Will an XP reinstall solve BSOD IRQ conflicts?

[keith_thfc]

Hope someone can help advise on this......

Got new PC a couple of weeks ago. Had difficulty installing an old com keyboard as only have USB sockets. Tried a couple of com>USB convertors with no luck. No big deal though - except that now I get the dreaded BSOD once or twice a day mentioning the IRQ_NOT_LESS_EQUAL thing.

I am guessing the issue *could* be related to the different drivers I tried to install and then uninstall - as well as changing around my USB devices to different sockets. Have looked in device manager but have not been able to isolate the confict.

Am not really much a techy when it comes to these things and as the PC is still quite new so I was wondering if a factory re-install (using the supplied CD) will solve this.

If it might then I can give it a shot but don't want to go through the hassle of doing this if the problem is still likely to continue.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Keith

[kmount]

Hi mate,

I haven't really seen much with IRQs and USB. I didn't think they had anything in common really other than the IRQ being assigned to the usb controller, rather than the hardware itself.

Its possible a re-install would fix it, but not 100% in my book ...

Does it in the BSOD mention a driver/sys file?

[gyles]

It could be some other problem. When I had IRQ_NOT_LESS_EQUAL problems it came down to an inadequate power supply and dodgy memory timings, fixed by a BIOS update. I'd suggest a run of memtest86 and other CPU tests.

[Justin]

I used to have that on my old PIII machine 2-3 years ago, in the end it started happening less and less till it didn't happen at all.

It happened reoccuringly on my work machine running win2k wof which a reimage fixed it, till it started happening again every few months.

[keith_thfc]

Cheers guys

I'll give the memtest thing a bash.

Would a System Restore cure it? I forgot about that but I remember making a restore point before the BSOD problems started.

[John]

Its not always the case, but in the majority of cases I have found (I am an IT Technician) that error seems to indicate a memory error, either physical system ram or graphics card ram. A re-install / image can fix it, but its not a full time fix.

As has been advised, run Memtest 86, and leave it running overnight if possible it will show you if you have got faulty ram.

[keith_thfc]

Thanks for everyone's comments - just a quick update as looks like I've identified the problem.

Zone Alarm.

I've had the full ZA security suite on my PC but since uninstalling and using Norton instead its been fine.

Before I was getting blue screens and seeing my desktop freeze on a regular basis. And I had similar problems with my old computer, which was also running ZA.

Don't know why I didn't suss this out before now. Doh.