking of a problem with my ram ( memtest didn't show any on 2 passes ) or with my ssd that can start having problems and corrupted windows files.

let me know if you need more information or if my post isn't clear enough.

Thanks a lot for your help

BorisTheAnimal · 23 Sep 2016

Hello yelgo and welcome to 7 Forums!

The BSOD was caused by ctaud2k.sys which is the driver for a Creative Audio.

And here is the conflict, on the Asus Specification page for your motherboard there is listed Realtek® ALC 892 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC as Audio, do you have an external Creative Audio sound card?

If yes, shut down the computer and disconnect the sound card and try to boot W7 normally. If you can't boot then you'll need to uninstall the audio drivers from the device manager and reboot and you should be able to boot into W7 normally.

If no, you'll need to uninstall the audio drivers from the device manager and reboot and you should be able to boot into W7 normally.

Press Windows key + R and paste this into the run box: devmgmt.msc

If you have any more question don't hesitate to ask!

Cheers, Boris :)

yelgo · 23 Sep 2016

thank you very much !

that was it !

i do have a sound blaster audigy 4, i just removed it and uninstall driver and windows boot normaly,

thanks so much for finding the solution !

so how come out of nowhere my soundcard provoked this ? can i reinstall it without issues ?

thanks by advance !

BorisTheAnimal · 23 Sep 2016

Hello yelgo.

I'm a happy it fixed your issue :)

And I'm not sure what might have caused it, maybe you have pending W7 updates and because of that it might have crashed, there might be an update from Creative.

You can try to install it again but please download and install the latest driver from Creative's own webpage:

Sound Blaster Audigy 4

Cheers, Boris :)

yelgo · 23 Sep 2016

ok,

i was using an old driver but was working well... until now lol

Thanks again so much for troubleshooting my problem so fast, i just reinstall my soundcard and everything is back to normal.

my best regards,
yelgo

BorisTheAnimal · 23 Sep 2016

No problem, happy to help :)