Being a "computer geek", I knew of a decent free tool from Microsoft for deciphering the message "DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL". A simple Google search for "windows 10 debugger" led me straight to Download kits and tools for Windows 10. Scrolling down the page, I found the link to Get Debugging Tools for Windows (WinDbg) (from the SDK). Also needed was the link to Get Windows Symbol Packages.
Now armed with some basic BugCheck (Stop Code or BSOD) debugger tools, I proceeded to dig deeper to see exactly what driver was causing this issue and interrupting my games, videos, surfing, etc. I should point out that this BSOD happened at odd times. It did not matter how long the computer was running, what programs were running, how many, etc. So I did not have a clear idea of what might have triggered it.
When I ran WinDbg on the minidump files, it reported something I really did not want to see. It reported that the driver involved was achix64s.sys. This is the driver for the AMD chipset, and not only handles basic hard drive functions, but also hands the AMD RAID. On this system, I have 3 1TB hard drives configured in a RAID 5 array. So the AMD driver is required for this to work properly.
The motherboard in my main systems is the MSI 990FXA-GD65. It is an AM3+ socket motherboard, with AMD 990FX northbridge and SB950 southbridge.
So I had two possible sources for updated chipset drivers: MSI and AMD. I used the MSI LiveUpdate software to update my drivers and made sure I also had the latest BIOS. I gave the computer sometime, but alas, the BSOD happened again, with the same result. achisx64s.sys was blamed. So I went direct to AMD to get their copy of the latest chipset drivers. Sadly, this also failed to resolve my problem.
Let me explain my hard drive configuration. My C: drive was the Kingston Hyper SH103S3 120GB SSD. Then I have 3 1TB Western Digital Blue drives in a RAID 5 array, with two of the drives being less than 6 months old. All four drives are SATA III.
So I went back to everyone's friend Google and did some searching regarding BSOD errors with achix64s.sys. It was difficult to find anything very useful. Most of the findings were that needed to update the driver, which I had already done. However, I also found that the issue could be SSD firmware.
Ok, so I headed over to Kingston's website. There did appear to be a newer firmware available, which made sense since I had bought it in October 2013. Before downloading the utility, I read through their instructions PDF. To my dismay, it stressed that to update the firmware, you must use the Microsoft ACHI driver. That created a minor issue. There was no way I was going to risk my RAID array by reverting to the Microsoft driver.
But I had another option. I still had the 160GB Western Digital HDD I used when I first built this system. The drive was used temporarily while I installed Windows 7, drivers, etc and dialed in the setup the way I wanted it. Once set, I then used a drive copy tool from the Ultimate Boot CD to copy the HDD over to the SSD. Since then, the HDD had been sitting disconnected in a drive bay. Well, I reversed that process: copied the SSD back over to the HDD and disconnected the SSD.
To verify that the problem was indeed related to the Kingston SSD, I waited about a month running off of the HDD instead (and boy did my boot-up times suffer!). In the past month, I have not had anymore BSODs, and have been using my system as usual. This seems to be fairly conclusive evidence that Windows 10 has an issue with my Kingston SSD with its current firmware and the AMD achix64s.sys driver.
So the next step...
Now my Dell Studio 1536 laptop re-enters. Since I need to re-do the Windows 10 upgrade on it for the planned article, and I need a system running Microsoft's ACHI's driver in order to upgrade the Kingston SSD firmware, I can merge the two tasks.
So I swapped the stock HDD in the laptop with the Kingston SSD and installed Windows 7 on it. Since I haven't gone through and added all the patches, etc. to the RTM ISO, Windows Update goes through quite a few installs and restarts before the laptop is back to a fully current Windows 7 SP1, and thus eligible for the Windows 10 upgrade.
Not taking a chance that the Kingston firmware update will have issues with Windows 10, I perform it under Windows 7. In fact, the Kingston site says the update is for Windows 8.1, 8, 7 SP1, Vista SP2, and XP SP3. It doesn't even mention Windows 10. Another good reason to do the firmware upgrade before the OS upgrade.
Playing it very careful, so I don't wind up with a brick, I follow their instructions step by step and completed the firmware upgrade without any problems.
The plan now is to wait about a week, and then perform the Windows 10 upgrade, if everything seems stable. Then after a few weeks of running Windows 10 on the laptop with this SSD, if there are no issues, I will reinstall the SSD in my primary system, copy everything from my temporary C: HDD to it, and see if my problem is resolved. If this does not resolve the issue, I will be contacting Kingston, taking advantage of having another year left on the factory warranty.
