BleepingComputer.com: Need Help With Blue Screen Of Death

Hello everyone. From time to time I would get the blue screen of death. However now I am getting it four to five times a day. The blue screen reads IRQL_not_less_or_equal. Also when I restart my computer it says low voltage battery. I do not know much about computers so any help would be appreciated. Thank you!!!

Here is the technical information:

STOP:0x00000000A (0x9D646340, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0x80522E06)

The symptoms you describe could be due to hardware or overheating problems caused by a failed processor fan, bad memory (RAM), failing power supply, underpowered power supply, CPU overheating, motherboard, video card, faulty drivers, BIOS and firmware problems, dirty hardware components, etc. If the computer is overheating, it usually begins to shutdown/restart on a more regular basis.

However, since you're also getting a low voltage warning then it sounds the CMOS battery on the motherboard is going bad. If your machine is several years old, try replacing it with a new battery.

How to replace the CMOS battery
How To Install A CMOS Battery (includes instructions with screenshots)

I forgot to add when I get the BSOD I have to push the off button on my Dell and keep it down for it to turn off. If I just press it once without holding it down my fan goes loud, louder, and louder. It sounds like it is going to blow up. However the only time it does that is if I just push off and do not hold it down on the BSOD. Is there anyway that I can pin point what is wrong?

I would start by changing out the CMOS battery. Then clean the inside of your computer. Dust restricts the airflow and prevents proper cooling. This in turn can cause overheating and faulty processor fans which can result in unexpected shutdowns, random restarts, booting problems, etc.

• Open your machine, check all the connections and make sure the fans are all operational.
  
• Remove the CPU's cooling unit and clean the fins on the heat sink that sits under the CPU with a can of compressed air.
  
• Inspect the thermal compound between the CPU and heat sink as it can deteriorate over time so. You may need to remove it, scrape away the old thermal gel that makes contact with the processor, then apply a very thin coat of fresh thermal gel on the surface and fit the heat sink back in place again.
  
• Feel the CPU heatsink when it powers down. It should be warm to very warm but not hot.
  
• Monitor the temperature of your CPU, motherboard, hard disks, voltages, and fan speeds.

See "Cleaning the Interior of your PC" and "Getting The Grunge Out Of Your PC".

Other Troubleshooting Tools:
Download and run Motherboard Monitor 5. If Motherboard Monitor's seems to be reporting high temperatures for your CPU check to see what your max CPU temp is from here.

You can also use NextSensor to check temperature and voltage or SpeedFan to monitor voltages, fan speed, SMART status, and temperatures. SpeedFan can help you investigate the reasons for an unpredictable reboot or for a failing hard disk as well as whether you are likely to experience temperature related issues.

There are suggestions for troubleshooting power supply, video card, CPU, RAM, MB and hard drive here and here.

Since this issue appears to be hardware related, I am moving your topic to the Hardware forum where you can receive further assistance if needed.

Ok here is the latest update. Thank you for your help thus far! When I start my computer I also received a floppy diskette seek failure. So Quietman I had three problems. 1. Floppy diskette seek failure 2. Low power voltage/battery 3. And the the Blue screen of death. So first I tried to find any faulty drivers by doing the verified on the run prompt. Nothing came up and it froze my computer when I started it back up. So I did a system restore and everything was back to running well. So I moved on to floppy diskette seek failure. I dont even have a floppy drive on this computer so from the bios page on start up I disabled this. I also noticed a power menu. When I checked it was on run computer on lowest power setting!!! So I moved it to the "normal" setting best for functionality. I restarted my computer and voila!!! Both the floppy diskette seek failure and the low voltage battery warnings are gone! So now all I have left is the blue screen of death. Hopefully I inadvertantly fixed that as well. Do you still recommend going inside the case of my computer. I just made these changes so I am not sure if the blue screen of death is gone for sure. But as of right now everything is running normal and smooth. Still I think a good cleaning should be in order. Do you have any recommendations?

Quote

If you have never cleaned your machine, then its probably due before you have other issues.

See "Cleaning the Interior of your PC" and "Getting The Grunge Out Of Your PC".