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IRQL problem

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15 replies

by sakis13

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After playing any 3D game for 10 minutes i get a blue screen that says IRQL DEVICE NOT LESS OR EQUAL along with some strange symbols and nv4_mini.sys. After that i have to restart my pc. Anyone knows what might be?

15 replies

by tduval

You discovered the BSD : Blue Screen of Death !

That's the last words for a NT system hanging.

Can be anything, including program bug, deffective RAM, overheat,...

If all the others applications work fine, so, you game is bugged, or not supported by your computer.

by matt

In terms of hardware, defective RAM is known to cause this problem. However, it is rare that this occurs when RAM is going bad.

The more common cause of the problem is a device driver that is not compatible with your operating system. Make surethat you have updated all of your drivers for compatibility with your OS.

by matt

Make sure you have the latest drivers available from the manufacturer of your video card for the OS that you are using. That would be the first thing to double-check.

by sakis13

All my drivers are up-to-date, i even checked previews versions, tried other ram modules too, no luck

by matt

Then it definitely sounds like you've got a rogure driver. Check the Windows HCL to make sure that the device drivers (even up-to-date ones) are compatible with the OS.

by sakis13

HCL stands for...? if its digital signed from microsoft, latest detonator arent

by tduval

NT4 OS, hum ?
This os has never been known to accept game playing...
Check video game concertor site, if your os is supported.

by sakis13

sorry, i didnt mention, i m running winxp pro on an athlon xp and kt266 chipset

by michaeltubs

There is a common problem with older programs that can affect the kernel. Find what older software is installed and delete it . A common one is ver4 adobe fonts.

by pctech

This problem can be caused by ram that is not not matched to your chipset OR by the swapfile (pagefile) becoming corrupt. Considering that your system does not seem to exhibit problems unless you are in a 3D game, I would suspect the latter is true.Simply remove the swapfile and restart the system. Once you have rebboted your system, recreate the swapfile and reboot again. This should, if my hunch is correct, resolve your problem.

I hope this helps.

by pctech

Hi
The swapfile, under NT, Win2K, and XP is called pagefile.sys. The name of the file is not important, for you can not right click and delete the file. You have to use the swapfile manager to do this and the location for this depends on which OS you are running.
For XP, go to Control Panel\System\Advanced\Performance\Settings\Advanced\Virtual Memory\Change and then set the swapfile to none. Rebbot and then follow the same steps, but "Allow Windows" to manage your swapfile and reboot.

I had the exact same error you list and this was the solution to the problem. I do not, however allow Windows to manage my swapfile. I set it to a different partiton and set the size to what I want it to use.

I hope this helps

by pctech

Anytime you make a change to the swapfile location or size, you must click the "set" button before it will make the change.

by herrlizard

Haven't seen this specific problem till now, but the VIA KT266 chipset has several known performance and stability problems that were addressed with the KT266A. Of course there's no way to upgrade w/o going with a new mobo. All I can suggest is possibly upgrading the BIOS (on the mobo and vid card). Otherwise, you can pick up a KT266A board for $50 or less. Check pricewatch.com

Also, do you have XP SP1 installed?!

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