[Take Five]

so lately i've been getting this BSOD message: IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL or something to that degree. research at microsoft's website suggests that it has to do with faulty ram. further research suggests that i use memtest86 to test each ram stick for errors. the thing is...i have no idea how to run the program. i'm using the ISO option and after burning it to cd, i get 2 files on the cd: BOOT.CAT and MEMTEST.IMG. does anyone who has run this program before know what i have to do? URL for reference: memtest86.com.

if i still can't fix this BSOD error after running this program, i'll come back with more questions lol.

[Ruiz]

So you burned the ISO? Boot from it.

Pop in the CD, restart the computer, and make sure the computer boots from the CD and not into Windows.

[Take Five]

yeah, i figured it out. but the test ran for 24 hours straight though and still didn't seem like it was close to finishing...that isn't normal, is it? i just quit it cuz i couldn't stand it anymore.

[awdark]

It loops on and on forever...
After it finishes a cycle it will repeat. If you ran for 24 hours without issues then it should be fine. What about the other stuff in the BSOD? Anything like.. driver names we can look into?

[Take Five]

ah yeah, i just read that...i should probably read their webpage more carefully before starting it lol.

i don't remember about the drivers, i'll look into it when it happens again.

[nevets1219]

Some tests just loop repeatedly on different address of your RAM. If you look at it, it should have said that it gone through it a couple of times. However, if you did the right test and after 24 hours of testing, you should be able to say that your RAM is not faulty.

[Take Five]

since i shut off the computer in rage without looking at the results carefully and want to run the test overnight again...would the test tell me exactly which ram stick out of the four is the defective one or will i have to run the test while having only 1 stick in the computer at a time?

[nevets1219]

To be honest, I don't remember if it will or will not. It seems likely that it should but if it doesn't, then the obvious choice is to test one stick at a time. The longer you run these tests the better (up to a certain point).

As for your problem regarding the "IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL", sometimes it's bad drivers and isn't always RAM. What causes it to appear?

[Take Five]

usually while gaming. i did just upgrade the nvidia drivers and it hasn't happened yet, but i'm not holding my breath since i haven't played for a long period yet. sometimes the computer completely freezes while i'm browsing the internet too...not sure if that's a related problem though.

[nevets1219]

If you have a faulty RAM, when it screws up it'll be completely visible to you (ie a BSOD). Try getting the full message from the BSOD and I believe there's a couple of sites that tells you what went wrong.

If the computer freezes completely, then it's possible that it is RAM related (but it could also be other things). If it's just the browser freezing, it may or may not be the RAM's fault.

You should be able to look in Event Viewer to see the previous errors.

[Take Five]

here's a picture of an overnight test results.


my friend suggested switching around the ram, so i've done that. still, i haven't gotten a BSOD since upgrading nvidia drivers. you guys have any other suggestions i should keep in mind? thanks.

edit: nevermind, it happened again while playing half-life 2.

[nevets1219]

If it's RAM then there's not much to do other than finding the faulty RAM and replacing it. Many RAM nowadays have lifetime warranties so I would check into that option but DEFINITELY make sure the RAM is faulty (ie checking one stick of RAM at a time and letting Memtest86 run overnight - the longer the better). Of course if your RAM is not covered by the warranty buying new ones seems like the only option to go.

A game crashing doesn't necessary mean it's RAM related and if Memtest86 doesn't catch anything it doesn't mean the RAM is completely error free - keep these two in mind. So I suppose run more trials, if the RAM comes up good I would check graphics card + hard drive both of which can lead to system instability.