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mihnelis's avatar
mihnelis
Copper Contributor
Sep 05, 2025

Persistent BSODs with Intel X550 and other NICs after Windows 11 24H2 updates

 Hello,

Since around May/June 2025 cumulative updates for Windows 11 (24H2), my workstation has been experiencing repeated and frequent BSODs with the error:

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

The crash dumps consistently point to network drivers:

ixs68x64.sys (Intel® X550 10GbE NIC)
aqnic650.sys (Aquantia NIC)
In some cases, stack traces also show NDIS, tcpip.sys, or volsnap.sys being involved.

This problem persists even after:

  • Clean installing Windows 11 24H2 (build 26100.4946) on a brand new SSD.
  • Updating to the latest Intel X550 drivers (tried older drivers as well).
  • Disabled the onboard Intel NIC and installed a brand new TP Link TX401 10gb NIC (to rule out the Intel card).
  • Updating the motherboard BIOS (April 2024 release, which is the latest).
  • Disabling System Restore (to exclude volsnap.sys).
  • Testing both wired and Wi-Fi connections.

Hardware details:

CPU: AMD Threadripper PRO 5955WX
Motherboard: ASUS Pro WS WRX80E-SAGE SE
RAM: 384 GB ECC
Storage: Multiple SSDs, brand new NVMe for OS
NICs: Intel X550 (onboard), also tested with a TPLink PCIe NIC 10gb
Graphic card: NVIDIA RTX 3080

Symptoms:

BSODs happen under heavy network activity (e.g., installing Adobe Creative Cloud, large downloads, sync tasks).
System is otherwise rock stable (no ECC errors).
Issue only appeared after 24H2 updates — Windows 11 was perfectly stable before. Due to these BSODS I skipped several updates since around May until now.

At this point I strongly suspect an issue with Windows networking stack compatibility with NIC drivers in 24H2.

Is this a known issue? I have no clue on how to begin fixing it anymore. Latest BSOD happened while installing Creative Cloud.

This machine is a professional workstation used for audio and video production, so stability is critical. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

1 Reply

  • Tanksssinmyu's avatar
    Tanksssinmyu
    Iron Contributor

    Windows 11 24H2 has had some reports of network driver issues and BSODs, especially with drivers not fully compatible with the latest kernel or stack changes. Intel X550 and similar NICs sometimes require updated drivers or firmware to be fully compatible with newer Windows updates.

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