BSOD is back

[panzerkw]

After many happy months of computing without BSOD's, they have returned with a vengeance. Whenever I play a D3D game I can't play for more than a few minutes without a BSOD.

They fall into one of two types,

IRQ NOT LESS OR EQUAL

and the other mentions an ATi driver file. Any ideas?

KX7-333R 2700
512MB DDR 2x256
ATi 9700Pro Cat 3.7
SB Audigy
Windows XP SP1

[Leonardo]

It sounds like you've corrupted your video drivers somehow. Perhaps you recently updated and didn't remove the old drivers?

Consider uninstalling the drivers. Then use RegCleaner to remove all traces of the driver that will probalby be left behind after the uninstall.

Then reinstall your video card drivers.

Do you think that your computer is too dusty inside? It could be your GPU is overheating.

[Thrax]

I've seen this error (IRQ_LESS_THAN...) 40 times. 30 times it's been RAM. 5 times overclocking. 5 times processor heat.

Make it as you will.

[profdlp]

Another vote for video drivers. I had the same problem (though with an Nvidia card). It took some doing, but I finally got the drivers straightened out and have been good to go for several weeks.

I don't know if it is related, but since my old vid card can't do much with anything beyond DirectX 7, I haven't installed DX9 since my last reload.

[Leonardo]

5 times processor heat.
Yes, could be; hence my dust in the computer suggestion.

It took some doing, but I finally got the drivers traightened out and have been good to go for several weeks.
Video drivers can be just simply exasperating. You think everything is fine, then whamo, your favorite game or whatnot starts crashing. The key usually, is completely wiping out all video drivers and starting over. (Thrax, how come you didn't recommend reformat the hard drive? ;D )

[Clutch]

If it mentioned a ati driver, then I would go with the above suggestions about the drivers. As far as the IRQ NOT LESS OR EQUAL I have always found that out to be a ram problem. Go with the driver update first though.

[Thrax]

Leonardo said
5 times processor heat.
Yes, could be; hence my dust in the computer suggestion.

It took some doing, but I finally got the drivers traightened out and have been good to go for several weeks.
Video drivers can be just simply exasperating. You think everything is fine, then whamo, your favorite game or whatnot starts crashing. The key usually, is completely wiping out all video drivers and starting over. (Thrax, how come you didn't recommend reformat the hard drive? ;D )

I tell people to reformat when the problem has too many variables to troubleshoot in a reasonable amount of time. A reformat fixes damn near <i>anything</i>, and as I have configured my drives in such a manner so as to limit software installs/updates to 30 minutes of my time in the total process of reformatting, it's no big deal.

Unfortunately, I forget most people don't set it up this way.

[Geeky1]

If you do what Thrax suggested (format, reinstall), get yourself a copy of Symantec/Norton Ghost. Reinstall, install all your programs, tweak everything, and make a drive image. Then, all you have to do in future is re-image the drive, as opposed to reinstalling everything.

[panzerkw]

Alright I'll try wiping out the video drivers and reinstalling. That's the only thing I can think of that I've changed lately. I opened up the case to see how dirty it was, I'll try dusting off the heatsink, cleaning the CPU, and putting a thin fresh coat of arctic silver in there to see if that helps at all.

[Geeky1]

try downloading new copies of the drivers from the company's site, DO NOT USE ANY FORM OF DOWNLOAD MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE, put them on a CD (or a second hd/partition) and use those when you reinstall.

[Hornizuka]

I had that BSOD with "IRQ NOT LESS OR EQUAL" when my RAM was the culprit. But then when something wrong with RAM you get all kinds of BSOD "NTFS.sys..blah blah" "PFN_LIST_CORRUPT" "MEMORY MANAGEMENT..blah blah"....etc.

[FormFactor]

Or if you OC it is probasbly an issue with RAM tyimings


at least thats the only time I have had that error. Try going with less aggressive RAM timings.

[panzerkw]

I'll try CAS 2.5 instead of 2.0 and see if that helps at all. The other settings are at pretty benign values.

[TheLostSwede]

Try just the safe memory settings in the bios and see if you get the same result. If not, it WAS the memory.