Blue Screen or Continuous Reboots after Installing Driver Software

Issue Details

I have a new computer, likely with PCI Express slots. After installing National Instruments driver software and rebooting, my system either crashes or begins continually rebooting until I boot into safe mode. The blue screen resembles the following:

STOP: 0x000000D1 (0xF1ABCDEF, 0x000000FF, 0x00000000, 0xF1ABCDEF) 

Alternatively, after a reboot XP may popup crash information, and the "Technical Information" resembles:

BCCode : 100000D1 BCP1 : F1ABCDEF BCP2: 000000FF BCP3 : 00000000 
BCP4 : F1ABCDEF

Where F1ABCDEF could be any hexadecimal number greater than 0x80000000, and 0x000000D1 (DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL) could be 0x100000D1 or 0x0000000A (IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL). The first and third STOP/BugCheckParameters (ex: 0xF1ABCDEF) match.

Solution

The fixes for this can usually be identified based on the accessibility of safe mode. To reach safe mode, restart your computer and quickly press F8 as it begins to load the system. Use the arrow keys to navigate to the safe mode option.

Safe Mode is Accessible

1. Boot your Windows system into Safe Mode, open Windows Explorer, navigate to your Windows\System32\Drivers folder, and rename nipalk.sys to nipalk.bak.
2. Reboot your system and the issue should be temporarily resolved. However, you will be unable to use a majority of National Instruments hardware, and expect to encounter several error messages both at reboot and when you attempt to use NI hardware.
3. For a permanent solution, try repairing your software from the Control Panel and/or reinstalling drivers.
4. When you go through this process, the nipalk.bak file should be replaced by the correct nipalk.sys file.  

Safe Mode is not Accessible

1. Restart and boot your computer from a generic system disk. The disk should automatically check for errors and repair the system. If not, run the Recovery Console to update the system files. The Recovery Console can be accessed through the Windows Setup screen from the generic system disk. 

If none of these options resolve the problem, and you are using an X-Series DAQ card, test your system using a card of a different family or another X-Series card. If the BSOD doesn't repeat, the card you were using may be damaged.

Additional Information

Safe Mode is Accessible
This issue may be caused by your computer's BIOS. If it does not comply with the PCI BIOS Specification (Revision 2.1 as published in 1994), you may experience a system crash. In particular, calls into the BIOS32 Service Directory to detect the PCI BIOS 32-Bit Service must return correct values for both the base address and length of the service. Please check with your computer vendor to determine if they have an updated system BIOS available. 

Safe Mode is not Accessible
This issue typically occurs due to an unstable disk image. If your computer's system was initialized with a disk image, it is possible that all the system files are not compatible with your computer's hardware. You most likely need to repair your system.