BSOD IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL support request

phlave · Oct 1, 2023

Good morning, I'm writing this post while following the posting instruction to the best of my capabilities, but please let me know if there's anything I can do better. That said, here's my issue.

A couple of days ago I started getting "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" BSODs while playing Cyberpunk 2077 (Gog Edition).
These crashes seem to only happen when I'm playing, and they seem totally random, not tied to particular in-game events or load on my cpu/gpu/ram.
So far, I only managed to spot this error in the Event Viewer

1 - The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x0000000a (0xffffcf8794d35160, 0x0000000000000002, 0x0000000000000000, 0xfffff8053a0b5103). A dump was saved in: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP. Report Id: e4fc1d3e-9c8e-48f2-be1a-0b84ad7b759b.

I have no idea what to do with this .DMP, and it's not letting me zip it to upload it here, so if it's important, please let me know how to proceed!
There was another couple of errors that just said that the last reboot was unexpected, but the Event Viewer log shows a 4 hour gap (from 12 to 16 just before the BSOD, and I'm not sure what to make of that.

I'm on a self assembled desktop PC
Edition Windows 10 Pro
Version 22H2
Installed on ‎14-‎Jun-‎21
OS build 19045.3448
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.19044.1000.0
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 3800X 8-Core Processor 3.90 GHz
Installed RAM 32.0 GB 2X16 GB CMK16GX4M2D3600C18
GPU Gygabyte Geforce RTX 3080

Speccy snapshot: http://speccy.piriform.com/results/D467XvOSzSbAWXLXs4lrha7

The OS was originally installed on an SSD, but I migrated it onto an M.2 SSD using Samsung Magician a couple years ago. I haven't had any problems related to the migration.
I believe driver verifier to be enabled.
I am using Windows Defender as my antivirus.
I am using CloudFlare Warp as a basic VPN. I have Nord installed, but not connected.
I'm not using Disk Image tools.
I'm not under or overclocking, but I do have Aorus Engine installed and operating on my pc in order to control the fan speed on my GPU.

I'll now do the operations described in step 7. Will update if anything else comes up.

Thank you in advance to everyone that will reply. Please let me know if and how I can provide more information.

phlave · Oct 1, 2023

Update: I did the step with the Driver Verifier.
My pc rebooted, gave a blue screen saying it detected a violation, rebooted and did the same thing again, and this apparently nuked my Windows, since it can't boot anymore and none of the recovery tools I tried so far are helping me.

Luckily, I kept the partition on the old SSD I used to migrate to the M.2, and I'm currently logged in from that.

I would really like not to lose my stuff. Can you please suggest me a way to repair the installation on the other drive, please? Thank you in advance.

xrobwx71 · Oct 1, 2023

Driver Verifier - BSOD related - Windows 11, 10, 8.1 and 8

SQx · Oct 1, 2023

Hello phlave,

I am SQx and I will be handling your dumps to help you solve the problem.

Please give me some time to look it over and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

phlave · Oct 1, 2023

SQx said:
Hello phlave,

I am SQx and I will be handling your dumps to help you solve the problem.

Please give me some time to look it over and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Thank you, but please put my case on hold for the moment. The driver verifier process nuked my pc, and I am in the process of trying and restoring it. if I can't manage that, I don't want to waste your time.

I was on my old drive, but win update wanted me to restart, and when I did, Driver Verifier nuked that installation as well, so...

phlave · Oct 1, 2023

Sorry for bumping, but I'm not fining an edit button.
I managed to get my pc back using the restore. I was getting issues with it because Win could not understand which drive to restore, and when in doubt, it chose neither.

Anyways, here are the minidump files that I got today.

ubuysa · Oct 2, 2023

I'm going to defer to @SQx here, but whilst you wait for their response I would suggest that you test your RAM. ON ANOTHER PC (because we can't trust yours) download Memtest86 (free). Use the imageUSB.exe tool extracted from the download to make a bootable USB drive containing Memtest86 (a 1GB drive is plenty big enough). Then, on your PC, boot that USB drive. Memtest86 will start running as soon as it boots. If no errors have been flagged after the four iterations of the 13 different tests that the free version does, then restart Memntest86 and do another four iterations.

phlave · Oct 2, 2023

ubuysa said:
I'm going to defer to @SQx here, but whilst you wait for their response I would suggest that you test your RAM. ON ANOTHER PC (because we can't trust yours) download Memtest86 (free). Use the imageUSB.exe tool extracted from the download to make a bootable USB drive containing Memtest86 (a 1GB drive is plenty big enough). Then, on your PC, boot that USB drive. Memtest86 will start running as soon as it boots. If no errors have been flagged after the four iterations of the 13 different tests that the free version does, then restart Memntest86 and do another four iterations.

Hi, thanks for the suggestion. I have a problem though: I don't have easy access to another PC. I only have an old Mac that's way more buggered than my pc.
Is doing this operation on my pc a definite "no go"? The only alternative I can think of is a virtual machine, but I've never worked with one before, so it may be a just plain stupid idea for all I know...

SQx · Oct 4, 2023

Greeting,

Sorry for delay, but deep analyzing shows that you are using an illegally activated Windows.
May I ask you to activate Windows with genuine activation key, otherwise we cannot help you due to the forum policy.

phlave · Oct 5, 2023

SQx said:
Greeting,

Sorry for delay, but deep analyzing shows that you are using an illegally activated Windows.
May I ask you to activate Windows with genuine activation key, otherwise we cannot help you due to the forum policy.

Hi, thanks for getting back to me so fast.
I activated Windows with a key I had bought previously and was holding on to.

I'm not sure if it's needed, but I've made another zip with the Sysnative App after activating the license.

Again, thank you very much for your time and help

SQx · Oct 6, 2023

Greetings,

Thank you for the new logs.

May I ask you to provide the result of the following command at the command prompt (cmd.exe):

Code:

slmgr.vbs /dli

Please note: KMSpico is a potentially harmful tool since it might contain a malicious code.

phlave · Oct 6, 2023

SQx said:
Greetings,

Thank you for the new logs.

May I ask you to provide the result of the following command at the command prompt (cmd.exe):

Code:

slmgr.vbs /dli

Please note: KMSpico is a potentially harmful tool since it might contain a malicious code.

Greetings to you as well,
again, it's me who should be thanking you.

I'll attach a screenshot of the message I got when entering that command in cmd.

Thanks for the warning about KMSpico. Fortunately I haven't had issues with it, but I am unsure on how to remove it, and Windows Defender isn't picking it up.

SQx · Oct 7, 2023

Greeting,

Thank you for the screenshot.

phlave said:
Thanks for the warning about KMSpico. Fortunately I haven't had issues with it, but I am unsure on how to remove it, and Windows Defender isn't picking it up.

As I can see that KMSpico has already been uninstalled which is why Windows Defender isn't picking up anything, but we found remnants that made us need to check.

I checked all dumps and the some of them are related to Focusrite USB ASIO (Audio interface)

Code:

0xffffab8519828fa8 : 0xfffff8062cc10e29 : nt!KiBugCheckDispatch+0x69
0xffffab8519828fd0 : 0xfffff8062cc07054 : nt!guard_dispatch_icall+0x44
Unable to load image \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\FocusriteUsb.sys, Win32 error 0n2
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for FocusriteUsb.sys

I checked some forums, and most of them said that it somehow related to the compatibility with
AMD Ryzen 7 processors, since this problem does not exist with Intel processors.

May I ask you (temporary) uninstall Focusrite Audio drivers and check if BSoD will reproduced again?

phlave · Oct 7, 2023

SQx said:
Greeting,

Thank you for the screenshot.

As I can see that KMSpico has already been uninstalled which is why Windows Defender isn't picking up anything, but we found remnants that made us need to check.

I checked all dumps and the some of them are related to Focusrite USB ASIO (Audio interface)

Code:

0xffffab8519828fa8 : 0xfffff8062cc10e29 : nt!KiBugCheckDispatch+0x69 0xffffab8519828fd0 : 0xfffff8062cc07054 : nt!guard_dispatch_icall+0x44 Unable to load image \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\FocusriteUsb.sys, Win32 error 0n2 *** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for FocusriteUsb.sys

I checked some forums, and most of them said that it somehow related to the compatibility with
AMD Ryzen 7 processors, since this problem does not exist with Intel processors.

May I ask you (temporary) uninstall Focusrite Audio drivers and check if BSoD will reproduced again?

No worries, rules are rules. Thanks for all your work so far!

It's a bit troublesome that Focusrite drivers might be the culprit, as without them, I'd have no audio due to another issue I've had with my pc. Very basically, when my CPU is under load, there's a very high chance that my audio drivers crash. Sometimes with a loud static noise, sometimes audio just cuts out. When it happened, I had to delete Realtek drivers from the Device Manager and reboot. I very much suspect an issue with my motherboard, since this happened on a fresh installation of Windows as well (both 10 and 11).
So I got an external audio card, the Focusrite Scarlett Solo.

The good news is that since I did the Driver Verification and subsequent restore, I haven't had any more BSoDs.

Would it be useful to try and get a fresh installation of the Focusrite drivers? Is there a specific software you'd recommend to update drivers, or should I just get them from the official website?

Thank you!

ubuysa · Oct 8, 2023

phlave said:
I very much suspect an issue with my motherboard, since this happened on a fresh installation of Windows as well (both 10 and 11).

Sadly, there are no software cures for hardware problems. If you're having the same problem following fully clean installs of Windows then you certainly do have a hardware problem. Unfortunately they don't get better on their own, in fact it's more likely to become more troublesome as time goes by.

SQx · Oct 8, 2023

Hello phlave,

phlave said:
The good news is that since I did the Driver Verification and subsequent restore, I haven't had any more BSoDs.

That's great, but may I ask you if I understood correctly, that you have left Driver Verifier enabled? If so, then it wasn't a very good idea. You should disable Driver Verifier and monitor for a few days, if the problem is solved.

Please note:

Running Driver Verifier could cause the computer to crash.
You should only run Driver Verifier on computers that you are using for testing and debugging.

Reference: Driver Verifier - Windows drivers

To turn Driver Verifier off please enter the following command at the command prompt(cmd):

Code:

verifier /reset

then reboot.

SQx · Oct 12, 2023

Greetings,

Do You Still Need Help?

It has been 3 days since my last post.

Do you have any updates? Please let us know if you have had BsoD in the last three days.

BSOD IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL support request

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