[Letifer]

Okay, I am writing here as a sort of last resort for my computer woes. Recently, I purchased a collection of new parts for a new computer. Me, not knowing too much about it, had a reputable shop in my area put it together. The specs are as follows:

GeForce 4 MX 440 (64MB)
AMD Athlon XP 2000+
G7-AXP Gigabyte Motherboard (VIA Chipset)
256 MB DDR-266 RAM
Creative SoundBlaster sound card

Now, from the get-go, there were problems. I tried a few of my 3D games, all of which crashed minutes into gameplay with a blue screen featuring the 'IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL' script, and doing a physical memory dump. Now, I installed the latest drivers, and I installed the correct drivers. Temperature is not a problem, as it is at a constant 42 degrees.

Anyway, I also recently purchased a Microsoft game called Age of Mythology. See, I tried to install the demo, and once the installer reaches 100% and it goes through the 'Adding Desktop Icon' and 'Updating Registry' a blue screen appeared and said that a device driver was encountered that was corrupting my 'kernel stack', and it restarted, after a memory dump. Anyway, after the restart I could get into the game through Program Files (Desktop icon wouldn't run the game) and I could play for a bit until the IRQL error appeared.

Anyway, what I saw of the game, I liked, so I bought it in the hopes that I would be able to get my computer errors fixed up (as I took it into the shop the day before and had drivers reinstalled and such).

Anyhow, the problem occured with the installation of the FULL game, as it had with the demo (the 'corrupting kernel stack') but this time I cannot even run it, and everytime I try I get the same 'corrupting kernal stack' message and it restarts my computer.

I have tried reinstalling the game. Many times. Same error everytime (the installation even shutdown once with an IRQL error).

I have ALL the drivers (I've tried new AND old drivers) my cooling is great, my power supply is 350W, and my HD has an 7200 RPM. I am running Windows XP.

Anyhow...do any of you fine people here have ANY idea what my problem could be? I heard it might be an issue with cheap or forked RAM, but I really don't want to shell out money on better RAM based on a hunch.

Anyway, thanks all

L

 

[fgreco]

umm...wow.

well first of all is the game compatible with windows xp. iam guessing you have home eddition. now iam 16 i know a lot about the pc's ummm... me myself has xp i dont have a good vid card so games dont work or do but run slow.

anyway back to your problem this is what i would do.

-check the game box ,see if it is compatible with win xp
-if you dont have xp home eddition that can be the problem
-obviously the drivers are up to date and running well since you had it checked out.
-you have a top of the line cpu. there should be no reason for that message.
-does your vid card the gefource 4 (64mb which is great) run off a pci card or the agp port. it really isnt called a port but iam sure you get the message.
-if running off pci card you may need something extra sometimes running off pci card isnt great but is the only alternative you have if you dont have agp port on the not mother board but the board that holds cards.
-make sure the game can run on amd processor. (it should be able to ) but with computers you never no.

 

[Lectraplayer]

You may want to measure that temp again.

I figured out my computer was more sinsitive to heat than I thought. :deveous: Those types of crashes still sound like heat to me. What is your computer running ambient? Other than that, it may be caused by a hardware conflict, meaning you probably know more about your box than the computer shop does.:no: Sad but true.

 

[johnwill]

99% of the time, IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL errors are due to bad drivers, so that's where I'd start. I'd suggest downgrading to your old video and sound and get the system running more stable if possible. Then, add the devices one-at-a-time, and you might be able to isolate the issue. I had a similar issue with the Creative Audigy board, they finally released new drivers that actually worked, and I was able to move on.

 

[Lectraplayer]

You know, I just noticed you got cheap RAM.

Sometimes that'll do it. If your RAM sucks, your computer won't work anyway. Since games are very stressful to a computer, that's where your problem usually shows up. You may want to borrow a few modules (or get a few small chips) to test with. You can also pull your modules and hand to someone to test. If they have a similar issue, there's your problem!