News How to Fix IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL Errors in Windows 10

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Colif

Win 11 Master
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At least they mentioned Toms this time.

Not often running SFC/DISM fix BSOD. Most are caused by 3rd party drivers.

I’ve seen the IRQL error on more than half-a-dozen occasions in my 6-plus years of working with Windows 10. In all but one instance, the cause was a buggy Nvidia GeForce graphics driver.

i don't see GPU drivers cause IRQ error very often.
 
While I wasn't getting a IRQL errors. My Radeon RX 580 was crashing with the latest drivers installed. I just removed them and let Windows use the ones it gets through Windows Update to solve it.

Anyways, I wasn't aware of the "perfmon /rel" option. It's nice to see in Critical Events that there are a bunch from Radeon Software: Host Application. Confirming my diagnosis.

Although with a fast flash drive for installing the OS and a fast backup drive for restores. It's usually quicker to just clean install than spending a few hours tracking down a problem. If the answer isn't quickly found. I just clean install the OS. Probably takes an hour or two to get back up and running. I should probably just get in the habit of cloning for an even quicker restore. Now that I've got two NVMe SSD in my main PC. I could likely get my boot/software drive back to it's last good state in under thirty minutes.
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
I don't know how many people I have helped with BSOD in the last 5 years, but I haven't had one myself in that entire time.

IRQ errors are a pain, they often just blame ntoskrnl which is the windows kernel. It was what crashed but its victim. Not cause. Clean installs don't always fix it. It depends on if its a driver you can replace easy.

windows memory checker better than nothing but memtest is a safer bet - https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/how-to-test-your-ram.3691373/
 
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Elterrible

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If your computer is blue screening and giving you the IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error, follow these steps to solve the problem.

How to Fix IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL Errors in Windows 10 : Read more

Had this once in my life, suspected the Nvidia Driver, wasn’t them… Thought it might be battlefield V, it wasn’t. Found out through process of elimination that it was a bad stick of RAM. As soon as I removed that RAM, the machine never did it again.
 

randomizer

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I used to get these around once a month after I filled up all of my RAM slots, along with hard locks a few times a week. 6 DIMMs was probably too much for my 12-year-old memory controller to handle.
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
If I knew what caused IRQ errors I would have made a link like this 5 years ago but what fixes one may not fix another.

There is no silver bullet that fixes them all. Vast majority of people aren't prepared for or want to clean install win 10 to fix an error. Its why I generally leave that to last step, if I can't figure out cause via dumps or association (if you can tell what it was doing during the crash you might be able to work out what cause is), then it is a choice. I have seen them survive a clean install too so its not a perfect solution.
 

compprob237

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Aside from what is covered in the article this is actually a common error with overclocking. It indicates instability with the memory controller or the memory itself. Most of the time you need to bump the voltage to the IMC a few steps. If you're specifically overclocking the RAM then it might need a bump of voltage as well.
 

bloodroses

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Linux is the ultimate service pack for resolving issues such as this. One simple clean install, no more problems.

They're called a Kernel Panic in Linux when it happens, and it's usually black :ROFLMAO: I've been there many times myself over the years while trying to repurpose old hardware with Linux.

I'm just glad I very rarely see BSODs or kernel panics compared to the days when running Window 9x OSes
 
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