I think almost all of you have experienced that your laptop was displaying the Blue Screen error. But how many of you really know the meaning of blue screen with all its numbers and codes. And how many of you can read the Blue Screen of Death and then take some measures. Here I will show you how to read the Blue Screen of Death.

Stop 0x0000000A or IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

You may see this blue screen codes during or after the installation of Windows XP. The Stop 0xA message indicates that a kernel-mode process or driver attempted to access a memory location to which it did not have permission, or at a kernel interrupt request level (IRQL) that was too high. A kernel-mode process can access only other processes that have an IRQL lower than, or equal to, its own. This Stop message is typically due to faulty or incompatible hardware or software. you can see the following picture：

Stop: 0x0000000A (parameter1, parameter2, parameter3, parameter4)

The parameter1 indicates an error address, the parameter2 indicates a correct IRQL you needed to access the memory, the parameter3 indicates the type of access, and the parameter4 indicates the address of the instruction that referenced memory in parameter 1.

If you see this blue screen codes when you installed the Windows XP, the problem might be due to an incompatible hardware, system service, virus scanner.

You should make sure that the hardware you want to install is compatible to your laptop, you can check it on the “Check System Compatibility” topic on the Windows XP installation CD or DVD. Or you can just install the hardware what you need and regardless all the third-party device drivers and system services such as virus scanner.

If the hardware is compatible, you may have to check other hardware issues. For example, you can specify the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), turn off features in CMOS settings, or you can remove all the adapters and disconnect all hardware devices. While I have to say that if you are not a professional, you had better not do these operations.

If you see this blue screen codes when you have already installed your Windows XP, the problem may be related to the third-party software or hardware you have installed. You can use the “Troubleshoot third-party software and hardware” section to deal with this problem, or you can delete and remove the software or the hardware.

There is no doubt that the failing or defective hardware will result in this error code, what you need do is to remove or replacing the hardware.

All in all, the Stop 0x0000000A or IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL indicates an incorrect environment. And other blue screen of death stop codes will be written soon.