Comp issues

[nadriel]

Right, I have this lovely new comp. Unfortunately, it keeps crashing on me.

I'm getting a blue screen with DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

It only crops up when I run certain applications, and not with any regularity (but quite a bit of frequency when using said programs).

Given that the programs are: Windows Media Player, Winamp, Intervideo WinDVD and Ventrilo (a voice chat program), I'm working on it being something to do with the sound card.

I've got onboard sound, which I disabled and removed the drivers for to use my better sound card which I've put in.

So, any fellow techies out there who've got suggestions? I've poked around on some tech websites, but they aren't too helpful without me actually going through a lengthy signup process, so I thought I'd ask here first, as I know there are several people reading this journal who are much better at support/hardware than me...

Comments

[lokean.livejournal.com]

Is it the classic BSD or the stop error BSD?

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

I've had both, but it's mostly the DRIVER_IRQL...BSD

[fidgetstitch.livejournal.com]

Uninstall and reinstall the sound card, if no different check the soundcards manufacturers website for a driver update??

Presuming the sound cards in working order sooo...have you checked out the new sound card in device manager? I'd imagine you have...not sure what else I can say to try...

I'm not terribly techie, but I do pick up some things at peeceeworld =)

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

Afraid I've gone through all that. But thanks :-)

[raccoon-boy.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough when I googled this error its come up with problems ranging from NIC cards to RAM sticks being faulty.

You could try removing all the non-important parts of your machine one by one and starting the machine (i.e. video card, sound card etc).

I'm guessing you've used the old F8 trick to put it in safe mode to check its not your drivers messing?

And silly question really but, are you running XP?

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

Yep, XP SP2. And I've pretty much isolated the problem as being in the soundcard. I just need to fix the damn thing :-/

[lokean.livejournal.com]

The reason racoon_boy found it referencing so many different things is that the error is the result of something trying to read or write to an incorrect address (this can be caused by bad RAM or faulty connections but is usually the result of non-MS products being bitched at by the OS)

I'm going to guess that the stop BSD is referencing the stop code: 0xA and the third error parameter is 0x0. If so, it's almost certainly due to one of the sound drivers trying to access the wrong address; that happens a lot with properitary drivers on XP. Crazy as it sounds, it's often a successful workaround to swap a couple of DIMMs around, I don't know why it works but it often does. Try that one first.

Assuming that's no use you might want to set XP up to do full kernel dumps and find the driver responsible.

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

*sigh* How tedious. Oh well, I'll get it sorted, one way or another :-)

[lokean.livejournal.com]

I'm also going to suggest you try *downgrading* the sound card driver to one that the gits at MS have digitally signed, if one exists.

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

Um, like the one I'm using?

[lokean.livejournal.com]

Oh, regarding finding the driver, it shouldn't be that hard, the stop code ought to have four parameters at the end, the first is the address that couldn't be referenced, the second in the request level, the third is read/write (0/1) and the fourth is the referencing address. I haven't looked at a kernel dump recently but I seem to recall the loaded drivers being listed, along with the memory they've allocated. Comparing that to the last parameter of the stop code should tell you which driver is going tits up.

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

Okay, watch me embarass myself, but how do you do a kernel dump with XP?

[lokean.livejournal.com]

It ought to be set up to do small dumps by default but that might not help if it's a stealth fuckup (and if it's a digitally signed driver it probably is)

So, control panel -> System Properties -> 'Advanced' tab -> Startup and Recovery panel: Click settings. There should be a drop down menu, currently set to small memory dump, near the bottom. Set it to a kernel dump and uncheck the overwrite box.

Then, go and crash your computer three times. The three memory dumps ought to be MEM*.DMP (can't remember if it's MEMORY2.DMP for the second but I think so). They *should*, if memory serves, have the drivers' allocated memory listed along with the stop code but just to be sure, copy down the parameters of the stop code manually when it occurs, too.

[js84.livejournal.com]

Does Device Manager report any hardware conflicts? (big red crosses by the icons)

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

Nah- that'd be too easy. And the error log isn't very helpful, although in my plan for tomorrow of "Fix this somehow", I'm going to go over it with a fine-tooth comb

[js84.livejournal.com]

Aw. If all else seems to fail I guess you could try resetting the CMOS by moving a jumper to another position for at least 40 minutes. It sometimes clears the crud in the memory.

[freddiefraggles.livejournal.com]

That just makes me think of it being like Mark tidying up his bedroom... move a jumper over there, Freddie won't notice that I haven't really tidied up and gotten distracted by something shiny......

[matgb]

Ooh! Shiney

[seidhepriest.livejournal.com]

1. Disable the onboard sound.
2. Remove the soundcard.
3. Remove all of the "stealth" devices for both the onboard audio and the PCI soundcard in the Device Manager after booting into safe mode (does it also give the STOP when booting in safe mode?)
4. Play with the "PnP OS installed" setting in the BIOS (if it's off, it means the BIOS would allocate IRQs, DMAs, etc. automatically before OS bootup, if it's on, BIOS lets the OS choose all the resources; usually, the less automatical settings, the better).
5. Enable the onboard audio, boot, install whichever driver there is for it, then reboot, disable the onboard audio, boot again, shutdown Windows, install the PCI card, boot and install its own driver (preferrably latest revision).
6. Is the soundcard a Creative card of some flavour?
7. Have you actually deleted the driver (complete with the .inf and all) for the onboard audio, or just deleted the device in DM?

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

6) Yep.
7) Not sure- I removed what I thought were the drivers, and disabled it in the BIOS, as well as removing it from DM.

[seidhepriest.livejournal.com]

Removed the drivers manually (the *.sys file(s), the registry entry for the driver, and the enumerated device entries from the Currentcontrol set), or just ran the uninstaller?

Thing is, if PnP switch is on in the BIOS (OS configures devices during bootup), what might happen is that Windows detects the onboard audio, tries to load the (non-existent and ripped-out, or disabled device) driver, then disables it as per its hardware config (the device disabling actually comes after initialising, and enabling all PnP devices, no matter what the BIOS setting). This obviously causes it to attempt to write to a memory address assigned to a non-existent device driver (hence trying to write/read to/from a 0x0 address).

So all the trouble might be just because Windows is missing the right driver file(s) for the disabled onboard audio. Also, there's an option somewhere over there in the System CP applet for disabling driver signing, it should be really disabled all the time.

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

Cool, well, cheers for all the tips- I'll sit down when I get a moment and try various things based on this.

[seidhepriest.livejournal.com]

Erm... it was a question - whether you disabled/removed the driver files (*.sys, service registry entry, etc.), or just ran the uninstaller for the onboard audio drivers?

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

Ran the uninstaller.

[seidhepriest.livejournal.com]

An old trick with Creative soundcards was to sit them in the PCI slot next to the AGP slot, and they really have to have their own IRQ (also, it's a good thing to have IRQ assigned to the AGP device), so, if the soundcard is sharing an IRQ with something else, try moving it to another slot.

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

I believe it is already in that slot. How will I check the relevant IRQs (I think I know, but I prefer to be treated as if I don't in this instance, to make sure I'm doing everything I should be).

[seidhepriest.livejournal.com]

In the Device Manager there's an option to sort devices by IRQ ("Sort by resource type").

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

Okay- I have the following doubling up- should any of them not be on the same irq, and if so, what range do I have available to change them to?

(All PCI)

16- USB Universal Host Controller
16- PCI Express Root Port
16- Nvidea Geforce 6800 GS
18- USB Universal Host Controller
18- Sounblaster Live! 24-bit
19- USB Universal Host Controller
19- Serial ATA Storage Controller
23- USB Universal Host Controller
23- USB2 Enhanced Host Controller

I also have non-doubled PCI devices on IRQ 10 and 21

For ISA, I have the following doubled:

9- Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System
9- VAXSCSI Controller

And other ISA devices on IRQ 0,1,3,4,8,12,13,14 and 15

[seidhepriest.livejournal.com]

For an ACPI system, sharing IRQs is normal. On this box, an SB Live shares an IRQ with 5 other devices. Did you get the Creative driver? The default MS driver was somewhat buggy, and, you could've gotten trouble if the sample rate/"acceleration" in the audio device properties (the ones in the sound/multimedia CP applet) were set too low.

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

I have the latest creative driver I could get. And acceleration and sample rate are both maxed.

[seidhepriest.livejournal.com]

Whee. ICQ/VNC?

[seidhepriest.livejournal.com]

In a couple hours?

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

Hold on while I grab a copy of VNC and reinstall icq.

[seidhepriest.livejournal.com]

Quiet Internet Pager - ICQ client;
- Miranda;
Tight VNC - supports a tad cleaner image and better compression than the usual AT&T/Cambridge VNC.

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

Cool, they're both installed, and I've left icq running- so, if you're ready in a couple of hours, just drop me a message and we can get this show on the road. Thanks for all the assistance, btw :-)

[seidhepriest.livejournal.com]

ICQ #?

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

In the f-locked post at the top of my journal.

[seidhepriest.livejournal.com]

Not there...

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

Ooops! Is there now :-)

[seidhepriest.livejournal.com]

Is the "PnP OS installed" switch on in the BIOS?