SO, over the past few months I have sporadically received this error when starting my girlfriends computer. It won't totally boot. It gets up past the Windows XP screen and then it turns blue with the heading IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. It says to remove or disable any new hardware... but there is no new hardware. (The tech details it provides is: Stop: 0x0000000A (0x00000166, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0x804F5BC0) ) Anyway, this weekend I couldn't even restart the computer like I usually would because it would just continue to go to the blue screen. I really don't want to reformat harddrive and start over. What are all recommended courses of action up to and including reformatting and reinstalling OS. I look forward to receiving some good advice. Thanks, Mark

I've seen this a few times on systems that have a dead/dying CMOS battery. Does the machine lose time a lot, or does it ever get a CMOS checksum error on bootup?

I get that error occasionally if I goof and run my memory at 333 and my CPU at 266. Make sure everything's running at the same speed.

I've had this error and it all came down to a bad stick of ram. I took them all out and replaced them one at a time, rebooting each time. The last one (obviously!) was the problem

I keep getting this message have changed memory cards, now what do I do? Can't be battery have only had computer about four months. HeLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLp

Boot from your winxp cd and choose R when asked what do you want to do. Choose to repair from the repair console. When you are dropped into the cmd prompt type chkdsk /p This will check to see that the windows files are in order. When it is done type exit and reboot to production. It should clear any HAL problems.