XP Pro SP3: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL on hibernate

Question

I'm running XP Pro SP3 on a Late 2007-era 2.2Ghz Macbook.

Unfortunately, it's recently started giving me a Blue Screen of Death when I try to hibernate it.

It gives me the error "DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL", and at the bottom says that it's in "hiber_atapi.sys". Most of the Googling I've done thus far turns up things referring to Windows Server 2003, which is obviously less than useful.

Anyone know any way to fix this short of a full re-install?

Answer 1

Have you added any new hardware lately? Changed or updated antivirus/antispyware/security programs? Updated any drivers including any in Windows Updates - look in Control Panel - Windows Updates.

Most likely cause are major drivers and BIOS so I would update those first.

Do you have a system restore available before the problem started? One of the areas I would look at the driver for would be removable disk device controllers, there seems to have been a history of problems with atapi.sys and these devices.

Answer 2

You could use BlueScreenView to get an overview of the crash dumps and find the culprit driver. It's certainly one found in the stack (marked in pink color) so you should update or reinstall them.

If this doesn't help, you should paste the name of drivers in the stack in your question.