Hi Jay,

It's been a while since I last posted to this thread but if you look back you'll see that I have had and resolved this issue, on my hardware, more times than I care to remember.

I started having this problem on and off until I realized that by simply turning off the machine without shutting down would cause the problem. Eventually my machine would not even allow me to reinstall Windows. All of this occured with no hardware changes.

In my case the problem was the motherboard, a DFI LanParty 925X-T2. This board in in the process of being RMA'd to DFI. In the meantime I purchased a Gigabyte GA8n SLI-PRO. I installed all the same hardware, reinstalled the OS and have not had a problem since.

My personal take on this is now quite simple.

There is no single reason for these problems. I suspect that due to the large number of different hardware products that some combinations simply do not always work as intended.

I doubt that this in a Windows issue, the OS is just the messenger informing you of a hardware issue. If I had to put a bet on the main culprit I'd blame the motherboard manufacturers. It the responsibility of the mobo to oversee and manage all of the hardware components. In my case changing the mobo solved the problem.

Unfortunately I doubt that this problem will ever be resolved due to the almost infinite combination of hardware components that can be put in a system. I'm a software engineer who works for a company that produces compilers. I've seen problems that to an end user seem so major that they cannot comprehend that hardly anyone else experiences it. It's quite possible that your problem is due to a very specific combination of devices and revisions of those devices that you have a truly unique problem.

It appears to me that with your system you're lucky enough to have identified the component that your system does not agree with. What you might want to try is to have your vendor replace the WD HDD with another WD HDD and see if that one works. Otherwise if the other HDD works fine then I'd save your sanity and put this issue behind you. Trust me this issue is best avoided and not dwelled upon.

Best regards,

Jay, have you ever tried using the SATA cable from the Maxtor drive with the WD drive? I have a pretty cramped case, and have to manhandle the SATA cables pretty well to get them routed from the mobo to my various drives, and I have had two cables fail on me in six months. They seem to be pretty delicate.

My experience with the "mup.sys" problem was resolved by replacing a faulty IDE (PATA) cable.

Jim

I faced the same problem 3 days ago with a 120 GO HD. It is partionned C:20GO, D:100GO.
I tried lots of things (that I read on this forum) that did not work. Finally I decided to reinstall XP on partition C from the CD with the hope I would keep all my data on both partitions.
The thing is that the installation failed when system checked the C partition : "contains errors that cannot be repaired". I then choose to delete the C partition and re-format it (NTFS). The format failed at 15% of the partition. Again I deleted the C partition and created a new one of 10 GO and this failed again. I finally created a 2 GO partition and the installation succeded. So I have lost data of C partition (which is now only 2 GO) but kept the most important part (partition D: 95 GO used). I believe a part of the HD is definitively corrupted.
I plan to get a new HD and implement an automatic backup. Any good idea on this last point (automatic backup) ?

Jim

Im using on Intel machine and no drivers on my default build :o) I fixed it was connected to the mass storage device option in Sysprep

Well Kevin, I guess I have to say I simply have no idea what in the heck you're doing. I have no idea what "LANDesk" is, I have no idea what "Sysprep" is, and I have no idea what the phrase "zero drivers on my default build" means, so I'd be absolutely no help if you still needed any.

Congrats on getting whatever it is you're doing figured out!

I managed to acquire the mup.sys issue after screwing up trying to update my NVidia display drivers. It's not a hardware problem - I can load up Windows 2000 without any problems, but XP professional hangs after the loading screen. I can only assume it's a mismatch between the drivers that XP is expecting to find and the ones that are actually there.

You'd think that Safe Mode was designed to work around driver problems, right?

I'm trying to fix it by a repair install of XP, but having difficulties with the CD. Swapping my video card with someone else's would have worked, except I also managed to take out my motherboard driver.

Hi,

I've just installed Win XP Pro on my computer, and i get this following problem :

When i start my computer from the power button, the system freezes when displaying the GUIBOOT.
When i enter in SAFE MODE my Win XP boots just fine. After it's loaded i restart the system from the RESTART button in Win XP and after that the system boots normally.

Any idea ?

I know this is a huge question for all and has tons of responses. I thought I would just give my 2 cents worth. I get this problem often as I constantly build and work on older pcs. I am always switching hardware around. I have noticed it occurs when changing cards. The problem in my case seems to be a networking issue. I had removed a nic card from the pc and it would not boot in safe mode or regular mode. Freezes at mup.sys. I replaced the nic in the same slot and it worked fine. I went to device manager and uninstalled the card, removed it and the pc booted fine. I then had the problem in another machine just after changing video cards. Never touched the nic. I put the old card back in and booted fine. I removed the nic card and drivers by uninstalling in device manager, switched video cards, rebooted fine. After I installed the drivers for the video card, I reinstalled the nic (always use nics with realtek chips as windows has built in driver that work flawlessly) and the pc worked fine. I think whats happening is when you change hardward, regardless of what it is, it is changing addresses the motherboard uses to access the cards on the pci bus. It is most likely not directly related to just an address change as reinstalling the OS would fix it, it is most likely an address conflict within windows and the MB. In my case, most every time it freezes on mup.sys, it is actually loading that file but stopping on the next file which is NDIS.SYS. This is a networking file. It stands for (Network Driver Interface Specification). You can try removing all cards except video when reinstalling the OS. Then once it installs you can shut down, install your sound and other cards after. This may reduce the chance of any internal address conflicts... You can also try changing card slots for your nic card on the pci bus. This of course would again change the internal addresses used by windows/MB and may also help Just a thought... Good luck all!

Hi guys, there may be hope for those who haven't done a clean install yet. I just had this same problem on a machine running Windows 2000 Pro and managed to fix it. Windows 2000 Pro and XP are like paternal twins for those of you who may not know. There are only small differences between them. So try my solution and let me know if it works for you too.

I had just installed a program to allow me to play region 1 DVD's on my region 4 locked drive. The program I installed is DVD region and CSS free.

I rebooted the pc and it locked up on me on the windows 2000 Pro splash screen. I had to do a hard reboot and tried to boot into safe mode. That's when I saw it was locking up after mup.sys is displayed.

This computer also has an Nvidia video card as several others in this post have mentioned so I think this must be where it loads it's display driver. Either way, back to my solution.

I tried the whole repair from the installation cd thing like everyone else tried, didn't work for me either. This was starting to get on my nerves.

I rebooted again and pressed F8 so that I could get to the boot options menu where you choose to boot into safe mode, but I decided as a last ditch effort I would try last known good configuration. It worked!

I booted to Windows, uninstalled the aforementioned program, then rebooted, no problems. I did the region free software installation again and rebooted. Locked up again. That proved what the culprit was on my system.

This time I went straight back to the last known good configuration and it booted to Windows again. I didn't uninstall the software this time, and rebooted. Back to normal WITH my new software installed. Haven't had to boot using L.K.G.C. again.

Hey I had the problem with a Dell but it didn't just freeze it would bsod when trying to start in safe mode. I could boot in regular mode not problem. It was the incd software by ahead nero. someone had suggested it to me. There was a nero suite software on my machine and in the incd log files i saw its errors. I removed the software and can now boot with safe mode. so basiclly there was a problem loading drivers.

Sounds like a problem for a different thread. This one is aimed at Windows not loading after mup.sys. I think BSOD problems are addressed elsewhere on this forum.

just built my new rig:
Antec Sonata II w/ antec SP 450w
ECS nForce4-a939 (1.0) (bios v1.1a)
Athlon 64 x2 3800
3D Fuzion (BFG) 7800GT (PCI-E)
Kingston KVR400x64AK2/1G (2 x 512)
Winfast TV2000 XP rm
2 Seagate 200gb IDE
1 Hitachi 200gb IDE
Pioneer DVR-108bk (DVD-RW)
XP Pro w/ SP2

My system was working fine for about a week. then one night i fell asleep watching TV on my rig, i woke up in the middle of the night and saw a blank screen, the monitor lamp was still green showing there was a signal, i was too sleepy to deal with it so i continued on back to be. when i woke up in the morning there it was just as i left it. i tried to reboot and it just when the windows logo is supposed to appear it doesn't, just a blank screen again. i go into safe mode and it hangs up at mup.sys which brought me here.

I figure it's a hardware issue so i remove everything but the necessary. I am left w/ mobo, cpu, video card, 1 stick 512mb, 1 seagate 200gb but to no avail.

things i've tried:
1. go into safe mode "chkdsk /p" "chkdsk /r" = nothing
2. rearranged memorry into different dimm slots = nothing
3. clear bios = nothing
4. try all suggested bios remedies = nothing
5. try to disable all unecessary bios options (SATA, Serial, Parallel, USB) = nothing
6. at this point i something went wrong w/ xp so i try to reformat and relaod = nothing
7. i try xp pro (w/o any service pack), home, mce, 2000, nt 4.0 = nothing
8. windows 98 and Me = work fine
9. i try to load xp again on a separate partition = nothing
10. go into safe mode it is still hanging at mup.sys
11. try to delete mup.sys and agp440 but can't because windows nevere completed install and there is no registry or something like that
12. reflash bios nothing
13. remove dvd-rw = nothing ( so i reinstalled it) i also tried new IDE cables
14. tried to completeley reformat and reload xp pro (hoping a miracle would occur) = no miracle
15. at this poin i am convinced it is the mobo, so i go to exchange it for a new one.
16. new mobo = same problem
17. i remove all hardware from mobo, clear it, and try again = nothing

i probably left out other options i tried, but in conclusion i have a brand new very expensive paperweight.

PLEASE HELP.

the only thing i can think of is the video card, unfortunately i don't have a spare PCI-E card laying around to troubleshoot.

You've done a pretty thorough job of troubleshooting, and I'm short on ideas. Especially since you've stripped it down to the bare essentials and tried both Win98-based and WinNT-based OS installs.

Do you or a buddy have a spare PCI (not PCI-E) graphics card? (Or an AGP card if you have an AGP slot on the mobo.) That might be the easiest way to exonerate your video card, which at this point I'd still label a potential suspect.

When you build a computer and it works for a while, then stops, then as part of the troubleshooting you replace everything and it still doesn't work, I don't know where you go from there.

Jim

17....continued...
18. i tried the ubuntu live cd = it works
19. ran memtest86 v3.2 for 3 1/2 hours (10 passes) = no errors
20. put HDD on an older system (Gateway P3 500mHz 384mb) = HDD works.
21. Tried a friends PS (Antec NEO HE 550) = nothing

Thanks for the reply Jim!

the only thing i haven't tested (replaced) is the video card. unfortunately i don't own another PCI-E card and the mobo doesn't have an integrated one or an AGP slot. I was the test dummy among my friends to venture out into the PCI-E world, so no one i know has a PCI-E card either. despite not having a spare PCI-E card I highly doubt the video card is bad.

conclusion #2 = clueless

I just wanted to leave my footprint here and hopefully someone else would find a fix. unitl then i sit here waiting, currently using a laptop so no gaming until i get this rig up and running again.

For some reason i highly suspect that if i try a different brand of mobo it will work. something about ECS just doesn't cut (ECS and weird problems come hand in hand). but i practically got it for free so i'm stuck with it....with all the money i've spent on this rig, i'm not ready to drop another $100+ for a better board just yet.

Hmm. Are you just using the default Linux video drivers? What resolution are you running the Linux desktop in? I wonder if there's some odd problem with your graphics card that lets it work fine in CGA/VGA mode but conks it out when it gets into graphics modes higher than 640x480 (though I've never heard of such a failure case before.)

BTW, to clarify my prior suggestion, I asked if you or any of your buddies had a plain ol' PCI card (not PCI-E) that you could try. You've got PCI slots, and trying to boot using a PCI video card instead of your PCI-E card would test the system without engaging the PCI-E bus or PCI-E video card. (I'm guessing the answer is no, but you only mentioned AGP in your last reply, so I'm just making sure.)

I just read your reply again...i must of added that extra "e" in pci in my head (selective vision i guess). anyways, unfortunately also don't have have a pci video card (i never thought of that, thanks) but i'll ask around.
I had linux running at 1024x768 w/ the default linux drivers (i had the same thoughts about the resolution as well)...when i had "Me" loaded i had it at my monitors max 1280x1024. speaking of monitors i also tried 2 monitors (dell 17" crt & NEC 20" LCD)
Also, one thing that i found out earlier today and i'm not really sure about it's significance but when I shutdown the computer the mouse light (optical mouse) and keyboard light (num lock) stay on. i'm not really sure what that's all about but i think it has something to do with ST3 ( in the bios). I have never noticed it before, but since this is a new mobo i'm not sure if it was designed like that.

Hmm (again). Well, several interfaces get initialized by Windows after mup.sys is loaded and before the login screen is displayed. The mouse and keyboard interfaces are also initialized at this point. I'm not exactly sure how that works. Obviously, the keyboard is available before Windows loads, because that's how you change BIOS settings, etc. I think what happens is that the BIOS controls the keyboard on first power-up, then once you get past POST and the disk-based OS starts to load, the BIOS releases control of the keyboard/mouse and the disk-based OS picks it up.

At any rate, when I boot up, the mouse doesn't light up until that point right before the login screen, and the keyboard lights blink at that same time.

Are you using the PS/2 (round) interface for your keyboard and mouse, or USB? Do you have a mouse/keyboard with a different interface you could try? Have you scanned the BIOS looking for settings related to mouse/keyboard or USB that you might try toggling (stuff like "legacy USB support on/off", etc.)?

I don't understand how you could have successfully booted once and then had this problem jump up and bite you (i.e., I think this is unlikely to be your real problem), but there are a lot of things about this situation that I don't understand!

when i boot up the machine, the lights blink when bios starts then that's it...it goes to blank screen, then i manually shutdown and there are those lights still on. my optical mouse is a USB i have 2 others that are ps/2. I've also tried 3 different keyboards (1) USB, (1) PS/2, (1) old school w/ PS/2 adapter. i've never seen this before...wouldn't you think when the computer shuts down the mouse & keyboard go along with it???

Yeah, i don't really think this is the problem, and like i said earlier, i highly suspect that if i try a different brand mobo, it would all work fine (ecs and weird problems come hand in hand)

I see that my frustrations are rubbing off on you as well...i'm clueless, i've been in the industry for almost 7 years and have never encountered anything like this. I was in the Marine Corps as a network admin, and when we were out in the field our gear came with us facing the elements. Everything that could possibly go wrong (w/ a server, router, switch, end user notebooks) went wrong and then some. I called it Network Administration Extreme Edition. My team and i always came up on top." but today, i stand before you a broken man all due to this damn mup.sys and the headache it has caused me.

anyways, back to busineses. atempt #
22. BCWIPE the entire 200GB drive w/ one pass = ??? it is in the process and will take 8 hours

Tried upgrading to a new Western Digital HDD. Used their software datalife tools to copy my old drive. The cpu crashed half way thru. Now when I try to boot the old drive it just shows a mouse cursur that I can move and the Windows XP logo with the blue background. In safe mode, the last driver I see loading is mup.sys but it's probably something after that that's the problem. I tried everything mentioned here except reloading-repairing XP. I have encrypted files on the drive and I haven't been able to find the key. Going into recovery console I ran chkdsk /p /r and it found volume errors but it still seems to stall on startup.

reset bios
diabled bios support for usb
new ide cables
recovery console chkdsk /p /r
enabled power management in bios

I'm thinking about trying to use the master boot record repair in recovery console but I'll copy my files onto another PC HDD before I try.

earthtodavid

I have four pcs in the house. I took the hard drive that was giving me problems and connected it to another pc so i could copy my files off of it as a backup. The other pc stopped at the processor info during the bios startup. I took the problem drive out and now the second pc stops at the processor info during bios startup. Nothing i do seems to correct that. The only thing I can figure is that the problem drive has an electrical short and fried my systemboard on the second pc. Things are just getting too weird. Is this a plot to make us buy new hardware?