Stop 0A BSOD

  • Thread starter Thread starter Franz Leu
  • Start date Start date
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Franz Leu

Hi group

I have a system that runs perfect for some time and suddenly I get a BSOD:
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
Stop 0x0A (0x00000165, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0x804F2724)
It's based on XPe SP2.
Does somebody have a hint how to track down this error?

Thanks and best regards
Franz
 
Hi group

I have a system that runs perfect for some time and suddenly I get a BSOD:
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
Stop 0x0A (0x00000165, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0x804F2724)
It's based on XPe SP2.
Does somebody have a hint how to track down this error?

Thanks and best regards
Franz
Click to expand...

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL usually indicates a bug in a device driver, so you
could start by disabling those that are not essential for booting and
enabling them one by one.

A kernel debugger such as windbg will usually be able to tell you which
driver or module is responsible. Connect a serial or firewire cable to the
device, the other end to a machine running windbg, and use the /debug and
/debugport= options in boot.ini.
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/default.mspx


What's causing it:
IRQL is the I/O Request Level, something you can see as one of the possible
stages a driver can be in while it's processing an I/O request from an
application or from the system.
It sounds like IRQ = interrupt request, but they're not directly related.

Some functions the kernel provides for device drivers are forbidden above a
certain IRQL. When a driver tries to call one of these functions at an
IRQL where it shouldn't, you get this BSOD.


5 years ago these were quite common, because Win2000 and XP are more
restrictive than NT4 was on what functions they allow at higher IRQLs.
Installing a driver that was designed for NT4 on a Win2000 system (or
sometimes even upgrading an NT4) always carried a risk.

Notorious was Adaptec Easy CD Creator: installing it without first
installing an updated ASPI driver has rendered many early Win2000 systems
unbootable.
 
Hi Franz. A couple of questions for you: Did you change anything in the
system's hardware or software configuration when this error began to occur?
Does the error happen consistently or semi-consistently now? Do you see any
specific device driver files called out in the BSOD message, and if so, do
they change with each crash?

If you haven't changed anything in the system and it just began crashing
randomly, you may have experienced some sort of a hardware failure. I
recently had this happen in XP Pro on my personal computer, where the crash
would happen in a consistent place but called out random devices causing the
problem. It turned out that my CPU had died, and the errors disappeared
completely when I replaced the CPU. (In my case, I received a large variety
of STOP codes, including 0A, 7B, 05, 06 and D1, none of which should have
been happening where they were.)

Other devices could cause the problem, as well as system RAM. If you
suspect a particular device in the system, try swapping it out with an
identical device (such as a video card). If the problem seems to be random
and you can't pin it down to a particular device or operation, try swapping
out the RAM and/or CPU and see if that fixes the problem. The problem may
also reside with the system's mainboard (such as problems with the PCI Bus,
IDE or USB controllers, etc.) or with the power supply (such as when one of
the voltage lines starts putting out too low a voltage for the system).

If the problems started happening after a recent software upgrade such as
installing a new device driver, try uninstalling or rolling back the driver
or software to see if the problem disappears. If it does, you should
contact the vendor and inform them of the problem.

Hope this helps. =)

--
Matt Kellner ([email protected])
STE, Windows Embedded Group

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
===============================
 
Thanks to all of you guys for this help and great clarification.
I may go to try this "debugger thing".
... some remarks in-line ..

Matt Kellner (MS) said:
Hi Franz. A couple of questions for you: Did you change anything in the
system's hardware or software configuration when this error began to
occur? Does the error happen consistently or semi-consistently now? Do
you see any specific device driver files called out in the BSOD message,
and if so, do they change with each crash?
Click to expand...
Nop. It happens from time to time and there are no drivers listed on the
BSOD. I never saw this during development of the system. Now the unit is out
for beta testing with the customer and this showed up. It runs from a CF in
EWF RAM reg mode, so it's sure the customer could not change a thing.
If you haven't changed anything in the system and it just began crashing
randomly, you may have experienced some sort of a hardware failure. I
recently had this happen in XP Pro on my personal computer, where the
crash would happen in a consistent place but called out random devices
causing the problem. It turned out that my CPU had died, and the errors
disappeared completely when I replaced the CPU. (In my case, I received a
large variety of STOP codes, including 0A, 7B, 05, 06 and D1, none of
which should have been happening where they were.)
Click to expand...
I was having a STOP 07 before during boot. This turned out to go away when I
diabled USB legacy support in BIOS. Could be a problem with the USB
keyboard.
 
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