Help in trouble shooting DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL problem

I'm a long time user, 1st time poster. I'm trying to trouble shoot a problem with Sonor 7 PE and
Project 5. The problem started with Sonor 7 hanging when when trying to exit a project. I was able to restart and all worked fine for awhile. Started up Sonor 7 the next day and starting having issues. The audio engine tries to start but quits almost immediately. If I keep trying either Sonor 7 or Project 5, I get the BSOD with DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL with the error STOP0x000000D1 (0xF7C5AC5C, 0x00000002, 0x00000001, 0x84DDC080). I can play wave files with Soundforge although the audio cuts out intermittanly.
 
My PC is a MusicXPC- C2 Pentium 4, 3.00 GHZ, 1.00 GB Ram
My audio interface is a MOTU Traveler.
 
Anyone know of a tech person in the South Florida area that would be knowlegeable of DAW issues?
 

If you get a 'dump' file associated with it - then try this:

1. Make sure that you have a page file allocated on your OS drive. Unless you've switched this off you will have. To check/set right Click My Computer->Properties->Advanced Tab->Performance Frame->Settings->Advance Tab->Virtual Memory Frame->Change Button. If you're not sure about manually setting it set to "System Managed Size". I've never seen any noticeable advantage by setting it manually. I only have mine turned on for the dump files. OK your way back to the System Properties->Advanced tab

2. Click on Startup and Recovery->Settings and make sure that under System failure frame->Write debugging information that "Small memory dump" is selected from the drop down box. Make a note of the small dump directory path probably set at "%SystemRoot%\Minidump". This is where you'll find the dump file. Unless you've changed from the default install that'll be in your C:\WINDOWS directory. You'll need to know it later. OK your way out.

3. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/...ugging/installx86.Mspx and download the latest current release and then install it.

4. Start WinDbg and select File->Symbol Path Enter SRV*c:\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols into the box. OK your way out. Exit and restart the program.

5. Now select File->Open Crash Dump and navigate your way to the Minidump directory whcih by default will be C:\WINDOWS\MiniDump and select the dump file you want to open. They have the format "MiniDateCountForDay" so you'll see something like Mini020809-01.dmp

6. It'll take a few seconds to load first time as it looks online for the symbols. If you're not online at the time you'll need to download the symbol files, put them on your harddrive somewhere and then tell WinDmp where they are. It's much easier and quicker being online

7. After a while you'll see a load of info and eventually a starred up banner with "Bugcheck Analysis" in it. Underneath that click on the !analyze bit in "Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information". You should then see a lot of mumbo jumbo from which you should be able to fairly easily decipher exactly what caused the crash. Won't fix it but at least you'll know and that's the sort of info a company needs to improve their drivers etc.

It looks more drawn out than what it is in reality and it takes out the guess work as it tells you which driver is at fault. Which is precisely what you want to know.

strikinglyhandsome1


Hey biker chap. I'm using your post. Back off. I own your words now.

PS: I've used it twice since you posted it and it's sorted it both times.

I thought they looked familiar.......

Using Sonar 8.5 and I get the same thing (BSOD with DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL) when I try switching from one of my other audio drivers (Motu or Line6) to Asio4All.
Was happening about 70% when I was using Vista, now that I'm using Win7 its about 90% of the time.
Major PIA.

Thanks to all who posted....The problem has been resolved. Looks like one of the drivers got corrupted by a lock-up that I had to power down to get out of. MS restore back to a week previous to the error reset the drivers. I'm back in business.

It does sound like a soundcard driver problem. You also need more RAM - 1GB is not enough.