Driver irql not less or equal fault

snipes

Bronze Level Poster
Hi everyone, hoping I can get a bit of tech help on my pcs pc.

Been having crash/screen freezes/resets for the past few weeks.
Initially the screen would freeze during gaming so I rolled back to an older graphics driver which I had no problems with. Seemed ok for a few days but now I’m getting blue screen crashes with the driver irql not less or equal fault with an nvlddmkm error. It happened randomly after a few hours gaming but the latest crash has made windows unbootable.

It tries to do a repair but then just sits on a black screen. I can’t boot in safe mode either and I tried resetting the bios to default as pcs tech help suggested but to no avail.
Hoping I can get some help here before I have to send it in for repair :/

Specs:
Case
CORSAIR OBSIDIAN SERIES™ 500D SE CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™ i7-9700K Eight Core (3.60GHz @ up to 5.0GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z390-E GAMING: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs, WIFI - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 Ti - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
5TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 128MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3400MB/R, 2500MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i PRO Cooler w/ PCS Ultra Quiet Fans
Thermal Paste
COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND
Extra Case Fans
1x 120mm Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

Many thanks.

Rob
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Assuming you don'tr have any data you need on the PC, the quickest way to try to get it back in service would probably be to do a clean windows install.

Where you https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10 and during the installation, select a custom install. Delete all partitions on the SSD, so that all there is on that drive is unallocated space. Install Windows there, and let Windows update deal with installing all drivers.
 

snipes

Bronze Level Poster
Thanks for the reply :)
That was my first thought but I was hoping to fix it without a new install.
Is this the only viable option?
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
You could try running the repair option from the bootable media, but I would probably do a clean install.
 

snipes

Bronze Level Poster
Ok fair enough.
Out of interest....what’s the most common cause of driver irql not less or equal error? Want to prevent it happening again.
Many thanks for your help
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
That BSOD is 99.999% of the time a driver problem not a hardware problem.

If you can't boot in safe mode there is something seriously amiss with your Windows system. I would suggest a clean reinstall from bootable media, ideally the latest version (1909).

Sent using Tapatalk
 

snipes

Bronze Level Poster
That BSOD is 99.999% of the time a driver problem not a hardware problem.

If you can't boot in safe mode there is something seriously amiss with your Windows system. I would suggest a clean reinstall from bootable media, ideally the latest version (1909).

Sent using Tapatalk

Ok cool thanks for the info ;)
So I can get the W10 disc image from the link Oussebon linked...if I can find my flash drive?!!?

Where would my product key be?

Thanks.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Ok cool thanks for the info ;)
So I can get the W10 disc image from the link Oussebon linked...if I can find my flash drive?!!?

Where would my product key be?

Thanks.
Product key is embedded in the BIOS. Windows will automatically register when it hits the internet, you don’t need to enter a key.
 

snipes

Bronze Level Poster
Ok so just an update on this :)

Been a while since I could test my rig properly as been caught up with work etc but I suddenly find myself with plenty free time :/

I did a clean install and only let windows drivers install. It had been running great for a few days before the freezes have begun again. Event viewer is showing a “display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding” error. This happened after a few hours gaming and then two more times in the space of an hour, with the same error.

All temperatures are fine and stable, the gpu never goes over 60. There are various suggestions on the web such as reducing the clocks on my 2080ti by 100 which I tried but it still froze.

Hope I can get some more suggestions as to what I should try now?

Thanks.
Rob.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
The only driver you’d need to manually install would be nvidia. The windows one won’t be sufficient.

Have you overclocked your gpu at all?
 

snipes

Bronze Level Poster
Thanks for the reply.

It was suggested I let windows install the drivers but I’ll get the latest Nvidia one and report back if it fixes the problem.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Thanks for the reply.

It was suggested I let windows install the drivers but I’ll get the latest Nvidia one and report back if it fixes the problem.
Yes, did you get the latest from nvidia or did you only use windows update drivers?
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Thanks for the reply.

It was suggested I let windows install the drivers but I’ll get the latest Nvidia one and report back if it fixes the problem.
You should let Windows install all drivers - except for the Nvidia card. They change quite often. :)
 

snipes

Bronze Level Poster
Ok so I clean installed the latest driver from Nvidia and now my pc crashed after five minutes of play time and reset itself. It reset again when I tried to run my game again and now the pc won’t boot up (it’s the same thing that happened in my first post which caused me to do a new windows install)

Do you think there could be a hardware issue as it’s the same problem with a new install?
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Ok so I clean installed the latest driver from Nvidia and now my pc crashed after five minutes of play time and reset itself. It reset again when I tried to run my game again and now the pc won’t boot up (it’s the same thing that happened in my first post which caused me to do a new windows install)

Do you think there could be a hardware issue as it’s the same problem with a new install?
Which driver did you install?
 
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