windows 11 upgrade went bad, IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

[melinn99]

My sister-in-law allowed Windows to update her Pavilion x360 from 10 to 11 because it kept telling her it had to, with the end of support. So she upgraded it and now it won't boot. It gives an error IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL(0xA), what failed ntoskrnl.exe. I ran diagnostics on it and can find no hardware errors. At first it wouldn't boot to safe mode, but after running sfc and dism I can get it to boot to safe mode. I have tried to repair and reset the pc, but it doesn't fix the issue. I tried verifier to have all the drivers verified, but it fails before that even engages I think. I have downloaded the latest UEFI diagnostics. I am trying to update the BIOS, it is on F08 and F16 I think is the latest, but when I run the utility on another computer it doesn't see a USB drive plugged in.

I don't know anything about the state of the system prior to the upgrade, so I don't know how out of date the drivers were. I'm not sure what else to do at this point. 

[melinn99]

I did find a USB drive that the bios utility would see, and it copied the files to it. But when I try to boot from any of the efi files on the drive it fails to load the file. 

[Garp_senchau]

@melinn99, Welcome to HP Support Community,

Thank you for posting your query; I’m here to help by guiding you through steps to resolve this issue

Update the BIOS

Download BIOS Update: Get the latest BIOS (F16) from HP’s website.

Prepare USB: Format a USB drive to FAT32, then copy the BIOS file to it.

Boot into BIOS: Plug the USB into the laptop, power on, press Esc or F10 to enter BIOS.

Update BIOS: In BIOS, find the option to update from USB and select the file on the USB drive.

If the USB isn't showing up, double-check it’s formatted to FAT32 and properly plugged in.

Fix Driver Issues in Safe Mode

Boot into Safe Mode (you’ve already done this).

Go to Device Manager (right-click the Start button).

Look for any devices with a yellow triangle, especially for display, network, or storage.

Update drivers: Right-click on those devices and select Update Driver.

Repair Windows with Installation Media

Create a Windows 11 bootable USB (use Microsoft’s Media Creation Tool).

Boot from the USB, and select Repair your computer.

Go to Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Repair.

If that doesn’t work, try System Restore to go back before the update.

Last Resort: Clean Install of Windows 11

If nothing works, reinstall Windows 11 using the bootable USB.

Select Custom Install, then delete all partitions to start fresh.

I hope this helps.

Please feel free to reply here if you have any questions or if you need further clarification on any of the steps. 

Take care and have a good day. 

Did we resolve the issue? If yes, please consider marking this post as "Accepted Solution" and click "Yes" to give us a helpful vote - your feedback keeps us going!

Regards,

[melinn99]

I am unable to update the bios. When I go into F10, there is no option to update the bios. I can't load it from Windows in safe mode because when I run the utility it tells me that the Insyde flash driver didn't load. 

I can look at device manager though and I do see several that have the warning symbol on them. So I will see if I can update the drivers for them and go from there

[melinn99]

I downloaded all of the drivers available for the laptop. Of course they are all windows 10 drivers because there are no windows 11 drivers available on this website for the laptop. So pretty much all of them come back and say that the driver won't work for this OS. So I can't update any of the drivers. I can't connect to the network even in safe mode with network. I can't update the bios. I don't think reinstalling Windows 11 from scratch is going to fix it, because I will just be back in the same position without the user's files on the system. I can't revert to Windows 10 without reloading from scratch either. I have tried to backup the files as best I could in safe mode, but not sure if I got everything. I can't connect to the internet so I can't run windows backup.  

[Garp_senchau]

Hey @melinn99, 

Thanks for reaching out! Since the issue remains unresolved, I suggest contacting our phone/chat support team for personalized assistance. They can provide one-on-one help and may even be able to work their remote assistance magic to fix the problem.

Note: There might be a nominal charge for the service they provide.

Regards,