[philip kirkham]

I have an old pc that keeps crashing, i was told it could be that one of the hardware parts, floppy, disk drive, cd-rom, pci cards etc how can i tell from the IRQL_driver_not equal_greater message, that then goes on to start a memory dump?

phil

Previously listed as thread IRQL Driver problem, but may have been misunderstood as a software problem, if it is hardware device causing the crash then how is it determined.

 

[winbob]

If it is an "old" PC, has it ever had the dust bunnies cleaned out of it? Is the Processor Fan still working up to speed?

Sounds like a overheating problem.

 

[philip kirkham]

1st, as an archnaphobic i hate to reply to messages when the banner at the top asks you to guess which is the odd one out - hhhhuuurrr (as shiver goes up the spine.

I have just recently wiped the hard drive and re-installed win xp home from fresh, but will try to clean up the motherboard of any dust, though i must admit that when the tower was laid on its side, it did seem to run longer before crashing ( to explain - i read somewhere that it is a good idea before cleaning the hard drive - and i do not mean with solvents etc, that it is best to have ony the bare essential connected - mouse, keyboard, monitor, and disconnect the usb card) to do this i opened the case and laid it on its side.

now, where that hoover.

phil

 

[winbob]

Philip,

My apologies, my brain is a little fried at the moment...gonna take a nap! I stopped reading your initial Q before I got to the IRQ msg.

Take a Google at: IRQL driver not equal

There are a bunch of articles that discuss that issue. But I would STILL clean out the dust bunnies, as a heat issue can materialize numerous symptoms.