IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL Windows 10 won't even boot.

[PoppySilver_]

My friend has been having this issue for the past month. He's already RMA'd the ram and the new ram hasn't fixed anything. We've tried using a recovery drive but it just wont boot into it, I can't exactly remember what error came up since this was about a month and a half ago. Keep in mind that he cant get into the pc whatsoever so most fixes won't work. We've pretty much tried everything we can think of so anyone got any ideas?

Hes running Windows 10 GTX960 i7 6700K Asus Z170 pro gaming 16GB DDR4 RAM

 

[blader15sk8]

I had this problem in the past with Windows 10, turned out to be a faulty GPU. That doesn't mean it will be a GPU in your case, but that error has to do with something trying to access memory, and just about any device can cause it.

Try booting into another OS off of a flash drive, like Ubuntu. It's pretty easy to make a bootable USB drive by following the instructions on Ubuntu's website, or using free software like Universal USB Installer and see how the system reacts.

Doing a fresh install of windows may help too, you can create a recovery device (USB or DVD) from Microsoft's website using the Windows Media Creation Tool. You will have to do this from another computer.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

 

[WiiUMasterGman]

There is a couple ways to fix this. The way that I have found works the best is to boot into safe mode if possible and uninstall all your drivers then restart then boot back into windows and reinstall. If that doesn't work then a fresh install will work

 

[PoppySilver_]

There is a couple ways to fix this. The way that I have found works the best is to boot into safe mode if possible and uninstall all your drivers then restart then boot back into windows and reinstall. If that doesn't work then a fresh install will work

He can't even do a fresh install since booting to any drive (including recovery drives that have win10 on them) doesn't work. We've already tried fresh installing and booting to other HDD's unfortunately. Also booting to safemode doesn't work either.

 

[PoppySilver_]

There is a couple ways to fix this. The way that I have found works the best is to boot into safe mode if possible and uninstall all your drivers then restart then boot back into windows and reinstall. If that doesn't work then a fresh install will work

how would he go about uninstalling all his drivers?

 

[WiiUMasterGman]

Well I was thinking that if he could boot into safe mode he could uninstall his drivers. Then boot back into normal mode and reinstall windows. That has worked for a couple people I have told to do. I am surprised that a clean install doesn't work. Has he tried wiping his drives with Dan's Boot and Nuke? How did he go about reinstalling Windows?

 

[PoppySilver_]

Well I was thinking that if he could boot into safe mode he could uninstall his drivers. Then boot back into normal mode and reinstall windows. That has worked for a couple people I have told to do. I am surprised that a clean install doesn't work. Has he tried wiping his drives with Dan's Boot and Nuke? How did he go about reinstalling Windows?

He's managed to boot into windows now, im in discord with him, he says he has no idea how he did it but it was something to do with those safe boot options. How do you uninstall drivers and reinstall windows? He tried reinstalling windows on a usb but it wouldn't work, however it might work now.

 

[WiiUMasterGman]

Well if you were able to boot into windows then there is no point into booting into safe mode to uninstall the drivers. I would suggest uninstalling your drivers and reinstalling them just to be sure that the drivers weren't the problem. If you really wanted to reinstall windows (I see reason to reinstalling windows now that you are into windows.) Download windows 10 https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10 then put it onto a USB (Preferably USB 3.0) be sure to not to press upgrade this PC now. Let the installer make your USB bootable. When that is finished turn off the PC and restart it. Go into the BIOS and set the USB to the first launch option. Save and exit and boot back up.

 

[PoppySilver_]

Well if you were able to boot into windows then there is no point into booting into safe mode to uninstall the drivers. I would suggest uninstalling your drivers and reinstalling them just to be sure that the drivers weren't the problem. If you really wanted to reinstall windows (I see reason to reinstalling windows now that you are into windows.) Download windows 10 https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10 then put it onto a USB (Preferably USB 3.0) be sure to not to press upgrade this PC now. Let the installer make your USB bootable. When that is finished turn off the PC and restart it. Go into the BIOS and set the USB to the first launch option. Save and exit and boot back up.

ok so how do you uninstall all your drivers?