Good gravy, man--no, I didn't test all the pins! Are you nuts?

Here's what I *did* do to troubleshoot my problem (perhaps it might help someone else trying to figure out where to start their troubleshooting):

1) I pulled all the cards in my machine except the video card. Problem did not go away, so I put all the cards back in.
2) I pulled all the IDE cables except for the boot drive. Machine booted fine.
3) I reconnected IDE devices one at a time until the machine exhibited the problem again.
4) When I saw the problem again, I unplugged the last drive I had just connected, and rebooted to confirm the problem cleared. It did.
5) I replaced the cable in question with a spare 80-conductor IDE cable I had never used before and tried the connection again. This time, the machine booted fine.
6) To be thorough, I continued connecting the remaining IDE devices one at a time and rebooting each time to confirm no boot problems. All remaining connections worked fine.
7) Not realizing my troubleshooting methods would eventually be caIled into quesiton, I finished the job by throwing the suspect IDE cable in the trash. (Congressional subcommittees may yet rule that I am guilty of "destroying evidence".)

The problem had been consistent for weeks before I replaced the cable. It has not recurred since I replaced the cable. I can't think of another credible cause for my problems besides the cable. That doesn't mean that absolutely, without a doubt, it had to be the cable. I freely admit that it could very well have been conincidental localized cosmic radiation, or a bad horoscope. Or gremlins.

Jim

iv had this mup(pet) problem with a couple of old school pc,s when upgrading from 98se to xp pro..the upgrade was a bit of a bugger as well. am totally convinced that it has nothing whatsoever to do with hardware or cabling in this case. after trying everything off of here in order, thought id screw with the bios and happily...changing the APIC in power management from disabled to enabled it works like a dream. cheers whoever it was suggested that one.
peace out..
slipz

I've built many PC's and have never encountered this issue until about a month ago.

Here are the specs:

DFI Lan Party 925XT2
P4 3.2
2 Gig Corsair DDR2.
BFG 6600 GT.

Win XP2 SP2.

Ok so this machine ran fine for 6 months and then all of a sudden I'd start getting the BSOD on MUP.SYS.

Initially after rebooting several times the machine would boot fine and then Ihad have no problem for about a week. As time passed resetting the BIOS would resolve the problem. Eventually I had to boot to the Recovery Console where CHKDSK reported some errors. After fixing them the machine worked fine again.

Now the machine is doing it again. This time there are no hard disk errors. I replaced both the SATA and power cables to the harddrive and still no luck. I also reloaded the BIOS and nothing.

I read about removing the battery to clear the CMOS and gave that a go. That's when I noticed something that has not been mentioned much before:

On my machine if I power up minus the battery it boots fine. I usually shut down the machine, reinstalled the battery and rebooted. At which time the BSOD would reappear. Since I was messing with BIOS settings I started unsetting BIOS options until it was back to its default settings. Still no luck.

So I removed the battery again and "voila" the machine booted. Then I left the battery out and reset all my usual BIOS settings and rebooted. And it booted. Note that the BIOS settings are not lost until you physically shut of power to the machine.

So here I am sitting here at work with a possible duff battery. I'm going to replace the battery tonight and see if that solves the problem. I have no idea how a bad battery could affect the boot process but this is one sure reproduceable event on my machine.

More to follow:

Best regards,
Pete.

Are you really getting a BSOD? That's different from the failure signature reported by others in this thread. (Typical signature for this thread is very long or infinite stall at Windows logo screen during normal boot, or very long/infinite stall after mup.sys is listed during Safe Mode boot).

If you're getting an actual Blue Screen Of Death, what error message and fault codes is it giving you?

I've heard of dead CMOS batteries causing bizarre problems before. Sounds very likely to be your culprit.

Jim

Well blow me down.

The latest round of MUP hell was indeed resolved by replacing the CR2032 CMOS battery. If someone could offer some insight into how, when the lowpowered battery was installed, it would interfere with the boot process.

Yes I am getting a BSOD.

By default when windows BSOD's during boot it immediately reboots giving no time to read whats displayed. If you can get the machine to boot once you can change a system property to stop the machine from rebooting. Now you can clearly read the message.

To change the option go to:

Control Panel/System/Advanced/Startup and Recovery. Then uncheck the "reboot" option under System Failure.

The BSOD I was getting cleary indicated a problem with a component like "ACPI".Damn like I can't remember it now. It said that my board did not support it and that I should dissable it. Hmmm, the board definately supports it though so I don't know why or what causes this message.

But a certain check for a bad battery is to simply try booting without it. Remember to change your BIOS settings as it boots if this is from a cold boot.

Best regards,

Peter;

Yes! Differences between your ACPI BIOS settings and your ACPI Windows configuration can cause the problems as you have described. If your Windows installation was installed to support ACPI and the BIOS settings change, all sorts of crazy things can happen. On a laptop, I use ACPI. On a desktop, I don't. If your BIOS's CMOS settings have become corrupted or suddenly change, Windows will have a problem in the ACPI area. Microsoft has taken a lot of flak for this. Get a new battery and see what happens.

Wayne

Hi,
I have a similar, if not the same, problem with the pc hanging at mup.sys
It all started when i changed the hard drive from a 20gig to a 120 gig and then tried to install XP on said drive. It would go through the windows setup then when it got to "starting windows hit enter or r or f3" it would freeze up, thinking it was a fault with the keyboard i have tried replacing that with a combination of ps/2, usb and both together to no avail.
So, i took the drive out, put it in hubby's pc and installed XP on it from there, it was all working fine in his case. Took it out, put it back in my case and it refused to boot, changed startup to "safe mode" figured it was sticking on mup.sys, found this forum and read the nine pages here!
Thanks for all the possible fixes but none of them has... yet!

>>· Change IDE, Serial ATA cables. (very possible) .......... tried that
>>· Remove any USB devices attach. (very possible) .......... tried that
>>· Reset ESCD in your BIOS. (very possible).......... tried that
>>· Disable ACPI in the power management section of the BIOS (very possible) don't have that option in my BIOS
>>· Reset BIOS (could'nt hurt) tried that
>>· Disable MUP in recovery console. (MUP is not the problem, but try it if you want to, possible problems >>in the future, not fixing the real issue) cannot run RC as pc freezes
>>· Run chkdsk /p in recovery console. (this assumes that your hard drive could be bad) ditto
>>· Move memory to another slot. (querky, not fixing the real problem) tried that
>>· Move PCI cards out or in a different slot. (same as above) tried that
>>· Bad CPU’s (most likely not, CPU's have a very low fault percentage) no way of telling without shelling out for a new one on the offchance that's the cause - not gonna happen!
I have also tried changing the PSU and detaching the dvd/dvdrw drives

So, you talented people, what can i try next?
I cannot find in my BIOS a place to change the ACPI nor the APIC so i cannot try to enable/disable those at this moment in time.
Could the problem be my keyboard port on the motherboard? It is a bit dodgy but usually works via the usb, alas, no longer the case :o(
It is a possibility that in the near future i could upgrade my motherboard and cpu but that is going to mean upgrading my graphics card and memory too so a large expense i would rather avoid right now!
Any help would be gratefully recieved,
Take care,
Fran :o)

I can't explain your first problem (why it wouldn't progress when you hit F3), but I can explain your current problem. When WinXP installs, it examines your specific system configuration and installs drivers appropriate to your specific CPU and motherboard. If you then take that instance of XP and move it to a completely different machine, it will get totally confused. (Note that this is a known behavior of WinXP, and so is technically outside the scope of this thread.)

Older versions of Windows would automatically detect and correct for such an event, but WinXP will not. However, there is a way to correct the situation. I recently went through this process when I upgraded the CPU and mobo in my computer (and you will have to go through this again if you upgrade your mobo/CPU in the future, too).

The answer is to boot your "problem" computer with the WinXP CD in the drive, and do a partial reinstall that will correct the incompatible drivers by replacing them with the ones appropriate for your computer. The process is not entirely intuitive, though--when you boot the CD, you'll be asked if you want to "Set Up XP" or "Repair an existing XP install". While the "Repair" option seems like the one you want, it's not! Instead, pick "Setup", and on the next screen, it'll tell you, "Hey, there's already an XP instance on this disk. You want to repair it or replace it?" At that point, you select "Repair", and 15-20 minutes later, you'll be up and running. As an added bonus, you won't lose any of your installed applications or custom settings (not a big deal if you're working with a fresh install, but it *will* be a big deal if you upgrade your CPU/mobo in the future).

Detailed instructions (including screenshots) are here: http://www.theeldergeek.com/replace_motherboard.htm

Jim

At the point when I decided to change the battery my machine would not boot from the XP CD-ROM. I would get the ACPI BSOD before setup even began to run. This was odd since I had been able to consistently boot to the recovery console before then.

Seeing that you have tried a lot of different things you should also try removing the CMOS battery and rebooting. This worked for me and if it works for you too then it would look like a bad battery and changing the HDD's was just coincidental with your battery failing.

After booting with no battery you should put a new battery in its place.

I have no idea how low on juice my battery was. I have only had the mobo for 6 months yet the battery starts draining as soon as it is installed at the factory. So it's possible that my battery was out of life.

Well for me I will assign all the things I did, such as changing cables, resetting the bios etc as coincidental with the machine being lucky and booting after the change. After over a month of diagnosing the problem, for me, the only consistent factor was the battery, and by simply putting the old battery back in the problem resurfaces.

Best regards,
Pete.

Jim: I cannot boot from the cd as when it tells me it is loading windows i lose the keyboard... that's the reason i put the hd in hubby's pc and installed from there.
It gets to the screen that says "windows is loading
hit enter to install, r to repair or f3 to exit" then the system locks up and i am unable to do anything except power off.

Peter, i have put a new battery in, it's made no difference unfortunately :o(

Looks like it's off to ebuyer for me *sigh*

Some things to consider before breaking out the credit cards:

Have you tried using the keyboard from the other computer, to see if you can get past that sticking point?

By any chance, is the keyboard you're using a USB keyboard? If it is, it may have come with a USB-to-PS/2 adapter (the PS/2 port is the round one with the tiny pins in it, and the adapter might be green or purple in color). You may also have gotten such an adapter if you've ever purchased a USB mouse. If you have such an adapter, try using it.

If you are using a USB keyboard but don't have a USB-to-PS/2 adapter, look in the BIOS for settings related to USB support, and see if there's anything that talks about whether USB is supported by the BIOS or by the OS. Whatever it's set for, try the other setting.

Jim

Hi,

If you have a USB keyboard then you'll need to turn on USB Keyborad support in the BIOS, otherwise you'll not beable to use the keyboard. Once the OS is installed you can dissable the bios option and the PC will boot. However, you'll notice that your keyboard will not respond unless you are editing the BIOS or wait until the OS shows the login screen. Even then it might take several seconds before the OS recognizes the keyboard.

I installed my last machine with a USB keyboard and it would not work until I turned on the USB Keyboard support.

Else try the other suggestion and use a USB to PS/2 connector.

It doesn't look like you have the traditional "kick in the pants" MUP.SYS issue that I had. This looks more like a USB Keyboard/Install issue on an HDD installed from another machine.

IMHO it's really not a good idea to install the OS with the HDD in another machine. And being the paranoid MS biggot that I am would probably perform at least 3 installs of the OS before being happy. lol.

Best regards,

Hi guys,
Thanks for the advice but i have tried all the things you have suggested already :o(
I have a keyboard tht has both a usb and a ps/2 connection and i have tried all variations of plugging it in, i have tried two different ps/2 keyboards that work in two different computers, but neither of them will work.
It works fine until it comes to the screen that says "installing windows" and then any lights on the keyboard go out and after the cd has loaded up all necessary files for the install (by the way, i have watched all these files being loaded and i see the keyboard and usb keyboard drivers loading) the screen that says "hit enter OR hit r OR hit f3" comes up and the system goes "byebye" and hangs.
I know it's not the cd as i used it in hubby's pc to install XP on the drive, i know it's not the keyboard as it was working fine before this drive went in, i am pretty sure it's not because the OS was installed on another machine as even when the drive was brand new and unformatted i had the same problem, it's only since i installed the OS that i can now see it is hanging on MUP.sys.
It all seems to stem from changing over the hard drive from the 20 gig to the 120 gig, UNFORTUNATELY the 20gig went to a new home so i can't even try that one in there again to see if it works!
Seems i have hit a brick wall :o(
Thanks for the assistance Pete and Jim, i'll let you know if i manage to sort it without replacing everything!

Take care,
Fran

Well, that's very odd. PS/2 keyboard support is about the most basic interface a computer supports, and before hearing your story I'd have said it was essentially impossible to have problems with that. So much for that thought! That absolute last thing I was going to suggest got shot down when you said the keyboard lights come on and then go out. I was going to suggest you make absolutely sure you were plugging the keyboard into the keyboard port on the back on the computer. The plug will fit just fine in the mouse port, but the keyboard won't work if it's plugged in there, and that includes the lights, so if you saw lights, then by definition you were plugged into the right port.

For what it's worth, if a keyboard has both a PS/2 and USB plug, then only the PS/2 plug is used for "keyboard" functionality. The USB plug is there as an added bonus to support a built-in "USB hub" on the keyboard (i.e., the keyboard itself has a couple of USB plugs on it, which is a convenient place to plug in a USB mouse).

Sorry we couldn't help,
Jim

Hey Jim,

I'm not sure if this is worth a try since I've never tried this myself. I'll give it ago tonight.

In theroy you should be able to boot the Windows Setup from CD-ROM with no HDD installed. There's not much point other than to eliminate the HDD itself from the problem.

To me it really doesn't look like the HDd is at fault and there's something else at play here. It's probably some other hardware/bios issue.

You could also try booting the XP CD in another machine. This would rule out the disk. You could also install the CD-ROM player in the other machine and try booting using that drive. This would also rule out the CD drive.

Franney. Do you still have an old Win98 CD ROM? If so can you try booting from that?

I assume that you can get into the BIOS and have the keyboard work.

I'd go through the following procedure.

1) Uninstall every PCI card.
2) Reduce the memory to one set of Dual Channel, or a single sim.
3) Check the CPU heat block assembly to see if it is tight. It should not have any play in it. If it wobbles then remove and reapply after cleaning and reapplying thermal paste.
4) Remove CMOS battery.
5) Boot to BIOS and have BIOS reset to default.
6) If default memory setting is ECC and you do not have ECC change to non-ECC.
7) If using USB keyboard set USB option.
7) Save and exit.
8) Force shutdown as PC continues to try booting. Do not turn off the PSU or main power. SImply hold the power button down until the system shuts down.
9) Replace CMOS battery.

10) Turn on PC.
11) Insert XP CDROM.

12) If this boots then install XP with this configuration.

13) Install motherboard system drivers.
14) Install Graphic drivers.

15) Shutdown and restart.
16) If all is ok then shutdown.

17) Install remaining memory and reboot/shutdown.

18) Install aditional PCI cards one at a time. Ensure that system restarts between each new install.

19) Update Windows.

Best of luck.

Pete.

Hi again!
Pete... I tried what you suggested in the order you suggested and i got as far as:

>>12) If this boots then install XP with this configuration.<<

Unfortunately it still hangs when it comes to loading all the files.

I can't find a '98 cd unfortunately so i can't try that theory but i will keep hunting for it, i know i had one somewhere.

Jim, yes, the keyboard is plugged into the correct port. Even i know how to do that properly!

Once again, thanks for the assistance. I shall be giving up with this soon and just replacing the hardware, it's really doing my head in :o(

Take care,
Franney

Hi Franney,

I'm clean out of idea's on what to try with your existing setup.

So it's to the "hope we didn't get to this" part.

How old it the motherboard? Can you take it to the store and have them test it with their components?

If you have a DOS boot disk then can you boot from that? If you can get that far then try an FDISK to erase any existing partitions and then shut down and try booting from the Win XP CD.

Also while booted to DOS you could try running Memtest86. I think that is what it's called. This will test your memory.

If it does not even boot to DOS then you probably have a serious hardware issue with either the Mobo, CPU or memory.

I'd doubt it is the Mobo if your able to get part way into the Windows Boot process. If the CPU was overheating then the machine would shutdown and not simply lockup. However, bad memory can cause lockups. Heck you know it might even be as simple as a faulty PSU. Check your voltages in the BIOS to see if they are within range.

My we are certainly scraping the barel here now.

Best regards,
Pete.

Hi,

I just had another thought. You could try flashing the BIOS from a DOS boot disk. Download the latest BIOS from your Mobo vendor and follow their instructions on flashing the BIOS.

Best regards,
Pete.

Fran;

I've got an ABIT BH7 here with CPU and RAM. It's yours if you want it.

Wayne

I see I was the lucky one with this problem. I had connected an old flatbed scanner to my Windows 2000 Pro machine but it didn't install properly and left a SCSI miniport device showing a problem in Device Manager. I didn't bother to remove the bad device from D.M. and things were fine until I tried switching memory to test an old stick I had laying around. When it froze at boot, I put the old stick back but no luck, it still took 10 minutes to boot. After several attempts I went to safe mode and discovered it was freezing after mup.sys, started searching online with the other computer (WinXP Pro Sp2) and found this forum. I went back and removed the problem device and voila! it booted fine and has worked flawlessly since. If anybody is interested, the hardware config is on an earlier post a couple pages back.
For the sake of all the other poor souls out there battling this problem, I sure as hell hope Microshaft fixes this problem sometime soon, and makes sure it won't be a major problem when Longhorn rolls out next year. Best wishes to you all...