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

[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.