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I have an USB external audio interface that constantly throws BSoD with IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL when plugged in.

(The vendor drivers are definitely to blame here, but they are unmaintained and I need this interface to work).

I'm trying to check if there isn't an IRQ conflict between the audio interface and some other device, that would typically cause this error, but the device isn't showing in devmgmt.msc when sorted by resource.

The device does show up under 'Audio Controllers' :

enter image description here

But doesn't appear anywhere when I sort by resources :

enter image description here

I tried plugging the audio interface in all the USB ports with no luck.

Why isn't my interface showing in the devices when sorted by IRQ ?

Arthur Attout
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3 Answers3

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Make sure the Line 6 drivers are up to date - https://line6.com/software/index.html

Remove any extraneous audio drivers - NVidia especially is a known crasher. In fact you can live without 9/10th of NVidia's "Experience" stuff. Uninstall the whole lot if you don't use it & only install the actual graphics drivers.
I've not known Realtek to ever get in the way, so that's probably safe to leave in. Steam I have no dealings with, so that would be your call.

Tetsujin
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I actually can't provide a definite answer to your question, because I do not possess this hardware. However, two possible solutions come to my mind:

The first thing I would try is to install the drivers for your device in compatibility mode. Whenever you run an executable under Windows 10, you can run it in compatibility modes back to Windows 95. To do that, right-click the executable in question and choose "Properties". Then go to the "Compatibility" tab, check "Run this program in compatibility mode for:", select the appropriate Windows version from the drop-down and hit "OK".

At the end of this answer, I have attached a screenshot which shows the respective dialog (to create the screenshot, I have used the first executable I came across when writing this answer, which was the Teamviewer setup program; this is purely random).

The good thing is that I have seen working this method in many cases. For example, I originally thought I could throw away my beloved CanoScan 8800F when having upgraded all of my PCs to Windows 10, because Canon does not provide Windows 10 drivers for this device, and I definitely won't use the crippled WIA after having been happy for years with the much more advanced Canon TWAIN drivers. There was absolutely no chance to install the Windows 7 drivers for that device in Windows 10.

But one day, more accidentally than by intent, I tried the installation of the Canon drivers using Windows 7 compatibility mode, and guess what: The scanner is working in Windows 10 via TWAIN like a charm since.

I am describing my issues with a hardware which is totally unrelated to yours just to make clear that the compatibility mode not only helps with running old applications, but also with installing old drivers. To stress it again, you would of course run the driver setup program in compatibility mode, not the drivers themselves after having installed them.

There is no guarantee, though. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. In every case, it is worth a try, and it is worth the time to try all different compatibility modes which are offered.

If you can't get it to work that way, there is a second idea. Coming back to the problem with my scanner: Before I had success with the compatibility mode, I had installed Windows 7 in a VM (VirtualBox), had passed through the USB port where the scanner was attached to into the VM, and have installed the Canon software there. While this has many drawbacks (who wants to fire up a VM just to use a scanner, and who wants to manage another O/S installation?), it seemed the only way to keep using that precious piece of hardware.

You could perhaps do the same. Chances are good because it is a USB device in your case as well. On the other hand, latency is a key feature for audio devices, and I have no clue if latency would be acceptable when you operate your audio hardware from within a VM via a USB port which is passed from the host into the VM. But I am afraid that this is your only option to keep using the device with Windows 10 if the first method I have described above fails.

As a last resort which always will work, you can buy a used PC for a small price on eBay, install Windows 7 there (or whatever the latest O/S supported by your device is), leave it disconnected from the internet and never attach unknown USB sticks to it, and use it exclusively for the purpose of working with your audio hardware.

Windows 10 Compatibility Mode

Binarus
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IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL is generated when a device driver tries to access invalid addresses. Despite the name of the error it's not related to the IRQs the device is assigned in Device Manager.

Windows XP 32-bit more or less let device drivers have total free reign while executing their code. Starting with Vista, features have been added that check that drivers are not modifying Windows or doing anything malicious. I'm sure Windows 10 and especially with patches to address CPU vulnerabilities like Spectre and such, there are even more. The only fix for this is to modify the driver to stop trying to access invalid addresses and that's not something you can do unless you have access to the source code and/or are a developer.

If the last driver update to this device was 2010 it was probably designed to run under Windows XP or Vista. You may need to install one of those operating systems, that aren't protecting the kernel so much, from old media to stop this error, and if you are using this system for audio production, it may be OK to do that and never connect the system to the Internet.

It's also possible that hardware issues like a malfunctioning device or malfunctioning RAM causes a device driver to try to access invalid addresses.

LawrenceC
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