Random BSOD, Mostly IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

M

MykieY.

Hi! I'm posting here because I am badly in need of help with my computer. I've been getting BSOD's but I am posting a history of what has happened below. Skip to the bottom for a list of specs, symptoms and a link to the crash dumps. I hope someone can help me, Thank you in advance for your attention!


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On November 6, 2020

I decided to do an upgrade by flashing the BIOS from 7B89v23 to 7B89v28. I was able to game for an entire day but the day after, I ran into a host of problems ranging from System Freezing, BSOD errors, and Resets. I took a look at the Crash dumps and the BSOD error messages and got different messages.​


IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL​

kmode_exception_not_handled​


I have been getting some random crashes and restarts before but thought it was a Power Supply issue and replaced my Power Supply with a bigger one. Today I learned to use Windbg to analyze my crash dumps.
Analyzing the Crashdumps only pointed me towards ntkrnlmp.exe which pointed to driver problems.​

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On November 8, 2020
I did Windows Memory Diagnostics twice and even did a DDU of my Nvidia driver after sniffing around that the latest driver for the GTX 970 was causing BSODs.​


I also installed the latest AMD chipset drivers for my system. Unfortunately installing these drivers is when my problem got worse.
After 5-15 minutes of uptime, my system would start slowing down to a crawl. NT Kernel & System would start piling up threads (208 threads). Input from keyboard and mouse were slow. Dragging Explorer and Application windows would have the mouse drag behind to a crawl while Desktop Windows Manager spiked in CPU usage. Audio would start to crackle, and one of my cores would be bombarded up to 100%. This issue also popped up during Clean boot.​


I decided to downgrade my bios back to 7B89v25 and thought the issue had resolved itself. Unfortunately after 20 minutes of uptime, the same issues returned. I decided to use driver verifier and ended up unable to boot and getting a WATCHDOG_EXCEPTION BSOD. I boot into a Rescue USB and perform a safe boot and start up repair.​


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On November 10, 2020
I decided to rollback to an earlier bios and image of my system (7B89v23) and (November 2, 2020). The system randomly restarted at some point which I thought was due to windows updating to 20H2. The system stayed stable and the High single core CPU usage issue had disappeared. I was able to game for the next 8 hours without issue, but as soon as I leave the PC, I run into an IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. I reboot my PC but after 5 minutes I get another IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.​


I am at a loss about what to do as these are mostly new components that I purchased in December 2019, The PSU was replaced 2 weeks ago, and the Graphics Card is from March 2014, 6 years ago.​

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TL;DR


SPECS:

  • Ryzen 5 2600
  • MSI B450M Mortar Max
  • Crucial MX500 M.2
  • 2 x 8GB Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4 @ CL15 1199.3 Mhz
  • MSI NVIDIA GTX 970 4GB GAMING LIMITED EDITION
  • Windows 10 build 20H2

Symptoms:

  • PS/2 keyboard not working after waking PC from sleep
  • Mouse lagging when dragging application windows around the desktop
  • Slow Keyboard input.
  • Sudden black screen and restart.
  • IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL_BSOD
  • kmode_exception_not_handled
  • ntkrnlmp.exe


Crash Dump Link:
Crash Dump - Google Drive
(Memory 1 is an older Dump, not sure if it's related but I found it in my System32 after rolling back to November 2)
(Memory 2 and Memory 3 are BSODs that happened today)

I am convinced this is a bad driver that I can't find but I am also suspicious that it might be an old GPU problem or a RAM problem. I have work in the morning so I am panicking to get this sorted out. I will try learning how to analyze my crash dumps for now but I have uploaded them here for anyone who wants to take a look. Thanks again!

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