BSOD playing games - IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (ntkrnlmp.exe)

BigTee · 21 Aug 2016

I have been seeing intermittent BSOD's for the last couple of months now whilst playing games, always IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL message codes, but never any more information.
I've read that this is usually caused by bad drivers accessing invalid memory, but I can't determine which driver is causing the problem.

I've tried my hand at debugging the minidump file, but this isn't my forte, I'm hoping someone on here might be able to make more progress.

It did seem to be happening with 'older' games initially, do I thought it might have been a DirectX issue, as I seem to recall that windows 10 doesn't directly support dx9, but it's also started happening on newer games also.

The component at fault is reported as 'ntkrnlmp.exe' but I'm guessing that is not the real culprit.

A couple of weeks ago I backed up data from my desktop to my laptop and fresh installed windows 10 (as I had previously been on an upgraded versions from 7), but the blue screens have returned, which I reckon either means windows is automatically installing a bad driver, or something else is driving it to fault.

When I restarted my PC after the last blue screen, my BIOS errored reporting that the CPU temp was too high. When I got a new cpu 5/6 months ago I did have to scrape off and re-apply thermal paste to re-use my radiator, so there's a chance I didn't do that as well as I could have - Before I go re-applying the paste I just wanted to know if it was possible for cpu overheat to cause this kind of BSOD - it looks to be a software issue.

Thanks, any help in this matter is very much appreciated and any more details required I can provide.
Fraser

axe0 · 22 Aug 2016

Hi BigTee,

Welcome to the 10forums :)

Could you please upload the kernel dump located in C:\Windows\MEMORY.dmp to a 3rd party uploader like onedrive, google drive, dropbox or a similar service and post a share link in your next reply.

I hope the memory dump has a little more to go on than the minidump, the minidump is basically useless.

Please fill in your system specs

Please follow this tutorial and download the tool. The tool will give you detailed information about your system specs, please fill in your system specs more completely including PSU, cooling and other used stuff like mouse, keyboard, monitor, case, etc.
The PSU, cooling and other stuff are NOT mentioned in the tool.

How to fill in your system specs:

BigTee · 22 Aug 2016

Hi Axe0,

Thanks for the response - I've updated my system specs thanks.
I've also uploaded my memory dump file here, hopefully it can provide more information.

The blue screens also don't seem to register an event of any sort, I only ever see critical system events that occur on boot after the crash, which just logs that the system didn't shut down correctly.

axe0 · 22 Aug 2016

Although there still isn't much to go on, there are 2 drivers flagged
Please reinstall or update the network drivers through ASUS.

Please uninstall everything of Nvidia using Display Driver Uninstaller and install new drivers from Nvidia. Be sure the clean install box is checked and only install the Graphics driver and the PhysX driver, you can use this tutorial for the installation part

NVIDIA Drivers - Avoid Problems - Windows 7 Help Forums
Attachment 97673

Code:

2: kd> lmvm e1d65x64
Browse full module list
start             end                 module name
fffff807`37550000 fffff807`375d5000   e1d65x64   (no symbols)           
    Loaded symbol image file: e1d65x64.sys
    Image path: \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\e1d65x64.sys
    Image name: e1d65x64.sys
    Browse all global symbols  functions  data
    Timestamp:        Thu Aug 13 11:14:29 2015 (55CC5FF5)
    CheckSum:         00088F32
    ImageSize:        00085000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4

2: kd> lmvm nvlddmkm
Browse full module list
start             end                 module name
fffff807`37770000 fffff807`384c1000   nvlddmkm   (no symbols)           
    Loaded symbol image file: nvlddmkm.sys
    Image path: \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\nvlddmkm.sys
    Image name: nvlddmkm.sys
    Browse all global symbols  functions  data
    Timestamp:        Mon Jul 11 00:20:31 2016 (5782CA2F)
    CheckSum:         00D0B030
    ImageSize:        00D51000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4

BigTee · 22 Aug 2016

Thanks Axe0,

I've done as you suggested, clean installed the graphics drivers, and re-installed the Intel Gigabit Ethernet drivers which were suggested from the mobo page.

I'll respond to this thread again if I get another BSOD, or if I don't see another I'll come back to resolve it.

Thanks again.

axe0 · 22 Aug 2016

Alright :)

You're welcome :)

BigTee · 04 Sep 2016

I've been quite busy this week and not had a chance to play much.
Unfortunately I've been playing this weekend and seen two already.
After the first I noticed windows 10 had forced an update the night before, so I rolled it back to restore it, however I still got another crash after.

I'm tempted just to re-install windows 7 though, never had these problems with that OS!