I'm Very happy that people Read the now 8 pages of comments before posting how to fix it, in the manner which has already been described. Its like, they read the first 3 posts and then just responded. I love it. In any case I got in contact with a buddy of mine that works at Ms. Got him to do some digging with the devs. He came back with the response that its 95% sure that is always going to be hardward related. If checkdisk /r or other such fixes to the software resolve the issue, with out any hardware reconfiguration. The problem still exists and will resurface. He said that if software changes fix the issue, its most likely a problem with the Harddrive, its setup, or its health.

So thats the most official word I could get after digging around, but as typical programmers, "My Code is fine, it must be the hardware"

Haha! (re: "My code is fine, it must be a prob with the hardware")

Normally, I'd be inclined to write that off as a knee-jerk "programmer-in-denial" response, but in this case there are 8 pages of data that tend to support the position that it's likely a hw problem.

For what it's worth, I had to boot into safe mode for some other reason yesterday, and noticed that under normal conditions, mup.sys is the last "device driver" listed during my boot sequence. I'd be curious to see an MS developer-type explanation of what Windows is doing between the time mup.sys gets loaded and the next time the display is updated, since that would be helpful in troubleshooting the problem. (I also noticed that during that brief pause, my keyboard Num Lock light came on, and the LED on the bottom of my USB optical mouse lit up. Knowing where those interfaces are initialized with respect to the other things going on during that pause would also help folks narrow down the list of possible problems during troubleshooting (i.e., problem occurs before or after mouse is initialized).)

Jim

Me too I ran into this problem but it didn't take me long to figure out it was a hardware problem. I upgraded my old faithfull testing AMI-166 MHz Intel Pentium motherboard to a P2-300 MHz Via chipset with Award BIOS.

I would have appreciated some king of error message but instead, it just rebooted without warnings and offered a troubleshooting startup menu with safe mode options which never allowed me to boot the PC whichever options I chose. So I just inserted the WindowsXP original CDROM and reinstalled windows (repair option). Windows reinstalled itself without a glitch and everything appears to operate OK as it was before the motherboard upgrade. Funny thing now is that I am not able to restart the computer in safe mode with network support anymore. I gives me a blue screen and complains that "Windows has been halted to prevent dammage" but it doesn't inform me about any hardware problem. Simply that if this is the first time I see this message, to restart the computer and perform a scandisk.

Anyway, keep up the good work guys by contributing to this thread.

Your problem is actually somewhat different from what this thread is intended to address. Although older versions of Windows could usually accommodate a major hardware change (like a mobo/processor upgrade) in stride, WinXP cannot. The proper upgrade process for an XP box is to do what you did: After adding the new hardware, reinstall XP using the "Repair existing install" option. That upgrade process is documented on many websites and is a well-understood and unsurprising behavior (if you've done your research, anyway). I'm not familiar with your Safe Mode with Networking boot problem, but unfortunately it's outside the scope of what this thread is trying to address.

Specifically, this thread addresses computers which out-of-the-blue fail to boot (or boot extremely slowly) one day, for no apparent reason. If the user tries to boot into Safe Mode, they'll see the multitude of Windows support files load, up to the final file "mup.sys", and then the boot process will hang without an error message. This problem signature gives little clue to what might be the actual cause of the problem, which makes it very hard to troubleshoot. Aside from this thread, there seems to be very little information on the web that will help with troubleshooting this problem.

Jim

1 month old machine, using: AMD 64bit Sempron 3200+, DFI NF3 board,9800 all in Wonder Vid card, and mixed ram (2x512 kingston, 1x512 corsair) Has Win XP pro sp2 32 bit OS on a SATA C drive.

I ran into the described problem: frozen in normal startup mode, all safe modes freeze or reboot at mup.sys (which was right after the vid card nv_agp.sys... I do not have skills to recover C drive using disk recovery from install disk... (I know fdisk is a bad idea in this case, beyond that, I'm a wide-eyed rookie.) - no i did not have a Win XP recovery disk either (no floppy drive to put it in anyway.

This forum led me to hardware belief so I checked that: loaded OS on different available IDE drive, loaded fine, mobo, vid card, ram all worked with new install, so figured it may not be that. Also, SATA drive ran as slave just fine with no real errors. Then I pulled the video card, replaced with dime store version for basic functionality and retested SATA - no fixy.

Problem: I need my machine back, on the SATA drive, cause apparently I set up my wife's mydocs folder encrypted, meaning I can't pull the data off without making that hard drive work (quicken data, fam pics, etc). PC store down the street held my drive for two days, then called to say they could not recover encrypted data from a working drive...

So, I know drive works, I know hardware works (Mobo, vid card, ram), and i've put in a simple video card to reduce complexity, but I can't get past mup.sys. I tried removing the mup.sys and nv_agp.sys drivers from the folder (in slave setup) then booting the SATA - no luck, no fixy.

I remembered I had been "playing" in the bios recently, possibly just before this error. I remember checking: "Configure for performance" Doh!!! I checked configure normal, no fixy. I reviewed every item, tried all the tricks in this thread (new to me by the way). no fixy.
Friend said: why don't you just reset your CMOS? Uh, what's a cmos.

CMOS reset resolved the issue. put back in the wonder card, and wifey can go back to her machine again - root cause of issue: over-confident husband in bios of machine.

This may or may not fix your mup.sys challenge, but it did mine, and since there are so few threads on this out there, I wanted to leave my crumbs.

Everything I did in my last post to get past mup.... this time i did the opposite to get windows to load after i added a 200GB harddrive

So, I've never seen this problem. Until this week, and I see it on 3 computers in 3 days.
First computer remedied by taking out hard drive, installing it as a slave in another pc, and xp on that pc automatically fixed some errors it found on the drive.
Second computer remedied by using recovery option of reinstalling windows (after I found this forum and tried all the easy fixes first which didnt work for me).
Third computer, I will attempt to fix tomorrow.

Another one fixed.
Just following up on my last post.
On this computer first I tried the Reinstall Xp Recovery Option, but it couldnt find a windows installation, in fact it said my hard drive partition was unrecognized. That made me nervous.
Then I went into Recovery Console from XP cd boot, and used "chkdsk /p" it fixed an error on the drive and all is well again.
Thanks a bunch guys, without this forum, I probably would have reformatted multiple machines and would have lost alot of data.

ALright Fellas... this is the final story i am fixing to throw this Comp out the window..

this all started over a Modem ( dial-up, PCI).. my mother in law has a computer that has WinXP Pro, SP2 on it.. i was under the assumption that you have to be looged in as Admin in order to make hardware changes and stuff like that, so i changed the password, and after that i turned the comp off, and instaleld the new modem, after that the computer locked up when it was shutting down, so i just manually turned it off.. ( front button to shut-off), Now this is where it gets screwed up, ever since i shut it off, i Can not load windows, i am however able to access the cmos or bios or whatever it is that you have to hit delete while booting....
( setup), i tried EVERYTHING i knew to fix it. Tried Loading Best and optimal peformances both, but when i did, it restarts and boots to the screen that says " Were sorry , windows did not shuit down properly, please choose either safe mode or Safe mode w/ networking, or Normal startup, and some other options, let me tell you that i have tried them ALL.. I have even tried the Load last best seettings thing and it didnt work either, either way i go , it will load all the way up to MUP.sys and stop.. i then tried to boot into my windows XP Home edition CD ( recovery mode) and i am able to do that just fine, it asks me which system ( or something like that) would i like to use ( theres only 1 option) so i click 1 and then it asks me for the admin password and i put it in there and then it takes me to a C:\WinXp> prompt, and this is where i am at as we speak, and i have no idea what to type or what to do... HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You of course pulled the modem out and tried to boot right?

yes... still doing the same thing. and i dont have access to a XP pro cd either, i have a xp Home editon though.

As I understood, there is not such thing as ¡¥the solution¡¦, therefore my story of ¡¥mup.sys¡¦:

Staring point: Have a Shuttle (XPC ST62K) with XP 2 on it. Had installed XP a year ago and about 6 moths ago I installed SP2. All worked fine!!! Except for Nero: worked but could only burn one CD and sometimes the machine would not shutdown properly. I¡¦m not even sure that that had anything to do with the upgrade to
Nevertheless I decided just recently to reinstall my PC, with a dual boot on two partitions, so I could give the kids their own partitions.
1. Formatted the HD, made two partitions
2. Reinstalled XP SP2 on partition 1.
3. Failed at first reboot (after copying the files): halted at Windows start-up screen
4. Reinstalled XP: fine
5. Downloaded XP SP2 from Microsoft
6. Installed XP2: installed fine
7. Failed at first reboot, but this time with the option to try any of the other modes
8. Normal: would bring you to step 3
9. Safe mode would freeze at the mup.sys
10 Searched the internet. No reports or specific support to be found on microsoft.com or shuttle.com ƒ¼. On forums, like this one, multiple options were proposed. The most common ones, like disable mup.sys, would then cause a freeze at the next (or previous?) driver (ndis.sys), Disabling USB¡¦s or Video card were other options proposed. Neither of these worked.
11. Updating the Bios finally worked (installed first XP on partition 2, to do this)
12. All seems to work fine!

Hope this helps someone.

Great to hear that. From all of these account we can pretty much assume (used lightly) that either a BIOS/ESCD issues causes the problem or perhaps a tick on the boot disk.

This is a great thread.

Wayne

Er, no, you can't assume (used lightly or not) that at all. Many users have reported that removing and/or replacing hardware cleared the fault and allowed the boot to proceed--a solution unrelated to BIOS settings or the boot disk.

After observing my computer more closely, it appears to initialize all (or at least several) of the I/O devices immediately after loading mup.sys and prior to changing to the next screen (black with arrow cursor). It initializes the mouse, keyboard, network connection, and all the disk drives, and probably other things as well that aren't readily visible to me.

In my case, it was hanging at this point because it couldn't initialize comm with a disk drive, due to a faulty 80-pin IDE connector. My problem was hardware-related and completely unrelated to BIOS or the boot disk.

This thread has eight pages of commentary. Please don't do future readers a disservice by "helpfully" summarizing those 8 pages incorrectly.

Jim

True! But the software must talk to the hardware.

I've read the eight pages since it was one and have deduced that it's an XP, HAL, ESCD or BIOS issue that may or may not lead to faulty hardware. In all cases except a faulty boot drive, the system should speak the problem. Don't you think?

Now I'll withdraw from this thread and let you share your comm driver issue/bad cable with the rest.

You know, I had an Altair (IEEE-696 bus), Kaypro, a Trash80 (etc.) and have matriculated through all the variances of UNIX, MS and CP/M and the hardware supporting them and I'll be damned if I;ll be chided by you.

Are you an engineer?

Yes, I am an engineer, though I'm not sure that's relevant.

"I've ... deduced that it's an XP, HAL, ESCD or BIOS issue that may or may not lead to faulty hardware." I was extremely confused by this statement at first, thinking, "How, exactly, could a software issue lead to a wire breaking in my IDE cable?" After considering it for a while, I now think you mean "lead to" in the sense of "indicate" or "point in the direction of". If that is what you mean, then I disagree with your definition of "issue". To say that I experienced an "XP [software] issue" when my IDE cable failed is the same as saying that I experienced an "cell phone software issue" when it would no longer make calls because the battery died. As a former Bell Labs hardware architect, I ask you: When you design a box or a system to support an interface, and someone else's device or system on the other side of the interface doesn't "play by the rules" of that interface, is it your fault if your hardware fails? Of course not. My hard disk wasn't communicating correctly on the IDE bus due to a faulty cable. Windows could have done a better job of handling that error condition, but ultimately, the failure condition wasn't Windows' fault--it was the fault of the interfacing device for not meeting the interface requirements. (And it had nothing to do with BIOS or boot disk problems, which was your original claim--far different from this "clarification" in your second post.)

"In all cases except a faulty boot drive, the system should speak the problem. Don't you think?" Perhaps I miss your point. It doesn't matter whether I think Windows should do a better job of handling or announcing the error condition. (That's also not the point of your original post.) This thread exists *because* Windows doesn't handle the error well, and folks are sharing the various fixes they have found to help others with troubleshooting. Some have been CMOS-related. Some have been driver-related. Some have been related to data corruption on a hard drive. Some have been unquestionably hardware-related. It is not correct to say all fixes were ultimately related back to BIOS or boot disk problems as you said in your first post, and saying so could seriously mislead someone coming here looking for troubleshooting guidance.

"I've read the eight pages since it was one .... Now I'll withdraw from this thread and let you share your comm driver issue/bad cable with the rest." If you have truly read all eight pages, you would know that I have already mentioned several times that my problem was solved by replacing a faulty IDE cable.

"You know, I had an Altair (IEEE-696 bus), Kaypro, a Trash80 (etc.) and have matriculated through all the variances of UNIX, MS and CP/M and the hardware supporting them and I'll be damned if I;ll be chided by you." Sir, I respect your experience. However, the facts documented in this thread contradicted your original conclusion, and I was concerned that a reader coming late to the party could be led astray by your misleading summary. I stand by my clarification.

And I apologize to other readers for drifting off-topic.

Jim

Jim;

(off topic) I was an architect at Bell Labs in Columbus, OH and retired in '99 and worked at Analylst's International and finally at Applied Innovation. I got burned out. Too much politics if you know what I mean.

I too have made several posts; one on a hardware related issue that I discovered. I had an old CDROM drive that didn't report its existence on time to the BIOS scan (old timing board system board) until windows got to it and of course the system failed to boot after mups.sys. Fortunately, the BIOS setup allowed me to lock in a CDROM device type and I succeeded in restoring the system (page 3 Mar.).

Now this issue! Yes! This issue is that the operating system is not reporting errors after mups.sys loads albiet a driver, loader etc.

I'm not here to make enemies. I like to hear when people have found their problems. This is a serious problem with Microsoft, and I, frankly, don't hear much from them. The OS has got to tell you what's wrong, not how to fix it. If this were UNIX you would get a PANIC (device fault) of some sort(fix it) and at worst grab the tape (if it were software related) and put it back together. But no, a rolling ball is all we get. The OS has got to tell us what's wrong so we can go forth and fix it. This is a scary problem. You've got to agree with me on that.



Wayne

"... You've got to agree with me on that." Okay, sure: I agree Windows should do a better job of handling interface initialization errors, or whatever the root cause of this problem really is. However, that's not what this post is about. (It's also not what your first post this morning was about.) Wishing doesn't make things happen, and it's foolish to expect that Microsoft is paying attention to this message thread. Therefore, it's worthless to spend time lamenting the situation. The only productive thing we can do is share information (as accurately as possible) to try to help each other deal with Windows' unfortunate behavior.

Now it's time to get back to that.

Jim;

I used one of my free services calls to Microsoft this afternoon and gave them a synopsis with references to this thread.

Wayne

Confirmation number: SRZ050806000081
Your question was successfully submitted to Microsoft.
A Microsoft professional will respond to you in e-mail within 1 business day.
Full name:Wayne Bjorken
E-mail address:wab@springdivers.com
Product:Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Problem:Hi; I've experienced as many others have, a problem with Windows XP HOME/...
Product ID number:76488-014-5821624-22076

UPDATE:

Trouble submitted as described: First Reply.... I gave this forums thread an we're dealing with Tier 1 at this time.

Dear Wayne,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Support Service. My name is Will, and
I'll be assisting you with your case. For your reference, the Case ID of
this service request is SRZ050806000081.

To give the most accurate support possible, I would like to give a brief
summary of the issue we are working on:

When you start up the computer, the system hangs at the file MUP.sys.

If I have misunderstood, please feel free to let me know.

Let us perform the following steps to troubleshoot the issue:

1. Insert your Windows XP CD-ROM into the computer CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM
drive, and then restart your computer from the CD-ROM.

Note Some computers may require that you modify the basic input/output
system (BIOS) settings before you can start the computer from a CD-ROM. For
information about how to modify the BIOS, see your computer documentation.

2. At the Welcome to Setup screen, press R to start the Recovery Console.
3. Press the number key that corresponds to the installation that you want
to repair, and then press ENTER.
4. Type the password for the administrator account of that installation, and
then press ENTER. You receive a drive:WINDOWS> prompt, where drive is the
drive on which Windows XP is installed.
5. Type listsvc, and then press ENTER.
6. Make sure that the MUP service is listed, and that the startup type is
set to "Boot".
7. Press ESC.
8. Type disable MUP, and then press ENTER.
9. You receive a message that the registry setting for this service was
found, and that its current startup state is "service_disabled".
10. Type exit, and then press ENTER.
11. If you are prompted to start in Safe mode or Normal mode, start in
Normal mode.
12. Log on to your computer.

Please try the above steps and let me know the results at your earliest
convenience. If there are any questions or concerns, feel free to let me
know. It's my pleasure to be of assistance.

I am looking forward to your reply.

MY REPLY:

CASE_ID_NUM: SRZ050806000081
MESSAGE:

Mup.sys is not the problem as many folks have disabled its loading via the
method that you describe. The problem is that Windows XP hangs after
mup.sys is loaded. When booting XP from the Recovery Console, mup.sys is
the last known good component to load.

The issue is that no one can identify a failed driver/componet
initialization after mup.sys loads because of the lack of diagnostic
support from the loader/service manager (i.e. bootfail.log etc.).

The normal problem first manifests itself with the boot splash and the
rolling ball ad infinitum. The only way to determine that mup.sys was the
last known loaded driver is via the Recovery Console as you suggest.

When I experienced this issue, the anomaly was found to be an old CDROM
drive that failed to return its existence to the BIOS scan (no ESCD). The
system board provided a BIOS CDROM select and lock for that device and the
issue was resolved.

Of course I followed your suggestion of disabling mup.sys. But to no avail
the system failed to initialize to a run/user state.
Others have tried to repair/reload Windows before finally finding a hardware
component that was either faulty or maligned in some way.

My question is: IS THERE A WAY TO DETERMINE A DRIVER/COMPONENT LOAD FAULT
AFTER MUP.SYS IS LOADED?



SECOND VOLLEY: Saturday Tier 2 watching ball game.

Hi Wayne,

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

I understand that you would like to know if there is a way to log the driver
startup process.

Based on my further research, I have found a very useful tool:

Use the Bootvis program to diagnose this issue:

a. Please download the Bootvis program from the following link:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/BTV/1.0/WXP/EN...s-Tool.exe

b. Double click the downloaded file and decompress it to C:\BootVis\.
c. Locate in C:\BootVis and launch BootVis.exe.
d. Click the Trace menu and select "Next Boot + Driver Delays".
e. Click OK and click Restart now.
f. After the computer restarts, please wait a moment until the Bootvis
program starts and save the log.
g. Check each box at one time on the left panel.

Please understand that our Web Response service is intended as an
alternative to telephone technical support. I will be glad to assist you
further, using the service as designed. If you prefer our telephone support
service, please call us at the Windows XP Warranty Support number listed
below. Plea
se include your case ID, which is displayed in the subject line, so that we
may more efficiently access your information.

Windows XP Warranty Support: (425) 635-3311
Mon-Fri 5.am - 9.pm Pacific Standard Time
Sat 5.am - 3.pm Pacific Standard Time
Sun 9.am - 3.pm Pacific Standard Time

If you have any questions about this issue, please don't hesitate to let me
know.

Best Regards,

XXXXXXXX




MY REPLY:

CASE_ID_NUM: SRZ050806000081
MESSAGE:
Hi Will;

I understand and use bootvis for performance issues dealing with a system
that can boot successfully. But what do you use if the system hangs.
Bootvis has to be started from a running system. Right? Or is I wrong. HA
HA!

The scenerio:

1.You turn on your system and all seems well until your stuck on the Boot
splash screen (rolling ball keeps rolling forever).

2.Next you boot from the Recovery Console and check the normal stuff out
like chkdsk etc. Finally you boot from there and
watch the system load up the drivers/componets. The last one to appear is
mup.sys. Thinking that mup.sys is the culprit you reboot/poweroff/on
back to the Recovery Console and disable mups.sys and boot. The last driver
now is the one after (maybe) mup.sys 'cause mup.sys is disabled and the system
hangs.

Isn't there a requiement that a driver/component emit an error to the loader
or a timer in the loader itself that would emit a message to either the
console or a file for observation.


Wayne


SUNDAY: Tier 2 Still watching ball game quiet..... Good.. If I don't here from them Monday I'll call. I talk better than I write.

In continuum:

MONDAY 0430 CDT 08/08/05

CASE_ID_NUM: SRZ050806000081
MESSAGE:
********************** The message for you follows ************************

Hi Wayne,

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

Before we go any further, please let me know if your computer is now experiencing the issue. Please understand difference computers have different environments, if your computer is having the issue, I suggest we only focus on specific situation on your computer.

Based on my further research, if the next item doesn't appear on the computer screen, we can confirm that the computer hangs at the MUP.sys. Based on the current situation, I suggest we use the following suggestions to troubleshoot the issue:

Suggestion 1: Disable AGP440 in the recovery console:
=====
1. Insert your Windows XP CD-ROM into the computer CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer from the CD-ROM.

Note Some computers may require that you modify the basic input/output system (BIOS) settings before you can start the computer from a CD-ROM. For information about how to modify the BIOS, see your computer documentation.

2. At the Welcome to Setup screen, press R to start the Recovery Console.
3. Press the number key that corresponds to the installation that you want to repair, and then press ENTER.
4. Type the password for the administrator account of that installation, and then press ENTER. You receive a drive:WINDOWS> prompt, where drive is the drive on which Windows XP is installed.
5. Type listsvc, and then press ENTER.
6. Make sure that the AGP440 service is listed, and that the startup type is set to "Boot".
7. Press ESC.
8. Type disable AGP440, and then press ENTER.
9. You receive a message that the registry setting for this service was found, and that its current startup state is "service_disabled".
10. Type exit, and then press ENTER.
11. If you are prompted to start in Safe mode or Normal mode, start in Normal mode.
12. Log on to your computer.

Suggestion 2: Repair Windows XP
=====
1. First, disable any Anti-Virus program and BIOS-level Anti-Virus protection.
2. Make sure you have set your CD-ROM as the first priority boot device. You may refer to your computer manual for information on how to do this.
3. Insert the Windows XP CD into your CD-ROM and reboot your computer.
4. When you see "Press any key to boot from CD" on the screen, press a key to let your computer boot from the Windows XP CD.
5. When the computer boots from the CD-ROM, it checks your hardware and then prompts you with the following options.

*To set up Windows XP now, press Enter.
*To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.
*To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

6. Please press ENTER.
7. Press the F8 key to agree to the Licensing Agreement.
8. You will see your current Windows XP installation is listed in a box and get the following options:

*To repair the selected Windows XP installation, press R.
*To continue installing a fresh copy of Windows XP without repairing, press ESC.

9. Please press "R".
10. Then the setup program will repair Windows XP automatically.

Note: After repairing Windows XP, you may need to re-activate Windows XP. (Please contact the Microsoft Product Activation Center by calling 1-888-652-2342.)

Suggestion 3: Upgrade the BIOS

I look forward to hearing from you. If you have any questions about this issue, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Best Regards,

Will


------------------------------------->
Wills solution is from the following link: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324764

I haven't responded yet but you see where this is going. Let me do some more research before I continue with Microsoft.

Also explore the options provided by the Recovery Console. Run "CHKDSK" "FIXBOOT" FIXMBR". Careful with the last two. Note: Chkdsk has discovered and fixed the problem in at least one of these posts.


BACK TO MY SUNDAY 08/07/05:

I think I can create a boot log that can be viewed from the Recovery console. I spent Sunday researching this and if it works we will see the primitive load-up pattern of events.


CREATE BOOT LOG and beyond:

1 Boot/Power On System and watch the bios post report (version - mem and disk drives usually).
2.If you don't have menus enabled, quickly begin hitting F8. If you catch it the boot will stop and present a Windows Advanced Option menu.
3. Select "Enable Boot Logging". The system will continue to boot now.
4. The system will hang as all have described but we might have a "C:\WINDOWS\ntbtlog.txt file to look at.
5. Reboot your system and enter the Recovery Console. When loaded your current directory will be "C:\WINDOWS
6. Enter following: "type ntbtlog.txt". You can now see all of the primitives, drivers and components that have loaded successfully.
7. I'll assume (because of this forum) that the last line will read: "Loaded driver Mup.sys".
8. Now refer to the link (if you've got another system or read Microsoft's response above.
9. If the what Microsoft suggests doesn't work. You may or may not have a hardware problem.
10. Stay calm. It's only a computer. Don't start reloading from scratch (i.e., reformat harddrive etc.)
11. Sit back and retrace your activity with the system:
Have you added hardware?
Have you opened the system cabinet and done some rearrangements?
Have you made changes to the bios?

12. Enter your system's board's bios setup.
Make sure all disk devices have been discovered correctly.
Options exist also to set a default or optimized configuration. Try setting the BIOS to default. If that doesn't work
Read your system board's manual and reset the BIOS/ESCD via the jumper method. If you’re board has a replaceable system battery; it could be bad which most often can be obtained at your local drug store if not: Radio Shack.
If all fails: reseat your drive cables and look for unseated memory cards. Make sure all your add-on AGP/PCI/ISA cards are seated properly.

12. Try to boot. Success? Great!

13. FAIL: Remove all non essential hardware. Unplug USB devices (Keyboard/Mouse probably work thought) as the BIOS would complain if the keyboard was bad and of course maybe unresponsive.

14. Hopefully the system will boot successfully and you can begin your hardware
resolution. Depended on step 13.

15. Replace your drive cables one at a time. In this scenario, your boot device cable is probably good because the system has already read quite a bit of information from that drive. But don’t rule it out because the primitive drivers are just that. They can read from a device in direct manner and a primitive way. Other drivers come into may come into play when the system is stable which could affect your system.

In addendum:

From Microsoft’s response to me: it seems that they only want to deal with my issue and not the reference (this forum) I provided. I have a feeling that the support person did read it though because he mentioned (above) that he would attend to my problem (only) which I’ve corrected on page 3 of this forum.

Everybody on this forum has two free support emails/calls that come with their
“Genuine Microsoft License”. Please use them, else Microsoft will not respond.
I’ve tied up quite a bit of their time already with this issue and the COMPASS case still remains open. I myself can’t see in continuing the volley with them because I know that at some point their going to tell me to reload or repair Windows and many others have done that, including myself, to try to repair this issue without successful results.

Feel free to ask me about the use of some of Microsoft’s recovery tools, as I’ve used most of them.

I’m done!

Wayne

Attached is an example of a good ntbtlog.txt file from one of my stock machines.

ShuttleX: FB61
P4 Prescott 3.20 Ghz.
Springdale-G+ICH5 (Intel 82865 + 82801EB) chipset
All video, sound and I/O is onboard
1 gig ram.
2 hard drives. Ultra ATA (Primary)
1 CD/DVD +-RW whatever optical (Secondary)

LOG BEGINS HERE
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Service Pack 2 8 8 2005 04:43:05.375
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\hal.dll
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\KDCOM.DLL
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\BOOTVID.dll
Loaded driver ACPI.sys
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\WMILIB.SYS
Loaded driver pci.sys
Loaded driver isapnp.sys
Loaded driver ohci1394.sys
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\1394BUS.SYS
Loaded driver pciide.sys
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\PCIIDEX.SYS
Loaded driver intelide.sys
Loaded driver MountMgr.sys
Loaded driver ftdisk.sys
Loaded driver PartMgr.sys
Loaded driver VolSnap.sys
Loaded driver atapi.sys
Loaded driver disk.sys
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\CLASSPNP.SYS
Loaded driver fltMgr.sys
Loaded driver sr.sys
Loaded driver PxHelp20.sys
Loaded driver KSecDD.sys
Loaded driver Ntfs.sys
Loaded driver NDIS.sys
Loaded driver Mup.sys
Loaded driver agp440.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\nic1394.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\intelppm.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\ialmnt5.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\usbuhci.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\usbehci.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\RT2500.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\fdc.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\serial.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\serenum.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\parport.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\i8042prt.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\mouclass.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\kbdclass.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\imapi.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\ASAPIW2k.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\cdrom.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\redbook.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\ALCXWDM.SYS
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\ALCXSENS.SYS
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\audstub.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\rasl2tp.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\ndistapi.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\ndiswan.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\raspppoe.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\raspptp.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\msgpc.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\psched.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\ptilink.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\raspti.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\Pcouffin.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\termdd.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\swenum.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\update.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\mssmbios.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\MarvinBus.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\NDProxy.SYS
Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\NDProxy.SYS
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\ialmkchw.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\ialmsbw.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\usbhub.sys
Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\lbrtfdc.SYS
Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\i2omgmt.SYS
Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\Changer.SYS
Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\Cdaudio.SYS
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\Fs_Rec.SYS
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\Null.SYS
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\Beep.SYS
Loaded driver \??\C:\Program Files\Symantec\Norton Ghost 2003\ghpciscan.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\vga.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\mnmdd.SYS
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\RDPCDD.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\Msfs.SYS
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\Npfs.SYS
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\rasacd.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\ipsec.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\tcpip.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\ipnat.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\netbt.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\wanarp.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\afd.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\netbios.sys
Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\PCIDump.SYS
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\rdbss.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\arp1394.sys
Loaded driver \??\C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\pclepci.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\mrxsmb.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\Fips.SYS
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\BANTExt.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\avg7core.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\avg7rsw.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\USBSTOR.SYS
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\Cdfs.SYS
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\avg7rsxp.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\sfloppy.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\Fastfat.SYS
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\ndisuio.sys
Did not load driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\rdbss.sys
Did not load driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\mrxsmb.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\mrxdav.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\ParVdm.SYS
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\aspi32.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\wdmaud.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\sysaudio.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\splitter.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\aec.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\swmidi.sys
Loaded driver \??\C:\WINDOWS\System32\Drivers\avgtdi.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\DMusic.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\kmixer.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\drmkaud.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\srv.sys
Did not load driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\ipnat.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\HTTP.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\kmixer.sys

Jim,

you come here stating that it's a faulty IDE cable that was the cause of your problem. Did you ReALLY test all the pins in your faulty IDE cable? Can you tell us which one was the culprit?

How about cross-checking your faulty and "working" IDE cable to get some conclusion?

I put you to the test now and tell you to try your "faulty" cable back in your PC and see if it boots. Post back.