Windows 10: BSOD when running any game "irql_not_less_or_equal"

Hello everyone, hopefully someone here can help me with this issue I've been having on and off for the past few months.

I built this PC myself back in October using new parts and a PSU and one backup HDD from my old build. It has been running great up until around Christmas time when I started to get random BSODs which 99% of the time are irql_not_less_or_equal errors which only happen when I run a game.

Whenever I run a game it will run perfectly for a while and then out the blue, even when it's just sitting doing nothing, it will cause the PC to BSOD. I've tested running various games and they all cause me to BSOD but the BSOD itself is difficult to replicate as one day I will BSOD continually and other days it will run fine, it's very confusing.

So far I've tried:

• Learning how to read dump files which didn't work other than leading me to a win8 driver fault but I couldn't find out what driver it was, if that was even the issue in the first place
• Disabling various things that were running in the background that may have caused issues
• Unplugged various peripherals connected to my computer to see if it made a difference
• Ran Memtest for 9 passes which came back all clear
• Ran a couple of HDD tests as my old HDD before this build went bad so I still had them sitting on a couple of USB's, also came back fine
• Ran a few benchmarks on 3dmark and Furmark which didn't cause any BSOD
• Tried swapping memory into different DIMM slots
• Finally, yesterday I completely wiped off my old install and reinstalled Windows, only to have it BSOD again with the same error as before.

All of my attempts at troubleshooting this have failed. The only constant that keeps cropping up is in Event Viewer where I always get an Event id 56 error. I know Event Viewer isn't too helpful but this error always crops up a few seconds before my BSOD's so it may be connected I don't know. They do however crop up randomly at other times and don't cause a BSOD but from googling it myself I found many others with the same motherboard and Skylake generation CPU as me who also get these id 56 errors, however they have their PC freeze up but not crash whereas I get a BSOD.

I apologise for writing a wall of text, however I hope some of this is at least marginally useful for anyone who can help me with this, its driving me mad. Any help you guys and girls can give me will be greatly appreciated!

:)

 

" Waiting for approval " until when !????

It means that it's waiting for approval from your operator and it has nothing to do with Nokia.

You could call your operator and ask about this approval, someone in technical service may know that how long it takes to approve the newest firmware. (For some reason, every operator has to approve the firmware updates and only after that their clients
can do the update)

 

" Waiting for approval " until when !????

Hi

i have a nokia N8 with the following product code 059D1M2 im always checking for the update realase , now its been a month evryday i check the updates availability i find " Waiting for approval" is nokia joking on us or what !!?

 

Hello shad and welcome to Tenforums! *Smile

I see that you have performed a wee bit of test prior to posting which is always a handy as it is easier for us here at the forum to then narrow it down. While looking at your files I noticed one thing that you haven't done, and that is to flash the BIOS.

Your version 0802 is actually dragging behind a bit, the latest on is at 1105 and before the latest one there were 4 updates which improve system stability.

So if you please kindly head over to the ASUS Support page:
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z1...Desk_Download/

And download the latest BIOS update, first you will have to choose your OS and then expand the BIOS link in blue text.

And don't apologize for the wall text, I rather have a buttload of information about the problem than having none.

Oh and if you are unfamiliar with how to flash the BIOS, you can use an ASUS tool called EZ Update which is bundled in the Asus AI Suite 3, and here is a page on how to perform it:
EZ Update Introduction | Official Support | ASUS Global

Cheers /Boris *Smile

 

Hi shad0121,

Welcome to the 10forums.

This part makes me believe we need to deal with a hardware issue.

You have done a lot of things already, meaning there are just a few things left.
Please try to test your CPU





Diagnostic Test

CPU TEST


Run Prime95 - Stress Test Your CPU - Windows 10 Forums CPU - Stress Test Using IntelBurnTest - Windows 7 Help Forums



Note If you're overclocking anything, please stop it and set everything back to default while troubleshooting


Warning Your CPU temperatures will rise quickly while under this stress test. Keep a keen eye on them and abort the test if overheating occurs.

 

Hi guys, thanks for the welcome and advice.

I need to contact the place I got the parts from before updating the bios as it was a cpu/mobo bundle and the warranty may apparently be voided if I update the bios without talking to them first. I'd have loved to know that was the case before buying the bundle but heyho. Once I hear back from them I'll hopefully get on with flashing the bios.

This bundle issue also relates to running prime95 as the cpu/mobo came pre overclocked but your message says to remove it which again I'd need their approval for (teaches me not to buy a bundle).

They did run tests on their overclock for 48 hours before sending it to me which passed and I never had issues prior to this so I'd guess it's safe to assume the OC is stable? If that's the case then would I be fine running prime95 with the OC still applied until I hear back from them? If so I'll get straight on that when I'm back from work.

Sorry to be a hassle like this, I should probably have thought to mention this but at the time it never crossed my mind. I would have waited until they got back to me but I thought it best to update you guys rather than stay silent. Apologies and thanks again for this!

 

Unless one is playing with the OC to find the stability settings, it isn't recommended to troubleshoot while OC is present.

 

OK thanks, once I hear from them I will remove the OC, update the bios and run prime95. This is of course if they do allow me to alter the bios, otherwise I assume my only option is to RMA the bundle unless there is anything else I can do?

 

You have already done most other possible things, but there are some things you can check like the PSU, cooling and cabling.

 

How does one check the PSU other than trying a new one? I had issues with my last build where I had BSODs and changing my psu ended up fixing it but I don't know how to check for issues or if there is even a way.

I also assume since there isn't much else it's most likely a hardware or bios problem rather than a driver issue and the win8 driver fault I found was just a result of me being useless at reading dump files? This doesn't surprise me heh.

 

PSU - Test DC Output Voltage - Windows 7 Help Forums

Win8_driver_fault part is something you'll often see in dumps, but it doesn't mean much more then that the 'engine' of Windows 8 is being used.

 

Thanks for that. I guess I'll wait until they get back to me and check the PSU when I get home.

I won't take up any more of your time until I hear back and will update this thread when I get more info or another BSOD.

Thanks so much for all of this though, at least now I'm a lot closer to narrowing down the culprit of my problems *Smile

 

So I heard back from where I brought the parts and was told I can remove the OC but updating the bios isn't possible unless I discuss it further with them as I need a "valid reason". Either way, since I removed the OC I went ahead and ran prime95 as well as aida64.

Prime I left running overnight for 8 hours and it was all fine, aida I left running for about 6 hours which was also fine. Temperatures on both never went above 60c so that also rules out overheating.

I'm seriously thinking since you mentioned PSU that it could be the issue here. I haven't managed to test it but just thinking out loud here, if the PSU is going bad, surely it's possible that it's able to run my PC fine a lot of the time, but when gaming which is going to draw more power, it struggles and ends up not delivering enough power? It's also worth noting my PSU is a Corsair HX850 so it should be giving me enough power easily unless it's going bad.

I may be just barking up the wrong tree here but since I had random BSODs with my old build and replacing the PSU fixed it, maybe that's the cause now? That requires me to buy a new PSU just as guesswork though but I assume all other bases have been covered and it can't be anything software related or any of the hardware I've tested so that just leaves the PSU?

I'm going to stick at stock clock speeds and see what happens tonight, if there's no BSOD then either it was the OC, power draw issue with the PSU or it's just pure luck and will BSOD again in the coming days.

This really has me scratching my head now.

 

You can tell them it is for system stability, there is no better reason.

 

So I'm not sure what the issue was but it seems fixed now. I've been running with a spare PSU and lowering my ram frequency and one or both of these things seems to have fixed it. Thanks for all the help!