Windows 10: BSOD IRQL_not_less_or_equal, ntoskrnl.exe

Hi,

I have a new Windows 10 computer and I'm regularly getting a BSOD with IRQL_not_less_or_equal error message interrupting my gaming.

ntoskrnl.exe is said to be "probable cause" when I look at the crash dmp, but I don't really know what that means.

I have quite a lot of hardware connected including Oculus Rift, X-Box controller and Fanatec CS2 Wheel & Pedals, so I was hoping that the cause may point to something more obvious like one of those drivers.

Because its a new PC I've installed and connected everything all fairly recently so its more ambiguous what the cause may be, but it seems to occur during 3D output (either on Oculus or via monitor), rather than browsing internet and such like.

I've attached my zip file, so it would be great if anyone can shed any light on this for me as I've never encountered this on my old PC, even after I upgraded it to Win 10.

Thanks *Smile

:)

 

BSOD: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, SYSTEM_THREAD_NOT_HANDLED

Greetings,

last week i made some hardware changes to my laptop (lenovo z70-80). I installed a new ssd and upgraded my 4gb RAM to 16 gb RAM . The next day i experienced some BSOD errors (only at a cold startup, after the reboot of the system everything works just fine).
Most commonly the cause of BSOD was SYSTEM_THREAD_NOT_HANDLED and just lately the IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. I post the info from the last BSOD as got from blue screen viewer :

Bug Check String;

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

Bug Check Code: 0x0000000a

Parameter1: 00000000`00060001

Parameter2: 00000000`000000ff

Parameter3: 00000000`00000000

Parameter4: fffff802`8266bf72

Caused by Driver: ntoskrnl.exe

Caused by Address: ntoskrnl.exe+16c580

File Description: NT Kernel & System

thanks in advance.

 

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL BSOD NTOSKRNL.EXE

You are welcome.

 

Disconnect all the hardware, does the BSOD go away? If yes, reconnect it one at a time and see what happens.
Are you overclocking or is 4Ghz the normal speed for this CPU and board? If overclocking, try setting speeds and timings to default values.

The dumps are pretty useless as they do not provide a clue to the actual cause.

What you could do is run Driver Verifier and see if that shows anything.

Driver Verifier is a diagnostic tool built into Windows 10, it is designed to verify both native Microsoft drivers and third party drivers. Driver Verifier's verification process involves putting heavy stress on drivers with the intention of making bad, outdated, incompatible or misbehaving drivers fail. The required result is a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) which will generate a crash dump for debugging purposes.
Machines exposed to Driver Verifier will run very sluggishly due to the stress being applied to the drivers.

Driver Verifier - Enable and Disable in Windows 10

Pay close attention to


PART TWO


and make sure the correct boxes are checked.

Warning:
It is not advised to run Driver Verifier for more than 48 hours at a time. Disable Driver Verifier after 48 hours or after receiving a BSOD, whichever happens soonest.

Always create a Restore Point prior to enabling Driver Verifier.

What we're looking for is a BSOD with a mini dump that will tell us what driver caused it.

 

Thanks for your quick reply and suggestions.

I started to notice a pattern that it only seemed to happen when my wireless Xbox One Controller (supplied with Oculus) was switched on. So I've removed it for time being to see if I still get the random BSOD. So far so good.

If it does turn out to be that, then I'm not sure why, because my understanding is that it should work on Windows 10 without any probs. However maybe the device driver is causing a conflict with one of my other devices (Fanatec wheel, wireless mouse?). But too soon to say yet. If I still don't get the BSOD for a while I'll plug the controller back in to see if it happens again, as it happened quite quickly last time I did that (even though the controller always appears to work fine).

Will let you know how it goes after more testing.

 

There have been other BSOD threads where the XBOX controller was the cause. I can't find them at the moment but I know there have been a couple.

 

In many situations with Xbox drivers we see this driver from 2009, the one of 2009 is the version that causes the issues.
Driver Reference Table - xusb21.sys