Encountering IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL Error? Follow These Simple Steps To Solve Immediately.
Ever thought how a computer’s hardware and software go hand in hand to get your work done? Well, if you’ve been wondering, “Drivers” are the things which make them go in sync.
Driver(s), are some specialized software that helps the hardware (devices) to communicate with software (OS). These are basically the software files which can be identified with the extensions as .drv or .sys in your computer. Every hardware device will have its own set of drivers, delivered/installed when you get the device. And one of the most common problem, yet not the only one with these drivers could be, the “IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL ERROR“.
How To Fix DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL Error In Windows
This error wouldn’t show up much often, but when showed up, it turns your display to total blue, which we call it as “Blue Screen of Death” or “BSOD“. This can happen when you
- Reinstall/Update the software,
- Broken hardware or
- Outdated/Corrupt software.
Whatever it could be, you gotta find out the reason to revive your PC anyway. Remedying is as simple as other issues. You find out the issue one by one as mentioned and take according to actions to solve it. So we start by:
1. Updating Drivers:
A simple solution that needs to be tried first. Just like any other issues, whether an app or software, things get better if you update the software. Same goes here too. Any of your device which is having difficulties in connecting to the system must be having old or broken drivers. So it helps when you update them to the latest. Updating drivers could be easy. It could be manual or automatic.
- If automatic is your preference, just select the “Update Drivers” option from “Device Manager” of your PC.
- This shows up a dialogue box asking you to find any latest drivers within PC or get some from the internet and install automatically.
And if not, you may choose the indirect option of visiting the device manufacturer’s website and downloading the drivers and installing them by self. Not a hectic process though. This primary approach can solve the issue mostly, and if didn’t, try others like below.
2. Overclocking PC:
To get the best out of anything, you’ll squeeze it to its limits and sometimes, beyond. This wouldn’t be the best option every time. As pushing your hardware to work beyond its capacity could sometimes cause issues like IRQL_LESS_OR_NOT_EQUAL. Overclocking your PC or any hardware to experience faster performance may give you satisfaction, but it puts a lot of burden on limited capacitated hardware. Drivers of such couldn’t catch up the pace of overclocking and fail to communicate often. If this is the problem, stop doing this.
3. VPN Services:
The privacy software which you use can sometimes cause network issues, thus IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error. If the VPN software installed isn’t a to route traffic and connect to preferred server as wished, it might be facing issues with drivers. And this causes IRQL_LESS_OR_NOT_EQUAL error. Uninstalling or updating it could help mostly.
4. Firewall/Antivirus Settings:
Just like VPN, software of Antivirus or Firewalls too can cause troubles if not compatible. Though these save against malware, they gotta penetrate to every action that PC would take, and may communicate with every hardware that’s connected. Having troubles with drivers can thus cause the error of IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. Updating or uninstalling them can solve this.
Note: Even before doing all these, checking your concerned hardware is primary. If it’s, anyway, has any physical defects, can cause the difficulties in joining the drivers. Or uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers can help too. As for the first time installing of any new hardware, the installation process could be hindered by unknown causes and miss some of the info in the process. This can cause drivers to malfunction. So, uninstalling and reinstalling them could mostly help, if not try to above steps one by one until you get it solved.
5. Resetting the PC!
After all, these, if your system hasn’t encountered the proper solution and still shows up then, it’s time for the ultimate step to take – Resetting your PC! Well, having all the system settings to default and beginning everything from 0 can actually help. The drivers which are unable to have proper contact previously can actually make the connection this time. But make you do everything correctly. Erasing everything from PC without the proper backup of important files can make you cry later. So do that first before resetting everything.
If decided, Choose Reset Everything under the Recovery Tab of Settings Menu. You’ll be all done this time and should have your drivers working fine upon starting.