RENAME: NDIS.SYS/ IRQL errors Solved :)

[Heywould3]

for the last few months i have been having computer issues..it will either lock up or reboot on its own.. it will lock up when doing a burn. ( i use nero full, recient verssion) and the reboot is when using Azureus.. (BT client, java based) it doenst happen all the time so i cant seem to find a common problem. i have a 120gig maxtor ata133 had it on a pci card for a while for the ata133 since my board doesnt have one. since i started ahving trouble i put it on onboard IDE as primary master nothing on slave.. and burner as secondary master DVD-ROM as slave. i have the HD set with 2 partitions. was set to 60and 60 for long time, since i had trouble i formated and set to 30 and 90. NTFS FS. once in a while ill come home and the computer will be off.. ( on 24/7 usually) ill try to boot and it wont even post. ill unplug clear cmos and it will boot fine. ill gointo bios set it back to good settings and im back up and running.. i replaced the PS with a 600watt one.. thinking that was it.. i removed all my devices at one point and it seemed fine.. but since it is only burning or BT i need the net and DVD. i tried all sorts of drivers. latest 4in1 (VIA chipset) i use ASPI 4.6 due ot the problems i hear with 4.71. i jsut dont get it.. ill burn a backup and 90% of the time it will be fine... sometimes i use imgburntool and it locks.. others ive used are nero and dvddecripter. or what ever the one is that has the integrated burn. (im at work so cant look) there is a possibility that my batery is dead cuz of the clock being wrong after i clear cmos. but that wouldnt have anything to do with the lockup and reboot. im the end of my rope.. i have had no coasters at all with this computer other than the ones i get from the lockups. and thats pissing me off.

Specs
AMD 1800 at 1800.. (use to OC to 2000+)
512 PC2100 ddr (Apacer i think)
SB live plat
liteon 1633s burner
liteon DVD ROM
maxtor ata133 120 gig 7200
linksys lan
ati aiw 8500
MSI MB VIA based KT7266 (something like that)
XP pro no updates.. had it at SP1 and SP2 both had more issues then now.

i jsut got done doing the format and its still doing it.. with just hte basics loaded i mentioned..

this is one of thoses things that is hard to nail down.. since its two different issues.. but as i said didnt use to have this issue..

ok the questions.
#1 what would make the computer crash (or turn off) and then need a cmos reset?
#2 what would make the computer start crashing durring a burn all the sudden? (same versions of programs from start.)
#3 what is causing the reboot every so often when using the BT client Azuerus?

[stiltman]

heat/power supply

[Heywould3]

heat/power supply

THX but no, i replaced the PS with a top off the line 600watt thinking that same thing.. still does it.. and i monitor the CPU temp.. i got a jet engine huge H/S to cool the stock AMD chip.. the temps are steady at 46c i clean the h/s and case out at least once a month including all fans.. dusty in my house.. HD seems clean and cool enough. the mobo is around 35c most of the time.. including the 2 ps fans i have 4 case fans.

i have to velcro the case to the floor or the fans will skoot it across my room

[Capmaster]

Sounds like an intermittent open or short on the MB. Maybe there's a new MB in your future

[Heywould3]

Sounds like an intermittent open or short on the MB. Maybe there's a new MB in your future

thats a bitch because thats exactly what i was thinking.. at one point i had the mobo out of the case and on the table tryingto get it to boot.. had everything removed buthte mem CPU and PS and it booted.. i slowly added all parts one at a time (still while on bench) and it booted every time.. i examined the MOBO closely as i could and nothing looked burnt or cracked.. and the case didnt have any burn marke.. all traces looked fine.. i put it back together and i booted fine.. week later it was off and had to clear cmos to get it to boot..

i dont mind getting new mobo but if im gonna then i want to get one that is top of the line and il pass my computer down to daughter.. . but its a socket A and the new mobos for amd are different.. so thats a new chip at the least. and dont want to go that route yet.. oh well.. ill just weigh all the options..

i hate to toss the MSI board.. i jsut pass my computers down each time i up grade.. i got a 450 celery a 850@1000 amd TB an 866PIII and the 1800+ al hooked up to lan.. my kids games are getting nuts needing serious mem and cpu not to mention HD space. so i would like to give her my 1800+..

oh well.

thx for the input.

[Capmaster]

Heywould3,

The problem is there could be a little hairline open in a trace. You'll go blind trying to locate it and every time you see a solder ripple, you'll think you found it. I tried it once ...never again :P

You're already on the right track - buy a good one. The price difference isn't enough to be worth it.

[glockjs]

what else do you really have left to look at? mobo, ram, and cpu.... from what it sounds get a new mobo first and get some sleep tonight

[Garibaldi]

Heywould3,

The problem is there could be a little hairline open in a trace. You'll go blind trying to locate it and every time you see a solder ripple, you'll think you found it. I tried it once ...never again tongue.gif

You're already on the right track - buy a good one. The price difference isn't enough to be worth it.

Sounds like fun stuff!

[Heywould3]

im just gonna hold off till after xmas.. sux but if im gonna do it i might as well do it right....all i really need is mobo and chip.. but hell.. y not memory and SATA HDs?

before anyone says RAID or scsi.. lol.. i use to do raid 0 all the time.. ive lost so much data like that i cant even begin to tell you.. i never did mirror but i thought it was a waste of HD. SCSI is to damn much. i only have the 120 gig here now.. but i had 2 80 gig IBMs set to raid 0 and 1 60 gig ibm. all my ibms are dead.. all died on this mobo.. Hmmm.. dad lost 2 60gig ibms too the same week..

anyway. ill wait for a bit.. until i cant stand it anymore

[redwudz]

I can tell you that I have had similar problems in the past and each time it was related to bad memory modules. If you have 2 or more modules, pull one and run for a while, then try the other. If not, try to borrow a module and substitute. You can try some memory test programs, they sometimes show up a bad module.

If this doesn't work, figure on replacing the MB. It seems you've tried all the other options. The XP1800 is pretty tough and hard to damage, but I've burned out several sticks of memory. Encoding is especially hard on memory. Azureus and burning are sometimes memory intensive. If it is lifetime guaranteed, it's not that hard to have it replaced, usually just for the postage.

BTW, it's normal to loose the date and time when you reset your BIOS.

[Heywould3]

well i know that these are not 100% but i ran a burnin program all night last night.. stressing the cpu in cycles on both mmx/sse and math. did video memory sound network all of it.. it didnt come up with one error..

i was hopeing that i would get a lockup at least. i even over clocked my mem and still no errors. oh well..

im sure that the mobo has something wrong with it if i have to clear cmos every so often but damn it.. can a brother get a break anyway. this is just an update not really a call for help..

im gonna load some games back on it tonight and see if that makes it lock.. so far its only azuerus and nero.. 3d games did it too in the past so ill give NFSUG2 a shot..

[Heywould3]

I just found that my nic and my vid c ard were shareing the same IRQ.. i move the nic and now the vid and nic have their own.. maybe that will stop the bsod.. i change the settings so that it wouldnt reset after crash.. just bsod.. i got the driver_irql less than error.. maybe thats all it was.. its funny that it was mainly when using BT.. well see

[Heywould3]

well that wasnt it.. it seems that when my speed gets to high it will crash.. hmm.. anyway.. i switched to shadows BT client and its not crashing and its screamin so im stumped on that one..

Shadows crashed too at high speeds.

another observation was that my linksys nic was using a M$ driver not OEM so i uninstalled it and installed OEM and ive been at full speed for a bit with no crash.. lets hope this helps.

[Paul Simmel]

I had similar problems a while back... First replaced the CPU fan because I could see phyically that the CPU fan was running slow and making noise. Didn't work. Slapped my head and then I replaced the power supply... same problem. Then by pure luck I noticed there were TWO (two-pronged) connectors on the Mobo where the CPU fan was connected. I switched from one to the other... problem solved! I'd check this since you changed out your fan... wont hurt to try!

Good luck.

[Heywould3]

thx Paul, il ltry that when i get home.. I did a lot of research last night because i found a way to get it to happen over and over again.. its based on speed of network while using BT doesnt happen when dling files with IE. the error is mostly IRQL and its NDIS.SYS related. i found lots of pages some said network drivers some said memory some said driver.. i tried every possible solution. ran memtest all night and didnt come up with one error.. changed to different drivers for NIC same thing. moved PCI slots and it got worse.. hmmm.. one person changed nic cards and it stoped. i have mo nics but all are linksys just different versions.. ill try an older one.. and different slots.. the nic is currently shareing with USB root.. but i dotn think thats a problem. BUT my VID is now sharing with the PCI bus.. might have something to do with it..

I hate these types of propblems..

ill keep posted

[Dr. DOS]

Heywould,

Similar lock up / rebooting issue on a Dell Laptop... turned out to be the CPU (go figure)

for your problem I would pull all optional boards (video, sound, etc if it is also on the MB) ... swap out some memory... if you have two sticks... just use one... You maybe be able to narrow it down to an optional board .

For the optional boards I would make sure have the latest drivers.... Dad's machine was quite flakey until I loaded some updated drivers for his ati card.

[Heywould3]

Heywould,

Similar lock up / rebooting issue on a Dell Laptop... turned out to be the CPU (go figure)

for your problem I would pull all optional boards (video, sound, etc if it is also on the MB) ... swap out some memory... if you have two sticks... just use one... You maybe be able to narrow it down to an optional board .

For the optional boards I would make sure have the latest drivers.... Dad's machine was quite flakey until I loaded some updated drivers for his ati card.

ive pretty much done that.. but im more thinking its a driver/resource issue.. it mostly happens with Azuerus and only at high speeds. its tied to the NDIS.SIS wraper which is network related.. ive dun burnin tests and ran memory tests all night while sleeping. ive found that its wors now that i moved my nic card to another slot.. the IRQL less than or equal is a read write issue caused from 3 main things.. one as you pointed out bad CPU or hot.. well im running at 38c ATM so thats not it.. mobo 32c ive updated all drivers.. still nothing.. ive done fresh install of XP no updates still does it.. ive updated to SP2 same install and still does it.. ive read that psople with this issue just have had to change their NIC and it stoped.. so im gonna try that.. ive got the VIA chipset so its prolly just a compat issue. with my current set up ever since ive started messign with BT ive had reset issues . jsut now its all the time.. if i use azuerus that is.. if i use others its not nearly as often.. if at all.. anyway.. this is just one issue.. ill mess with it till i get it then move on.. its not like its stoping me from work or anything

thx for the help all

[Heywould3]

For the record, i keep updating this post in order to help anyone that might have this same issue in the future.. the name doent inform people enough as to the issue but its got a lot of trial and error.. at least for network NDIS.SYS issues that seem to be all over the net.

anyway.. to sum up this thread. my lock ups are 99% due to IRQL_NOT_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL to errors. related to the NDIS.SYS wraper. it only happened or mainly happend when using a java based BT client. and then only at high DL speeds. it was getting wors and worse, i moved it from pci 5 to pci 2 and it got worse i updated nic drivers no change. i moved it back to 5 got better but still locked. i moved it to slot 4 and then updated to 4in1 4.51 and latest AMDtec drivers. i updated my bios from 3.6 to 3.7 i never updated because the new had no advantage for me but decided what the hell.. my NIC is now on IRQ 16 which isnt shared with anything else. use to share with vid at one point then USB root at another. USB 2.0 hub. anyway. eliminated all sharing of major pci devices and updated lates drivers. moved pci cards around. updated XP to SP2 tweeked port settings to my liking. latest vid drivers.

well last night i ran my BT client all night with that same torrent that was causing me to crash and it ran fast and it didnt crash. i loaded NFSUG2 and ran it at high setting high detail AA on yadda yadda.. while running BT i was playingthe game and it didnt lock up once or fail. in the past i could only play games for a short time or only DL for a short time if speeds were to high.. so it looks like i might be on the right track.

The jury is still out but im feeling better. on another note.. i dont have any other software loaded on my computer like nero or video encoders or caps. my AIW only has the drivers loaded.. i dont even have any extra codecs loaded like xvid or divx. its bare.. so well see how long i stay stable..

[Heywould3]

well i just wanted to update this post, its been a few days now and no more lockups or crashes.. i loaded NFSUG2 ran it as high as my vid card would allow and played it for a couple days.. no lockups or freeses. i loaded a few more programs. PS CS nero power dvd and a few others.. and multitasked with no issues.. i ran azuerus with smookin speeds and played games with nothing..

SO it looks like i may have nailed it..

it looks to me like having the NIC on its own IRQ was the one that fixed it.. . in case you havent read all my long ass threads here.. it was sharing with my video card and that caused lockups at high DL speeds with my BT client.. games would lock OR BT would reboot computer.. so i moved the NIC and then it was sharing with USB root and even though i didnt have anything running on the USB when DL with BT it would get reboots when speeds got to fast.

anyway. ive read all over the internet that people have the same issue. and only a few people have fixed it.. and out of those people it seems as what they did was get a new NIC. well i have a good one and wasnt gonna replace for a lesser one. but i think its all down to the NIC shareing and IRQ..

If you have this issue do what ever you can to get that NIC on its own IRQ, il bet your problems will be solved.