Fix DRIVER IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL (netio.sys) BSOD

The BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH (BSOD)! This thing actually makes a Windows user panic and you will agree with me.  BSOD’s are caused due to various reasons like low availability of RAM, some drivers and system files gone wrong, etc.
Let us see how to solve the DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (netio.sys) issue in Windows Vista, Windows 7 and most commonly in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1.

There are 3 most common causes for this problem

1) A Driver Gone Bad

If the BSOD comes up just when you start the network adapter or enable Wi-Fi, then there is a chance that some of your drivers are not up to date or have gone bad.

In this case you will need to update the drivers or uninstall and re-install the drivers specified for your device. In case you have trouble locating the drivers for your device then you can check free utilities like Driver Genius, Driver Pack Solution, etc to find the required drivers.

2) Due to IPv6 connectivity (while torrenting)

In case you have had the BSOD problem specifically while torrenting using clients like utorrent, then the culprit for this error is your torrent client. In this case, though your connection being an IPv4 connection, the torrent client tries to download or communicate on an IPv6 interface. Thus you shall need to switch off the IPv6 interface by performing the below operations.

i)  Open Command Prompt using Administrator Privileges. (Either do as shown in the image or right click on command prompt and click on the option Run as administrator)

Open Command Prompt

ii)  Once the command prompt opens type the command netsh interface teredo set state disabled in the command prompt and hit the enter key.

Type the command netsh interface teredo set state disabled

iii) The command prompts returns ok, thus disabling the IPv6 interface.

Command Prompt returns OK

3) Third party Antivirus(Security) Software

Well this might really sound odd, but many major antivirus including Quick Heal Total Security do give a BSOD because of the restrictions put up by their firewall.

In such case, try disabling the antivirus software along with its firewall and see if the BSOD error still persists. If not, then it’s time you changed your Antivirus.

For more details on Blue Screen of Death and to troubleshoot such other errors check our post on Blue Screen Error Solution.