What does DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL Stop 0×000000D1 mean?

Welcome once again to the wonderful world of Windows Blue Screen of Death. If you’re reading these words then you quite likely have a computer sitting near you that is displaying the above stop error on a nasty blue background. Likely you’ve scoured the internet for a solution and been told that it’s a “Hardware” problem a hundred times. Well let me tell you, those people are idiots. For the real solution to this issue just keep reading.

As I said before most people will tell you this is a hardware error, and most people would be wrong. An extremely high percentage of the time this error is actually caused by either a virus or anti-virus software. So if you’ve already reseated your RAM, checked your harddrive cable connections, and reseated your various PCI/AGP cards but the problem still persists then the next step is going to be the removal of your antivirus software.
In specific this issue is frequently caused by Trend Micro. If you have Trend installed and are getting this error then there’s a good chance that’s the culprit. The way this works is that when the system is plugged in to the network it will bluescreen on boot, if you unplug it from the network or boot into safe mode then the system will work. So, unplug your network card, boot into safe mode, and uninstall Trend.
For other anti-virus providers the solution should be the same.

Now download SuperAntiSpyware and the free trial of NOD32 and do a thorough system clean of your PC. After that you can attempt to reinstall Trend or whatever your original AV solution was, but frankly I recommend you continue with NOD32 instead, it’s Tech Emperor approved and simply a better piece of software.

Credit for this solution belongs to RWH who spent a grueling few hours hunting down the precise cause of this error yesterday.

As always if you’ve found this helpful please Donate to The Empire.