Friday, August 15, 2014

Hello everyone. Recently, I've been encountering numerous BSODs on Windows 8.1, each time with the same error: "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL". This is my attempt to document the steps taken to fix this error.

The first thing I did was examine the Windows Event Viewer service to determine what happened during the crash. According to the Event Viewer, there was a problem with the "svchost.exe" file. This is a system file, so the next step was to run an "sfc /scannow" command.

Running the Command Prompt as an Administrator, I ran the "sfc /scannow" command. After an extensive scan, the program returned the following information: "Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them. Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log."

Well, this sucks. SFC is supposed to fix the files! After some digging around on the internet, I decided to run the Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool, or DISM. Launching the Command Prompt with Administrative privileges again, I ran the following command: "dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth". Essentially, this would scan the entire Windows image, delete any resources associated with the corrupt files, and restore the clean files from a backup.

After around half an hour, the DISM program was completed with the following message: "The restore operation completed successfully. The component store corruption was repaired." Cool. Just to be thorough, I ran the "sfc/scannow" command again. It returned the following result: "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations."

I haven't had any BSODs since. I believe this corrected the problems, and my system seems to be running a lot smoother, but considering the random nature with which the problem appears, it's impossible to be certain. I'll give it some more time and update this blog if anything changes.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Windows 8.1 worked well for me, until the machine crashed. Then back to windows 8. Ugh.

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