August 22, 2008
Troubleshooting Windows: NO_MORE_IRP_STACK_LOCATIONS
The dreaded blue screen of death, unaffectionately known as the BSOD, is one of the computer geek’s curses. They are such a part of culture that people spend their time looking for them in public and the BSOD has even been seen most recently at the 2008 Olympics.
But luckily, some of them can actually be fixed. On the surface NO_MORE_IRP_STACK_LOCATIONS is pretty scary, but as OSR Online explains this is happens because the driver submitted the wrong stack number in the I/O Request Packet. Microsoft has a bug fix for this, but explains that it happens because more then three anti-virus (or anti-spyware) programs are installed. They also state that it only happens when logging in to a domain, but the same error message pops up when doing simple network transactions such as copy and paste, or renaming folders.
If the Hot Fix does not work, or you are not comfortable editing the registry then here some other possible options.
In most cases, it’s probably a good idea to do all three of these things in addition to running the hot fix if possible. These should help and will help alleviate Windows reinstallation fear.
If you find another fix for this, please let me know in the comments below.
Hi Rick,
Thanks for the mention, although personally I couldn't tell from the photos what the error code was exactly. The point of my post was some of the wacky opinions people were putting together about the incident.
Couple of Q's…
1) Are you sure it was the NO_MORE_IRP_STACK_LOCATIONS error?
2) If it was, do you really think this device (or devices even) were suffering from having "more then three anti-virus (or anti-spyware) programs are installed"?
If these were newly purchased, i.e. vanilla boxes, why would you imagine that someone would install over three AV programs on them so quickly; either it seems a bit overkill, or that didn't happen and the devices 'bluescreen'ed for some other reason…
All the best,
Wayne
Yes, I'm sure of the error message. I had to do a bit of digging in Microsoft's database to take a look at it as I'm a bit rusty on Windows issues these days.
What happened is the user clicked on one of the "You are infected with spyware" ads and got another piece of software installed. The BSODs started almost immediately. They already had A/V software, both Spybot and Adaware installed. (Since each find different things then the other.)
Hi,
I too got this BSOD and investigated my installation — it had a later version of mup.sys and it had the registry setting of 10 as stated in the Microsoft support article.
It occurred twice, both times when cutting and pasting a file between directories on a remote server.
~Andrew~
Follow-up — I just uninstalled Spyware doctor…
Thanks for the follow up Andrew – it's nice to know I'm not the only person who ran across this problem, and had the same fix.
Hi all,
There's a Error massage of NO_MORE_IRP_STACK_LOCATIONS in my laptop, i try to solve through Internet but all the suggestion is fail, it same agian and again so i try my self it solve. now, not Registry problem or antivirus problem (may be it was in other PC or Laptop. but not in my Laptop) I open my laptop and check Hradware like RAM, C-mos battery and HDD which can touch from the out-side. I find out it was HDD – connection loose so, this problem is i didn't face again. please try U r self and enjoy
Joseph
Sunflower Electronics,Aizawl
Mizoram
Windows XP SP 3 updated to latest update on 11/7/09 – network issues (seemed to be connecting slow and a netstat -a -b resulted in some file names that after looking up said a possible DDOS on my local comp blocking the outbound connection. Attempted to install Trend Micro Internet security and after installing and starting a scan the system reboot at about 80000 items scanned (was not in front of computer to know exact #)
After reboot and sign in comp auto reboot w/in 3 min (startup items still loading)
Pressed f8 to select safemode – could not uninstall TIS (trend micro internet security) so did next best thing. Using msconfig I disabled TIS in startup items and services. Reboot from safemode and logged in – comp reboot again automatically.
Pressed f8 again and selected option to disable auto reboot upon system error. This time before even signing in I got the BOSD mentioned above.
Will be trying the suggestions you've provided but just wanted to get this up.
Thanks. My cousin appreciate the information. He would upgrade his Service Packs. Hope that all computer users would know this kind of information because its vital.
Great information about service packs. Thank you. More power to you.
Just be mindful that a registry cleaner will only remedy missing/faulty registry keys. Fixing the registry in isolation gives no guarantee it’ll resolve all issues as there may be problems due to missing/faulty drivers or files. You could try Reimage which takes the bigger picture, fixing malfunctions across the full Windows system. At the very least, you could try its free scan to diagnose if it’s the registry and/or faulty files that are causing the issue then chose for yourself how to fix it (by yourself or using Reimage). Heres a review of using Reimage for pc maintenance and repair that details what problems it can remedy.
My problem was I had just put in a new video card. PC consitently failed until I put back in a preveiously working video card.
What a pain