Driver_IRQL_Not_Less_Than Blue Screen Error

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Chopperdad wrote:

>For the past week, every so often while playing "World of Warcraft" my son
>gets a "Driver_IRQL_Not_Less_Than" blue screen error. From looking at this
>I get the impression this is not a driver issue, but an interrupt issue. It
>talks about software and hardware stuff and does a memory stack dump. This
>is the only game that does this, and from what he has been able to find out,
>his experience is not unique.
>
>My question is this a driver issue of the video card or something else or a
>software issue where there is an interrupt problem between pieces of
>hardware connected in the system, and what can I do about it. It has no
>impact on the game it seems.
>
>Ron
>
>
>
>
That could mean lots of things. I've had that error when a hard disk
sector was bad. Suggest you run disk diagnostics.

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

But why this game and no other game? I do a scan disk about once a month,
but being that this is a 80 GB HD, it takes awhile to do it. The drive is
only about 18 months old. Also this error is very intermediate. You can
play the game all day and it never happens and then it can happen three or
four times over a span of two or three hours. Weird.

"Jerry Park" <NoReply@No.Spam> wrote in message
news 7UBd.9393$6i.7596@bignews6.bellsouth.net...
> Chopperdad wrote:
>
> >For the past week, every so often while playing "World of Warcraft" my
son
> >gets a "Driver_IRQL_Not_Less_Than" blue screen error. From looking at
this
> >I get the impression this is not a driver issue, but an interrupt issue.
It
> >talks about software and hardware stuff and does a memory stack dump.
This
> >is the only game that does this, and from what he has been able to find
out,
> >his experience is not unique.
> >
> >My question is this a driver issue of the video card or something else or
a
> >software issue where there is an interrupt problem between pieces of
> >hardware connected in the system, and what can I do about it. It has no
> >impact on the game it seems.
> >
> >Ron
> >
> That could mean lots of things. I've had that error when a hard disk
> sector was bad. Suggest you run disk diagnostics.

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"Chopperdad" <scotty@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>For the past week, every so often while playing "World of Warcraft" my son
>gets a "Driver_IRQL_Not_Less_Than" blue screen error.

Unfortunately, that doesn't narrow it down very much. What's the
exact wording of the error message, and in what module are you getting
the crash? [Everything but the hex numbers].

It could be hardware, it could be drivers, it could be timing race
conditions, it could be poorly written game software, or any of a
number of other things. I'd run a full suite of hardware diags just
to start...

What's he using for a controller for WOW?

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Update your drivers. Start with the video and sound drivers.

"Chopperdad" <scotty@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:gmTBd.24269$6V1.358@bignews3.bellsouth.net...
> For the past week, every so often while playing "World of Warcraft" my son
> gets a "Driver_IRQL_Not_Less_Than" blue screen error. From looking at
> this
> I get the impression this is not a driver issue, but an interrupt issue.
> It
> talks about software and hardware stuff and does a memory stack dump.
> This
> is the only game that does this, and from what he has been able to find
> out,
> his experience is not unique.
>
> My question is this a driver issue of the video card or something else or
> a
> software issue where there is an interrupt problem between pieces of
> hardware connected in the system, and what can I do about it. It has no
> impact on the game it seems.
>
> Ron
>
>

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Here's the fix for it and it has nothing to do with drivers but with the PC
trying to over run the BIOS' IRQ device assignemt.

When you get such an error message. Perform the following steps.

To resolve this problem, perform the following steps:

1. Restart the computer.

2. Press the <F8> key to display the Windows XP startup menu.

3. Press the <Down Arrow> key to select Safe Mode Command Prompt and then
press the <Enter> key.

4. Click to select the Administrator account.

5. Type cd\ and then press the <Enter> key.
The c:\> prompt appears.
c:\> attrib -r boot.ini

6. Type edit boot.ini and then press the <Enter> key.
The boot.ini screen appears.

7. Under the boot.ini screen under the Operating system section you will
have a path as shown below.
[operating system]
device=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)"Microsoft windows xp home
edition"

8. Type a switch "/pcilock" after typing you will see the path as shown
below.
Multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)"Microsoft windows xp home edition"
/pcilock

9. By doing so windows stops dynamically assigning the irq's(Interrupt
Request) to the devices and
It takes the irq's assigned by the BIOS.

10. So this is going to solve the issue and also by following this article
we can
Even overcome the bangs on the cd drives.dvd drives after upgrading the
system to windows xp from windows me/98 etc.

"WSZsr" <nospam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:17VBd.10328$wi2.2634@newssvr11.news.prodigy.com...
> Update your drivers. Start with the video and sound drivers.
>
> "Chopperdad" <scotty@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
> news:gmTBd.24269$6V1.358@bignews3.bellsouth.net...
> > For the past week, every so often while playing "World of Warcraft" my
son
> > gets a "Driver_IRQL_Not_Less_Than" blue screen error. From looking at
> > this
> > I get the impression this is not a driver issue, but an interrupt issue.
> > It
> > talks about software and hardware stuff and does a memory stack dump.
> > This
> > is the only game that does this, and from what he has been able to find
> > out,
> > his experience is not unique.
> >
> > My question is this a driver issue of the video card or something else
or
> > a
> > software issue where there is an interrupt problem between pieces of
> > hardware connected in the system, and what can I do about it. It has no
> > impact on the game it seems.
> >
> > Ron
> >
> >
>
>

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Chopperdad wrote:
> Here's the fix for it and it has nothing to do with drivers but with the PC
> trying to over run the BIOS' IRQ device assignemt.
>
> When you get such an error message. Perform the following steps.
>
> To resolve this problem, perform the following steps:
>
> 1. Restart the computer.
>
> 2. Press the <F8> key to display the Windows XP startup menu.
>
> 3. Press the <Down Arrow> key to select Safe Mode Command Prompt and then
> press the <Enter> key.
>
> 4. Click to select the Administrator account.
>
> 5. Type cd\ and then press the <Enter> key.
> The c:\> prompt appears.
> c:\> attrib -r boot.ini
>
> 6. Type edit boot.ini and then press the <Enter> key.
> The boot.ini screen appears.
>
> 7. Under the boot.ini screen under the Operating system section you will
> have a path as shown below.
> [operating system]
> device=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)"Microsoft windows xp home
> edition"
>
> 8. Type a switch "/pcilock" after typing you will see the path as shown
> below.
> Multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)"Microsoft windows xp home edition"
> /pcilock
>
> 9. By doing so windows stops dynamically assigning the irq's(Interrupt
> Request) to the devices and
> It takes the irq's assigned by the BIOS.
>
> 10. So this is going to solve the issue and also by following this article
> we can
> Even overcome the bangs on the cd drives.dvd drives after upgrading the
> system to windows xp from windows me/98 etc.


Of course, there is a still easier solution instead of
using the switch. It is to turn off, or disable, PnP OS
in the bios setup. Does the same thing.

(As an aside, most well-behaving applications should not
trip this BSOD. However, some games do take over or need
their own, unique resource settings that may conflict
with those forced by the Windows OS. These conflicts can
occur at any time since PC's are not a monolithic platform
but a hodgepodge of similar parts coming from a number of
different manufacturers.)

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I don't know it is a disk error. Could be something else. But I got that
with a bad sector. Of course, if it is a bad sector, you would only get
it when a program tried to write that sector. You might expect it to be
difficult to reproduce and confined to a single program.

If you do a scan that frequently, it is probably something else ....

Chopperdad wrote:

>But why this game and no other game? I do a scan disk about once a month,
>but being that this is a 80 GB HD, it takes awhile to do it. The drive is
>only about 18 months old. Also this error is very intermediate. You can
>play the game all day and it never happens and then it can happen three or
>four times over a span of two or three hours. Weird.
>
>"Jerry Park" <NoReply@No.Spam> wrote in message
>news 7UBd.9393$6i.7596@bignews6.bellsouth.net...
>
>
>>Chopperdad wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>For the past week, every so often while playing "World of Warcraft" my
>>>
>>>
>son
>
>
>>>gets a "Driver_IRQL_Not_Less_Than" blue screen error. From looking at
>>>
>>>
>this
>
>
>>>I get the impression this is not a driver issue, but an interrupt issue.
>>>
>>>
>It
>
>
>>>talks about software and hardware stuff and does a memory stack dump.
>>>
>>>
>This
>
>
>>>is the only game that does this, and from what he has been able to find
>>>
>>>
>out,
>
>
>>>his experience is not unique.
>>>
>>>My question is this a driver issue of the video card or something else or
>>>
>>>
>a
>
>
>>>software issue where there is an interrupt problem between pieces of
>>>hardware connected in the system, and what can I do about it. It has no
>>>impact on the game it seems.
>>>
>>>Ron
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>That could mean lots of things. I've had that error when a hard disk
>>sector was bad. Suggest you run disk diagnostics.
>>
>>
>
>
>
>

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

1. If this is your same 8300 system which shows yellow exclamation points for
drivers, install the underlying hardware drivers to make the exclamation points
go away. Maybe the BSOD will go away, too.

2. SCUMDISK, er SCANDISK, is almost worthless as a hard drive diagnostic. Rely
on the hard drive diagnostic software available as a free download from the
drive manufacturer. WD, Seagate, Maxtor, Hitachi, Samsung, Fujitsu all have
their diagnostic software available on their respective web sites. SCANDISK
uses too many layers of Windows bloat to provide truly meaningful information on
which to base a decision to replace a hard drive... Ben Myers

On Sun, 2 Jan 2005 10:35:32 -0500, "Chopperdad" <scotty@bellsouth.net> wrote:

>But why this game and no other game? I do a scan disk about once a month,
>but being that this is a 80 GB HD, it takes awhile to do it. The drive is
>only about 18 months old. Also this error is very intermediate. You can
>play the game all day and it never happens and then it can happen three or
>four times over a span of two or three hours. Weird.
>
>"Jerry Park" <NoReply@No.Spam> wrote in message
>news 7UBd.9393$6i.7596@bignews6.bellsouth.net...
>> Chopperdad wrote:
>>
>> >For the past week, every so often while playing "World of Warcraft" my
>son
>> >gets a "Driver_IRQL_Not_Less_Than" blue screen error. From looking at
>this
>> >I get the impression this is not a driver issue, but an interrupt issue.
>It
>> >talks about software and hardware stuff and does a memory stack dump.
>This
>> >is the only game that does this, and from what he has been able to find
>out,
>> >his experience is not unique.
>> >
>> >My question is this a driver issue of the video card or something else or
>a
>> >software issue where there is an interrupt problem between pieces of
>> >hardware connected in the system, and what can I do about it. It has no
>> >impact on the game it seems.
>> >
>> >Ron
>> >
>> That could mean lots of things. I've had that error when a hard disk
>> sector was bad. Suggest you run disk diagnostics.
>
>

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

The hodgepodge of similar parts was caused by the complete vacuum in PC hardware
standards for the Windows environment, caused by guess who? Micro$oft, who
lacked the collective brains to provide the necessary technical leadership in
hardware, unlike Apple! For Pete's sake, up through DOS 6.2 and Windows 3.1,
Microsoft was still chasing hard disk partition limitations and a 64MB barrier
for Windows! Not much leadership there when it counted.

The new BX form factor motherboards are the next step toward "legacy free"
systems which are also intended to smooth out the hardware differences.

.... Ben Myers

On Sun, 02 Jan 2005 10:29:14 -0800, GHalleck <ghalleck@arrakian.mining.com>
wrote:

>
>Chopperdad wrote:
>> Here's the fix for it and it has nothing to do with drivers but with the PC
>> trying to over run the BIOS' IRQ device assignemt.
>>
>> When you get such an error message. Perform the following steps.
>>
>> To resolve this problem, perform the following steps:
>>
>> 1. Restart the computer.
>>
>> 2. Press the <F8> key to display the Windows XP startup menu.
>>
>> 3. Press the <Down Arrow> key to select Safe Mode Command Prompt and then
>> press the <Enter> key.
>>
>> 4. Click to select the Administrator account.
>>
>> 5. Type cd\ and then press the <Enter> key.
>> The c:\> prompt appears.
>> c:\> attrib -r boot.ini
>>
>> 6. Type edit boot.ini and then press the <Enter> key.
>> The boot.ini screen appears.
>>
>> 7. Under the boot.ini screen under the Operating system section you will
>> have a path as shown below.
>> [operating system]
>> device=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)"Microsoft windows xp home
>> edition"
>>
>> 8. Type a switch "/pcilock" after typing you will see the path as shown
>> below.
>> Multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)"Microsoft windows xp home edition"
>> /pcilock
>>
>> 9. By doing so windows stops dynamically assigning the irq's(Interrupt
>> Request) to the devices and
>> It takes the irq's assigned by the BIOS.
>>
>> 10. So this is going to solve the issue and also by following this article
>> we can
>> Even overcome the bangs on the cd drives.dvd drives after upgrading the
>> system to windows xp from windows me/98 etc.
>
>
>Of course, there is a still easier solution instead of
>using the switch. It is to turn off, or disable, PnP OS
>in the bios setup. Does the same thing.
>
>(As an aside, most well-behaving applications should not
>trip this BSOD. However, some games do take over or need
>their own, unique resource settings that may conflict
>with those forced by the Windows OS. These conflicts can
>occur at any time since PC's are not a monolithic platform
>but a hodgepodge of similar parts coming from a number of
>different manufacturers.)
>

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"Chopperdad" <scotty@bellsouth.net> wrote:
["Driver_IRQL_Not_Less_Than"]
>That is the exact wording of the error with no hex numbers.

Really? Usually there will be another couple of lines of information,
indicating what module fell over...

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

One would expect comprehensible English language error messages from Windows
after its 20 years of life going back to Windows 1.0. Even DOS has better error
messages... Ben Myers

On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 12:33:20 -0500, William P.N. Smith wrote:

>"Chopperdad" <scotty@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>["Driver_IRQL_Not_Less_Than"]
>>That is the exact wording of the error with no hex numbers.
>
>Really? Usually there will be another couple of lines of information,
>indicating what module fell over...
>