One last update, turns out bad things happen in 3's. What was causing my system to lock up was an accumulation of a failing PSU, my CPU being overclocked too much, and my BIOS not being compatible with HDDs over 127GB, so I updated the BIOS, underclocked my CPU, replaced the PSU. Done and dusted. I think the initial problem happened when I ran DiskKeeper and it moved some data over the 127GB barrier (my HDD is 160GB). It seems to be coping fine now.

Hi guys!
Please hope you can help. My system crashes at mup.sys. I am on a Toshiba laptop here in the UK, and have some really important stuff on my computer. Is there any way whatsoever of booting up my PC (using the boot CD) and doing a repair WITHOUT losing the data on my hard drive. The problem I have is that the system boots up some times but then the blue screen of death for Windows comes up and then it automatically reboots. Sometimes it goes asks if I want to log to safe mode or it just boots up as normal, lets me type in my password and then it logs in as normal, and then it just reboots again. It seems so temperamental, and flashes up with messages such as registry files were missing but have been recovered successfully. I am somewhat confused and can't think of what to do. The only thing I can think of is to take my hard drive to a shop and get them to drag the stuff off that on to CD and then do a full install. I have other computers in the house, but obviously my system doesn't boot up in order to be able to connect a network cable.
Please say you have some suggestions! I am at my wits end!!!!!!!
Paul

hello concered people.

whew, i had no idea that this prob/thread has been running since 2004.. I thought.. It was like a "2005... post millenium bug" AJAJA, so silly of me. Anyway, out of luck, I've thought of loading all the drivers by... booting through my XPSP1 installer.. and it worked.. mmm.. But geez, how long and often do i have to do that?


and... but.. please.. remind me again.. bottom line is? to use or not to use the SP2?

thanks so much..

I just got the Mup.sys error in safe boot mode. The last thing on my screen was a raid failure - one of my 2 stripped raid drives had a bad power connector that got nudged. Usually nudging it again gets it working OK. It did as far as getting past the raid setup during boot. Then selecting to boot to D: (the raid drive). Booting to C: (an alternate WinXP) also stopped at Mup.sys. This pointed the bug as a hardware issue (in my case). The D: actually got 2 lines past Mup.sys (to BTKernel.sys) to this indicates that Mup.sys is not the failure but just the last successfully loaded driver in the list before the next stage of the boot process.

I disabled raid in bios and can now boot to C:. So my next step is to re-enable raid and try to figure out how to get it working again.

I also was having random freezes, usually while watching a video. Pulling out an extra PCI card restored stability so I bought a new PSU (430W instead of 350W).

Hello Paul, sorry to hear you are having problems too.

There is a way that you can get your computer running again and access your files. However, it is only a quick fix and will not remove the root of the so called "MUP.SYS" problem. Have you tried running a boot CD? Does your boot CD hang at the "Starting Windows" stage?

If your boot CD hangs at "Starting Windows" stage:
Put in your Windows XP CD and boot from it anyway.
When it reads Press F6 - press F5 (yes F5 - its a hidden shortcut)
From this shortcut I managed to do a repair install of windows.
(I'm sorry these instructions are so vague - can't remember exact procedure)

BEWARE though - half of your programs will not work when windows has 'fixed' itself. You will be able to access files to do a backup. Nero still worked for me so maybe u can burn your work to CD.

I'm still struggling to do a clean install of windows XP as my boot CD hangs at the "Starting Windows" stage. When I find an answer I will post back here. I've come to the conclusion now that a clean install is the only way.

I am suspecting my problem is faulty RAM. When I let BIOS check RAM my computer freezes, but this is the weird thing: ONLY IF MY USB MOUSE IS PLUGGED IN. If I remove the mouse, the RAM check works fine. Perhaps I need a better power supply too? I have read somewhere that this MUP.SYS problem is power related - but everyone says different things.

Everyone says different things because there is no one reason that causes the "mup.sys" problem. There are literally dozens of problems that have been identified that give the same "hangs after loading mup.sys" problem signature.

I know this is a tediously long post, but perhaps you'll benefit from reviewing it. I have posted many times before that one of the things Windows does after loading mup.sys is initialize a number of I/O interfaces, including the mouse interface (whether USB or PS/2). Problems during those interface initializations can cause the boot to stall for a long time or hang completely.

That doesn't necessarily give you the solution to the problem, but it at least helps you understand where the problem might be. Maybe you should try using a PS/2 mouse and see if that gets around the problem. If so, maybe you've got a problem with your mouse and/or USB drivers.

Good luck,
Jim

My general sys specs:
Windows XP Pro
AMD Athlon 64, 3500+
2 gig RAM
dual BFG Geforce 6800 ULTRAs in SLi mode
120gig SATA HD
DVD ROM
DVD R/RW drive
Audigy ZS platinum pro sound card

Built it myself....Im pretty decent with hardware, less decent but still competent with software (was a big programming guy in high school, now I really have a deep hatred for computers )

Heres something hilarious.

For a while my PSU 120mm fan has been making ALOT of noise and the other day it (the fan) finally conked out (but genius me decided to keep playing Call of Duty 2 (resource beast) anyways.....smart eh?)

Well after about 10 minutes the computer shut right down on its own and would not power back on at all.
I could smell burning plastic and figured the PSU was shot.

Ran some tests on the PSU (my dad's an electrician, so I have the tools and the know-how) and sure enough it was crapped out.

So I went out and got a new OCZ 500W PSU (the crapped out one was an Ultra 550W), just put it all in and voila, the computer powered on.
All done I thought.
But nope, I get the 'windows could not start properly' yada yada....and try to start windows normally....doesnt work

Try to start from last known good settings...nope doesnt work
Try to start in safe mode....nope...gets hung up on..MUP.sys

Search on google with my other computer and see all the horror stories (reinstall windows, etc) from the mup.sys problem.

I try to repair with the Windows XP Pro CD...and it wont even enter the CD options to even attempt a repair.

Well, since I really dreaded plucking cards and other fun stuff out of the mobo and seeing if it worked (the inside of my pc is a mess....2 ginormous graphics cards just really clutter things)

I saw people say it COULD have something to do with the keyboard.

SO....as it starts in safemode...and gets hung up at MUP.SYS AGAIN, I yank the keyboard cable out...nothing happens....then yank the mouse cable out...and VOILA safe mode finishes, and enters the windows login screen!!!!!!!!!!!

Both keyboard and mouse were using the PS/2 cables, so I plugged the keyboard back into the PS/2 slot, and put the mouse in a USB slot, restarted the computer, it booted up FINE and everything works like normal.

Funny how my mood can go from frustrated to the point of killing someone, to cheerful as a schoolboy!

The last post has completely baffled me because I was almost sure that it would be a power problem. I am considering wiping my hard drive and doing a complete reinstall. However, I am worried that if I wipe the drive I won't be able to install XP. At the moment I have got my copy of XP working with 50% functionality. I will try again tonight and post back when I am at work tomorrow.

Ok got a new twist for ya'll:

New system: ASUS P5WD2-Premium, Intel 640 P4, 1GB ram (2x512MB Ballistik)

I have 2x250GB Maxtor SATA II drives.

I can load window, it goes all the way through installation..saves settings and then the next re-boot it dies at MUP.sys!

GRrrrr.

Ok so I've given on trying to fix my pc I'm now trying to reinstall my os. When I boot up with the XP pro cd I press f6 to install my raid drivers. I load the promise fasttrak 376 dirvers from the floppy drive and I then format my drive. Windows then prepares to install but I'm then I'm prompted for the Promise tx2100 family driver diskette which isn't the drivers for my motherboard. The only way out of it is to press f3. I have tried this half a dozen times now with no success. Any help gratefully received.

PC Specs:
ASUS A7V8X Motherboard
1 gig ram
AMD XP2200
2x200gb Maxtor sata drives setup as mirror raid.

Regards,

Dave.

Note that your RAID-related questions are really outside the scope of this mup.sys thread. You might be better off searching for a forum with people familiar with your specific RAID system. Since I've never used a mirror RAID system, I'm shooting from the hip here, and there's no guarantee anything I offer will be useful!

But I'll give it a shot: Since you're building a mirror RAID and not a striped RAID, can't that be done after data is on the drive? I.e., if you'd been using a 200GB drive for a year and had a year's worth of OS and data on it, then went out and bought a new 200GB drive, couldn't you plug that new drive in and then tell your BIOS to build a new RAID mirror of the original drive onto the second drive?

If so, then try that approach here, too. Break your RAID arrangement right now, install Windows on a single drive, then boot and make sure it works. Once you've got a stable system on a single drive, reboot and go into your BIOS (or whatever the appropraite utility is for your setup) and establish the RAID mirror you want.

Even if that approach works, all I've given you is a possible workaround, not an explanation of why you're having this problem. Remember, something probably changed to cause your mup.sys issue in the first place, and I'm guessing you never figured out what that was if you're resorting to a wipe-and-reload appraoch.

It's possible that your original, unresolved problem is related to your mobo/RAID hardware, and that's what's still causing problems. (Then again, it's also completely possible that your original mup.sys problem is completely unrelated to your current issue.)

Sorry I'm not much help,
Jim

My techs have encountered this problem several times over the last few months. We have just done remote installs on the user's systems and problem solved. Like most problems on the floor, it was just another reload, no problem, until it happened to two of our systems in the same day.

We trouble shot this untill we were blue in the face, read all 18 pages of this post and those of several others sites (this site's was best documented). We contacted Microsoft support, read thier take on the problem etc. As a last ditch, we reloaded those two machines before we left for the day.

What it seemed to come down to, for us, was a conflict between a sys file that loads at boot and and a CMOS setting that eventually corrupts the afore mentioned sys file. We got that far, but we were debating about what whould suddenly and spontaneously cause this in otherwise healthy machines.

Today it happened to the same two computers in our lab, at the same time. The systems were rebooted because the keyboards were locked up. When they restarted, same crap. While a tech was reloading, the system speaker gave a beep and the keyboards locked up again. My hairline just receeded another half inch.

We were starting another reload when we fianly figured out what was causing the keyboard lockups and subsequent boot failure upon restart. During the reload, one tech heard the (I assume) signal search of a cell phone over the speakers. It a duh-da-da-duh duh-da-da-duh sound. As soon as that ended, the system speakers of both systems beeped at the same time and the keyboards locked up. We tested it by moving the offending cell phone next to a floor test system. Sure enough, about 15 minutes later the exact same thing happened. The tech had got the cell phone the evening before our first problem.

We checked the floor systems that had been having the same problem and sure enough, the users all had either Samsung or Siemens cellphones and (low end) AccuTouch keyboards. I am wondering if anyone has had this combination of symtoms as a possible cause of this error.

OK, yet another scenario.

We have an old(ish) machine running XP Pro which needs to be ghosted to a Dell Dimension 1100 we have purchased. I completed the ghost successfully and rebooted - low and behold the system stops booting at Mup.sys and reboots a few seconds later. Now I've tried many of the possible fixes to this solution, such as chkdsk /p etc, but to no avail.
Just a minute ago I put the Dell hard disk into the old machine and it booted up fine! Great I thought, now I can load the Dell chipset drivers on to the new driver and when it asks for a reboot I can shut it down and put the disk back into the Dell machine. Unfortunately I still suffer from Mup.sys - after just reading the last post about a CMOS conflict I think this may well be the cause, does anyone have any further information on this?

Thanks.

Jim Spencer: Please read my previous posts in this thread regarding trying to apply a WinXP image to a computer with different hardware than when the OS was first installed:

Page 15, Nov 10, 2005, 12:17 PM
Page 17, Dec 25, 2005, 11:02 PM
Page 17, Dec 26, 2005, 09:23 AM

Also read Mike Shkolnik's post on page 18, Jan 01, 2006, 04:24 PM.

This is a well-documented situation and Microsoft's recommended resolution is to perform a Repair install. Doing so properly will not result in the loss of any data or installed applications. I am not aware of any method short of a Repair install that will allow an instance of WinXP to be moved to a machine with substantially different hardware (for instance, you can't just "reload the chipset drivers" and be done).

Daniel, thanks for the informative post. While that distinctive audio interference has become ubiquitous in anything with a speaker, that's the first time I've heard it causing serious problems with a computer. Kudos for managing to ferret that subtle interaction out!

Since you've solved the issue and have presumably gone on with life, you may not be able to provide any further details, but I'm curious: I can understand how RF interference might cause an inexpensive piece of electronics to malfunction (i.e., the keyboard lockup), but I don't understand why a reboot doesn't resolve the problem. Your message mentioned a suspicion that a CMOS setting was somehow tied to a .sys file getting corrupted. Do you still think this was part of the problem? I don't understand what you think might have been happening there.

Is it possible that the phone was actually interfering with multiple components simultaneously? I.e., had you been using a keyboard that could withstand the RF interference without locking up, could you still have seen boot failures on the next boot attempt?

Another scenario I could imagine is if the keyboard somehow doesn't fully reset during your lab's typical reboot process. For instance, if the keyboard needs to be unpowered for 5 seconds to recover from the lockup, but your standard reboot process was to punch the reset button on the CPU so that the keyboard was only briefly unpowered, then the subsequent boot would fail when the OS tried to initialize the keyboard interface.

Just curious if you have any better data that might be applicable to users in different situations.

Jim, thanks for your response and I am well aware of the Repair install over the top of itself - a very handy option I've used many times.

Here is the scenario and why I couldn't do that:

The original system was XP Pro SP1 with the SP2 service pack applied,
I tried to do a Repair install from an SP1 install CD but unfortunately I would receive an error in the 2nd stage of installing Windows.
This left me with using an SP2 install CD to which the customer we were doing this for does not have a license.

In the end I settled for sacrificing one of our licenses for SP2 and did a Repair install a few hours ago which worked fine as I knew it would.

You probably already know this, but in case someone else reads your note and wonders, I thought I'd offer this. From a legal perspective, Windows licenses exist for the base Windows install, and all service packs are authorized under that same license. So if you have purchased two copies of Windows for two computers, and one disc had SP1 included and the other disc had SP2, and you later needed to reinstall both computers, you could use the SP2 disc for both of them, but you'd need to use the authorization key from the SP1 cardboard box on one machine and the key from the SP2 box on the other.

Because of the different legal "flavors" of Windows, you can get tripped up, and maybe that's what happened to you. Home authorization keys won't work with Professional install discs (of course), and vice versa. You can also sometimes run into problems trying to mix-and-match OEM, Upgrade, and Full version authorization keys and install discs, even if they're all Home or all Professional discs. (I forget which ones can be mixed and which can't.)

If the (customer's) SP1 and (your) SP2 install discs were the same version (both "Full", both "OEM", or both "Upgrade" ) , you should have been able to use your customer's authorization key with your SP2 install disc with no problem, and that would have been perfectly legal. That way, you wouldn't have had to "burn" one of your own auth keys.

Jim

Jim Runkey,

We did find out one more bit of information. The only systems we were able to recreate this problem on was a set of systems that were bought back in 2001 and had the original keyboards replaced with the AccuTouch (along with various hardware upgrades that all floor systems have received through the years.)

Jim Runkey wrote:
"Is it possible that the phone was actually interfering with multiple components simultaneously? I.e., had you been using a keyboard that could withstand the RF interference without locking up, could you still have seen boot failures on the next boot attempt?"

You nailed that on the nose. On a hunch, we installed a new system board battery on one of them, recreated the lockup, rebooted, and poof, normal reboot. What we came up with is that the CMOS was being reset and the XP image didn't see the hardware configuration it was looking for on the restart. Our first assumption that a sys file was getting corrupted was probably incorrect.

On a humorous sidenote, the new batteries cost more than the original keyboards.

Thanks for the follow-up, Daniel. Sounds like you ultimately were having a similar problem to others who had resolved this "mup.sys" issue with a CMOS battery replacement, but you had to fight through the red herring of an unrelated keyboard issue to get there--a tricky nut to crack! Good job shooting your way out of that trouble...

Great forum here... I, too have a freeze at mup.sys problem. System is a month old, home-built Biostar GeForce 6100-M7, AMD Sempron, 2G Ram, 250GB WD. Tried CMOS reset, BIOS update, played around with BIOS settings (keyboard, power management, etc), pulled out cards and extra memory, replugged cables. I then disconnected the HD and put in an old 13GB empty drive, did a fresh install of XP Pro to it and the system boots and runs normally from the 13GB drive. I then installed the 250GB as a secondary drive and I can access all the directories and data there. This seems to rule out any hardware or BIOS problems, so I'm thinking there's some file corrupted on the large drive. I tried replacing mup.sys and some others with a copy from the freshly installed drive. When I swap the boot order of the two drives back to original, mup freeze reappears, then goes away on swapping boot order back. I'm hoping someone can focus my investigation given these clues... thanks!!