IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL BSOD .. Please help!

[mookial]

Random times throughout the day I seem to get a BSOD with the IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error. I can't pinpoint exactly what it is but I've uninstalled my video card drivers and ran Memtest, which passed - yet still have the issues. Anyone have any ideas! My computer is not even a month old and these is really bugging me.

Specs:
Intel i5-3570K
8 GB 1600 MHz Corsair Memory
EVGA GTX 670 FTW
128GB Crucial m4 SSD
1 TB HDD
ASRock Extreme4 Z77 Mobo
750W Corsair Professional PSU

 

[RussK1]

I ran this after creating the restore point and got this:

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/4585/66616487.png

Leave the bios at default no OC.

Go to C:\Windows\Logs\CBS

Right click CBS.log and copy. Paste onto your desktop or you'll get access denied. Read through the log for corruption references.

In elevated command prompt as administrator type "chkdsk /f". This will take a while and will erase and fix file corruption.

 

[RussK1]

Yeah those look right. A little on the low side (if you haven't restarted yet) but otherwise right.

Since the Corsair Vengeance memory has the DDR3-1600 profile stored in an XMP profile rather than a JEDEC standard profile it won't be selected by default. Instead it will select the highest natively supported JEDEC profile which happens to be DDR3-1333. If you want to enable the DDR3-1600 profile you can enter the speed, voltage and timings manually or enable the XMP profile in the setup there somewhere.

The XMP profile would be in DRAM config. But you're right, bios will default to JEDEC standard no matter the rated speed.

 

[mookial]

The XMP profile would be in DRAM config. But you're right, bios will default to JEDEC standard no matter the rated speed.

Ok I'll set the XMP to the one it provides. As for the BIOS I have one person saying leave it default and the other saying raise the voltages. I'm beginning to believe the stability of my processor went down due to me overclocking without 100% knowing what I was doing. So that's why I'm shifting away from the defaults and using those custom voltages.

As for the chkdsk, I'll get back to you as soon as it finishes. Anything I should do after the chkdsk completes?

 

[Pinhedd]

Ok I'll set the XMP to the one it provides. As for the BIOS I have one person saying leave it default and the other saying raise the voltages. I'm beginning to believe the stability of my processor went down due to me overclocking without 100% knowing what I was doing. So that's why I'm shifting away from the defaults and using those custom voltages.

As for the chkdsk, I'll get back to you as soon as it finishes. Anything I should do after the chkdsk completes?

Chkdsk check's the filesystem, not the drive itself. It can do a very rudimentary scan for bad sectors but it's highly unlikely that Chkdsk will fix anything that would cause a BSOD.

 

[mookial]

Leave the bios at default no OC.

Go to C:\Windows\Logs\CBS

Right click CBS.log and copy. Paste onto your desktop or you'll get access denied. Read through the log for corruption references.

In elevated command prompt as administrator type "chkdsk /f". This will take a while and will erase and fix file corruption.

Ran chkdsk and it prompted me to press 'Y' in order to run on the next restart. When I restarted my computer it stopped where the Windows boot GUI would have been (have the GUI off to increase speed w/ SSD) and it stood there for a while. After it restarted normally and now I'm back at the desktop. Any other steps or just wait an see if BSOD's pop up randomly?

 

[Pinhedd]

Ran chkdsk and it prompted me to press 'Y' in order to run on the next restart. When I restarted my computer it stopped where the Windows boot GUI would have been (have the GUI off to increase speed w/ SSD) and it stood there for a while. After it restarted normally and now I'm back at the desktop. Any other steps or just wait an see if BSOD's pop up randomly?

Turn the GUI back on, that just sounds silly and should in no way impact boot speed.

 

[mookial]

Ok turned the GUI back on. As of now things "seem" stable (even though the BSOD's appear randomly, especially when I'm running my MMO and listening to Pandora). But it's a bit late now, 2:30 AM, so I'll check back in the morning. I'll run my daily routine tomorrow and see if I get any crashes. Thanks for the help you guys provided so far I greatly appreciate it.

P.S Pinhedd you said the volt was a little low. What line exactly? And why do you recommend I boost it up too?

 

[RussK1]

After chkdsk open the "event viewer" and expand "information" under event type. Scroll down and find "winlogon or wininit" entry. Expand (usually "wininit") and find EVENT ID "1001".

Chkdsk results should be here...

 

[Pinhedd]

Ok turned the GUI back on. As of now things "seem" stable (even though the BSOD's appear randomly, especially when I'm running my MMO and listening to Pandora). But it's a bit late now, 2:30 AM, so I'll check back in the morning. I'll run my daily routine tomorrow and see if I get any crashes. Thanks for the help you guys provided so far I greatly appreciate it.

P.S Pinhedd you said the volt was a little low. What line exactly? And why do you recommend I boost it up too?

All of the voltages that I recommended. CPU Vcore, VCCSA, VCCIO, VCCPLL. Those are supply voltages for 4 different key components on the CPU

Try setting VCore to ~1.25 volts

Try setting VCCSA to ~1 volt (it should be 0.925 volts by default)

Try setting VCCPLL to 1.85 volts (1.8 volts default)

Try setting VCCIO/CPUVTT (same thing) to 1.1 volts (default is 1.05)

 

[RussK1]

Turn the GUI back on, that just sounds silly and should in no way impact boot speed.

It actually does, but not much... maybe a second or two.

@mookial

Catch you tomorrow, good luck.

 

[Pinhedd]

It actually does, but not much... maybe a second or two.

Interesting. I'll take your word for it. If I were to take all the time I would save by doing that I'd almost have enough time to give a damn

I don't reset often though, to each his own

 

[gamerk316]

Ok a few things people:

1: For now, until this issue is resolved, remove any OC. No point trying to set an OC when you may or may not have a problem with H/W.

2: While these BSOD's are somewhat typical of bad RAM [PFN_LIST_CORRUPT and PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA are both indications that something got corrupt], based on the info right now, I'd be very wary of the HDD. So quick question: Are you running a SSD? If so, is the firmware up to date?

3:

Go to C:\Windows\Logs\CBS

Right click CBS.log and copy. Paste onto your desktop or you'll get access denied. Read through the log for corruption references.

Do this. The fact SFC came up with corrupt files is very worrying.

 

[RussK1]

Ok a few things people:

1: For now, until this issue is resolved, remove any OC. No point trying to set an OC when you may or may not have a problem with H/W.

2: While these BSOD's are somewhat typical of bad RAM [PFN_LIST_CORRUPT and PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA are both indications that something got corrupt], based on the info right now, I'd be very wary of the HDD. So quick question: Are you running a SSD? If so, is the firmware up to date?

3:

Go to C:\Windows\Logs\CBS

Right click CBS.log and copy. Paste onto your desktop or you'll get access denied. Read through the log for corruption references.

Do this. The fact SFC came up with corrupt files is very worrying.

Agreed.

I'm thinking SSD myself. Not hardware failure but rather corruption due to a bad OC...

@mookial

Did you perchance OC through BCLK?

 

[mookial]

Agreed.

I'm thinking SSD myself. Not hardware failure but rather corruption due to a bad OC...

@mookial

Did you perchance OC through BCLK?

I'm in fact using an SSD, crucial m4 128GB to be exact. I'm not sure what you mean by OC through BLCK, but as stated before I did OC by switching some settings in the BIOS. Last time I checked the firmware for the SSD was up to date but I will check again.

I have got the log file on my desktop, but it's a notepad document with hundreds maybe even thousands of lines. Not sure what I should be looking for.

 

[mookial]

After chkdsk open the "event viewer" and expand "information" under event type. Scroll down and find "winlogon or wininit" entry. Expand (usually "wininit") and find EVENT ID "1001".

Chkdsk results should be here...

Here's what I found in that entry:

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.


A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
169472 file records processed. File verification completed.
375 large file records processed. 0 bad file records processed. 2 EA records processed. 57 reparse records processed. CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
229432 index entries processed. Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned. 0 unindexed files recovered. CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
169472 file SDs/SIDs processed. Cleaning up 827 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 827 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 827 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
29981 data files processed. CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
33746712 USN bytes processed. Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

125026303 KB total disk space.
85929816 KB in 111394 files.
77700 KB in 29982 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
273835 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
38744952 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
31256575 total allocation units on disk.
9686238 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 96 02 00 4b 28 02 00 39 13 04 00 00 00 00 00 ....K(..9.......
2c 01 00 00 39 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ,...9...........
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

 

[RussK1]

I'm in fact using an SSD, crucial m4 128GB to be exact. I'm not sure what you mean by OC through BLCK, but as stated before I did OC by switching some settings in the BIOS. Last time I checked the firmware for the SSD was up to date but I will check again.

I have got the log file on my desktop, but it's a notepad document with hundreds maybe even thousands of lines. Not sure what I should be looking for.

In the document you can press "control + F" and type in "corruption" and use "find next" and scroll through and file out what is exactly corrupted.

 

[mookial]

In the document you can press "control + F" and type in "corruption" and use "find next" and scroll through and file out what is exactly corrupted.

Just searched for "corruption" & "corrupt", came with no search results.

 

[RussK1]

Have you had any BSOD recently?

 

[mookial]

Have you had any BSOD recently?

None except for the last one I got which was when I had the verifier set to all/standard. Currently running for about an hour and have not had any yet, that's with the voltage settings and all the other stuff we did previously.

 

[Pinhedd]

None except for the last one I got which was when I had the verifier set to all/standard. Currently running for about an hour and have not had any yet, that's with the voltage settings and all the other stuff we did previously.

Run a couple passes of Prime95. All Windows system files are digitally signed. If they were corrupted you'd never hear the end of it. Bad SSD firmware and bad SSDs can definitely cause BSODs though

 

[mookial]

Just got a BSOD as I was downloading Prime95. I checked my SSD firmware and it says it's up to date. What now =(?

 

[RussK1]

Run Whocrashed and copy/paste everything.

 

[mookial]

System Information (local)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

computer name: LOZZO
windows version: Windows 7 Service Pack 1, 6.1, build: 7601
windows dir: C:\Windows
CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3570K CPU @ 3.40GHz Intel586, level: 6
4 logical processors, active mask: 15
RAM: 8478806016 total
VM: 2147352576, free: 1895706624



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crash Dump Analysis
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crash dump directory: C:\Windows\Minidump

Crash dumps are enabled on your computer.


On Thu 8/2/2012 4:32:49 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\080212-10046-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7F1C0)
Bugcheck code: 0xA (0xFFFFFA8186314F5B, 0x2, 0x0, 0xFFFFF800030ED959)
Error: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that Microsoft Windows or a kernel-mode driver accessed paged memory at DISPATCH_LEVEL or above.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.


On Thu 8/2/2012 4:32:49 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\memory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntfs.sys (Ntfs+0x99F08)
Bugcheck code: 0xA (0xFFFFFA8186314F5B, 0x2, 0x0, 0xFFFFF800030ED959)
Error: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\ntfs.sys
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT File System Driver
Bug check description: This indicates that Microsoft Windows or a kernel-mode driver accessed paged memory at DISPATCH_LEVEL or above.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in a standard Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver on your system which cannot be identified at this time.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2 crash dumps have been found and analyzed. No offending third party drivers have been found. Consider configuring your system to produce a full memory dump for better analysis.


Read the topic general suggestions for troubleshooting system crashes for more information.

Note that it's not always possible to state with certainty whether a reported driver is actually responsible for crashing your system or that the root cause is in another module. Nonetheless it's suggested you look for updates for the products that these drivers belong to and regularly visit Windows update or enable automatic updates for Windows. In case a piece of malfunctioning hardware is causing trouble, a search with Google on the bug check errors together with the model name and brand of your computer may help you investigate this further.

 

[mookial]

Once again another crash. Same error IRQL..

 

[RussK1]

Shot in the dark here:

1) Open Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.

2) Click the Advanced tab.

3) Under Performance, click Settings.

4) Click the Advanced tab.

5) Under Virtual Memory, click Change.

6) Click No paging file. Click OK, ok, ok and make sure to apply.

7) Restart your computer.

8) Open Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.

9) Click the Advanced tab.

10) Under Performance, click Settings.

11) Click the Advanced tab.

12) Under Virtual Memory, click Change.

13) Click System managed sized. Click OK, ok, ok and make sure to apply.

14) Restart your computer.

BTW what version bios are you on? but in the meantime disable NOD32...

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20Extreme4/?cat=Download&o=BIOS

Next steps would be removing components. Using on-board video, removing RAM, swapping SATA ports, removing USB devices...