IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

[Marc Guyott]

Greetings all!

I am putting together a new system and doing a clean install of Windows XP
Pro. Right now I have the following hardware in the system:

ASUS P4V8X-X Motherboard
Intel P4 Northwood 3.06GHz with HT
1.5 GB PC2700 RAM (2 sticks Kinston Value RAM, 1 stick PNY)
e-GeForce FX 5700LE AGP Video Card
20.0 GB AT Maxtor D740X-6L Hard Drive
Lite-On LTR-24102B CD-RW Drive
EPO 16X DVD-ROM
Sony 3 1/2" Floppy

I have used the AGP Card, the Maxtor HD, the Lite-On CD-RW drive, the
DVD-ROM drive and the Floppy drive in other systems that I have installed XP
Pro on and I have not had any problems.

When I attempt to do a clean install on this PC using XP Pro with SP1a I get
the following error:



IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

*** STOP: 0x0000000A (0x00000004, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0x80515F3A)

Beginning dump of physical memory
Physical memory dump complete
Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further
assistance.


This happens reliably every time that I attempt to install XP Pro. The
error always has the same values.

I am booting from the XP Pro CD and having the install program format the
hard drive.

Anyone have any idea what might be wrong?

Thanks in advance,
Marc

 

[Santa]

http://search.microsoft.com/search/results.aspx?st=b&na=88&View=en-us&qu=IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

 

[Marc Guyott]

Great link Santa but it is of no help to me. :-}

I was able to figure out from doing a Google groups search that the problem
was that this Stop message indicates that a kernel-mode process or driver
attempted to access a memory address to which it did not have permission to
access.

My problem is that I am not doing an upgrade. I am doing a clean install
onto an unformatted hard drive. I am letting the install program format the
hard drive. So the only processes and drivers running on my PC when this
happens are the ones that come from Microsoft on the Windows XP Pro
installation CD.

I am unable to do any sort of debugging of this problem because I do not
have an OS installed on the system.

I have also not added any new hardware or software to the system because I
have not gotten the base system up and running.

Every one of the items that are returned from your query assume that you
either have a running version of XP and added something to it or that you
are upgrading from 98se or ME to XP and are inheriting bogus device drivers.

The only way that I can be seeing this problem is if there is a problem with
something in the Microsoft installation software or in the drivers that XP
is initially being installed with. There is nothing else running.

I am trying to install a version of XP Pro with SP1a already integrated into
it. Should I go back to the older base XP Pro installation CD?

Marc

 

[Will Denny]

Hi Marc

Please try the following link to Jim Eshelman's web site - left hand
column(0A):

http://aumha.org/win5/kbestop.htm

--


Will Denny
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups

 

[Andrius Adamavicius]

I think you have problem with your RAM. Tell me more about your RAM sticks.
I think we have same problem

 

[Marc Guyott]

Hi Will,

Thank you for the link. Unfortunately I am not a device driver developer
and I don't want to learn how to debug Microsoft's XP Pro install process,
even if I could.

There is clearly something wrong with the Microsoft software as that is all
that I am installing, Microsoft software, nothing else. I am simply trying
to install XP Pro.

I may very well come back to this information if desperation overwhelms me
and I have a huge amount of free time. Then again, I may just go back to ME
or Linux. Those both seem to work reliably on my system.

Sorry to vent on you, this is a great link for those with the skill,
knowledge and or time to utilize it. I fear I fit none of those three
categories.

Marc

 

[Marc Guyott]

Hi Andrius,

I think my memory is ok. I am going to post an update on my main thread
myself as I have made some progress. Take a look there if you want.

Thanks for your post!

Marc

 

[Marc Guyott]

Ok. I have made some progress but am still not all the way there.

I went back to the original XP Pro install, without SP1a added to it, and it
happily installed. So it appears that my system is ok. After I installed
the original version of XP Pro I installed the latest VIA 4in1 drivers and
then I attempted to install SP2. SP2 seemed to install fine until it
rebooted my computer. When XP tried to startup after rebooting the computer
I saw the following error:

"Setup was interrupted. Restoring prior configuration."

Setup was not interrupted that I could tell. So something went south when
SP2 was actually being installed.

So it seems there is something that Microsoft put into SP1a and that is
still in SP2 that is causing these updates to fail on my system.

I am still not able to debug things in any way that could be done by a mere
mortal because everything works fine while SP2 is installing and then it
fails before XP is back up and running, so there is no way to hook anything
with a debugger.

Does it matter that I do not have a network card installed? I have not yet
put a network card in as I wanted to wait until SP2 was installed. I
installed SP2 off of the CD that I ordered from Microsoft.

For my next attempt I think I will install the base XP, install all my
drivers and my network card and then try installing XP2 off the internet.

Has anyone else had any similar problems with XP2? I suspect most folks
don't use the XP Pro with SP1a install so that might not have shown up much.

Thanks for any help!
Marc

 

[Marc Guyott]

Hey Andrius,

I just wanted to let you know that it turns out that my problem was RAM. My
system was running rock solid with 2 stick of 512MB DDR RAM and I purchased
a third stick to max out my motherboard and it turns out that either that
third stick is bad or it is not compatible with the other two sticks of
memory in my motherboard. In either case, when I take out the new stick of
memory that I had added everything is rock solid and I am able to install
XP, XP with 1a and XP SP 2 without any problems.

You were on the right track! Thanks for your post.

Marc

 

[Marc Guyott]

Just to let everyone know, the problem I was seeing was due to a bad stick
of memory. It took me 2 weeks and probably 40 hours to figure it out but I
finally did. I would recommend staying away from PNY memory. I know I will
after this.

Marc