Stop Error: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

[3CsOJ1kDF]

Hello, and thanks in advance for the help.

Occiasionally, upon boot of Windows XP SP2, I recieve this stop error:

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

*** STOP: 0x0000000A (0x00000020 0x000000ff 0x00000000 0x804E2E36)

After restart, I get the "error report" thing to send info the MSFT. Here are the contents of the error report:

BCCode: 1000000a BCP1: 00000020 BCP2: 000000FF BCP3: 00000000

BCP4: 804E2E36 OSVer: 5_1_2600 SP: 2_0 Product: 256_1

I don't know what is happening. From what I've read, it is a hardware/driver error, but I haven't installed any new hardware or software on this computer in at least a month. I remember first seeing this error last week or so. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Thunderbolt 2864]

There could be a fault with your hardware. That happened to me not long ago, had to replace it and the BSOD went away.

Or you could try reinstalling Windows, see if that helps, or do a repair installation.

[Zxian]

0x0000000A: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

(Click to consult the online Win XP Resource Kit article, or see Windows 2000 Professional Resource Kit, p. 1539.)

Typically due to a bad driver, or faulty or incompatible hardware or software. Use the General Troubleshooting of STOP Messages checklist above. Technically, this error condition means that a kernel-mode process or driver tried to access a memory location to which it did not have permission, or at a kernel Interrupt ReQuest Level (IRQL) that was too high. (A kernel-mode process can access only other processes that have an IRQL lower than, or equal to, its own.)

- Troubleshooting Windows STOP messages

Yeah - either bad hardware or bad drivers. Try seeing if you can find ALL updated drivers for ALL your hardware. If the problem still persists, then you'll have to do some deeper troubleshooting (i.e. removing/replacing one piece of hardware at a time) to see what isn't right.

[3CsOJ1kDF]

Ill try finding updated drivers. Sad thing is my hardware is a couple years old (ie old Voodoo 3 card). ALthough my thinking is that if it were a hardware probelm, something would have shown up earlier, around the time I installed the hardware.

I might go the route of reinstalling Windows. Maybe the drivers got corrupted, and I probably wont find newer drivers for my outdated hardware.

[cluberti]

STOP 0xA can be hardware, but the actual STOP error is caused by a driver, usually in DPC/Dispatch IRQL or higher (http://ext2fsd.sourceforge.net/documents/irql.htm), causing the scheduler to have to be invoked - either because the driver's query caused a page fault by trying to access nonresident memory, or by requiring access to a different thread (or needing to start an additional thread). Either of these things cause a STOP 0xA, because at DPC/Dispatch or higher, the scheduler cannot be invoked (this causes the illegal operation error in the kernel that leads to the STOP 0xA).

It could be hardware, but I'd say the driver is where I'd start.

818501: How to debug a system after you receive Stop Error IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (0xA)

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;EN-US;818501

These are the kinds of things that are avoided by using WHQL drivers (see, WHQL drivers aren't just another useless verification acronym ).

Edited July 10, 2006 by cluberti