been getting a lot of stop errors lately. IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL does anyone know of a way to fix this? I've looked around online and one site said it was most likely the PCU over heating or the memory is failing. Anyone know what should be the best course of action? I called my dad, he works for HP, but hes in California til friday night so he cant take a look at it for a few more days.

The computer is a year and 1/2 old. Running XP home with 512mb of memory, 2.8 ghtz processor. Nice computer, but I'm finding out Dells are from Hell.

I doubt your CPU is bad. Sounds like either a bad card or motherboard, or more likely just a driver issue.
What version of windows? What kind of computer?

I must have edited my first post as you responded to it. The main system info is in my first post.

Depending on how computer smart you are, you can try a few things.
Easiest thing would be to run a full recovery. This would put the computer back to day one and delete all your stuff, so back it up first. It would eliminate the chance of it being a software issue.
More advanced thing at this point woudl be to uninstall and reinstall drivers for everything you have drivers for. Most Dell's have a "driver" CD to let you do this. Or, get them from their website.

You could pull PCI cards out one by one seeing if the problem goes away. Could always be a hardware issue with those.

lol if your looking up pornography and i mean and yes havent we all at one point or another. The best thing to do is totally delete windows. Reinstall it with the disks that Dell gives you. Yes the 6 or 7 discs that came with it. Pick the one named windows. It is purple. Put reinstall advanced. Enter your card key which is the little #s on the side of your computer. Sometimes called the windows key. Then your going to have to do a another long line of junk. ive maxed out my key so i have to reinstall windows every 31 days or pay 100 bucks lol screw that. You better back your files up though because everything but your memory in your H drive is deleted and this is readily accesable. That is even out of my league.

no I'm not looking up porn, sry to disappoint...

Well thats one of the biggies of screwing up a computer, either that our your just getting radnom error messages. If your truly are out of memory that quick you obviously used it on somthing. Computers just dont screw up ya know. lol Do you download a lot of music, games, etc. If so youve probably ran into a virus, trojan, etc. I dont look at porn either I just know that its one of the easiest ways to infect your computer.I got my computer screwed up because of song downloading. What type of virus anti hacker software you got anyway. Another simple way to sometimes fix a problem would be to system restore. You select that by going into the tools section under the start menu and putting it back to an earlier date. Let me know if that works as well.

I use Nortin Anti-virus (Corporate Ed.). My dad does internet security for HP so I get freebies, but I can still get infected. Nortin doesnt find anything, and neither does yahoo anti-virus. Scan disc says its all good. I tried doing a dell driver reset but it says that there isnt any problems. Ive done system restores before and they dont fix the problem. All I know is I'm pretty well screwed, depending on if I can get this sorted out I may be in the market for a new pc.

As to what i do on my computer. I watch Top Gear (british car show) on youtube a lot and I'd imagine that taking up some memory. I also like playing flight simulators and those are very large programs, and you can never have too much memory.

yeah sounds like you have more of a driver computer problem then anything infecting your computer. Sounds like its in the mother board or other things that are out my league. I know virus files, how to find viruses, virus types, and how and where they implant themselves. I dont even use a virus program I know where to find them if I get them and I recognize them lol. But well sorry I couldnt help. hope ya get it fixed though.

Hey Brown, try this. Restart your computer, and press F8 at the character-mode screen that displays the prompt For troubleshooting and advanced startup options press F8. On the resulting Advanced Options menu, choose the Last Known Good Configuration option. I've had to do this a few times on my machine and friends of mine machines. We play alot of games and sometimes the drivers get screwed up.

Have your dad get you an HP. That's what I'd recommend.

Yes Dell is crap... That error is from 1)a driver issue 2)hardware issue... More then likely a driver issue...

goto start>all programs>accessories>system tools>system restore and do a restore to a date that was before your having these problems, after that goto microsoft update and download all the latest drivers, that should solve your problem, if you still experience it, reinstall windows and that should correct it

More then likely its a Driver problem rather then hardware failure

I've tried doing a system restore, didnt work. I've done "restart in last known good configuration" and that doesnt do anything. And good old dell didnt give me a copy of XP with my computer, so I'm not sure how I would reinstall XP.

I've also tried running my comupter without the modem and sound card in it and I still get the error. I'm about ready to punt this machine against the wall too see if that fixes it.

My mom has a Dell.

It is the biggest piece I have ever seen. It's brand spanking new, and I hate it. I have a four year old Gateway laptop running Windows2k that I prefer WAY more. I'd rather bleed profusely from my eyes than use that Dell. My best friend grew up around computers, she built her own, her dad runs a computer business, and even she doesn't completely know why it does some of the things it does.

Dell puts so much useless crap on them before they ship them out, it's just unbelievable. Some of it is spyware, too. If you can get your dad to bring you a copy of WinXP, just wipe the HD and reinstall the non-Dell version of XP; you'll be grateful in the end.

Why is it that I can do anything on my computer (internet, word processing, minor programs) but when I want to play a game it takes a dump on me?

I acctually have a job interview with Dell next week, LOL... they are crap, and it sounds like a bad driver, goto dell.com and download all the drivers and install them

I've done the driver upgrades. They dont do a darned thing. The audio driver they offer doesnt work on my computer, I did the chipset driver...nothing. I did the BIOS...nothing. Before I bought my computer I was looking at an HP desktop also...now I'm kicking myself wishing I would have gotten that one.

Might just have to take the comp into a shop, or call Dell

Is your video card upto snuff for your games?

I had a Dell laptop and hated it. Dell uses the cheapest parts available so you never know what the reliability is.

Here's my newest computer just got it on friday and lovin it

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/mce5000.asp?v=d

I upped my ram to 1 gig, video card to a 512 and I only have 160 gig HD. Plus I got extra case fans and an upgraded power supply.

Good deal. I took my old HP PC and gutted it.

2 300GB hard drives (I use it as a media center PC so I capture a lot of video)
1 GB RAM
TV tuner video card
new case

I basically replaced everything but the motherboard.

If I'm reading this right, light loads your fine, but once you do something heavy, it craps out.

Test out your memory here's something you can try
http://www.memtest86.com/#install

You'd have to burn a image to a CD though...not sure if you know how/have the software to do so though.

Prime 95
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

This test your CPU and memory. Download the program, install it (instructions on the site). Start it up, and click options, then click torture test. Use Blend option to test RAM more, choose inplace large FFTs and Small FFTs to test more CPU.

ATI Tool
http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/

This is a program that will test your video card...it's also a program used for overclocking, but you don't need to mess with that part of the program. Install it, and start the program. Then click scan for artifacts.

Try runnning these over night to see what happens. If Prime errors out, post the error on why it failed. ATI Tool will just start artifacting, if it fails. This means it'll have strange dots, lines, etc. It'll look wrong.

Also, you can check how many volt your power supply is putting out. You'll need a voltmeter for this one. Pull off the side of the computer, while it's running. Find a molex connector, there should be some extra ones in there, they're little plugs/connectors. You'll be able to stick the probe thing from your voltmeter into one of the holes in the connector. The two center ones are grounds and the one with a red wire running to it is 5v and the one with the yellow wire running to it is 12v. 5v a "safe" range for the 5v is ~4.9-5.3. The 12v is ~11.9-12.5ish. Low volts here can cause all kinds of trouble for you.

I build computer/work on them in the spare time and make some money doing it for gas. If you have any other questions, let me know.

Jesse

jjcom gave some great info. I've used memtest a lot.. its very accurate. let it run for at least 1-2 hours since your memory is a suspect.

Can you be more specific as to when you are getting this error?

If its happening in games, your video card can be taking a dump. Check to see how hot the heatsink on the video card is getting, and if theres a fan on it, if its spinning.

I'm not posative, but I believe I have a 256mb graphics card. So it should be able to handle the load.

I like aviation and I have several flight sims in my collection from over the years. Every time I put in MS flight sim 2004, or the new Flight Sim X you'll hear the cd-rom running hard to read the disc. Maybe 15 seconds later, the drive stops and a blue screen appears.

Also, the tower must have been designed by an ex-circus monkey strung out on narcotics because there is only one fan in the box that is located in the front-ish. There is a breeze way area where air can flow through, but is closed from the front.

I know, I'm a poor duster, and that may very well have caused this problem.

The back does have grating like stuff so air can flow through, but I can imagine it getting quite warm in there

I don't think an underpowered video card would be causing your problem. I'm leaning towards overheating or just plain bad card.

You could get another video card at best buy, install it, and see if your problem goes away. Return within 30 days.

By the way how are you liking flight sim X? Is the frame rate as annoying as the reviews say?

Well, it is a bit choppy. You're gonna need a really fast computer to run it. My computer isnt really fast but its at least double what the min. requirements are in all areas. I did get to play it for about an hour and just as I'm in line to land I get a buzzing noise in my headphones and then the blue screen appeared. Needless to say I was pissed.


Last night I ran the two tests as recommended. They ran for 23 hours straight. No errors. Talked to a guy at best buy. Told him the problem and he said that it was either gonna be bad memory in the mother board, video card or RAM. He said that Bestbuy doesnt have a return policy on video cards so he said "if that video card doesnt work at least you'll have a new video card." I thought to myself "I dont want a new $100+ video card if its not gonna fix my problem." then he just walked off. Not a big fan of Bestbuy.

Bought a new video card today, installed it and all that jazz and I still got a blue screen.

Best buy WILL accept returns on video cards for 30 days. No restock fee or anything.
They just say that to prevent people from 'trying stuff out'.


Try a different cdrom drive.

the game requires a DVD rom and I only have one DVD rom. With my other flight sim I used the secondary CD-rom and I'd get the blue screen with that.

well after much online tech support I got through to an actual person. Unfortunately it was Apoo straight from New Delhi. After about 1/2 hour of asking him to repeat his broken english I was able to understand what he was telling me. Apparently, according to the scripts that he was given during his orientation, I have a bad hard drive. He tried to sell me an 80gb HD for $128. I told him I wasnt gonna pay that much so he referrs me to a website that has a 300gb HD for $104! Why the heck is dell charging $128 for something that has nearly 4x's less the storage space for $24 more?!

Cause Dude it's a Dell.

I just saw you post today. Ihave a maximum pc mag that talks about BSODs. It says when you get the IRQL on the screen it will tell you the offending driver or file. It says that it usually happens when U go from ati to nvidia or vice versa and remnants of the old driver is left.Check for conlicts in device manager.It says also to use a program called "driver cleaner"(www.drivercleaner.net). It will clean up the remnants of you display driver and the reinstall an updated driver.A couple of other things it says but I doubt is that you system is overclocked and the bus speed for the VC is O/C and causing the error and lastly it says some virus scanners and backup utilities can give you this error(dont run more than one V scan). Hope this helps
Sarge