Computer Error

I recently posted about my daughters Dell. The response I got was amazing! From a beer forum!! I love it. Anywhoo..I thought I see if ya'll can help out with this beauty:

I am getting an error where the screen turns blue and has a page of verbage starting with "IRQL_Not_Less_Than_Or_Equal_To" something something something...."starting memory dump". Then resets the computer. Tried computer forums and other areas and seems this is a RAM issue or possibly a driver problem. System Restore doesn't help. It only happens when I have a few webpages open at one time or I'm trying to run an anti'virus scan.

Thanks for the help! One more thing.....with my daughters Dell help, a lot was over my head. So if you can keep it simple, or include an algorythm to how I can get to the right places, it would be great. Thanks again!

Could be many things. Any new software or hardware installs lately? Any upgrades? Think hard, it could be something as simple as having updated a driver..etc.

This may help. It basically shows you how to gather information about the error after a memory dump occurs. Hope this puts you on the right track.

Have you gone to the dell website and tried downloading different motherboard and hard drive drivers? That might do the trick.

If i were you, your system will always run better if you just do a complete re-install with windows. get that sucker clean. I have a dell 700m and that's what i did. runs like a champ now.

I'll search that error on my windows database here at the university see if anything comes up but it just sounds like you should download the motherboard or hd drivers to me.

/i'm not that big of a nerd so don't take this as true hardcore tech support.

Tried thanks for the help, guys, but no luck so far.

How big's the hard drive? You can find external harddrives for $50 to $100. Buy one, save all your data. Do a fresh install. You'll be done in 5 hours. No more headaches.


Seems to me this is oftentimes much more efficient than actually trying to sort out the problem....

What have you done since your original post? I assume it was working fine at that point.

Damn Squirrels said:

How big's the hard drive? You can find external harddrives for $50 to $100. Buy one, save all your data. Do a fresh install. You'll be done in 5 hours. No more headaches.


Seems to me this is oftentimes much more efficient than actually trying to sort out the problem....

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Based on my limited technical knowledge, memory dumps are usually referring to RAM, not physical hard drive storage.

I've gotten this same blue screen of death before and it was as simple as having an inadequately-sized fan (coupled with too many memory cards) that caused my system to overheat.

EDIT: VIDEO cards, not memory cards... grrr...

This is not ram related. Typically that error will be related to incorrect drivers on your machine. Something got installed.

Provide the full text of the BSOD and it can be narrowed further.

Yeah, IRQ implies some sort of device driver.

the_bird said:

I've gotten this same blue screen of death before and it was as simple as having an inadequately-sized fan (coupled with too many memory cards) that caused my system to overheat.

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Just as an fyi so if you see it in the future:

Heat issues are another big reason people get BSOD's. Often, you can tell because it will happen after roughly the same amount of time after either you start the PC or run an intensive app, say like a FPS game etc.

I went to a hotel on business and installed their "router". Basically this thing that I plug into the wall socket and the other end into my computer for 'net access (D link?). I have installed NOTHING else since then. It may be a heat issue..I'll try my cooler...but it happens EVERY time I try to run antivirus at the exact same point....7456 files into it. So it seems like the heat would differ if it was that. I have downloaded current drivers and talked to a guy at Best Buy (I know, I know) who said I need to basically just reinstall windows.

I've just gone ahead and re-installed windows before, oftentimes that's the easiest solution.

This is just a guess, but I'm wondering if you got infected with some crappily-written spyware/malware that's causing some kind of conflict. Have you run a spyware checker?

the_bird said:

I've just gone ahead and re-installed windows before, oftentimes that's the easiest solution.

This is just a guess, but I'm wondering if you got infected with some crappily-written spyware/malware that's causing some kind of conflict. Have you run a spyware checker?

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Yea, my first action was spyware check, anti-virus and system restore. Unfortunetely I can't get through my anti-virus program or my spyware program without it dumping. I thought it was a bad anti-virus program at first, so I installed another one and deleted the first----same result

Perhaps I was not clear. This is no the same computer as my daughters that I set up ....this one is about a year old. It has plenty of memory for what I do on it.

kornkob said:

This is not ram related. Typically that error will be related to incorrect drivers on your machine. Something got installed.

Provide the full text of the BSOD and it can be narrowed further.

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I can't read fast enough to get the full text before it resets. It says the IRQL thing then just talks about how if this is the first time this has happened contact your administrator, then about drivers then about beginning system dump.

Boot up in safe mode.

Here are a few phrases I caught...

iasstor.sys
F742125D
base at F7412000
date stamp 422F3BCC

Kayos said:

Here are a few phrases I caught...

iasstor.sys
F742125D
base at F7412000
date stamp 422F3BCC

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iaStor.sys is the driver for onboard Intel SATA support...

Try going HERE and updating that driver... top one should work.

Stop 0x0000000A or IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL - The Stop 0xA message indicates that a kernel-mode process or driver attempted to access a memory location to which it did not have permission, or at a kernel interrupt request level (IRQL) that was too high. A kernel-mode process can access only other processes that have an IRQL lower than, or equal to, its own. This Stop message is typically due to faulty or incompatible hardware or software.

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Normally this is caused by a bad driver. Chrus is exactly on the right track by having you update that driver. If that does not work, whenever you get a blue screen, windows creates a dump file with loads of information. If the driver update does not work, and you can wait until next week(I am leaving town either tomorrow night or fri morning, unsure yet which one) then I can walk you through emailing me the dump file and I can examine the crash information to find out more detail.

Chrus said:

iaStor.sys is the driver for onboard Intel SATA support...

Try going HERE and updating that driver... top one should work.

Click to expand...

I think this worked!!!

Huge thanks to all you guys. I should have tried using my brew crew before my Best Buy store! You guys continue to amaze me. Thanks!!!!!!!!!! I'll keep ya posted if it maintains (like it or not )