Can't Boot due to IRQL Error

[diortem]

I'm at a loss with this one. I was simply browsing last night in Firefox when my computer restarted by itself and then continued to reboot automatically whenever it tried to load Windows XP.

When I tried booting and disabling the autorestart, I got a blue screen with the following error message:

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

***STOP: 0X0000000A (0x00000000, 0X0000001C, 0X00000001, 0X804E1BF8)

I've tried booting up in safemode to run diagnostics to no avail.

I'm wondering if it's a virus since the last thing I was doing was using Firefox on multiple websites?

Other than that, all I can think of is that it might be a hardware failure (memory or hard drive) since my system is a number of years old, though I've kept it in decent working order. Problem is I can't even get it to boot so running diagnostics or checking system files isn't an option.

Any help?

 

[aford10]

Try testing with 1 stick of RAM at a time in each slot.

 

[Tarl Cabot]

Hi,

Same exact error message. Think it was regular IE browsing by one of the kids. I will let you know if I get a fix.

Dave

 

[Tarl Cabot]

Hi,

I had the Identical error message and autoreboot sequence. I did notice a brief message about sptd.sys before it would autoreboot. Sptd.sys is a driver for daemon tools/alcohol. When I disable autorrestart as you did, I got the identical BSOD message. I couldn't boot into safe mode and I couldn't f8 my way back to the last working log in.

I was able to get another hard drive in as the boot drive and there were no hardware failures. I slaved the original drive and all the info is still there. You could rule out hardware problems if you can get to this step.

Even if you get to this step, you aren't out of the woods. Ideally if you knew the specific driver or file causing this exact bug, you could copy it over from the boot drive or win xp cd. I don't know which driver is causing it (maybe sptd.sys for me, but others have renamed it and still get the continuous autoreboot looping).


1. Can you repair windows on that slaved hard drive? I am not sure how to do this since the slave drive windows is service pack 3 and the Win XP cd is SP1. Last time I recall trying a repair or reinstallation without formatting Win XP gave an error message that the Win XP I was installing was older then the installed one and I had to reformat and start from scratch.


2. Is the best option to reformat that slaved drive and start from scratch? If I am going to lose all the registry settings, start menu, favorites etc, why not just format and install fresh?


3. This problem more specific to me. If I format, I have to figure out which win xp CD goes with that computer since I have a bunch laying around and I built that computer several years ago. I have a nifty utility that allows me to see the windows product key on each given computer, but it shows the product key for the boot disk, not the slaved CD. Heck the computer is old enough, I may have had win98 on it and then upgraded to XP which means I have to find my win 98 cd somewhere install that then install xp


Hopefully its not a hardware issue for you (it doesn't appear to be for me since a spare hard drive boots fine.) I just thought of something. I will swap the master/slave relationship and f8 my way to creating a bootlog and then swap master/slave again so I can get in and read that boot log. Maybe I can pinpoint which driver is crashing and giving this error. This would sure beat the format and start over deal.

Anyone else have any suggestions assuming it is a software/driver issue for him as well (a quick swap of a spare boot drive should answer it for Diortem like it did for me)

Tarl

 

[Tarl Cabot]

Hi,


WOOOOT. Fixed without having to reformat. I renamed sptd.sys to 2sptd.sys2 and it loaded fine. Sptd.sys is a file for Daemon tools which was on that computer

I suggest you try the following:


1. Boot into safe mode and see what the last loaded file is before it goes into the endless reboot cycle. For me, I got the loading sptd.sys and then disappeared.

2. You can rename that file using windows recovery console or using another boot drive and going to the c:\windows\system32 directory\ whatever file is crashing your system

If its not a windows critical file, you might be in the clear.


Tarl

 

[splitline]

Tarl, it seems I'm having the same issues. I was thinking that the driver SPTD.sys or the last driver that loaded into memory was the problem.

error message
0x00000000A(0x000000000,0x00000001C, 0x000000001,0x804FAF04)

 

[Tarl Cabot]

Hi,

Just watch it load in safe mode and see if you get a message in a brighter white line about loading or waiting to load xxxx.sys

Note the driver and google it. Sptd.sys has to do with Daemon Tools. I guess at one time my wife or daughter used it. The computer works fine now so I am afraid to uninstall it and have it crash while trying to uninstall it

I googled your exact error mssg and got few hits, mostly in German which I can't read. The sites seem to mention Naruto in case you recently installed or have some program with Naruto drivers (?Mame type game or to view mpgs?). My fix worked out for me tho so I didn't have to reformat and install windows again

Good Luck

Tarl

Tarl, it seems I'm having the same issues. I was thinking that the driver SPTD.sys or the last driver that loaded into memory was the problem.

error message
0x00000000A(0x000000000,0x00000001C, 0x000000001,0x804FAF04)

 

[splitline]

Yeah, when I renamed the driver it now is able to load into Windows but only when going into windows regularly, but when i attempt to load into safe mode the PC restarts. Not sure whats going on.

Otherwise we had the same problem. It seems that Daemon is trying to mount a CD drive during startup. Not sure why? Daemon's driver seems to be the culprit though. Thanks for the advice. You are a life saver.

Are you able to load into safemode since you changed the driver name?

Let me know.

Cheers.

 

[Tarl Cabot]

Hi,

I hadn't tried to load into safemode until just after reading your message. It did work fine for me. If yours is working fine except for safemode, I personally wouldn't change a thing since safemode is really only for error checking. I am afraid to uninstall Daemon tools because it might just crash my system during the uninstall routine. I did backup the important files on the drive and have them handy in case the drive acts up again, but all seems to be working fine with it.

So your problem was indeed the same sptd.sys file? The google pages for your error code were in German but seemed to mention Naruto frequently. If you can load into windows and it is stable, don't worry about safemode. If it loads sometimes but not other times or if it crashes unexpectedly, it is probably worth your while to back up the critical files and try to uninstall daemon tools, alcohol 120, and any other associated programs with your fingers crossed. Good luck.

Cheers,


Tarl

Yeah, when I renamed the driver it now is able to load into Windows but only when going into windows regularly, but when i attempt to load into safe mode the PC restarts. Not sure whats going on.

Otherwise we had the same problem. It seems that Daemon is trying to mount a CD drive during startup. Not sure why? Daemon's driver seems to be the culprit though. Thanks for the advice. You are a life saver.

Are you able to load into safemode since you changed the driver name?

Let me know.

Cheers.

 

[Keivz]

I had the same problem. Started yesterday. Funny thing was that I could enter debugging mode and the computer would work just fine. I was convinced it was a software issue as I have another drive (for games only) that boots fine in the same machine. Sure enough, your solution works. Only took me 5 hours to find it. BTW, I tried uninstalling Daemon tools to no avail. Only renaming it did the trick.

My biggest gripe now is... why now? I haven't used daemon tools in a very very long time. I forgot it was even on there. Seems people are getting this issue when browsing multiple websites--the same way it struck me. Perhaps it's some virus variant?

In any event, I'm glad the problem is solved. Thanks a bunch.

 

[dry_gin]

just in case if anyone get this error:

My computer crushed today with the same blue screen message
I also had stpd.sys "press esc" message at boot, and i was only able to load into save mode when i pressed ESC on this driver.
i renamed it into r-stpd.sys
also i open hardware settings, and put checkbox "display hidden drivers" and noticed that stpd.sys was marked as "not working"
I disabled it from control panel as well.
after that i was able to boot normally.
I should note , that daemon tools was working without any problems on my computer for more than a year.
also might be helpfull, once i booted CPU temperature was pretty high "70 degrees" and once windows boot up, it start fading to a normal temperature.
alot of ppl saying this error is related to temperature, and im not sure is it or not, but CPU might be failing to load stpd.sys at high temp and this could be the case.

thanks for all replays to this thread, it really helped me !

 

[Guest]

Temperature as the culprit? Quite possibly!

I, too, have a suspicion that a high temp reading could have caused my system to crash (then fail to boot up in an endless fashion).

I also had to log in via safe mode, after hitting ESC to forcibly not load sptd.sys.

Before my system crashed, I was running many applications, one of which included a very CPU intensive genetic algorithm optimizer used to backtest my trading algorithms. I strongly believe that had I not run that genetic optimizer in tandem with windows update, sptd.sys would not have failed.