IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL Bluescreen error on Windows 7 Home Premium

[AvohkahTamer]

Ever since I bought my Acer Aspire 8735G new in November 2009, it's had issues. It bluescreened every other day or so with what appeared to be an error with my NVIDIA graphics drivers (The component in the error message was the driver file), which was sort of fixed after a few updates. It didn't happen as often, but I still got the BSOD a couple times a month, until February 2010 when a BSOD caused my hard drive to completely fail on me. I got it replaced by warranty, started from scratch.

A couple months ago, though, I started getting regular Bluescreens (I.e. 2+ times per day), only this time they were IRQL errors. I have the latest graphics drivers, latest BIOS, and I've never modified my system, overclocked, or installed "risky" applications.

Absolutely nothing shows up in the event logs at the times my BSODs occur, and a full memtest showed no problems.

The crashes sometimes occur while I am gaming, and sometimes when my computer isn't doing much of anything. It's put me in the habit of not leaving anything open that hasn't been saved.

My only suspicion is that it might have something to do with my wireless drivers due to my WiFi occasionally losing connection, while the router and all other devices connected to it remain operational.

I've attached my latest minidump (in a zip file, because all of my minidumps are about 285KB, well over the 200KB attachment limit), in hopes that a professional can help me decipher exactly what the problem is.

If you need any specific additional information, let me know and I'll post it for you ASAP.

Thanks so much in advance,
David

 

[Route44]

You can Zip up to 5 large files into one Zip file if you want because it will compress the size. Give us your five most recent except the one you just attached. I'll read that one.

 

[AvohkahTamer]

Sure thing. You now have my last six total minidumps.

Thanks,
David

 

[Route44]

David, read your one minidump and it specifically cites the driver netw5s64.sys which belongs to your Intel Wireless WiFi Link Adapter as the cause of your issues. If you do a search for this driver there is a TON of material on the net of many, many people experiencing BSODs with this driver.

Before reading your other dumps do the following: Go to Acer's website, find your laptop model and update the latest Network/LAN/Ethernet/Wireless drivers they supply.

* Does this resolve your issue?

 

[AvohkahTamer]

I'm updating the LAN and Wireless LAN drivers now, I won't really be sure if it resolved my issue until I've run my computer for a couple days BSOD-free, so I'll let you know then (or if it BSODs again before then).

I really appreciate this help, Route44, thanks!
David

 

[Route44]

You're welcome and look forward on hearing the results. If it doesn't work we'll keep plugging away.

 

[AvohkahTamer]

Route44, it seems to have fixed the problem. I've gone a few days without that bluescreen! Thanks so much, I don't know what I would have done without you.

However, a couple days ago, I experienced three BSODs (I reproduced it twice). That night, I was going to use my iPod Touch to stream a video from my computer via an app called Air Video, and the desktop "Air Video Server". (It does a live conversion of the video file to an iPod-compatible format, while simultaneously streaming over WiFi to my iPod. A CPU-intensive process, to be sure.) The stream was going fine for maybe five minutes, and abruptly stopped on my iPod, so I went downstairs to my laptop to investigate, suspecting it lost WiFi signal. It was on the login screen, after a bluescreen. I logged in and tried streaming the video two more times, with the same result. This program is not faulty, and has worked perfectly fine for me for months. This is not a known bug according to a Google search, so it is in all likelihood a problem with my computer. It seems to have started working on its own again as of last night, but if you have any spare time and can take a quick look at one of the attached (and zipped) three minidumps from that night, you may be able to ease my worries this might start happening again.

I did not catch the BSOD error message, due to my not being in the room when it happened, I just kept coming back to a Windows login screen.

Again, this is not urgent, so if you are very busy, or don't want to, you don't absolutely need to check these dumps.

Thanks again!

 

[Archean]

I'm afraid it seems be issue with your Wireless Network Adapter's drivers, time stamp on the driver shows that it is from Sep. 2009 period.

I suggest you to look for more recent wireless network adapter drivers for your notebook. Download them.

However, before installing them uninstall the older drivers, ensure that they are properly removed by running Driver Sweeper / Driver Clean pro. Regards

 

[AvohkahTamer]

I did download the most recent drivers as per Route44's instructions, but I didn't use anything to first uninstall the old ones. Archean, which minidumps are you looking at? If you're looking at the original problem, I thought that was fixed. If you were looking at the ones from my Air Video issue, then I should probably try an uninstall and reinstall of those drivers like you suggested.

Thanks,
David

 

[Route44]

David, your very latest minidump files all report the driver NETw5s.64 as the problem (as before). Go ahead and follow Archean's advice about Driver Sweeper and removing all the drivers and then renstalling the newest.

If this doesn't work it could be very well that yoour wireless card is bad.

 

[AvohkahTamer]

I was about to do that, but I decided to check the drivers I downloaded before to fix the problem. It appears the latest correct drivers are indeed from September 2009, so those aren't the old drivers showing on the latest minidumps (unless the drivers that came with this laptop were September 2009). Should I still go ahead with this reinstall?

 

[Route44]

Yes, do a reinstall with the very latest drivers you can obtain.