re: IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL - Solution
Saturday, November 23, 2002 at 1:23 am
Windows XP Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by John McKayhill
(2 messages posted)
After reading the posts here, I did examine my PC to see what cards were in what
slots. You should do the same.
#1: If you have a AGP Video card and a Sound Card next to each other (Slot #1 and
#2, respectively), they will share the same IRQ and you will get the IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
to message consistently. Especially if you're playing PC games.
Solution: Move the Sound Card to a different slot. Rule of thumb: Never have a
card next to your AGP slot, they typically share the same resource.
#2: Check the Device Manager listing and view 'Resources by Connection' (this is
in XP). This will list all your IRQs and what devices are assigned to them. Win98SE
and Win2K also has this if you look at the Device Manager correctly.
#3: What helped me solve this problem also was disabling the COM Ports in the BIOS.
Do you really need them in today's USB/Firewire ports? That'll free up further
IRQ's for your OS. My mouse and keyboard are USB. The Printer is still a parallel
port but that'll change too.
#4: If none of the above applies to you, you're experiencing the dreaded, and I mean
DREADED, Busmaster/IDE Driver problem! UGH. High Point is the worst at providing
WHQL certified drivers to Microsoft... although they may have fixed this in their
newer products. Just search High Point in regular newsgroups and you'll see the
many complaints about having reliable drivers for Win2K and XP. If you're still
on Win98, you'll probably be okay. Here a few tips from a guy who's logged HOURS
on this problem:
a) ALi Magik SouthBridge users: I feel somewhat sorry for you guys out there.
But check ALi's Taiwan site and look for driver support there. If you own an ASUS
motherboard, go to the ALi site since ASUS blows at communicating their "integrated"
drivers are off the ALi site. By the way, I really hate "integrated" drivers. Difficult
to troubleshoot if the driver software won't tell you what it's installing in your
sytem. I had to remove the ALi Ultra IDE Busmaster Driver and go with XP's standard
to keep the system stable (SP1 installed). After freeing up more IRQ's, I will probably
go back and install ALi's drivers to check to see if they work.
#b: High Point people... you are SOL. v1.25 for Win2K _is_not_ reliable, in my
opinion. 1.23 seems to be better for Win2K.
On Wednesday, May 22, 2002 at 4:23 pm, CHRIS wrote:
>IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL : this is a real painin the rear error because it is such
>a wide ranging general error. it occurs when two devices try to write to the same
>memory space(reminiscent of win 98's gpf). however the difference is this is a sign
>of hardware error not software. the driver update is always a good start.now check
>your sys info and see how many devices are using one irq - chances are you will
find
>six or seven devices using one irq. dynamic irq's are great but this is one setback.
>of those using the irq you must tie down which one it is. your description of intermittent
>failure sounds to me to be a video issue. if you are using nvidia or asus/nvidia
>this could be your culprit. if driver updating doesn't work try pulling two of the
>offending (irq sharers) devices out-reboot shut down replace them and see if xp
re
>assigns a more passive irq channel.
>chris
- Written in response to:
- irql not less or equal (chris kelly: Wednesday, May 22, 2002 at 4:23 pm)
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