Guest Mike R. Posted October 24, 2008 Posted October 24, 2008 One of my college daughter's laptops is having problems. It's an Inspiron 8600 running XPHome SP2. The best way to describe the problem is to copy the letter she sent to me this afternoon. I've googled, etc, and my hunch is that it may not be malware, but a driver problem. Here's what she wrote: ******************************************* ...I have been unable to use my laptop since Sunday night when I got back to school. I opened it up like usual that night and a blue screen appeared with a bunch of text on it. I'm sure you've seen it before. I told mom that I would try System Restore hoping that I could at least get it working good enough to use it, however I have not been successful. I tried restoring it 3 times, and finally I went back to the earliest date I could (in July), and when it reboots, it continues to go back to the blue screen. I can get in Safe Mode, but that's about it. I'm looking at the blue screen right now and here is what it says: "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps: Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed. If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any windows updates you might need. If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. If you need to use Safe Mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup options, and then select Safe Mode. Techinal information: ***STOP: 0X0000000A (0xFF1701F0, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0x804D9B64) Beginning dump of physical memory Physical memory dump complete. Contact your system administrator or techinal support group for further assistance." I have no idea as to what any of this means, but I haven't installed any new software recently so that couldn't be the problem. The last thing I can remember doing with the laptop was downloading some songs through Limewire this past Friday before coming home for the weekend. I remember seeing a note from McAfee saying that I was trying to download a corrupt file and then it said it had found a trojan and cleaned it. But I've seen this before and it has never screwed up my computer. When we got home, I actually never took it out of the car to use it. It stayed in the car the whole weekend. Last thing I remember doing was using Limewire and then burning my cd. I believe I left the computer on though, and so it must have stayed powered on but shut the whole time in the car over the weekend. So when I got it back here Sunday night, I opened it up and it was still on, but showed the blue screen. However, I don't remember ever seeing the blue screen on Friday before I closed it, unless it showed up later while it was shut. I just thought I'd tell you what I last did before this happened. I hope it's not a virus. It's just really random because I hardly even ever use my laptop and it had been working fine up until now so I don't know what's going on. **************************************** I've googled and looked at the Microsoft site, and my hunch is that this is a corrupt driver, and not malware. I may have to take a trip to see the machine in person, but if I can guide her over the phone, that is much preferred. I want to avoid a clean install. Can anyone point me a direction to start? (Yes, I wish they wouldn't use P2P programs like Limewire, whether this caused this or not.) Thank you.
Guest Rey Santos Posted October 24, 2008 Posted October 24, 2008 RE: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL Windows Driver Kit: Driver Development Tools Bug Check 0xA: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms793589.aspx Check for the latest minidump files at Windows/Minidump (ex. mini102208-01.dmp). The numbers indicate the date, -01 means first dump fo the date. How to read the small memory dump files that Windows creates for debugging http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315263 An example using Sample 2. the graphical version of the debugger: (at the command prompt) windbg -y srv*c:\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols -i c:\windows\i386 -z c:\windows\minidump\<your minidump.dmp> On the results click the blue !analyze The headings "Probably caused by:", "Image Name:" and "Module Name:" will identify the same driver file that's causing the problem. Google for information about the file. You may have uninstall reinstall or update the driver. -- Rey "Mike R." wrote: > One of my college daughter's laptops is having problems. It's an > Inspiron 8600 running XPHome SP2. The best way to describe the problem > is to copy the letter she sent to me this afternoon. I've googled, etc, > and my hunch is that it may not be malware, but a driver problem. Here's > what she wrote: > ******************************************* > ...I have been unable to use my laptop since Sunday night when I got back > to school. I opened it up like usual that night and a blue screen > appeared with a bunch of text on it. I'm sure you've seen it before. I > told mom that I would try System Restore hoping that I could at least get > it working good enough to use it, however I have not been successful. I > tried restoring it 3 times, and finally I went back to the earliest date > I could (in July), and when it reboots, it continues to go back to the > blue screen. I can get in Safe Mode, but that's about it. I'm looking > at the blue screen right now and here is what it says: > > "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent > damage to your computer. > > IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL > > If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart > your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps: > > Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed. > If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer > for any windows updates you might need. > > If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or > software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. If > you need to use Safe Mode to remove or disable components, restart your > computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup options, and then select > Safe Mode. > > Techinal information: > > ***STOP: 0X0000000A (0xFF1701F0, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0x804D9B64) > > Beginning dump of physical memory > Physical memory dump complete. > Contact your system administrator or techinal support group for further > assistance." > > I have no idea as to what any of this means, but I haven't installed > any new software recently so that couldn't be the problem. The last > thing I can remember doing with the laptop was downloading some songs > through Limewire this past Friday before coming home for the weekend. I > remember seeing a note from McAfee saying that I was trying to download a > corrupt file and then it said it had found a trojan and cleaned it. But > I've seen this before and it has never screwed up my computer. When we > got home, I actually never took it out of the car to use it. It stayed > in the car the whole weekend. Last thing I remember doing was using > Limewire and then burning my cd. I believe I left the computer on > though, and so it must have stayed powered on but shut the whole time in > the car over the weekend. So when I got it back here Sunday night, I > opened it up and it was still on, but showed the blue screen. However, I > don't remember ever seeing the blue screen on Friday before I closed it, > unless it showed up later while it was shut. > I just thought I'd tell you what I last did before this happened. I hope > it's not a virus. It's just really random because I hardly even ever use > my laptop and it had been working fine up until now so I don't know > what's going on. > **************************************** > I've googled and looked at the Microsoft site, and my hunch is that this > is a corrupt driver, and not malware. I may have to take a trip to see > the machine in person, but if I can guide her over the phone, that is > much preferred. > > I want to avoid a clean install. > > Can anyone point me a direction to start? > > (Yes, I wish they wouldn't use P2P programs like Limewire, whether this > caused this or not.) > > Thank you. >
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