Question I'm getting random IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL BSODs on a regular basis ?

[ConorDuey2000]

Hello. As of recently, my computer is having some big problems. It's been getting IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL BSODs on a regular basis. I've tried debugging the BSODs using WinDbg, but they just told me "Process name: System" so that means I have no idea what's causing these BSODs. I've tried reinstalling various drivers, uninstalling various software, updating Windows, updating the BIOS, and everything else that I could do besides reinstalling Windows. I really don't wanna live with these random BSODs, anymore, and I was wondering if any of you could help me stop them from happening.

Here is the kernel dump and here are some minidumps.

PC Specs
Mobo: ASUS TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI)
Mobo BIOS Version: American Megatrends Inc. 5021
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X 8-Core CPU
GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060
OS: Windows 11 Pro 24H2

UPDATE: I really need help, man. As of writing this, I've gotten at least ten BSODs in a single day and I wasn't even doing anything abnormal with my computer. I ask anybody reading this to try their best to help me stop my computer from getting these BSODs because they're really driving me crazy.

UPDATE 2: My situation has gotten much worse as of writing this. Now, my computer can't even make it past an hour without getting a BSOD. I'm currently doing everything I can to get these to stop. I've tried searching for these problems I have on Google, DuckDuckGo, and other search engines, but I haven't gotten any results. It seems like nobody else has this problem except for me. I'm calling for anybody who reads this to try and help me get these BSODs to stop happening as long as they're able to do so because at this point, my computer's almost unusable.

 

[ConorDuey2000]

I finally ran Prime95. I ran the "smallFFTs" test and the moment I started it, my computer got an IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL BSOD. I did have CoreTemp running, but it was no use since my computer got a BSOD right after starting Prime95. Here is the kernel dump and here is the minidump.

 

[ubuysa]

That's not a good sign, however, the dump produced showed the BSOD could possibly have been caused by either the graphics driver or the graphics card, the Nvidia graphics driver nvlddmkm.sys was called in the lead-up to the bugcheck.

Based on everything we have seen in this thread I'm still leaning at a bad CPU but it's also possible that this is a bad graphics card and there is a test for that.

1. Download DDU and the most recent four drivers for your RTX 2060 from the Nvidia drivers site. If you game then download the game ready drivers, if you don't game then download the studio drivers, they are sometimes more stable.
2. Use DDU to remove all traces of the current driver.
3. Install the most recent driver and see whether the PC BSODs.
4. If it does BSOD use DDU to remove the driver and install the next back-level version.
5. If it BSODs then repeat the above, using DDU and installing the next back-level version.

If it BSODs on all back level driver versions then it's not a driver issue.

In that case I would try to borrow a graphics card from someone to try in place of yours. Be sure to use DDU to remove the driver for your 2060 and also install the appropriate driver for whatever graphics card you can borrow. This will allow you to confirm whether the graphics card was at fault (the BSODs will stop) or whether it's the CPU at fault (The BSODs will continue even with a replacement graphics card).

I know of no other way to reliably confirm whether this is a bad CPU or a bad graphics card. I'm still leaning towards the CPU but it would be very wise for you to borrow a graphics card before spending money.

 

[ConorDuey2000]

That's not a good sign, however, the dump produced showed the BSOD could possibly have been caused by either the graphics driver or the graphics card, the Nvidia graphics driver nvlddmkm.sys was called in the lead-up to the bugcheck.

Based on everything we have seen in this thread I'm still leaning at a bad CPU but it's also possible that this is a bad graphics card and there is a test for that.

1. Download DDU and the most recent four drivers for your RTX 2060 from the Nvidia drivers site. If you game then download the game ready drivers, if you don't game then download the studio drivers, they are sometimes more stable.
2. Use DDU to remove all traces of the current driver.
3. Install the most recent driver and see whether the PC BSODs.
4. If it does BSOD use DDU to remove the driver and install the next back-level version.
5. If it BSODs then repeat the above, using DDU and installing the next back-level version.

If it BSODs on all back level driver versions then it's not a driver issue.

In that case I would try to borrow a graphics card from someone to try in place of yours. Be sure to use DDU to remove the driver for your 2060 and also install the appropriate driver for whatever graphics card you can borrow. This will allow you to confirm whether the graphics card was at fault (the BSODs will stop) or whether it's the CPU at fault (The BSODs will continue even with a replacement graphics card).

I know of no other way to reliably confirm whether this is a bad CPU or a bad graphics card. I'm still leaning towards the CPU but it would be very wise for you to borrow a graphics card before spending money.

I'll try to use DDU and follow the instructions. Unfortunately, I don't have another GPU that I can borrow and a buying a new graphics card would be too expensive, especially in a case where it's not confirmed that buying a new graphics card will completely stop the BSODs from happening. Either way, I'm spending lots of money to get my computer to stop having these BSODs.

In the case if the GPU or CPU doesn't work, I'd rather start with simple and free/cheap solutions to get them working again. There's reseating the GPU, reapplying thermal paste onto the CPU, cleaning the inside of my computer, supplying more power to the computer, etc.

 

[ubuysa]

Reseating the GPU is a good idea, that does sometimes help. Before repasting the CPU check the temperatures both at idle and under as big a load as you can put on the CPU.

The PSU is a possibility too, what PSU do you have (make and model) and how old is it.

I'm pretty certain this is a hardware problem because it fails in Safe Mode but please download the SysnativeBSODCollectionApp and save it to the Desktop. Then run it and upload the resulting zip file to a cloud service with a link to it here. The SysnativeBSODCollectionApp collects all the available troubleshooting data and that may provide some additional clues to help you. It DOES NOT collect any personally identifying data. It's used by several highly respected Windows help forums (including this one). I'm a senior BSOD analyst on the Sysnative forum where this tool came from, so I know it to be safe.

You can of course look at what's in the zip file before you upload it, most of the files are txt files. Please don't change or delete anything though. If you want a description of what each file contains you'll find that here.

 

[ConorDuey2000]

The PSU is a possibility too, what PSU do you have (make and model) and how old is it.

I have an EVGA power supply. I forgot the model name, but I do know that I got it five years ago.

I'm pretty certain this is a hardware problem because it fails in Safe Mode but please download the SysnativeBSODCollectionApp and save it to the Desktop. Then run it and upload the resulting zip file to a cloud service with a link to it here. The SysnativeBSODCollectionApp collects all the available troubleshooting data and that may provide some additional clues to help you. It DOES NOT collect any personally identifying data. It's used by several highly respected Windows help forums (including this one). I'm a senior BSOD analyst on the Sysnative forum where this tool came from, so I know it to be safe.

You can of course look at what's in the zip file before you upload it, most of the files are txt files. Please don't change or delete anything though. If you want a description of what each file contains you'll find that here.

I also ran the SysnativeBSODCollectionApp and here is the ZIP file that the program created.

 

[ConorDuey2000]

By the way, I don't know if this is necessary, but I finally got a BSOD where "System" wasn't the process name that caused it. This time, it was caused by "NVIDIA Overlay.exe" and it was a KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE BSOD. Here is the kernel dump and here is the minidump.

 

[ubuysa]

I have an EVGA power supply. I forgot the model name, but I do know that I got it five years ago.

There will be a label on it somewhere. We need the model number and the power output. The PSU is the heart and soul of any PC and power issues cause all sorts of strange problems.

There is a critical file missing from that Sysnative upload, the msinfo32.nfo output. Did you see any error messages when running the Sysnative app, or have you deleted files before uploading? Please enter the command msinfo32 in the Run command box. In the window that opens click the File > Save command and save the msinfo32.nfo file to a location of your choice. Then upload the file to the cloud with a link to it here.

What are you doing with Hyper-V and virtual machines? There is a Hyper-V virtual network adapter defined...

Ethernet adapter vEthernet (Default Switch):
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-15-5D-20-FE-D8
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::f211:20cf:b08a:91c3%28(Preferred)
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 172.22.240.1(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.240.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
   DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 469767517
   DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-29-AF-2D-5B-A8-5E-45-51-2A-8B
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

I can also see a lot of Hyper-V connection requests too...

Log Name:      System
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-Hyper-V-VmSwitch
Date:          27/12/2024 17:22:00
Event ID:      232
Task Category: None
Level:         Information
Keywords:      (128)
User:          SYSTEM
Computer:      Compy
Description:
NIC C08CB7B8-9B3C-408E-8E30-5E16A3AEB445 (Friendly Name: Default Switch) successfully connected to port C08CB7B8-9B3C-408E-8E30-5E16A3AEB445 (Friendly Name: Host Vnic C08CB7B8-9B3C-408E-8E30-5E16A3AEB444) on switch C08CB7B8-9B3C-408E-8E30-5E16A3AEB444(Friendly Name: Default Switch).

There are also error messages for Hyper-V components...

Log Name:      System
Source:        Service Control Manager
Date:          27/12/2024 17:21:53
Event ID:      7000
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      Compy
Description:
The l1vhlwf service failed to start due to the following error:
A hypervisor feature is not available to the user.

You also seem to be trying to use the User Experience Virtualisation services (and failing)...

Log Name:      System
Source:        Service Control Manager
Date:          27/12/2024 17:21:53
Event ID:      7024
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      Compy
Description:
The UevAgentService service terminated with the following service-specific error:
The storage control blocks were destroyed.

And to cap it all, the hypervisor (and thus Hyper-V) is not even starting

Log Name:      System
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-Hyper-V-Hypervisor
Date:          27/12/2024 17:21:36
Event ID:      42
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      (70368744177664)
User:          SYSTEM
Computer:      Compy
Description:
Hypervisor launch failed; Either SVM not present or not enabled in BIOS.

I can also see that you're attempting (and failing) to use the Windows Remote Access service...

Log Name:      System
Source:        RemoteAccess
Date:          27/12/2024 17:21:58
Event ID:      20063
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      Compy
Description:
Remote Access Connection Manager failed to start because the Protocol engine [IKEv2] failed to initialize. The request is not supported.

The IKEv2 protocol referenced there is an encryption technique typically found in VPNs. Are you using a VPN? You haven't mentioned one before. In any case, the remote access feature can be incredibly dangerous, depending on to whom you give remote access and what level of access they have.

I can also see you attempting (and failing) using the Windows Function Discovery Resource Publication service to publish your PC on a network....

Log Name:      System
Source:        Service Control Manager
Date:          27/12/2024 17:21:56
Event ID:      7023
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      Compy
Description:
The FDResPub service terminated with the following error:
One or more arguments are invalid

I can also see you attempting (and failing) to use a Smart Utilities (third-party) tool, the shared PC account manager, to manager accounts on shared PCs...

Log Name:      System
Source:        Service Control Manager
Date:          27/12/2024 17:21:54
Event ID:      7023
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      Compy
Description:
The shpamsvc service terminated with the following error:
Catastrophic failure

There seems to be a great deal that you haven't told us about how you use this PC and what features you've enabled, what third-party management products you've installed, especially as many of these features are either not fully configured or not working properly.

Your silence on what you've been doing has led us to very nearly have you replacing hardware components!

I think we need to start again here, with you being honest and open about EXACTLY what you have been using this PC for, and what you have been attempting to accomplish. A full and frank disclosure from you might save you spending money on hardware that may not be at fault at all...

I'm sorry if I sound a tad ticked off here, but I don't appreciate being deliberately kept in the dark when I'm giving up my time and energy to try and help.

 

[ConorDuey2000]

There is a critical file missing from that Sysnative upload, the msinfo32.nfo output. Did you see any error messages when running the Sysnative app, or have you deleted files before uploading?

I don't think what I did would change anything, but msinfo32 got stuck on analyzing the Serial ports, or at least I believe it did, and I cancelled it before it could finish analyzing because I didn't have enough time and I had to do other things. Maybe I should try disabling some of the serial devices in Device Manager since there seems to be a lot of "Standard Serial over Bluetooth Link" devices in Device Manager. I'll run the Sysnative app, again, after I do so.

What are you doing with Hyper-V and virtual machines? There is a Hyper-V virtual network adapter defined...

I can also see a lot of Hyper-V connection requests too...

I stopped using programs that use Hyper-V such as VMWare and WSL because of the constant and random HYPERVISOR_ERROR BSODs that happened. After I stopped using VMWare and WSL, those BSODs stopped happening. Now, I use QEMU for virtual machines and I use another computer that I have for WSL. I unchecked Hyper-V in "Turn Windows features on or off" and restarted my computer so I'm sure that will remove anything left on my computer relating to Hyper-V.

The IKEv2 protocol referenced there is an encryption technique typically found in VPNs. Are you using a VPN? You haven't mentioned one before. In any case, the remote access feature can be incredibly dangerous, depending on to whom you give remote access and what level of access they have.

I don't use a VPN that often. I only use it occasionally when I wanna download something from a website that has a download wait limit. That's the only time I use a VPN.

I can also see you attempting (and failing) using the Windows Function Discovery Resource Publication service to publish your PC on a network....

I can also see you attempting (and failing) to use a Smart Utilities (third-party) tool, the shared PC account manager, to manager accounts on shared PCs...

All that I know what I do that relates to shared PCs and networks is that I set up shared folders in File Explorer to transfer files between my computers instead of using something like a USB to save time.

There seems to be a great deal that you haven't told us about how you use this PC and what features you've enabled, what third-party management products you've installed, especially as many of these features are either not fully configured or not working properly.

Your silence on what you've been doing has led us to very nearly have you replacing hardware components!

I think we need to start again here, with you being honest and open about EXACTLY what you have been using this PC for, and what you have been attempting to accomplish. A full and frank disclosure from you might save you spending money on hardware that may not be at fault at all...

I'm sorry if I sound a tad ticked off here, but I don't appreciate being deliberately kept in the dark when I'm giving up my time and energy to try and help.

Don't worry. I understand why you're upset. Stuff about any third party management apps and features just didn't cross my mind when I tried to give you information about my computer. I didn't think that it was important since I'm not that skilled in PC diagnosis. You also don't have to worry about me buying new hardware components. I didn't get anywhere close to replacing them since I believed that no matter what, I wanted to get the BSODs to stop without having to replace any of my computer's parts.

 

[ConorDuey2000]

I've disabled the User Experience Virtualization service, the Windows Remote Access service, the Windows Function Discovery Resource Publication service, the Shared PC Account Manager service, and restarted my computer, but that still didn't stop the BSODs from happening. Even after doing that, I still randomly get multiple BSODs on a daily basis. My computer wouldn't even be idle. I'd just be using my computer as normal and I'd get a BSOD out of nowhere. All of them are IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EUQAL BSODs where the process name was "System". I ran the SysnativeBSODCollectionApp, again, but before I did that, I disabled all of those "Standard Serial over Bluetooth Link" devices in Device Manager. However, msinfo32 got stuck on analyzing the Serial ports. Anyway, here is the ZIP file that it created. I hope that it still contains enough information to at least get one step closer to getting those BSODs to stop happening.

 

[ubuysa]

In all honesty I think a completely clean reinstall of Windows is now your best way forward, I rather suspect that your system is in something of a mess.

When you do a reinstall PLEASE take these points into consideration....

1. Backup ALL your user data first. Backup everything you can. Back it up twice to more than one location/device if you can.
2. Unplug all external devices except the mouse, keyboard, and ONE monitor (the main one).
3. If the BIOS will allow you, disable all drives except the one where you intend to install Windows. Not only will this prevent accidental overwrite of user data on those drives, more importantly it will ensure that the installer places everything on the system drive. (If there are multiple drives online the installer may place the boot files on a different drive to the Windows drive).
4. Do a clean install from bootable media. DO NOT use Windows Reset or Cloud Reset.
5. Choose a Custom Install and delete all the partitions on the system drive (where you will be installing Windows), so that the entire drive shows as 'unallocated space'.
6. Select (highlight) that unallocated space and click the Next button. The installer will create the appropriate partition structure and install Windows.
7. Once Windows boots for the first time you'll have to go through the initial setup (language, region, userid, etc.). Take your time with this and be sure you understand each choice you're being asked to make.
8. Then run Windows Update repeatedly, even after reboots, until no more updates are found. This will install all necessary updates and should install all the necessary drivers.
9. Once all updates are done open Device Manager and look to see whether any devices have a yellow triangle containing a black exclamation mark next to them. This icon indicates that they do not have a driver installed. In that case visit the driver download site for your motherboard and download the necessary drivers from there.
10. DO NOT install any third-party apps or plug in any devices yet. At this point test the PC as thoroughly as you can with just Windows and drivers installed and see whether it will fail - if it does fail then it's definitely a hardware problem.
11. Once you are happy that it's stable, enable in the BIOS all those other drives that you disabled and check again that the system is still stable.
12. Plug in any additional monitors and check again that the system is still stable.
13. Plug in any other external devices (printers, scanners, etc.) and be sure to install any necessary drivers (get these from the device vendor's website). Check again that the system is still stable.
14. Now install your third-party apps. Do this one at a time and check after each install that the system is still stable. This is important to avoid unknowingly reinstalling the problem app.

I appreciate that this will be a slow process and all you really want is a working system back, but this step-by-step approach is the best way to ensure that you get a stable system.

 

[ConorDuey2000]

In all honesty I think a completely clean reinstall of Windows is now your best way forward, I rather suspect that your system is in something of a mess.

When you do a reinstall PLEASE take these points into consideration....

1. Backup ALL your user data first. Backup everything you can. Back it up twice to more than one location/device if you can.
2. Unplug all external devices except the mouse, keyboard, and ONE monitor (the main one).
3. If the BIOS will allow you, disable all drives except the one where you intend to install Windows. Not only will this prevent accidental overwrite of user data on those drives, more importantly it will ensure that the installer places everything on the system drive. (If there are multiple drives online the installer may place the boot files on a different drive to the Windows drive).
4. Do a clean install from bootable media. DO NOT use Windows Reset or Cloud Reset.
5. Choose a Custom Install and delete all the partitions on the system drive (where you will be installing Windows), so that the entire drive shows as 'unallocated space'.
6. Select (highlight) that unallocated space and click the Next button. The installer will create the appropriate partition structure and install Windows.
7. Once Windows boots for the first time you'll have to go through the initial setup (language, region, userid, etc.). Take your time with this and be sure you understand each choice you're being asked to make.
8. Then run Windows Update repeatedly, even after reboots, until no more updates are found. This will install all necessary updates and should install all the necessary drivers.
9. Once all updates are done open Device Manager and look to see whether any devices have a yellow triangle containing a black exclamation mark next to them. This icon indicates that they do not have a driver installed. In that case visit the driver download site for your motherboard and download the necessary drivers from there.
10. DO NOT install any third-party apps or plug in any devices yet. At this point test the PC as thoroughly as you can with just Windows and drivers installed and see whether it will fail - if it does fail then it's definitely a hardware problem.
11. Once you are happy that it's stable, enable in the BIOS all those other drives that you disabled and check again that the system is still stable.
12. Plug in any additional monitors and check again that the system is still stable.
13. Plug in any other external devices (printers, scanners, etc.) and be sure to install any necessary drivers (get these from the device vendor's website). Check again that the system is still stable.
14. Now install your third-party apps. Do this one at a time and check after each install that the system is still stable. This is important to avoid unknowingly reinstalling the problem app.

I appreciate that this will be a slow process and all you really want is a working system back, but this step-by-step approach is the best way to ensure that you get a stable system.

Thanks for helping me, but on post 33, I wrote that one of the things that I won't do to try and get these BSODs to stop happening is reinstalling Windows. I have many programs on my C drive that can't be backed up. I also have lots of storage on my other hard drives and I don't have a NAS. I'd have to buy more storage or a NAS in order to back up every file on my computer. What can be done, instead, is analyzing the ZIP file that I created with the SysnativeBSODCollectionApp. If you don't wanna analyze it, then you can teach me how to analyze it.

 

[ubuysa]

Without wishing to sound rude that's not a sensible answer, that's a cop-out. From everything you've been saying, and those things that we have tried in order to diagnose your problem, I'm of the opinion that either your Windows system is badly messed up, largely because of unwise changes that you appear to have been making, or your hardware has a problem. The only way to determine which at this point is to clean install. But it's your PC and if you don't want to reinstall Windows then that's your call, but I don't see how I can help you further.

With the greatest respect, analysing the files and reports in that zip file requires several decades of experience and a pretty decent knowledge of Windows internals (in as much as Microsoft make public). It's not the kind of thing you can learn overnight. In any case, I don't think the answer to your problems is in there. Your system is just messed up and needs a clean install IMO.

 

[ConorDuey2000]

Without wishing to sound rude that's not a sensible answer, that's a cop-out. From everything you've been saying, and those things that we have tried in order to diagnose your problem, I'm of the opinion that either your Windows system is badly messed up, largely because of unwise changes that you appear to have been making, or your hardware has a problem. The only way to determine which at this point is to clean install. But it's your PC and if you don't want to reinstall Windows then that's your call, but I don't see how I can help you further.

With the greatest respect, analysing the files and reports in that zip file requires several decades of experience and a pretty decent knowledge of Windows internals (in as much as Microsoft make public). It's not the kind of thing you can learn overnight. In any case, I don't think the answer to your problems is in there. Your system is just messed up and needs a clean install IMO.

If performing a clean install is your only recommendation for me to get those BSODs to stop happening, then I'll find another way to get them to stop happening, myself. To be honest, I'd rather put up with the BSODs than lose the many items on my C drive that I can't back up. Anyway, so far, disabling those services has put me one step closer to solving my BSOD problem. I left my computer idle overnight and when I got back to it, I saw that my computer didn't get any BSODs.

 

[ubuysa]

If by 'can't back up' you mean installed programs, then no, you can't back them up as is. You can however locate the installation file for these programs and reinstall them after you have reinstalled Windows. You can (and should) take a disk image of your system drive before you begin the reinstall (using Macrium Reflect, Acronis, etc.), that will allow you to later access any user files and user data that you didn't backup elsewhere.

Of course you're welcome to look elsewhere for help, others on here may be able to help you further. If you find a solution elsewhere then please post back on here, I'd be interested to know what that solution is. I'll be surprised however, if you find a reliable solution that doesn't involve a reinstall of Windows.

 

[ConorDuey2000]

If by 'can't back up' you mean installed programs, then no, you can't back them up as is. You can however locate the installation file for these programs and reinstall them after you have reinstalled Windows. You can (and should) take a disk image of your system drive before you begin the reinstall (using Macrium Reflect, Acronis, etc.), that will allow you to later access any user files and user data that you didn't backup elsewhere.

Of course you're welcome to look elsewhere for help, others on here may be able to help you further. If you find a solution elsewhere then please post back on here, I'd be interested to know what that solution is. I'll be surprised however, if you find a reliable solution that doesn't involve a reinstall of Windows.

At this point, I don't really need any further help and I don't need to reinstall Windows. It seems that disabling those services has stopped these BSODs from happening. As of writing this, my computer has been on for over 48 hours and it hasn't gotten a single BSOD.

 

[Lutfij]

You guys might want to divert your attention to a new thread here;

Question - PC randomly getting BSODs, possibly due to Hypervisor ?

Hello. I'm creating another thread because my computer still has this big problem where it randomly BSODs. Here's a link to the prior thread; https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/im-getting-random-irql_not_less_or_equal-bsods-on-a-regular-basis.3865299/ I could be normally using my...

forums.tomshardware.com

Locking this thread since 65 + posts would be too much for anyone's diet.