Question Cannot find the source of BSOD

[Dakiller]

Hi there everyone! so i have been having an issue with my pc of late where i seem to have kept getting BSOD with the error string IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. now i have run through the bellow options and i have the results of each test next to it so you can see what i have tried. This error however has since (i hope) gone but could still be an issue or related to the current one, however i am unable to replicate it as of yet. what IS still an issue is another BSOD error that happens when i use bitdefender to scan the system this error string is SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION caused by ntoskrnl.exe which i have read is usually memory or driver related, but as you'll see bellow i have run test for these and nothing. Any help would be HUGELY appreciated

I will lay it out like Test - Result sorry for any formatting issues i am not the best at forums

Windows Update - Nothing
Checked SSD health and predicted failure - Health fine on both SSD's and no predicted failure
Memory Diagnostic - No problems detected
Driver Updates (manually did each one) - Only 1 needed updating the communitactions port
Used SFC to find corrupt files - It did find and fix some (not sure what or where)
Tried driver verifier - Resulted in multiple crashes to point where i needed to use restore point, no useful data acquired
Updated nvidia driver seperatly - I am unsure if this has had an effect on first BSOD but has not changed second

I read that these types of ntoskrnl.exe caused errors are usually driver or memory oriented but as you can see neither of those thingsseem to have any issues and i still get the BSOD. i am pretty good at computer stuff but i am far from an expert and could really use some advice on what i should do/ try next. If you have any questions i will answer them best i can. also i built this pc a while back so i know all the parts if you want those too

Thanks for taking the time to read all this and i hope to hear from you guys soon - Chris

 

[Ralston18]

PSU: make, model, wattage, age ("a while back"), condition: original to build, new, refurbished, used? History of heavy gaming use or video editing?

Take a look in Reliability History and Event Viewer.

Either one or both tools may be capturing some related error codes, warnings, or even informational events just before or at the time of the BSOD's.

Clicklin/selecting any given entry can provide more details. The details may or may not be helpful.

= = = =

Power down, unplug, open the case.

Clean out dust and debris.

Verifiy by sight and feel that all connectors, cards, RAM, jumpers, and case connections are fully and firmly in place

Things work loose over time and consequently cause any number of intermittent problems.

Use a bright flashlight to inspect for signs of damage or other potential problems.

 

[Dakiller]

PSU: make, model, wattage, age ("a while back"), condition: original to build, new, refurbished, used? History of heavy gaming use or video editing?

Take a look in Reliability History and Event Viewer.

Either one or both tools may be capturing some related error codes, warnings, or even informational events just before or at the time of the BSOD's.

Clicklin/selecting any given entry can provide more details. The details may or may not be helpful.

= = = =

Power down, unplug, open the case.

Clean out dust and debris.

Verifiy by sight and feel that all connectors, cards, RAM, jumpers, and case connections are fully and firmly in place

Things work loose over time and consequently cause any number of intermittent problems.

Use a bright flashlight to inspect for signs of damage or other potential problems.

Thanks for replying Ralston

PSU: Corsair RM850x ATX Gold 850 watts is around 2 years old now and it and all parts where bought new and assembled into the pc by me also i brought everything at the same time so its all around 2 years old

It does have a history of moderately heavy gaming but no video editing

Regarding the Reliability and event viewer i have used blueScreen veiwer to read those and got these errors but not anything as to the culprit other than ntoskrnl.exe which as you know is basiclly useless as it could be allot of things

I will take out and reinstall the ram now and check for damage and will let you know if that has fixed the issue, again thanks for helping me with this

 

[Dakiller]

PSU: make, model, wattage, age ("a while back"), condition: original to build, new, refurbished, used? History of heavy gaming use or video editing?

Take a look in Reliability History and Event Viewer.

Either one or both tools may be capturing some related error codes, warnings, or even informational events just before or at the time of the BSOD's.

Clicklin/selecting any given entry can provide more details. The details may or may not be helpful.

= = = =

Power down, unplug, open the case.

Clean out dust and debris.

Verifiy by sight and feel that all connectors, cards, RAM, jumpers, and case connections are fully and firmly in place

Things work loose over time and consequently cause any number of intermittent problems.

Use a bright flashlight to inspect for signs of damage or other potential problems.

Unfortunately it did not solve the issue but on the plus size there is no sign of damage anywhere in the pc so at least that isn't causing it

 

[Ralston18]

Do you have a multi-meter and know how to use it? Or know someone who does?

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-manually-test-a-power-supply-with-a-multimeter-2626158

Not a full test because the PSU is not underload. However, any voltages out of tolerance make the PSU suspect.

 

[johnbl]

Hi there everyone! so i have been having an issue with my pc of late where i seem to have kept getting BSOD with the error string IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. now i have run through the bellow options and i have the results of each test next to it so you can see what i have tried. This error however has since (i hope) gone but could still be an issue or related to the current one, however i am unable to replicate it as of yet. what IS still an issue is another BSOD error that happens when i use bitdefender to scan the system this error string is SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION caused by ntoskrnl.exe which i have read is usually memory or driver related, but as you'll see bellow i have run test for these and nothing. Any help would be HUGELY appreciated

I will lay it out like Test - Result sorry for any formatting issues i am not the best at forums

Windows Update - Nothing
Checked SSD health and predicted failure - Health fine on both SSD's and no predicted failure
Memory Diagnostic - No problems detected
Driver Updates (manually did each one) - Only 1 needed updating the communitactions port
Used SFC to find corrupt files - It did find and fix some (not sure what or where)
Tried driver verifier - Resulted in multiple crashes to point where i needed to use restore point, no useful data acquired
Updated nvidia driver seperatly - I am unsure if this has had an effect on first BSOD but has not changed second

I read that these types of ntoskrnl.exe caused errors are usually driver or memory oriented but as you can see neither of those thingsseem to have any issues and i still get the BSOD. i am pretty good at computer stuff but i am far from an expert and could really use some advice on what i should do/ try next. If you have any questions i will answer them best i can. also i built this pc a while back so i know all the parts if you want those too

Thanks for taking the time to read all this and i hope to hear from you guys soon - Chris

you should put your kernel dumps on a cloud server, share the files for public access and post a link.

driver verifer bugchecks are very useful but you have to know how to turn it off if it bugchecks during the boot process.
ie turn off any fast boot options, make sure you can get into safe boot so you can run verifier.exe /reset to allow the system to boot.
people should use one of these options:
verifier /bootmode [persistent | disableafterfail | oneboot]

verifier.exe /bootmode oneboot (and your other options you want to use)

or the diableafterfail flag
(each version of windows might have slightly different flags)
Driver Verifier Command Syntax - Windows drivers | Microsoft Learn

I think the system will go into safe mode after 3 failed boots but you would still have to run verifier.exe /reset to turn off verifier.
you should have a bunch of minidumps that will have the info about why windows called the bugchecks.

the two bugcheck you mentioned are kind of generic.
one means a device driver violated the windows memory manager rules. IE the driver told windows it had all of its data in active memory and would run at a higher priority than the windows memory manager. Then the driver tried to access a memory address that was not in memory and would not let the windows memory manager page in the new memory address. This is a deadlock so windows called a bugcheck.

this can be caused by bad driver code, RAM problems, drivers corrupting other drivers data, overclock settings in BIOS, overclock software, bad RAM timiming settings in bios or malware

the second bugcheck means that a running service started a call and that resulted in a bugcheck most likely due to a access violation due to a bad memory address used. This is common with certain mouse drivers, or mouse firmware that needs to be updates. It also happens when people update drivers but do not update the app that updates the service. Also, third party services at a malware target for infection. many services pass handles from the service to the driver thinking that it ok but it is not. It only works until window memory manager decides to move memory objects around or to page them to virtual memory. Then the service accesses the handle and corrupts the kernel memory data and later some other driver tries to use the memory and causes a bugcheck.

when these problems occur it is hard to tell if the named driver is the cause of the problem or just the victim of the data corruption in the kernel memory space. (drivers share all of the same kernel memory space for speed of access reasons)

verifier changes how kernel memory is allocated and it puts a header and tail on each allocations and does a bunch of error checking for rule violations. Many third party drivers do not follow the rules and cause a bugcheck during bootup with verifier turned on. often these are not even the cause of the problem that you are looking for and you have to exclude the driver from verifier testing to get the system to boot. in this case you have to add /driver.exclude DriverList switch to the verifier command
(driverlist is the list of driver to exclude)
all of the microsoft provided driver should at least pass the bootup. Most of the problems will be in third party drivers.



best to provide the memory dumps.