My backup computer, a pentium III 500 running XP...recently went nuts. Just one day as I was switching between a game window and the window playing TV, it gave me a quick blue screen and then died. After that...It has had trouble booting up. Every time I boot it up it would freeze just as the XP desketop came on screen, even before the start button came on. Anyhow, so I thought, it's probably time to format anyways.

So I did.

Now...When I install XP two things may occur. Either my computer just locks up during installation of XP, the part after the blue screen menu and where XP is just copying files...Basically the part after the first time the computer reboots itself...

Now...Another situation is the one I have topic title. If my computer doesn't just lock up then I will get this blue screen of death and it says,

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

Then the usual crap message...and then it says

*** STOP: 0x000000D1 (0x00000000, 0x00000010, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

I've tried the usual...Since I have 2 sticks of RAM in there, 256 and 128, I've tried taking one out. I've also tried changing their RAM slots...

I've already ripped out all the hardware in the computer except the video card. Still...it's not working. I need help!

Well .. i wish I could help.. sounds bad.. hopefully someone on geeknewz will know how to help

what kind of video card? I used to have the same message along with the blah blah thread stuck in an infinite loop BSOD. It can happen with either nvidia or ati and when it happened to me it all had to do with the ram timings and the motherboard flaking out. 1 thing you can do is turn the acceleration down in the display properties or you can turn down the memory speeds in the bios. This is if its the same problem I had. Becuase now the same card which was having those problems works fine in my new motherboard and memory even with it overclocked.

Whoops I forgot to read the part about it being during installation... umm, try the memory timings in the bios but I doubt you can even change them on a computer that old/slow.

How are you trying to Reinstall? are you just booting from the CD and formating? try a Fdisk the boot from CD.

it kindda sounds like Bad Ram, but you said you switched the sticks... maybe try ram that you know works.

or download the Microsoft ram tester program.
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

Maybe Flash your Bios? try a different OS?

or even switch video cards if you can.

or even Pull the Battery out of the motherboard for about 15-20 minutes to reset everything, that might help

I can almost guarantee it's your video card that is causing the issue

Im thinking bad RAM either on the video card or in system... either one would do it if you have a spare video card to swap out try that the install if you still get the same message try changing out your stick (sticks ???) of RAM one at a time.. (might try that bootable RAM tester but it wont do anything with video ram...) I had this problem once and it turned out to be a bad stick of ram. I thought it was XP for the longest time untill I ran the RAM test and low and behold there it was anyway another couple of things it could be Mobo or Hard Drive (although I reeaaaly suspect RAM or some sort...)

Man...The thing is the system was working fine for a long time.

I have a feeling it's my vid card too. It's an ATI All in Wonder 7500. now i can't watch tv while i'm on my main computer!

I'll try swapping vid cards. I do have a GeForce 2 GTS somewhere...I think I lent it to my friend, I better try and get it back.

Alrighty, I swapped video cards...Same damn thing happened.

And MS agent, I tried the RAM thing right from the start...I took one out...Then I put it back in and took the other out...Then I did the same thing but in different slots...

I just did a hard drive test...and RAM test...everything is fine. So how come XP won't install???

hmm are you sure its not your WinXP CD ?

Yea...I've started to wonder as well. But I haven't touched the CD and it's been sitting inside my mobo box. I don't see how it could get damaged or corrupted...

Sigh...

EDIT: But wait...How come the symptoms I am getting now (ie. the lock ups and BSOD) are similar to the ones I was getting back when I first encountered the problem BEFORE I formatted and now using the XP CD to reinstall...hmm...

Hate to say this, it might be your MoBo.

did anyone even read what I said? heh...

well you could try intalling a different os and see if all goes well... :S

well can you change your fsb/memory speed? if so bump them down a notch and give it a try.

I could try that...At this point I'm willing to try anything.

I'll look again later. I've gotta run out now.
But...Why would it screw with the installation? I've never OCed my system...in any parts...turning it down would suck.

Well looks like Troa was right. I turned down the CPU to 333 (66) instead of it's default 500 (100)...and now I can run XP...I really didn't want to do this but for now...it'll have to do.

Anyone have any ideas why this is so?

EDIT: Troa is insane at CS

if you can still get into xp with bumping the fsb back up to 100 you can turn down the hardware acceleration for your vid card and should stop it, but it kind of has the same effect as lowering the fsb so its kind of a one or the other sorta thing, not sure which would be better.

hmmm sounds like some part on your bourd is going out... in a few days or weeks even at that speed it might crash. Anyway could it be a heat issue ? (never thought of it till now) hmm you mgith check to see if your fan is turning and if its not then this would couse over heating and random crashes (If this is the problem be thankful you didnt have like a 2Ghz part couse it would have metled)

Try reducing the speed of your RAM by increasing your RAM timings.

i.e. CAS Latency = 2 try changing setting to 2.5 or 3

I have some problems installing windows before because I tried to make my RAM move too fast very similier to the error you experienced.

Unless the RAM speed went up on its own...I don't think I've ever touched its settings.

Yeah guess your right, but it looks like you have tried everything else. Good luck

my coomputer keeps going BSOD and it says DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
it happens frequently sometimes, if i turn on my bitcomet... in 10 sec it will go BSOD for sure. anyone know why? i did a dianostic check on my harddrive and ram, they seem to be fine... the the motherboard,cpu,video card and power supply is new...
using: radeon x800 GTO2
cpu AMD64 Athlon 7300+ 64 bit
motherboard : asus a8n-e
2 gigs of ddr ram
power supply antec true power 550 watt
sound card: creative audigy2 platanium pro
harddrive: western digital caviar SATA 250gigs 7200 RPM 8mb

i really don't know what i'm talking about, but as many know on this gnz thingy....this is how i ended up on this site.......had a monster that would not go away.....finally learned the hard way to delete completely (not playing games with them) and start brand new.......

Welcome to GeekNewz nestee, Googled around a bit for ya and found some possibilities for you to check.

1. Try turning off your Hyper-threading in your BIOS, this seems to have worked in other some instances.

2. Go to your Device Manager and check for hardware conflicts

3. This particular BSOD also has been known to show up if your graphics card is sharing an IRQ with a network card, don't know what to do there as from what I understand XP doesn't allow you to change IRQ assignments, maybe a different NW card?

4. It has also been known to show up if there is a conflict between your anti-virus and XP's built in one, maybe try disabling the XP one? dunno

5. Lowering the FSB speed slightly or the graphics card speed has been a solution for some also.

These are some of the solutions I ran into, here is a (very) long thread on just this issue> http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/5695/?o=0

Hope this gets you pointed in the right direction (and I hope you read this thread too for other ideas). Anyhow, make sure to keep a log of any changes you make, create a restore point too I think, in case you have to start over and best of luck.
Be sure to keep us posted, especially if you find a solution that works for you as it will no doubt help others in the future.

Cheers,
Serge

I'll help you out did you try a new power supply. Sometime that can cause the computer lock up.. try that and get back.