windows vista issue

[schrodingerscat]

after loading vista home premium on a totally virgin pc all i get when it starts up is a blue screen error saying IRQL-NOT-LESS-NOT-EQUAL Can anyone shed any light on this ?

[Taita]

IRQ's are to do with hardware and drivers usually. Did Windows boot up at all, then die?

Or did you install Vista, and can't get into windows.

[schrodingerscat]

thanks i loaded vista and when it restarts it wont open windows all i get is the irql message i could have missed installing a hardware driver but i'm really not sure so any clues are welcome

Edited by schrodingerscat on Sunday 10th February 19:11

[evenflow]

Can you start the PC in safe mode, or boot from the CD?

[schrodingerscat]

nope tried all those options just keep getting the same error mesage irql not equal or less

[Munter]

If it wont boot from CD or safe mode I'd start looking in the BIOS for IRQ settings. But I havent had to play with those since Win95....

[Taita]

Sounds like Vista hates the hardware, whats in the PC?

ETA: Oh, and manually setting IRQs can be a truly soul destroying waste of an afternoon.

Edited by Taita on Sunday 10th February 21:33

[schrodingerscat]

Asus p5nd motherboard with 4gig of corsair ram (2x2) intel quad core q6600 2.4 proccessors, coolermaster 700watt psu ,western digital caviar 500gb hard drive, gainward 8800 gt video card, and a samsung dvd rewriter/lightscrib. All in an NZXT hush case s-ata connectors oh and abigg ass zalman heatpipe to cool the chips. Nothing really radical but the bugger wontseem to get beyond the aformentioned blue screen of death

[Mattt]

New machine then - very odd.

Format HDD and try again? Should work easily.

I remember the days of manually setting IRQ & DMA - thank those days are over.

[schrodingerscat]

ok i think you may be onto somthing there i could in a big hurry have attempted to install vista on an un formatted un partitioned hard drive, ok i know i'm a knob but i build cars not puters question is wtf do i do now

[Munter]

schrodingerscat said:

ok i think you may be onto somthing there i could in a big hurry have attempted to install vista on an un formatted un partitioned hard drive, ok i know i'm a knob but i build cars not puters question is wtf do i do now

As it wont boot from CD. I guess put the HDD in another computer. Format it. Put it back and install windows again.

BUT I dont think Windows will let you install without formating the drive to something it's happy with. It wont install into "empty space" normally.

[TheGriffalo]

schrodingerscat said:

ok i think you may be onto somthing there i could in a big hurry have attempted to install vista on an un formatted un partitioned hard drive, ok i know i'm a knob but i build cars not puters question is wtf do i do now

The partition *must* have been formatted because the error message is a 'doze one, ergo 'doze is installed. I'd pop the CD in and run a "repair" installation and make sure you load all the drivers. Could be worth downloading the latest ones onto a USB stick from another machine first.

[DucatiGary]

vista has an option to format the drive when you first install, ive not seen an instance where it doesnt ask this.

do you have a soundblaster sound card?

ive seen similiar problems with them and vista.

[Road2Ruin]

Lets not get too hasty and start formating and re-installing you could still end up with the same problem. A few things I would try first are remove some fo the RAM and see if it will boot (try both sticks independantly). If still no joy there then go into BIOS and check that the plug and play OS says no on it. This then forces the BIOS to allocate your IRQ's and not the OS. However I dont think that is the problem but will only take a few mo's to check. Unfortunately I am thinking its a faulty component and they are always difficult to track down. Memory is the most likely as its not fully utilised until windows is loaded so will probably not be picked up by an install.

Peter

[dictys]

I thought you could not install Vista if your machine had more than 2 gig of ram?

After install put the other 2 gig back in and all should be fine.

[Zod]

dictys said:

I thought you could not install Vista if your machine had more than 2 gig of ram?

After install put the other 2 gig back in and all should be fine.

You thought wrong.

[malman]

Get into the BIOS and

disable USB/Network card/ on board sound. make sure memory is set by spd or auto timed just in case. See if you can get it to boot as bare as possible. Make sure its not running any processor over clock while you're in there.

[Mattt]

There is a known issue with installing with more than 2/3GB of RAM and there is a hotfix for it (IIRC). However I installed it with 4GB RAM in a 32bit machine and had no issues.

[GregE240]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929777

Answer: either slipstream in the updated files and update your CD, or remove 2GB RAM, install Vista, then reinstall it.

Seem to recall I had a similar problem with XP?

Anyway, theres your answer.


Cheers
Greg

[dictys]

Zod said:

dictys said:

I thought you could not install Vista if your machine had more than 2 gig of ram?

After install put the other 2 gig back in and all should be fine.

You thought wrong.

ok should have said more than 3, rather than 2.