TSGL: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL stop error

[Don Penlington]

Justin wrote:

><<is there nothing listed in your EVENTVWR.MSC ???? (start menu, run)
>
>try running "sfc /scannow" to make sure all of his windows files are intact
>
>try booting from a windows install disc and go to the recovery console and 
>type:
>
>chkdsk /p
>
>
>Could be a virus??? or spyware???>>


Thanks Justin---all good ideas which I'll try at the next opportunity.

Though whenever I've run Event Viewer on my own computer, it's been about 
as meaningful to me as a Korean Koran in Jerusalem.

I'll also check the Interrupts addresses in Device Manager for conflicts, 
though there again I can't see it being relevant to Safe Mode uniquely. Nor 
do I really know what I'm supposed to be looking for, never before having 
experienced an IRQ conflict that I'm aware of.

I'd really like to get to the bottom of this, as I have the feeling that 
out of the blue, he's going to get the same error and refusal to boot into 
normal Windows. Then he's really going to be up the creek without a paddle.

What exactly does "IRQL not less or equal" mean? All I know is that it has 
to do with hardware accessing certain memory addresses, each of which I 
gather has to be unique to each piece of hardware. Equal I assume mean 2 
hardware devices trying to get into the same memory location. But why "Not 
less"?

And could it conceivably happen in Safe but not Normal Mode?

Or am I on the wrong track here?

The only thing that springs to my mind is a possible corruption in the MBR. 
Does the MBR control how the computer boots into Safe Mode and Normal Mode 
separately?  What exactly is the chain of events when the boot sequence 
sees the instruction to boot into Safe Mode? That's where it seems to be 
going wrong.

Can I do a step-by-step boot into Safe Mode--and would that be likely to 
reveal anything useful? Or a Boot log? The normal Boot Menu does not seem 
to allow one to choose Bootlog + Safe Mode. Nor does the XP Boot Menu seem 
to provide any step-by-step boot process.

Don Penlington


 From the Beach at Surfers Paradise in sunny Queensland.
Computer tutorials, local scenery,  and other things at my website:
http://users.tpg.com.au/deepend/index1.html