DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error

[Basara]

I get this BSD (Blue Screen of Doom!) occasionally when playing UO (classic client, mostly) and listening to iTunes at the same time.

It doesn't occur in any other combinations I've found, so far, of just one of these two programs with others, and has occurred off and on for almost a year (sometimes I can go a week or two without it happening, sometimes I get hit multiple times in a night, like last night). This was the error that I mentioned a month or go about my machine suddenly shutting off (before I disabled the insta-reboot on crash).

Worse, something about the crash, more often than not, will wipe the desktop of the character I was playing totally clean (which can be a pancake when you were playing a mage at the time). Luckily I can always just turn on a different computer and copy & paste the desktop over, as I have UO installed on 3 desktops and a laptop - been trying to get friends to help me out by playing my other two accounts, and even without that, it gives me lots of redundancy if I wake up and family is playing other games or surfing on my main machine.

Any clues?

The Machine was recently upgraded to 4 GB (well, 3.2, since it is an XP machine) from 1 GB (2 512 sticks), so memory has been ruled out as the cause.


Note: I'm also started getting an annoying error last night after the most recent crash, that sounds like someone was plugging in and removing hardware every second. IT might be related, and I had to turn off the system sounds to remain sane. I know it is causing the device manager list to refresh every second, but even with it fully expanded, I don't see anything being added or removed between refreshes.

 

[UOKaiser]

I get this BSD (Blue Screen of Doom!) occasionally when playing UO (classic client, mostly) and listening to iTunes at the same time.

It doesn't occur in any other combinations I've found, so far, of just one of these two programs with others, and has occurred off and on for almost a year (sometimes I can go a week or two without it happening, sometimes I get hit multiple times in a night, like last night). This was the error that I mentioned a month or go about my machine suddenly shutting off (before I disabled the insta-reboot on crash).

Worse, something about the crash, more often than not, will wipe the desktop of the character I was playing totally clean (which can be a pancake when you were playing a mage at the time). Luckily I can always just turn on a different computer and copy & paste the desktop over, as I have UO installed on 3 desktops and a laptop - been trying to get friends to help me out by playing my other two accounts, and even without that, it gives me lots of redundancy if I wake up and family is playing other games or surfing on my main machine.

Any clues?

The Machine was recently upgraded to 4 GB (well, 3.2, since it is an XP machine) from 1 GB (2 512 sticks), so memory has been ruled out as the cause.


Note: I'm also started getting an annoying error last night after the most recent crash, that sounds like someone was plugging in and removing hardware every second. IT might be related, and I had to turn off the system sounds to remain sane. I know it is causing the device manager list to refresh every second, but even with it fully expanded, I don't see anything being added or removed between refreshes.

It seems it is your new ram. One of the sticks might be bad or the timing in the bios is to strict. Remove the ram upgrade and see if it still occurs. If your Bios is adjustable for the timing of the ram see if it's overcloked. Check the Bios part after you checked to see if the ram is bad.

 

[Basara]

Uh, did you miss the part where I said it was NOT the new RAM, as it was doing it BEFORE the upgrade, and is doing it after, as well? I upgraded the RAM last month partly because I was hoping that would fix this problem, that had started occuring over a year ago (as per the second paragraph). The only difference is now that I have the auto-restart after error turned off, I can actually see the BSD.

Any other possibilities?

 

[UOKaiser]

Uh, did you miss the part where I said it was NOT the new RAM, as it was doing it BEFORE the upgrade, and is doing it after, as well? I upgraded the RAM last month partly because I was hoping that would fix this problem, that had started occuring over a year ago (as per the second paragraph). The only difference is now that I have the auto-restart after error turned off, I can actually see the BSD.

Any other possibilities?

Missed that part. But check the Bios timings on the ram. This is the most likely culprit. You have to look at memory problems,timings,overcloked. Did you see if it was certain memory slots? By giving it just 1 slot of memory using different slots?

 

[UOKaiser]

When was the last time a operating system was reinstalled on it. If we cannot narrow it down to hardware a problem like this will need a full reinstallation. We also want to look at the audio drivers and audio card.

 

[Basara]

I personally suspect it's something audio related as well, due to the event occurring only with the combination of iTunes and UO. I have had to change the Hz setting of the Quicktime / iTunes preferences (via Quicktime) before, due to conflicts that arose from playing UO and iTunes together (caused both to severely lag, until I changed that setting - after the change, it worked fine, until something restored Quicktime to its default setting).

Could this be an issue? And, what is the default setting for QT? It's been so long since I changed that last (before that issue started) that I can't tell if QT is currently displaying default or my modified setting.

 

[Harlequin]

The error above normally points to driver issues.

If not done yet, update your video/audio drivers.

Also, if it's happening more after you installed new ram, your ram could be getting insufficient power and are becoming unstable. Remove the new ram pieces and see if the problem occurrence goes down. If it does, reinsert the ram, then go into bios and increase the ram voltage & latency timings.

Worse case, return the shop you bought the ram from and explain to them it's gotten unstable and see if they can swap the ram. (Or outright demand a replacement).

 

[UOKaiser]

I personally suspect it's something audio related as well, due to the event occurring only with the combination of iTunes and UO. I have had to change the Hz setting of the Quicktime / iTunes preferences (via Quicktime) before, due to conflicts that arose from playing UO and iTunes together (caused both to severely lag, until I changed that setting - after the change, it worked fine, until something restored Quicktime to its default setting).

Could this be an issue? And, what is the default setting for QT? It's been so long since I changed that last (before that issue started) that I can't tell if QT is currently displaying default or my modified setting.

Ah this sheds new light in that case yes definetely focus on the audio drivers and soundcard first. Is this a built in soundcard and have you upgraded the drivers or downgraded them? The weird thing the hz should of never being a problem that would be a unique driver issue or sound card issue. The drivers we should look at for the sound first. Try the latest drivers. If you already did try a downgrade to older audio drivers. If this is done already then you might want to test the hardware by turning of onboard sound and using a external card to see. if this is a external card make sure onboard sound is turned of in bios. I would say this is a good start to test.
This is one of those issues you need to go through piece by piece to locate and pinpoint the problem then implement the solution.