On May 22, 12:33Â pm, Rascal wrote:
> When I started up windows XP Pro this morning, the display came up bank (dark
> blue, not THE blue, but nothing at all on the screen).
>
> I forced a shutdown and attempted to start up in safe mode - it threw THE
> blue screen with a message that referred to stopping to avoid damage to my
> system with the message IRQL_not_less_than and the message STPO: 0x0000000A
> (0x91D43770, 0x00000002, 0x00000001, 0x804
> e6651) - and then restarts with the same result over and over.
>
> I took detached all hardware, connected the desktop to another monitor,
> keyboard, and mouse - and turned off the on board NIC via set up. Tried to
> start in safe mode and got the same result.
>
> Can anyone please help?
Sounds like the problem in on the inside.
Some replies will get you information about what that error means and
not what to do about it. If you can't get your system to boot, it
will be a chore to produce the memory dump file for analysis.
Here is a typical reply to that error that give a textbook definition,
but does not tell you what to do about it.
Stop 0x0000000A or IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
The Stop 0xA message indicates that a kernel-mode process or driver
attempted to access a memory location to which it did not have
permission, or at a kernel interrupt request level (IRQL) that was too
high. A kernel-mode process can access only other processes that have
an IRQL lower than, or equal to, its own. This Stop message is
typically due to faulty or incompatible hardware or software.
Very good - now what to do with the non booting system?
If this is new behavior the first question is what kind of new
hardware, software, drivers, updates do you think have been installed
since the last successful boot and can you uninstall anything to try
to get back to a working state?
If you can't boot, you can't uninstall software and drivers very
easily though - not always a good suggestion for a non boot situation.
From your F8 Boot Options first choose:
Disable Automatic restart on system error
That will keep XP from rebooting so you can see the error. There may
be a driver or other clues listed on the screen - is there? Here is
an example with good clues:
http://techrepublic.com.com/i/tr/downloads/images/bsod_a.jpg
Next, reboot and from the F8 menu choose:
Last Known Good Configuration
That is the system state (as far as XP is concerned) saved the last
time Windows booted properly. That is the method to choose to boot
after a driver installation or update whacks your system so it will
not boot. That is one reason that option is there - use it.
If you can get LKGC to work, then you can undo whatever you did that
got you into this mess in the first place.
If you are able to get a crash dump file, just send it to me and I
will analyze it for you.