Member Avatar for unb0und

ok im getting frusterated with my computer(as im sure a majority of people do) but last night while listening to some mp3's, my sound started to act up and sounded like it was scrambled. i restarted my computer and got a STOP Error as follows: Stop 0x0000000A or IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. i restarted once again and i got another stop error message, but this time it did not list what it was, it just listed some hex codes. the three codes it listed were: 0x0000008E. 0xC000005, 0x806QAB13, and 0xF8264A64. i looked these up on the microsoft site, but nothing came up. i ended up doing a low level format and installing each piece or hardware one by one. any help or input would be great.

specs:
WinXP Home.
AMD XP 2100+
ABIT KR7a motherboard
512DDR RAM
Seagate Baracuda 60gig hard drives(2)
Lite-on 48x cd-r/w drive
Pioneer A05 dvd-r/w drive
ATI 8500LE video card.

p.s. i was using those round cables but i have switched back to the old flat ribbon cable for my hard drives. i still have to find a set for my optical drives.


Thanks in advance,
Josh

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by clemhova

Dani AI

Generated

Short, focused diagnostic note for IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (STOP 0x0000000A) and the related 0x0000008E crashes seen in this thread.

STOP 0xA means a kernel‑mode component accessed memory it shouldn’t at a raised IRQL — most often a buggy device driver, but faulty RAM, bad device firmware, or chipset issues can also cause it. The 0x8E with first parameter 0xC0000005 indicates an access‑violation exception (again: driver or memory is the usual culprit). Given ’s initial audio distortion and ’s suspicion of drivers, the sound stack is a high‑priority suspect; ’s RAM tip is also valid because bad RAM often triggers similar symptoms.

Useful diagnostic checklist (order matters):

  • Capture a minidump: disable automatic reboot on system failure and enable small memory dumps so a dump is written to C:\Windows\Minidump. Analyze with a minidump tool or a kernel debugger to see the offending driver/stack.
  • Run a thorough memory test with memtest86+ (one full pass is minimum; overnight/4+ passes preferred). Replace or swap modules if errors appear.
  • Isolate drivers/hardware: boot Safe Mode or remove the suspect device (sound card). If crashes stop, focus on the device driver. Prefer clean driver packages (drivers only), avoid vendor “suites.”
  • Use Driver Verifier (verifier.exe) against non‑Microsoft drivers to force a fault at the offending driver — caution: this will provoke BSODs; disable with verifier /reset from Safe Mode if needed.
  • File and system checks: run chkdsk /f /r and sfc /scannow. Update motherboard chipset drivers and BIOS, and reset any overclocks or aggressive RAM timings to defaults.
  • If intermittent spikes or instability persist after the above, test with a known‑good PSU and reseat cards/contacts; persistent unexplained failures despite clean drivers + good RAM usually point to motherboard or power faults.

Summary: prioritize minidump analysis and memtest. Since audio errors preceded the crashes here, narrow first on the sound driver/hardware (clean installs only). If memtest shows errors, focus on the RAM or memory controller.

Recommended Answers

All 17 Replies

Member Avatar for Dani

I'm confused. What were the results of the low-level format? Was the format successful? (I don't think a low level format was necessary in this case). Regardless, were you able to reinstall Windows upon reformatting?

Member Avatar for unb0und

i did a low level just in case there was somethng that could have been stuck that was the root of the problem(since a regular format doesnt always seem to get rid of everything). i was sucessful with installing windows. everything is running fine for now(knock on particle board).

a friend of mine mentioned that maybe the fact that i was using a visual style and i had tweaked AIM a lil bit to my liking could have caused a probem, but i dont see how it could.

Member Avatar for Dani

May I ask what sound card you're using? It seems like it might've been a sound card driver problem ... the IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL is, to the best of my knowledge, usually attributed to corrupt drivers.

So everything is working good now, and you just are curious what the problem might've been?

Member Avatar for unb0und

im using the Creative Sound Blaster Live 5.1. right now it's using the drivers windows assigned to it, but this is the second time this has happened :? . the first was when i installed the drivers that came with the sound card. im wondering if a d/l of the new drivers from creative's site would be of some help.

Member Avatar for Dani

You might wish to try that. The only problem with that is, from my experience, the Creative Live! drivers are completely bloated and usually end up screwing my stuff up. If you install them, just install the drivers themselves and not all the excess Creative junk software

Member Avatar for unb0und

You might wish to try that. The only problem with that is, from my experience, the Creative Live! drivers are completely bloated and usually end up screwing my stuff up. If you install them, just install the drivers themselves and not all the excess Creative junk software

yea i've always done that. even with when i do that with my ATI drivers for my vid car, it still seems to install sensless stuff :twisted:

Member Avatar for Tekmaven

I've known a machine with bad ram that also had that same stop error. If it acts up again, try switching the ram with some sticks you know work good.

Member Avatar for unb0und

wtf?! the sound just started to sound staticky again. i wasnt even doing anything, just surfing around. im d/l the soundblaster drivers right now. maybe i will order some new ram or something.

Member Avatar for unb0und

just ordered some new ram. should be here sometime this week. ill post an update later on.

Member Avatar for Dani

The sound coming out funny doesn't seem to be a ram problem to me. Are there any sound programs you have installed by any chance? Anything that might screw it up? Did the sound blaster drivers work?

Member Avatar for unb0und

nope i havent installed any sound programs what so ever. the creative site is down right now. im going to try tomorrow to d/l them.

Member Avatar for unb0und

still waiting on the RAM i ordered. should be here today or tomorrow. i havent had any problems after intsalling the new sound car drivers.

Member Avatar for unb0und

well the RAM sticks came into today. i hope everything goes fine from here on out, but i started to notice that my CPU usage will spike every now and then at 100% but just for a second. i replaced my old AMD T-Bird cpu back in december. i hope i dont have to replace this one. :shock:

Member Avatar for techhelpforme

I have a similar problem, every time I turn off this computer, it reboots, so I turned off the 'reboot automatically' function, in the following BSOD I got this message:

STOP 0x0000008E (0xC0000005,0x8062A21D,0xF8844A3C,0x00000000)

system specs:
Celeron 2.6
512 DDRAM(single stick)
Geforce FX 5200
onboard sound
belkin 54g wireless

planning on formatting this thing soon, been too long since last time.

Member Avatar for clemhova

After reading all post carefully
will you all agree with me that irql_not_less_or_equal has nothing to do with faulty hardisk?

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