Blue Screen Crashes Since Update

[ShamblerEx]

Since the update today Quake has crashed every time I've tried to play it (5 times). 3 times it crashed when loading, twice mid game.

Goes straight to the blue windows crash screen (A problem has been detected etc....). Has the usual text and also...

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

[Chibers]

Could be a driver issue from what I've read on it, but I could be wrong.

[Adderall]

There are many reasons why your system may crash due to a DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL STOP or BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) error, so this guide will provide some common tips that may solve the problem, along with some troubleshooting advice.


This error message means that the system attempted to access pageable memory using a kernel interrupt request level (IRQL) that was too high. This is one of the most common errors and has many possible causes, but the most common scenarios are:
Faulty drivers
Hardware issue
Anti-virus software problem
Overclocking too far
If you notice any filenames mentioned on the blue screen, googling for the filename may indicate if it is attached to any driver or software package. This can pinpoint the driver which you need to update. SCSI, Network and graphics drivers are often the offenders if this is a driver problem - so you can try updating all your drivers manually if it is difficult to track down the problem.

It is possible to analyse a "dump file" which contains more detailed information about the crash. These dump file are located in C:\Windows\MiniDump and can be opened using diagnostic packages or posted to the forums for analysis by an expert. This extra information will often provide a good clue to the BSOD crash.

If you aren't able to boot in to Windows 7 to fix the problem, you may be able to boot using safe mode (press F8 during startup, or follow this guide) and access Windows again. If this still doesn't work, try selecting the "Last known good configuration" option. If this also fails, using system restore to roll back your system a few days may be a valid option. You can use your Windows 7 installation DVD to boot to the recovery options menu, then select "System Restore".

Hardware issues are more difficult to diagnose, but if you have resorted to a clean install of Windows 7 and the problem still occurs, then it is a possibility. Memory is a frequent culprit, so you can use a tool like MemTest (or the Windows 7 memory diagnostics) to check your RAM for problems. Replacing components is often the only foolproof way to check for faults.

http://www.w7forums.com/driver_irql_...ual-t4537.html

[Lorfa]

There are tools you can use to get crash information from a BSOD. Worth researching.

I had random blue screens occurring for a while, and when I ran the tools I found that it was a device driver causing the problem. I guess they had become corrupt or whatever, because after I reinstalled them I haven't had a BSOD since.

[ShamblerEx]

Hi, thanks for the quick replies guys, much appreciated, I didn't want to post a response without some kind of progress to report on my part.

After 5 frustrating days I have finally made a breakthrough! I took your ideas on board and initially thought it was something to do with my graphics card driver, then I nearly broke my PC altogether after messing with the file ntoskrnl.exe!

The last couple of crashes though gave mention to the file symefa.sys. After a bit of googling I discovered that someone on the symantec forums was having similar trouble to me. Turns out Norton trying to initialise background tasks was causing the blue screen. Someone suggested turning on silent mode in Norton, which would prevent this. I have and have had no crashes for over an hour now (was crashing after 5 mins tops before).

Hoping an update from Norton will now fix this altogether. Sorry if I've kinda wasted u guys time, but it did start happening straight after the quake update!

Many thanks again

[Lorfa]

Thanks for getting back to us ShamblerEx!

[Adderall]

Hi, thanks for the quick replies guys, much appreciated, I didn't want to post a response without some kind of progress to report on my part.

After 5 frustrating days I have finally made a breakthrough! I took your ideas on board and initially thought it was something to do with my graphics card driver, then I nearly broke my PC altogether after messing with the file ntoskrnl.exe!

The last couple of crashes though gave mention to the file symefa.sys. After a bit of googling I discovered that someone on the symantec forums was having similar trouble to me. Turns out Norton trying to initialise background tasks was causing the blue screen. Someone suggested turning on silent mode in Norton, which would prevent this. I have and have had no crashes for over an hour now (was crashing after 5 mins tops before).

Hoping an update from Norton will now fix this altogether. Sorry if I've kinda wasted u guys time, but it did start happening straight after the quake update!

Many thanks again

This anti virus program works w/o a problem.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...tials-download

[ShamblerEx]

lol, turns out my PC was trolling me as it starting playing up the next day again :'(

I've used a program called BlueScreenView to analyse the dumps which suggests the problematic files are amdk7.sys and ntoskrnl.exe. Are there people on the forum here who could look at the dump files?

Thanks!

[Adderall]

Issue

NTOSKRNL.EXE is missing or corrupt.

Related errors

Below is a listing of the full error message that may be related to this error.

Windows NT could not start because the below file is missing or corrupt:

C:\Winnt\System32\Ntoskrnl.exe

Cause

Keyboard issue
Miscellaneous corruption
Corrupt boot.ini file.
Missing boot.ini file.
Missing or corrupt ntoskrnl.exe file.
Windows NT installed on a partition bigger then 7.8GB
Corrupted hard drive or severely corrupted Windows.

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000646.htm

[ShamblerEx]

After much time spent trying to solve this I finally figured the problem. I had the misfortune of one of my memory sticks and my graphics card breaking within a week of each other.

All sorted now though, thanks for the responses guys!