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Random crashes? *SOLVED*

Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 7:56 pm
by crazytieguy
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*SOLVED*
I bought a new wireless adapter and the crashes went away. I would recommend that anyone buying a wireless adapter for a Vista computer make sure that it is Vista compatible.
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Ever since I got my new computer last year, it has been crashing somewhat randomly, ranging from hardly ever to 2-3 times a week. I narrowed it down to (I think) the memory or CPU, both of which are the same ones shipped with the computer. When it crashes, the screen either freezes on whatever I'm doing and the system becomes completely nonresponsive, or it gives me a Blue Screen Of Death with one of the following errors (ordered from most to least common):


-IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
-DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
-PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
-no error
-BAD_POOL_CALLER

You can download my entire history of crash dumps here.

The system is an unmodified HP Pavilion a1632x, with these specs:

-AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (2GHZ)
-1GB PC3200 RAM
-320GB hard drive
-DVD±RW/CD-RW drive
-integrated nVidia 6150 LE graphics (sharing 64-256MB of system RAM)
-Windows Vista Home Premium (Upgrade install from XP MCE 2005)
-ZyXEL M-202 wireless adapter (just in case this has anything to do with the problem)
-Norton Internet Security 2007, Webroot Spy Sweeper, Ad-Aware 2007 Pro, Spybot-S&D, Bazooka Scanner (None show any problems)

Anyone have any ideas?

RE: Random crashes?

Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 8:06 pm
by Fusion
Not that I'm a computer genius or whatever, but is it possible that your just running too many programs at once? I know a Web Browser, WMP, Xfire, Firewall, and the Weatherbug can cause a crash or two if all used at once :P

RE: Random crashes?

Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 8:14 pm
by crazytieguy
I'm normally just running Firefox, and maybe something else like Word or Task Manager.

It crashed about 25 times last Sunday, and the only thing I was running was Firefox...so that's not it...

Anyone know anything about the error messages I'm getting? Or know how to interpret my dump files?

RE: Random crashes?

Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 8:25 pm
by FragMe!
Did a google search for IRQL, take a look at the link below, could be conflict of different programs running at once or just on program doing it all. By the looks of it though it happens a lot. They are mostly taking XP and you are running vista but they still relate, some of the programs you are trying to run may not be vista friendly. Anyway have a look hope it helps

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/5695/

RE: Random crashes?

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 11:52 pm
by crazytieguy
I took it to Circuit City and they ran an extensive hardware check and said everything was fine. Since it was upgraded from a well-used copy of XP and not all of the drivers appear to be compatible, do you think I should do a fresh install of Vista and restore my data, and then try installing drivers one by one to find the conflicting one?

RE: Random crashes?

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 10:55 pm
by [RDH]Zerted
You have a bad memory stick or bad drivers. Scanning memory for errors is easy and since you took it to a store for a hardware check I assume the memory is not the problem (there are simple, free tools for memory scanning...).

You can disable and/or uninstall your drivers one at a time without uninstalling Vista. I would start with your wireless/networking drivers then the graphics card driver

RE: Random crashes?

Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 11:59 pm
by crazytieguy
I think it may well be my wireless adapter driver, since I moved the crashing computer to my back room and have been using my old computer as my main computer (Internet/homework) for over a week, and without use of the wireless adapter, it hasn't crashed since. I'll try my old wireless adapter (compatible with Vista but not as good signal strength) for a bit and see if it crashes. I don' think the memory's the problem since it checked out OK during the *24-hour* diagnostic test and the Windows memory test.