IRQ less or not equal to error

[floppybootstomp]

Or something similar to that. I keep getting BSOD's with that message, the system reboots.

First time I've ever had this error, far as I can recall.

Putting together a system out of old and new parts, here tis:

Abit KR7A-R Motherboard, newest Bios.
XP1900 CPU, stock speed
3 sticks Crucial PC2100 RAM, 2 x 256; 1 x 512 = 1 Gig
Philips 4.1 Dynamic Edge Soundcard
Belkin Nic
Gigabyte 9200 VIVO Vid card
2 x Seagate 40Gb IDE Drives, RAID 0
Sony DVDRW
Win XP Pro
All MS Critical Updates applied
AVG Anti Virus
AdAware
Spybot
ATI Catalyst Drivers 4.5


Will be adding a Sony DVD-Rom as soon as the supplier sends the right colour fascia, they sent the wrong one.

All temps are good, Zalman cooler, CPU temp 41C at idle.

At first, I had the soundcard in slot 4, when I attempted to install drivers, it fubar'ed. Put it in slot five, deleted all Sound card related stuff, reinstalled drivers, it worked.

Deleted an unknown device within Device manager under the sound card heading, rebooted, it didn't come back.

I had several errors when installing software, but it all seems to be running well until, at random, I get the BSOD and a reboot.

I'm wondering if the order I have the memory modules in the slots makes a difference? (1 x 512; 2 x 256)

I'm also wondering whether or not to move the sound card to a different slot again, it's sharing IRQ 10 with something else.

I ran this setup (mobo; CPU; Memory; Sound Card) for over a year without any problems.

Any suggestions or ideas?

 

[muckshifter]

That's a catch all error message ... and there are two flavours IRQ & IRQL, however, I would strip out any cards not needed, ie; sound/modem/NIC, and when you put them back in, make sure you are using the correct drivers.

Also, IRQL is ususally associated with a memory problem ... try swopping it out, or as you have two sticks, try one or the other. 512 is more than enough for XP.

Are you 'booting off' the RAID? are you using the correct drivers?

Mucks.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Thanks Mucks. I'll try those things.

Yes, I'm booting from the RAID and I have the correct drivers. Have them on a floppy, hitting F6 to load them on install and they match the Bios.

 

[Techy]

i agree with mucks, but i'd try swopping the memory before taking the machine to bits as this is the most likely cause. although as mucks said this could be anything, i've had this BSOD a few times before, the one that took me a while to work out was the w/less lan card driver.

Good luck

James

 

[floppybootstomp]

Have just run MemTest86 for three hours, nowt wrong with the memory.

I've decided to do a fresh install, format: C and all that, but this time add the sound card and NIC after XP Pro is installed.

And I am using the latest drivers for the Philips Sound Card, V4.05. I have a feeling the soundcard being in an unsuitable slot when I first installed XP has corrupted something somewhere.

Here we go again...

 

[Techy]

i'd take memtest with a pinch of salt flop, swop the memory anyway!

 

[muckshifter]

XP is a better tester of memory ... gives you a prety Blue screen too.

 

[Techy]

lol

James

 

[Techy]

how you getting on flop?

 

[floppybootstomp]

OK, in short, all's now good. tried the memory in another machine and used it extensively, no probs.

Started fresh install of XP, loaded OK. Started loading stuff, SP1, DX9b, etc, and I had two BSOD's giving 'error' messages.

So, I remembered this board used to be installed with fibre washers under each of the six motherboard mounting screws, which I hadn't used this time. Fitted fibre washers and didn't (and haven't) experienced a single fault since. Put the sound card in slot 5, drivers installed without a hitch.

All is good. Strange but true. Must have been a partial short or something but whatever, it's all OK now.

One other thing, this time I installed software from the DVD-ROM drive after the supplier sent the silver fascia but I seriously doubt if the drive would influence the BSOD's I was getting.

Anyways, thanks all, for your input, this machine is actually for my Mum, delivered it today, she's happy with it though a litle bewildered, it's her first ever computer.

 

[floppybootstomp]

And by way of interest, system housed in Lian Li PC60 Silver aluminium Case; 330W Antec Truepower PSU and using a Benq 17" 767 TFT Monitor, 15ms response time, but no games installed - yet

It looks good, I want one of those TFT's

 

[Techy]

that is a bit strange, it's possible it's a prob with the drive but as you said it's unlikely.

glad it's sorted.

James

 

[muckshifter]

I don't think th e 'washers' would make a difference, but re-building may have ... anyway, glad your sorted.

Benq = Acer = 100 foot pole,

 

[floppybootstomp]

Benq = Acer? Oh feck. Oh well, it looks pretty, it works fine, me mum's happy with it, and it has a fast response time. If I were buying a TFT for myself, I'd go Hitachi at the moment.

 

[test0r]

Aye flop weird solution you found

I had the same problem and I can assure you its got either to do with faulty installed hardware, like new USB cards for instance, or a memory problem.
I've had that BSOD twice now. Ordered a duron 1200 for my sister so she could run xp and office xp to type and surf the net. After I did a full install with SP1 and everything up to date the thing ran for weeks like a charm. All of a sudden, MSN messenger gives her an error while she was typing (something like the 0x0033838734r buffer overflow) and kaboom, BSOD.
From there on it wont boot no more, it keeps looping into the same screen on and on.
I'm running the official legit xp NL (dutch) on that comp, so i'ts got nothing to do with faulty software.
After that first crash I fixed the thing in one day. Formatted completely, put a new fresh install of XP NL on it, norton antivirus, sp1 and other patches, sound working, etc.
After 2 days when we were looking at some holiday pics, shazaammm, BSOD irq less or not equal again. After that first reboot, a second BSOD appeared with some vague pagefile error in it. It's been broken ever since, cause I think I'll just buy myself another stick of memory to replace this one with, since it always happens right after those memory errors..

I'll keep the lot of you posted

cheers from Holland