For some time now a blue screen of death appears on a random basis with the following message: “DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. STOP CODE: 0×100000d1 (0×0000006a, 0×00000005, 0×00000000, 0xf867e875 atapi.sys address F867E875 base at F86790000, DATESTAMP 41107b4d”. How can I stop these errors from occurring? The computer is running Windows XP SP2.

The DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error generally indicates there is a problem between the driver and a piece of hardware. In the error message you provided, it seems the fault is occurring in the “atapi.sys” module, which is a storage device module. Therefore, it is likely this problem occurs in relation to the hard drive in your computer, which may also explain why the computer crashes in a rather spectacular fashion when the error occurs. As there could potentially be a fault with the computer hard drive, you should first try running a scan on the drive to check its health. Instructions for running a comprehensive scan of the drive are available at the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article: support.microsoft.com/kb/315265 . If you know the manufacturer and model of the hard drive you may also wish to see whether the manufacturer offers any diagnostic utilities for their hard drives which you could download and use to test the drive. To find the model of hard drive, go to the “Start” menu > “Control Panel” and open the “System” control panel (you may need to first click the “Performance and Maintenance” category). In the window that appears, click the “Hardware” tab and the “Device Manager” button. Expand the “Disk Drives” category and you will see your hard drives listed.

You should also try running Windows Update in case the problem being experienced is related to an outdated driver which may be conflicting with Windows. You can access Windows Update by opening Internet Explorer and then go to windowsupdate.microsoft.com . Unfortunately, this is quite a tricky problem to solve so there is nothing else I can suggest at this stage. You may need to take the computer to a technician in order to resolve the issue.