New monitor causing BSOD IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL

This is the first time I've ever seen a monitor cause a BSOD. I recently decided to change my monitor from my 3 year old Starlogic 24" LCD which is connected by using DVI-D to my 1 year old Hanns-G 25" LCD through one of its 2 HDMI connectors (using a DVI to HDMI adapter). My video card is an nVidia GeForce 8600 GT. As I tried to boot with the new monitor I got the BSOD IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL message. I assume this means that there is some sort of IRQ conflict. Huh? This is not a touchpad screen so I see no reason why it would use or even need an IRQ assignment. Now I assume since the Hanns-G has a standard video D-sub connector as well, I could try to use that, but there is something I really don't understand here. Do HDMI connections grab an IRQ though a DVI connection in the video adapter even though a DVI connection does not? Is there any way to prevent this from happening?

My machine is lacking in free interrupts. My motherboard has an onboard 100TX nic (which is disabled), an Intel Gig nic, a firewirecard, multicard reader, 8 USB ports, eSATA, along with standard onboard sound, SATA HD and bluray/DVD/CD reader/writer. My device manager also reports a floppy controller even though I have no floppy drive (and its my undertanding that the floppy IRQ number is hard-coded and no other device will use its interrupt).

There are drivers associated with your monitor (and, as such, they can cause BSOD's). In most cases the default Windows drivers are used as not many people have any use for the additional functionality that 3rd party monitor drivers may provide. I have a Sharp Aquos 32" TV that I use for a monitor and it uses the built in Windows driver (see Device Manager...Monitors to see the device)

Also, IRQ and IRQL are 2 different things - vaguely related, but different in concept and execution. There's a description about 1/3 of the way down this page: Understanding IRQL - http://sysinternals.yeah.net

You can disable a couple of settings in the BIOS related to the floppy drive in order to free up resources (I'm unsure about the IRQ being "hard-coded" for a floppy).

In your case it's most likely that either the connector (on either the monitor or the PC) or the cable is defective. Try a different cable to rule that out, then try a different monitor to rule that out. Also try different types (DVI vs HDMI) to rule out issues with the connectors on the video card.

Well, I don't have any 3rd party monitor drivers installed. (There was none that came with the Starlogic - there are for the Hanns-G, but they obviously haven't been installed yet since I can't get the Hanns-G working yet).

I am using the original DVI cable that works with the Starlogic. For the Hanns-G I attached a DVI female to HDMI male adapter. I have a couple of other adapters I can try or I can also use a DVI to HDMI cable. It's a bit weird since I do get the boot screens (until the BSOD) - I always thought these were simple outputs - they worked or they didn't - not they work until some other driver gets loaded.

But thanks for the reply.

Try updating the drivers.

If youy have older drivers, there may have been issues with the hdmi output setup.

What brand is the 8600?

Video card manufacturer? Dunno. It came with the Dell, which I bought in early 2008 so whoever Dell subcontracts to I guess. I can always go to Dell website and look for updates, but first I will try to use different connectors. Had not heard that there were problems with using HDMI with nvidia 8600. I have a newer 9400 but I bought that before I understood nvidia (and ATI) naming conventions so even though the 9400 is 9th generation compared to 8600 8th generation, the 6 after the 8 indicates a better level than the 4 after the 9 so it may be a worse card so I never bothered installing it. If changing the connectors doesn't work then I may just wait another 6 months since my computer will be 3 years old at that point and I generally change computers every 3 years.

Thanks for the reply.

And to make it even worse...... The 8600 is also a 9600, which is pretty much a GT210.

You can go right to nvidia:
NVIDIA DRIVERS 258.96 WHQL
is your driver.
I'd try to update to this one.