BSOD on shutdown... driver issues?

[pipspeak]

I'm having that intermittent BSOD on shutdown with WinXp on a new T43. The BOSD flashes with the IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL message (that's all I have time to read) then restarts. It happens on about one out of every three shutdowns.

First I thought it was the pagefile not being big enough (Win had set it before I added a 512MB stick, so it was too small) but changing that didn't solve it. So next I checked the memory was seated proerly and ran a RAM test, and that was fine. So now I'm assuming it's a dodgey driver causing it. Any advice on where I should start looking?

I've also had a few other weird happenings with WinXp... in one case a standard error was reported (the "send to Microsoft?" one) and Dr. Watson lept into action in the background and promptly crashed and froze the machine. Not sure if it's related, but when Dr. Watson goes down I'm worried!

Edit: I also switched off virtual memory, deleted the actual pagefile.sys file, then reset virtual memory just in case the file had been corrupted. So far three shutdowns without incident. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[slagmi]

Did this ever happen before you added RAM?

[pipspeak]

I added RAM straight out of the box, so no idea! Is there any test (other than PC Doctor's RAM test) that is worth doing, short of taking the RAM out and seeing if the problem persists.

[GomJabbar]

I'm having that intermittent BSOD on shutdown with WinXp on a new T43. The BOSD flashes with the IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL message (that's all I have time to read) then restarts. It happens on about one out of every three shutdowns.

I had the exact same error message after I installed Nero 6 Ultra Edition. One of the features I installed was INCD reader, for reading CD/RW disks in the UDF file format. I recalled seeing a message when it installed that it was an operating system extension. That made me suspect. I uninstalled just the Nero INCD reader, but left the rest of Nero installed. Problem gone.

I could boot up into Normal Windows fine. I could not boot up into Safe Mode. My computer kept trying to reboot itself. I had to disable reboot on error to see the: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL message. It has something to do with a process or application trying to get more privilege than the kernel - or something like that. I Googled the message to read about it.

In my case, I had updated my AV software, updated my anti-spyware software, ran Windows Update, and installed Nero, before I rebooted to go into Safe Mode, to do an AV scan. That is when the problem appeared. Luckily I saw that message about the operating system extension. So it really didn't take me too long to find and fix the problem.

[pipspeak]

Good idea... If it starts happening again I'll disable the reboot on error reg key to get a little more information. I tried hunting for the memory dump file for some sort of log but couldn't find it.

There's also one application I installed and failed to restart the computer before trying to launch it. That gave me a string of DLL errors, so I wonder if that's part of the problem. I'll try reinstalling it.

[beerak]

For memory test try memtest at http://www.memtest.org/