Bluescreen: "IRQL_NOT_EQUAL_OR_LESS" (winXP)

[SkuLL]

Just thought I'd post here to see if someone had the same problem, there is really too many causes for this error out there

Basically, it happens only when I play Baldur's Gate 2 - the PC just restarts for no reason. When I disable automatic restart, it shows the blue screen of death with the famous "IRQL_NOT_EQUAL_OR_LESS" and a bunch of hex numbers behind it.

It's becoming more frequent (around 30 minutes into the game now), but temperatures and fans are fine, so I'm not sure if it's hardware - it never happens outside the game AFAIK.

It's an old system, but nowhere near old enough to struggle with BG2.

Tried the standard scans, registry cleanups. Will reinstall the game and all patches today, then new drivers for graphics card. After that, I'm just not sure what to do. It's highly annoying as I'm pretty far into the game and really wanna keep playing!

Any ideas? Has anyone had this happen to them before?

 

[DJS4000]

this usually happens when a device tries to access a certain part of system memory that a) it has no permission to or b) is just incorrect

if you are a bit skilled, write down the memory ranges from the bsod (0xZZZZZZZ etc) and crosscheck them with the devices in device manager. then you will know which device caused he problem. my guess is that it's either your audio or graphics card. reinstalling the driver will usually fix this.

 

[valcik]

SkuLL,
if you are using the 3D accelerated graphics mode in BGII, disable "vertical sync" function on your graphics card. BGII doesn't support v-sync correctly on some drivers.

 

[SkuLL]

It seems that a fresh install of BG2 and driver updates for the graphics card did it! So far so good, anyway.

Thanks for the tips, I hope it doesn't come back. I hate how there's always a moment when your PC makes you feel like a complete n00b