Help! PC DIED!!!! [Archive]

Wittpilot

March 1st, 2011, 15:53

Tis true... I told myself I'd never hook my gaming pc up to the 'net... but last year I gave in, and eventually began using it all the time... well sure enough, fate screwed me over and now I'm living in the BSOD world...

Everytime I go to log in, I get the BSOD saying DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. I've tried restoring Vista, no go... Everytime the cd loads up and I go to even put in a new install, it asks for the dvd drive driver????

Any ideas?

Also, If I just go and get a new hard drive for $50 or so, do I really just take out the old one, and slap the new one in, and load up the Vista cd?

-witt

this is uncharted territory for me, never been in this deep.... :a1451:

gigabyte

March 1st, 2011, 16:36

Witt, that is a driver error, replacing the hard drive is not likely to solve anything, did you by chance update your video driver recently, that is the first place I would look. You might try pulling your video card and connecting the monitor to the onboard card to see if the system will boot on the internal card. If that works get rid of all versions of your GPU card and download the last one you know worked well (roll back 1 or 2 version numbers) then if it was me I would remove and reseat any other cards such as sound cards just to make sure the contact is good. If you get a good clean boot shutdown from the internal card, pop in the GPU again and install the freshly downloaded driver and switch back, if you start getting the error again you are looking at a driver conflict with the video (it could be a USB device conflicting so pull all those as well) or you have a dead/dying GPU, it happens...

I have seen this issue with Norton 360 giving systems $hit fits after and update and also GPU Driver updates, so it is a bit of trial and error, it is not likely the hard drive or DVD (but that is still a remote possibility). The most common cause I have seen is video, and it is almost always after a driver update.

The other final thing to check is the RAM, again try removing and reseating the sticks, and even pulling half of them just to see if the system will work with only the remaining, if it still craps out swap the sticks and test the others, if that makes no difference you can be fairly sure the RAM is not at fault.

Good luck with it.

Wittpilot

March 1st, 2011, 18:23

GB,
Thanks for responding. I tried the things you said, no go... I haven't downloaded any new drivers lately, (at least intentionally). I can't swipe out the video card because it does not have an onboard graphic driver.

Even if it was a driver error, could you technically get a new hard drive and then I saw a cd w/ the entire driver set for this particular computer online for $7. I should be good that way as a last result right?

gigabyte

March 1st, 2011, 20:28

You do have a weird issue, and if you have done all of the suggestions and did not find the problem it is time to go to the next level. If you can get a replacement drive and CD for that price it is sure worth trying.

Wittpilot

March 2nd, 2011, 06:29

wings4521

March 2nd, 2011, 06:39

I keep a very usefull guide to BSOD on my PC, I'ts helped me out a few times.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/blue_screen_survival_guide

hope it helps

Wittpilot

March 2nd, 2011, 07:46

Okay, So here's a quick question.. If it is indeed a driver issue like most point to, would I be able to even fix that? Since it won't boot up into windows at all???

Wittpilot

March 2nd, 2011, 07:49

blazefox2

March 2nd, 2011, 12:18

Okay, thanks GB.. Just ordered the CD of drivers, came to $7 and some change. Said I should get it beginnin of next week. I think they had a 500 gig HD @ Best Buy for $54 on sale this week. I just wish I knew someone around here with and old SATA drive, all of my other 4 desktops have the older version w/the ribbon. I have the older style power hook up in the new PC but no data hook up.

-witt

haha! i got the same hard drive!

my poor little computer crashed a little while ago as well, i would seriously recommend upgrading to windows 7, helps with a lot of the little issues! and i have seen a serious performance increase compared to vista.

Roger

March 2nd, 2011, 13:28

Good luck Witt...it's horrible when your flying machine fails.

Moparmike

March 2nd, 2011, 14:39

Also, real quick, GB, if I got something like this, I could possibly recover some info off of the old Hard Drive, bearing that it is still intact correct?

Seems like a nifty tool for problems like this...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002&nm_mc=AFC-Bleeping&cm_mmc=AFC-Bleeping-_-NA-_-NA-_-NA

I don't have that particular one but yes, if your hardrive will still function, you could use that to hook it up via USB to extract data. Not a bad pricetag either.

I've got a Thermaltake BlackX docking station for SATA drives and an old IDE/USB converter that I use for similar purposes.
I also use that BlackX dock to do my weekly backups onto another drive using Acronis TrueImage.
Knock on wood, I haven't had to restore my gaming rig from those backups yet but I have restored my new laptop with it a couple times. I do like how smoothly Acronis works compared to Norton Ghost. (Which is what we use at work. Ghost...blech!)

Wittpilot

March 2nd, 2011, 14:59

Okay boys, I'm going to best buy tonight to grab a new hard drive. I tried a few more things tonight, and nothing else was doing.... I know the fan on my graphics card is shot, but I don't think that could be it... because it boots up into the log in screen for windows sometimes. I noticed I have extra bays in my pc that are already set up with power cords & SATA cords.... So if I slap the new hard drive into where my main hard drive is now, I could probably put my old hard drive in one of those bays and grab the info off of it right? Again, this is the first time I've ever had to deal with this sort of problem.

-witt

N2056

March 2nd, 2011, 15:24

Before you head of to BestBuy print the page that shows the sale price and take it with you. I almost always end up finding the item on the shelf is not marked correctly!

Wittpilot

March 2nd, 2011, 15:59

N2056,

You are VERY right! I went there to get a Blu-Ray player, I shopped for it online, found it for a good price, and went to the store to buy it... They had it listed for like $30 more! I just told them, and they went and checked for me. The guy said, no problem, just tell the lady who checked me out that it was this price online.

Very good to point that out to anyone that hasn't had that problem yet!

Allen

March 2nd, 2011, 17:53

If I were you. I'd buy the USB thing. I read a bit and it looks like the USB may be the only way to go. Since SATA has no jumper setting, if you plug your old drive in that has an OS with a new one that thas the OS you just installed on it. The PC will get all confused beacuse it will think both drives are the master.

but maybe this link will help....

http://help.lockergnome.com/general/Set-original-drive-slave--ftopict49140.html

N2056

March 2nd, 2011, 17:59

Recently I had an issue where the OS would not start regardless of assorted tricks I threw at it. I got a drive (from BB, and it was not priced right), installed it with no other drives attached to the MB, and installed my OS on it. Then I re-attached the 'dud' drive, and it appeared as a non-root drive.

Ickie

March 3rd, 2011, 02:39

from microsoft:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-system/driverirqlnotlessorequalvista-error/8961dd05-7954-48e4-b50b-7deef22d02c5

it appears you have 2 drivers for 1 video card

Wittpilot

March 3rd, 2011, 08:21

The thing that is really killing me is that I cannot get into windows! and unfortunately most solutions to driver problems involve getting into windows!!!aaaaarrggghhhh!!! I tried disabling everything in the BIOS, everything except the SATA drives... Then the PC would not boot up passed the Gateway Splash Screen. I tried removing all the RAM, but one stick, when that didn't work, I replaced the one stick w/ another, no go still...

I tried using command prompt w/ the Vista Recovery Disk, but it will not even recognize that C: even exists!!!!!!

The struggle continues..........

-witt

Butcherbird17

March 3rd, 2011, 14:15

Have you tried to boot into safe mode? Another thing to try is to go into BIOS and set your cd rom as first to boot, before you reboot place your OS cd or recovery cd into the drive, then reboot. Now it will boot into the windows cd and you can do a startup repair from there.

Joe

Wittpilot

March 3rd, 2011, 16:55

Yep Joe, Tried all of that... When I boot to the Windows cd, it wants a driver for the cd drive! And safe mode does the same thing normal windows does, crashes.....

UPDATE: I hooked up my dads external dvd drive, ran a vista installation cd on the new hard drive.... no more driver error on the dvd drive, BUTTTTTTTT I get a driver error for the new Hard Drive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I put the chipset updates from gateway's site on a flash drive, and magically it worked! It is currently installing Windows on the new hard drive......

Fingers Crossed....

-witt

Wittpilot

March 6th, 2011, 15:41

Good news!

I put the new HD in, had some more problems... tried a bunch of things... and blamo! I got it to work! Slapped the old HD in a drive my pc (it has slots to put extra hard drives w/ sata hook ups) and I think I can retrieve all my old data!!!!

WOOOHOOO!!!

Still don't know what happened... Something just went terribly wrong with my operating system I think...

Still, thanks so much for all the help... believe it or not, it truly helped!

-witt