Trouble Installing Windows XP
 

I just purchased upgrades to my computer and everytime I get into Windows XP installation after awhile, it takes me to the blue screen of death, saying IRQL_NOT_EQUAL_OR_LESS. I've literally taken the internet apart only to find none of the solutions works in my situation

Here's the hardware
Intel Desktop Board DG33FB
Intel Core 2 Duo E6420
Kingston 2 GB 667 MHz PC2-5300
Seagate 160 Harddrive
LG DVD-ROM

That's all I've put together so far on the motherboard. I know for sure that the issue relates to IRQ conflict or driver conflict but I can't for the life of god, figure out which one it is. I even tried wiping the harddrive clean, no effect.

My guess it's related to the dual processor but that's just a guess...

Any idea?

Reset the BIOS to defaults.

Don't trust the quick RAM check. Try the long version or just pull one of the DIMMs. If it still dies, replace it and pull the other.

Also, try another CD, and then another drive. The installer isn't great at handling errors so a bad one of either can send you into the weeds.

Does the BSOD give you any information about the error? You should see a driver name, and then error, offset, etc in machine speak, though failures during install are generally bad hardware/media or ancient incompatible stuff.

check to see if there is a later bios version.

memtest86 is a wonderful program for checking ram.

Put 1 stick of ram, the CPU, mobo, and hard drive together...... see if it will install with only those.

Alrighty then, thanks for the suggestions. Here's what I've tried

1 ram stick, 1 hd, 1 cd-rom, 1 motherboard, 1 cpu, no dice
Different disk (XP Professional and Home), no effect
Updated BIOS, no effect

The BSOD doesn't give any information as to what driver is causing the issue. Just spitting out some machine code. It goes:
I'm running the memtest86 right now, taking awhile. If that doesn't reveal anything, I'm going to try turning off BIOS caching and shadowing as I've read couple thread online that seems pretty common. I'm not sure if my BIOS has that option to turn it off. Same for turning off video cache.

After that, I'm gonna take the tower in to get it checked out by a techie.

try booting in safe mode, see if you can run stable there.

There's no OS to begin with.

did you try a different installation CD?

oops i misread you.

how did the memtest86 turn out? and did you find a bios update?

try loading the newer drivers from the webpage when you load the system instead of the ones on the xp disk. toss them on a floppy and hit F6 as you're loading from the CD.

The memtest86 turned out to be good. All of the tests passed with no errors. I won't get a chance to try loading the new driver from the webpage when loading the OS since I took the machine in. It came with warrenty, might as well use it before I do something stupid.

Well, tech support didn't help at all; couldn't figure out why it was giving me that error.

So, I went out and brought Vista and that resolved all the problem. I did some research and found that Windows XP without the service pack wouldn't support 64 bit hardware environment.

You were right !
 

Hello!

First of all, sorry for my english but I'm french and we are certainly the weakest country when we speak about foreign languages.

here's is my contribution to this forum.
This week end I received my core 2 duo E4400, 2GB 667Mhz Kingston and MB Intel DG33FB
I tried to install windows xp family and what a surprise...
a blue screen with an error code : IRQL_NOT_EQUAL_OR_LESS
with this code: 0x80523e78
after looking for help on the internet I finally found your forum and i've decided to try something silly. So, I copied my Windows CD and SP2 and found a website which explains how to melt the 2 files together. So now I have a CD with Windows XP with SP2 in it. So I tried to install it ! and guess what? it works!

thank you guys for leading me to the solution!
God bless ALL THE WORLD !:thumbsup:

Some good information in here about some 64-bit CPUs requiring the service pack. Noted!!!

same here, thanks for this posting.

I've been struggling setting up my new system and was about to RMA the dg33fb mobo yesterday and ran into this post.
My system works fine now with slipstreamed XP SP2 installed.

thanks a zillion! u saved me ship-back money and priceless time that would have been spent without this post.

-w3

This is why it's handy to have a copy of Linux lying around. If nothing else, its a quick and cheap way to check whether the problem is Windows or just the hardware.

Hello,

I have a similar problem with this configuration:

Intel Core2 Duo E6550 - 2330 Mhz
Intel DG33FB
Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C5DHX
Seagate 250MB Sata II
DVDWR Philips

I tried to install XP Pro SP2 Corporate. After the computer booted, the XP installation process started normally but wasn't able to see the HDD. I rebooted, entered BIOS and changed from AHCI to IDE. I started the installation process again and at the partitioning section windows recognized only 148GB out of 250GB. I partitioned the hdd and continued the installation process. After setup copied the files the computer rebooted and continued the installation. At about 36 mins installation estimated time I got a blue screen with this error "IRQL_NOT_EQUAL_OR_LESS" some machine hex code and some suggestions to disable bios shadowing, etc.

I tried with that XP CD several times with no success and decided to slip the ich9 drivers into the XP installation image. Did that and got the same problem, installation stops at blue screen.

I downloaded Knoppix 5.1.1(latest version), kernel 6.2.19 and after the welcome boot message(hit enter to start knoppix) the computer hangs with black screen, nothing is happening. I tried to start knoppix with the parameter "knoppix acpi=off" , it started to load the OS but after a few lines a minimal shell prompt apear with fewer than 10 commands (mount, umount, ...).

I tried to boot with Hirens to load DOS and do a BIOS upgrade but any utility program from the suite wont start and i get 2 driver error mesages. (i didn't wrote that down)

What could be the problem ?

Hello again,

After a few checks I realized that the winxp cd and the knoppix cd were corrupted. The data could not be fully retrieved from them. I rewrote them and everything is fine now.

See Ya

Can you explain more about win xp sp1 not working with 64 bit hardware?

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL XP installation 0x80523e78
 

THANK YOU DIEU MY (new) FRENCH FRIEND!

I guess my new motherboard and cpu won't work with the original XP without SP2. I found an easy way to slipstream the two discs together, so on initial install it looks like a SP2 Version of XP, which my mobo has no issues.

That's all it took to get it installed.

Here's the error I received while trying to install XP Pro:

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL XP installation

0x0000000A 0x00000010, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0x80523E78

here's the link I used to create the new boot / install disc:

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase...tream.asp#nero

All you have to do is install from the new disc, (or Vista) and the problem should go away.

CHEERS!

0x00000010, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0x80523E78
 

If you are using a windows xp SP1 chances are you have to go into your bios and disable multiplexing (turn off core two) and after installation you can turn it back on. Windows XP does not support Core two duos. I had this problem and it was a pain to fix. Hope this helps.

That is really interesting that SP1 doesn't support core2 duos. I (thought I) bought my hyperthreaded PC back in the days of SP1. I know these are different by name, but for the life of me I don't understand why they would be different in principle.

Hyperthreaded is most definitely not the same as having 2 cores. A HT P4 is undoubtedly single core.

Hmm... interesting because I installed my own version of a built to spec PC Core 2 Duo (one week after it hit the market!) delivered with DOS.

I installed XP SP1 on 2 machines without any problems whatsoever.

I ran into this problem once (got the MB cheap because the previos owner couldn't install XP either) and the trick was to disable all heat sensing in the BIOS while installing. I can't really tell you the exact settings I disabled since I'm typeing this from that machine :-) The settings could be enabled again as soon as the install was completed. BIOS upgrade could fix it too.
Just my $.02
ZB