IOCTL failed error

[RobertSearcy]

About every 3 hours or so, I get a popup window saying "IOCTL failed". After that message pops up, no sound comes out of my speakers, I get "cannot connect to server" for every site I go to, and sometimes I get disconnected from the internet (I have dial-up). Also, when I try to open an IE window, I get an insufficient system resources error.

The only way I can fix that is to reboot my computer.

Is this normal? If not, what should I do? I've looked at all kinds of web sites (including Microsoft) and I get nothing when it comes to this error.

Computer specs:
Compaq Presario 8000
120 GB hard drive
512 MB RAM
Windows XP Home edition
Intel Pentium 4 2.5 GHz

Thanks in advance for any help ya'll can give me. :-)

[blue27]

Have you run any spyware checking programs lately?

[RobertSearcy]

I have............I run Ad-Aware frequently

[ats-tech]

Do you notice any characteristics of when it happens? IE...are you always listening to a cd, or playing a game, etc.?

[markblair]

Originally posted by RobertSearcy:

I have............I run Ad-Aware frequently I myself like Ad-Aware and I stand by the product so much I paid them for the pro version. However, sometimes it doesn't catch everything. I suggest also running at least Spybot Search & Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=spybotsd) as well. This sounds exactly like something caused by spyware although I'm sure there could be other reasons too.

[blue27]

I like to run both as well.
The IOCTL failed error actually sounds more like a linux error than a Windows error.

[RobertSearcy]

It doesn't matter what I'm doing.

Every 2-3 hours, I get that error and all hell breaks loose (excuse the language -- mods, if you wanna edit this, by all means feel free to do that).

If that Spybot Search and Destroy is free, I'll download that and try it out and see if that does anything. (I can only do freebie programs at the moment).

[ats-tech]

It is free, did you check out the link that Mark posted up there? It's a grea application.

[RobertSearcy]

I just tried that solution to see if it worked.

It did get rid of some spyware that Ad-aware didn't detect, but I'm still getting the same problem every 2-3 hours.

Anyone else have any solutions?

[blue27]

Check your virtual memory setting to see if a program may have altered them.

[RobertSearcy]

I've tried every virtual memory setting that is available.

Still no luck. I still get the same error every 2-3 hours.

I also recently reformatted my hard drive (a week or 2 ago). I did that to get rid of a few pesky trojan horses. Even that didn't get rid of the IOCTL failed error message.

I also used PC Doctor that came with my computer. It didn't detect any problems, which I find odd.

[GlobalStephen]

Get more memory, take it to a computer repair store, or heck... BUY A NEW COMPUTER :)

Dell always has good deals, or I'll build you one... I built the one I am using now :)

[RobertSearcy]

Get more memory, take it to a computer repair store, or heck... BUY A NEW COMPUTER

Well Stephen, my mom has the same exact computer with the same exact specs (except processor, she has an Athlon). And she doesn't have these problems.

I really don't know what it could be (despite taking a computer repair class in high school -- IIRC, they never talked about this kind of error).

I've run out of solutions.........that's why I came here to ask. LOL

[ca1ogero_98]

I've got exactly the same problem, ''IoCtl failed'' appears every 2-3hours and stops any outgoing connections from my PC, I cant access any websites on Mozilla Firefox or IE6.

All of the system resources become used up so I have to reboot my PC. I can't remember installing any new programs however I had to disable the SSDP discovery service because it was causing issues with svchost.exe.

I'm using AVG6 as a virus scanner and regularly run Spybot and ADaware. Even when I'm not connected to the internet the error occurs so I think it is most probably an offline issue.

Running on Windows XP professional edition
Pentium III 802mhz
512mb RAM
105 GB hard drive


I can't see this being of any real help but at least you're not the only one with the problem, if anything occurs in relation to a cure I'll let you know.

[markblair]

I did some searching and I found the following results. I'm not sure if this will help but it's worth a shot...

Searched Google for IOCTL failed error message (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=IOCTL+failed+error+message):
This site (http://www.edgewebhosting.net/cfdocs/Advanced_ColdFusion_Administration/K29.html) talks about a similar error, K2TcpError_Call_Ioctl - Ioctl failed (Internal error) and blames it on a TCP/IP issue.

This site (http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=355121) doesn't really have anything to prove this theory but the person believes the problem may be with AVG. Not sure why but I thought I'd point it out just in case.

[ca1ogero_98]

Thanks for the information Mark at least I'm not alone with this issue. I thought for a while it might be a TCP problem. Next step I'll try uninstalling AVG and try something different.

By the way RobertSearcy are you using AVG?

[RobertSearcy]

I do have AVG.

BUT...........

I had this problem before installing AVG, if I remember correctly -- I'll try those links that were posted, though.

I'll post any updated to see if any of these problems are fixed.

[markblair]

Thanks for keeping us informed guys. And if neither of the two links help, let us know and I'll see what else I can dig up. This sure seems like a doozy but I'm sure someone will be able to provide the right answers. :)

[RobertSearcy]

Unfortunately, those links didn't seem to help me much.

I'm really trying to find a fix to that problem. (and they were happening before installing AVG)

But thanks for those links Mark, at least it might be a very small hint to what could be up. :-)

[markblair]

I've been searching for this error to see if I could find anything that would help out but it seems like there isn't enough to this error message. I've found this is related to software problems, possible TCP/IP issues, Kernel issues and a few other possibilities. Nothing is concrete and each site that does give some suggestions on how to fix this either aren't updated to see if the fix worked or are updated stating it didn't work. A few people like to blame AVG but others mention nothing about that so I doubt it's with that program. I just don't know. This seems like a interesting error because it relates to so many different possible issues.

[bubbowski]

You can find this error on routers all the time. Here is a piece of the log.
Aug 16 12:14:48 2006 VPN Log DPD INFO: DPD Failure has exceed the dpd retry count - declaring peer dead
Aug 16 12:14:49 2006 VPN Log Terminating SAs using this connection
Aug 16 12:14:49 2006 Failed ioctl SIOCADDDV - No such device
Aug 16 12:14:49 2006 Failed ioctl SIOCADDDV - No such device
Aug 16 12:14:49 2006 VPN Log Informational Exchange is for an unknown (expired?) SA
Aug 16 12:14:49 2006 VPN Log [Tunnel Negotiation Info] >>> Initiator Send Aggressive Mode 1st packet
Aug 16 12:14:49 2006 VPN Log initiating Aggressive Mode #596, connection "ips0"
Aug 16 12:14:49 2006 VPN Log STATE_AGGR_I1: initiate
Have not been able to figure out more yet.

[Dave-INTGI]

I am getting this SIOCADDDV - No such device error on a Linksys RV014 router configured here in my office. We are connstantly having performance degredation issues with our ability to download files from the Internet. I suspect it is a TCP/IP problem and I am going to look into updating the firmware to see if it corrects the issue. First things first, I am getting the readme file for the firmware to see if it mentions anything about this problem.