I Keep Getting A Blue Screen Usually With The Message Irql Not Equal Or Less. Also My Cpu Seems To Get Very Hot. My Daughter And I Play The Sims 2 And Expansions Quite A Lot Could This Be Anything To Do With It? Fault Appears To Be Intermittent So It Can Happen Anytime.

Os Is Windows Xp
Processor Is X86 Family Amd 1532 Mhz
Total Physical Memory 384mb

I Installed Some New Memory About A Year Ago (256mb) I Have Been Told That It Could Be Bad Ram But That It Is Rare. Now I Have Done The Windows Memory Diagnostic Test And It Did Fail. Can Both Memory Sticks Have Failed Or Is There Something Else I Am Overlooking? I Would Appreciate Any Help With This I Know A Little About Computers But Not An Awful Lot.

Many Thanks

Bridget

Can you expand the error e.g.

Stop: 0x0000000A (parameter1, parameter2, parameter3, parameter4) IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL*** Address x has base at x - filename

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314063&sd=RMVP

Typically due to a bad driver, or faulty or incompatible hardware or software.

Technically, this error condition means that a kernel-mode process or driver tried to access a memory location to which it did not have permission, or at a kernel Interrupt ReQuest Level (IRQL) that was too high. (A kernel-mode process can access only other processes that have an IRQL lower than, or equal to, its own.)

http://aumha.org/win5/kbestop.htm

Were there any error messages from the Windows Memory Diagnostic? Here is a more detailed scan if you wish:
http://www.memtest86.com/

You can try running on just the 256 just to test. That is a minimum for a good running XP.
The 128 would barely be able to support XP let alone other programs.

Do you have sensors on your CPU? How hot is it?

You can change this setting to get more detail in your errors:
rt. click My Computer then click Properties then Advanced then Startup and Recovery Settings then unclick Automatically restart

You can also follow this if you wish:
Go to start | search (type in) .dmp
Note the location of your latest .dmp file.

Then:

1) Download and install the
Debugging Tools from Microsoft
2) Download and install this
debugwiz
3) Open the Wiz & Browse to, or paste in the path to, your latest .dmp file.
4) After the Wiz creates a Text document attach it back to this thread.

Hi

Thanks for getting back to me. First of all let me say that my knowledge of computers is very limited. I downloaded and ran the extended memtest86. The computer failed on

LRAND
STRIDE6
ERAND
WSTRIDE6
MATS+ (CACHE OFF)

OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 1 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name BRENNANS
System Manufacturer VIA
System Model K7VT2
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 1 AuthenticAMD ~1532 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. P1.20, 10/12/2002
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\System32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920)"
User Name BRENNANS\BRIDGET BRENNAN
Time Zone GMT Standard Time
Total Physical Memory 384.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 173.85 MB
Total Virtual Memory 1.27 GB
Available Virtual Memory 942.55 MB
Page File Space 920.78 MB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys


On the windows test it failed everything miserably with dozens of errors.

I do not know if I have sensors on my CPU but it does get very hot indeed almost too hot to touch. I have opened it up and dusted the inside but that doesnt help. The fault is intermittent for instance at the moment as I type this email the computer is working fine. It's very hard to idenify what sets it off.

You mentioned removing one of the memory cards I have tried taking the 128mb out but the computer starts to bleep and wont boot up.

Once again thank you very much for your reply and if you can help any further I would be most grateful

Regards

Bridget

Originally Posted by jephree

Can you expand the error e.g.

Stop: 0x0000000A (parameter1, parameter2, parameter3, parameter4) IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL*** Address x has base at x - filename

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314063&sd=RMVP

Typically due to a bad driver, or faulty or incompatible hardware or software.

Technically, this error condition means that a kernel-mode process or driver tried to access a memory location to which it did not have permission, or at a kernel Interrupt ReQuest Level (IRQL) that was too high. (A kernel-mode process can access only other processes that have an IRQL lower than, or equal to, its own.)

http://aumha.org/win5/kbestop.htm

Were there any error messages from the Windows Memory Diagnostic? Here is a more detailed scan if you wish:
http://www.memtest86.com/

You can try running on just the 256 just to test. That is a minimum for a good running XP.
The 128 would barely be able to support XP let alone other programs.

Do you have sensors on your CPU? How hot is it?

You can change this setting to get more detail in your errors:
rt. click My Computer then click Properties then Advanced then Startup and Recovery Settings then unclick Automatically restart

You can also follow this if you wish:
Go to start | search (type in) .dmp
Note the location of your latest .dmp file.

Then:

1) Download and install the
Debugging Tools from Microsoft
2) Download and install this
debugwiz
3) Open the Wiz & Browse to, or paste in the path to, your latest .dmp file.
4) After the Wiz creates a Text document attach it back to this thread.

Try removing the 256.

The PC probably wouldn't boot up after you removed the 128Mb RAM module because that was in the first slot. You could try removing the 256Mb module from the second slot, as Jephree suggested, or remove the 128Mb and move the 256Mb module to the slot that the 128Mb module was in. If the 256Mb module has been working OK for a year, then it's a little more likely that the 128Mb has failed.

The CPU (processor) SHOULD be almost too hot to touch. That's quite normal. The temperature sensors, if you have them, will be in your BIOS. It's rather hard to explain what to look for, however, as there are many different variations on how this information might be displayed. To be honest though, it doesn't sound like the processor temperature is the problem so I wouldn't worry about that too much at the moment.

RAM problems are rare, as you've already been told, so for two memory diagnostics problems to return errors, that certainly doesn't sound like one or both of the RAM modules are faulty. Once you've got the PC to boot up with just one module fitted, run the diagnostics programs again. If they report no problems, then it would be fairly reasonable to assume that the other module is faulty but, at that point, we could swap them over and run the tests again to check.

Let us know how you get on

Thank you so much to the folks who replied to my emails. I have removed the 128mb module and so far so good the 256mb seems to be doing ok on its own. Here's hoping!

Thanks again

Regards

Bridget

Originally Posted by DJNafey

The PC probably wouldn't boot up after you removed the 128Mb RAM module because that was in the first slot. You could try removing the 256Mb module from the second slot, as Jephree suggested, or remove the 128Mb and move the 256Mb module to the slot that the 128Mb module was in. If the 256Mb module has been working OK for a year, then it's a little more likely that the 128Mb has failed.

The CPU (processor) SHOULD be almost too hot to touch. That's quite normal. The temperature sensors, if you have them, will be in your BIOS. It's rather hard to explain what to look for, however, as there are many different variations on how this information might be displayed. To be honest though, it doesn't sound like the processor temperature is the problem so I wouldn't worry about that too much at the moment.

RAM problems are rare, as you've already been told, so for two memory diagnostics problems to return errors, that certainly doesn't sound like one or both of the RAM modules are faulty. Once you've got the PC to boot up with just one module fitted, run the diagnostics programs again. If they report no problems, then it would be fairly reasonable to assume that the other module is faulty but, at that point, we could swap them over and run the tests again to check.

Let us know how you get on

That's great news - thanks for the update

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