Hi. New here, first post, I hope this is the right place for this. I recently built a non-gaming system that is suffering from intermittent crashes and I'm hoping someone here recognizes this and can point me in the right direction.  Crash error is:  IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL followed by some hex data. My specs:
 
Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-2SH
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition
2x 1GB Crucial DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Western Digital 160GB 7200 SATA drive
Maxtor 120GB IDE (from previous build)
Pioneer DVD RW - DVR-109
Rosewill RCX-Z940-SL 92MM CPU cooler/fan
Rosewill Mid Tower case
Thermaltake 430W P/S
XP Pro
 
Doesn't seem to be heat-related as the CPU almost always stays between 26C and 35C.  After the first few crashes I downloaded and looped the Mem386 utility for 8 hours with no errors.  I then updated BIOS to latest F5 level. Still crashes.  There are no adapter cards installed - everything is running from integrated. I checked and the IDE controller is using the Microsoft driver.  
 
I've noticed it occasionally crashes during Symantec Corporate Edition full system scan.  Also once during WAV to MP3 conversion within Adobe Audition, and just today as a test I used the Microsoft backup utility to backup 31GB of music files to the secondary hard drive, no problem.  But on a test restore of about 1GB it crashed.
 
Can anyone tell me anything I should be doing or looking for?  I'm not sure where to go next.  TIA.
 
-Hawkeye

Just Google IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.  You will see many hits.
 
Good luck!

This error is due to memory corruption.  It could be caused by bad memory or bad software, but I would check the memory first.  A run of MemTest86+ should determine if its caused by hardware or software.

This is usually a RAM problem. Make sure that the RAM voltage is set to 2.1v. Those Crucial Ballastix run at 2.1-2.2v. Since you ran Memtest86 and reported no errors the second problem could be a drivers problem. Uninstall graphics,sound, and other non esential software and see.

I agree with Shadow, usually when you see that message you need to tweak your ram, either more voltage, or more conservative timings.

Thanks for the quick replies.  I'm actually not running with Ballastix type of ram.  I installed 2 of these - http://crucial.com/store/mpartspec [...] 87A5CA7304
In the bios of my MB its showing 1.8V so I think that's correct.  Anyway there doesn't seem to be a way to change the voltage setting with this MoBo, unless I'm missing something.  So, given that, and the fact that the memtest386 ran clean I'll concentrate on the drivers.  I'll report back with my progress (or lack of).  Thanks again!!
 
-Hawkeye

I'd say the event viewer would be your best guide to figure out more closely on what maybe messing up.

I've been messing around with my Vista32, still waiting for my 64bit DVD, and I was having BSOD, like what you are having.  For me, it was the bios update, which was kind of weird since my MB should have had all the support it needed for my Q6600, but getting the latest fix it.

Perhaps the cool-n-quiet drivers are something you might need?  See what you can find in the system event log.  From there you could possibly see what is going on from there.

Edit:

Forgot to mention the event viewer is how I figured out my BSOD problem, which had something that said it what having a problem with the power adjustment for the CPU, that a feature was disabled, or something to that effect.

RAM is my guess, id say either a bad stick, or the ram you use doesnt agree with the mobo

It's normally a memory problem ...
 
However, more recently I've been encountering this BSOD when a power supply has been dying.

First thing you do... nice and simple
 
Reseat your memory - that cured an identical IRQL problem for me...
 

Heh.. guys he did say:
 

Yeah he did, pull them and test them on a individual basis, memtest is great, but didnt elude me to the memory problem i had when i built this comp, both sticks would pass memtest, with several tests done, i then found a program that would consistantly give me the error i was looking for, pulled one stick out, tested the other, and found that one stick was bad, and the other was good to go. Memtest isnt the sayall product of memory failure, its just a nice tool.

 
I know.
 
 
I did the same overnight - no probs.
 
 
Started using the fecking thing and not 20 mins later... BAM!!!! - the big BSOD

Most of the IRQL's that I have had were caused by Drivers.
Get the most up to date drivers that you can, uninstall the old drivers first, then install the new ones.
I half the times that I get this BSOD I have had to rebuild the OS and software install on my system.
I stopped using Norton stuff years ago, and try to stay away from Adobe because of it's phone home feature.
But it does sound like a software drivers issue.

Update - I uninstalled the graphics and audio drivers, rebooted and ran the antivirus program again.  Crashed.  For kicks I downloaded and ran the Memory Scanner tool from the Crucial website. Even though Windows XP sees 2@ 1gb memory sticks, and the Memtest86 utility sees both, the Crucial tool only saw one of them.  I pulled them both out, reversed their locations and have been crash-free for a couple days now.  I've run the antivirus program about a dozen times now without a crash - it was crashing at about a 50% clip prior to the swapping/re-seating the ram.  With guarded optimism I'm thinking this is solved, but I will keep a close eye on it for a while.  
 
Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions!!
 
 
-Hawkeye