Sporadic BSOD during shutdown IRQL Not Less Or Equal

BSOD with message IRQL Not Less Or Equal occurs occasionally during shutdown.

Hi Hairy Scot ^_^,

Unfortunately your SF Diagnostic File does not contain any Dump files to analyze . Please let the tool run for atleast 15 minutes or till it says that it has completed.

Though according to your Event Log, there was an error in Paging Operation so it may be a driver problem or hardware fault.
In the next post I would expect you to post your freshly generated SF Diagnostic File having dump files.

No memory dumps in the uploaded reports.
Please do this:

Upload Dump Files:
NOTE: If using a disk cleaning utility, please stop using it while we are troubleshooting your issues.
Please go to C:\Windows\Minidump and zip up the contents of the folder. Then upload/attach the .zip file with your next post.
Left click on the first minidump file.
Hold down the "Shift" key and left click on the last minidump file.
Right click on the blue highlighted area and select "Send to"
Select "Compressed (zipped) folder" and note where the folder is saved.
Upload that .zip file with your next post.

If you have issues with "Access Denied" errors, try copying the files to your desktop and zipping them up from there. If it still won't let you zip them up, post back for further advice.

If you don't have anything in that folder, please check in C:\Windows for a file named MEMORY.DMP. If you find it, zip it up and upload it to a free file hosting service. Then post the link to it in your topic so that we can download it.

Also, search your entire hard drive for files ending in .dmp, .mdmp, and .hdmp. Zip up any that you find and upload them with your next post.

Then, follow the directions here to set your system for Minidumps (much smaller than the MEMORY.DMP file): Set MiniDumpMore info on dump file options here: Overview of memory dump file options for Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2

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You have 3 hard drives. What is the make/model/wattage and age of your Power Supply?

These devices have problems in Device Manager:

Standard PS/2 Keyboard ACPI\PNP0303\4&275C0D6&0 This device is not present, is not working properly, or does not have all its drivers installed.
Intel(R) Management Engine Interface PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1E3A&SUBSYS_1C3A1458&REV_04\3&11583659&0&B0 This device cannot start.

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If you're using a USB keyboard you don't have to worry about the PS/2 keyboard error.
For the Intel Management Engine you'll have to:
- Download a fresh copy of the latest, Win8.1 compatible Intel Management Engine Interface from the Gigabyte website
- Uninstall the current version from your system
- Install the freshly downloaded version.
- Reboot and check to be sure that the problem no longer exists in Device Manager
- Monitor for further BSOD's

As the last BSOD listed in MSINFO32 is from May, I'd have to wonder if this is a hardware problem.
Please start with these free hardware diagnostics: Hardware Diagnostics

And since you related the IRQL error, please run Driver Verifier according to these directions: Driver Verifier Settings
These sort of errors are mostly driver errors - and that's what Driver Verifier is best at finding.
Please note the entire text of the BSOD if it happens when using Driver Verifier (the driver name is what we're looking for).

Aha!!! (maybe I should say Eureka! ?) I think I found something(s):
Alcohol 120% (and Daemon Tools software) are known to cause BSOD's on some Windows systems (mostly due to the sptd.sys driver, although I have seen dtsoftbus01.sys blamed on several occasions).

Please un-install the program, then use the following free tool to ensure that the troublesome sptd.sys driver is removed from your system (pick the 32 or 64 bit system depending on your system's configuration): New link (15 Aug 2012): DuplexSecure - Downloads (pick the appropriate version for your system and select "Un-install" when you run it).
Alternate link: Disk-Tools.com
Manual procedure here: Registry and SPTD problems | DAEMON Pro Help

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Please uninstall Gigabyte ET6 (EasyTune6) and EasySaver (if installed). They are known to cause BSOD's on some Windows systems.

Good luck!

Thanks for the info guys.

I removed SPTD some time ago, but I'll certainly follow your advice on the other issues.

It's not just the sptd.sys driver that causes problems - it's also the rest of the program.
Please uninstall it in order to test - you can reinstall it later on if it doesn't help things.

usasma said:

You have 3 hard drives. What is the make/model/wattage and age of your Power Supply?

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Cooler Master 500
360W
18 months old.

A 360 watt power supply may be a bit underpowered for all the devices that you may have attached.
I am not a PSU expert, but I have seen BSOD issues that come from underpowered systems.

I'd seek more advice on this from the folks over in the General Support forums: General Support - Windows 8 Forums
When posting over there, specify all of the stuff that's plugged into your motherboard, and all of the stuff that's plugged into the case - that way those that are helping there can have a full picture of what's going on.

usasma said:

A 360 watt power supply may be a bit underpowered for all the devices that you may have attached.
I am not a PSU expert, but I have seen BSOD issues that come from underpowered systems.

I'd seek more advice on this from the folks over in the General Support forums: General Support - Windows 8 Forums
When posting over there, specify all of the stuff that's plugged into your motherboard, and all of the stuff that's plugged into the case - that way those that are helping there can have a full picture of what's going on.

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My system specs are posted and up to date.
I've been running this config for 18 months and as I already stated these BSODs are recent and sporadic.
I have in the meantime removed Alcohol 120 but I must admit to being somewhat puzzled by the alacrity with which such apps are stigmatised as being complicit in BSODs.
The fact that a system that has been stable for 18 months and has been unchanged apart from updates to Windows and other Microsoft products suddenly starts to develop faults would tend to direct me toward the OS as being the root of the problem.
But since my experience is limited to 40 years in mainframe systems I could well be mistaken in that view.

An incompatible driver can work perfectly well until it's incompatibility is revealed by an update that exposes this fault.
Good luck to you.

usasma said:

An incompatible driver can work perfectly well until it's incompatibility is revealed by an update that exposes this fault.
Good luck to you.

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I sense that I may have offended you, and for that I apologise. I can assure you that was not my intention.
I do value the feedback and information that I get from this forum.
I will confess to a degree of cynicism which is probably a result of a good deal of my IT career being involved with government departments and in particular the military. There is a deal of truth in the old saw about military intelligence being the original oxymoron.
As a software specialist it was always my natural reaction to suspect either the user, the application, the network, even the tea lady as being more likely causes of problems than my beloved OS.
However in the PC world I have found that all too often the reverse is often the case.