Well I have tried most of the fixes suggested so far but unfortunately no luck. Here is the situation. I am trying to help out a friend with a Seagate Barracuda 80Gb HDD that has XP Home SP2 installed. It boots to the Windows screen and then reboots. Safe mode stalls at mup.sys and then reboots. Tried to boot from the CD and as soon as any option is chosen the system reboots. Disabled autoreboot and the BSOD happens with the message IRQL_NOT_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL STOP:0X000000D1 (0XDADA7008,0X00000002,0X00000000,0XB9E5D416) NTFS.SYS ADDRESS B9E5D416 at B9E5C000 I then removed the hard drive from his system and put it into a cradle with a USB 2.0 adaptor and attempted to read it on my computer system. As soon as the disk drive is detected my system throws a BSOD with the same error message. There are a lot of photos on the drive so I would really like to be able to help him out I cant get into recovery console or get to repair the install. Any suggestions?
Gary

Wow--that's a tough one. (I know that's not what you want to hear, and I'm sorry.)

Can you (or your friend) think of any recent changes to his computer before it started exhibiting this behavior? Install any new hardware or software? Run any system-changing processes, like an anti-adware scan or anything?

Or did it just happen all outta the blue?

I didn't see anything that looked likely here, but check out this page: http://www.aumha.org/win5/kbestop.php . Do a "Find on this page" or scroll down to the "0x000000D1: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" section, and see if it gives you any helpful clues.

The thing that really confuses me is that you can't add the disk to your system just so you can read the data. I don't get that at all. Does it do anything differently if you try to boot your system while that drive's plugged in, or whether you plug it in after your system is already up and running?

Update for Jim (and anyone else who was following):

I had already replaced the motherboard (from Asus P5WD2E-Premium to a Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3) and tried working parts in all the other positions, still got BSOD on first (and all subsequent attempts) Windows splash when tried to install.

Hooked back up to IDE DVD, SATA HD; everything else unnecessary was unplugged.
Cleared CMOS. Changed to new RAM sticks, new format and slipstream reinstall - BSOD.
Cleared CMOS. Changed power supply, new format and slipstream reinstall - BSOD.
Cleared CMOS. Put in new processor (Core 2 Duo), new format and slipstream reinstall. It booted, went straight through the install without a hitch.

It is now 4 hrs old and has sustained itself without a reboot.

When I get back to it, I will offer it a BIOS flash and some driver updates, and see if my sacrifices are satisfactory to the Gods.

Would anyone have suspected the processor given its behavior? The BSOD message was a 0x0000007F memory or hardware problem. Sounds like it must have been a L1 or L2 Cache problem more than integral to processor since it passed all the boot and initial install checks.

Do you think there is anything that can be done to rehabilitate this processor, or should I just chuck it? I now have a collection of parts that should work if the processor would. All I need is a video card and a case.

Thanks for the help and support in this time of serious computing crisis.

I would not have suspected the processor...but then, I've never actually seen a faulty processor before in the 20 years I've been playing with computers.

The failure mode was odd, too: Gradual increase in erratic behavior over a period of time, culminating in failure to support an OS install / boot past the logo screen.

I'd have almost put money on the PSU. Glad I didn't!

As for rehabbing the processor: I don't think I'd trust it, but that's me. The only thing I can think of that could possibly be reversable would be if your problem was a debonded heat sink that allowed the processor to overheat and behave erratically without becoming permanently damaged.

You might be able to guess whether that could be the case by closely inspecting the heat sink and CPU surfaces for telltale signs (thermal conductor not present / not uniformly spread across surface, TC in visibly different conditions in different regions of surface (moist vs. dried out), etc.

I'd have a hard time getting comfortable with it again, myself.

Glad you got your problem psyched out. Thanks for the follow-up post!
Jim

Thanks for replying Jim. The crashes started to happen about 3 days after SP2 was installed. Initially the system would reboot itself a couple of times and then go OK for a couple of days. No consistent program or task being done. It slowly deteriorated to its present unbootable state over a period of 2 months. I tried booting my computer with the drive installed into the USB port and it allowed me to log into my windows but then crashed as soon as the drive became active (the IDE connection on the cradle has an activity light) Fault message the same. Tried removing my own hard drive and installing the faulty one. Same fault message. Reinstalled my drive as master and faulty as slave. Would not boot went straight to BSOD same fault message. Does the file NTFS.Sys have some bearing on this? It seems to me that the drive is OK it is just the OS is corrupted at the boot level but is corrupted in a way that my OS senses that there is a danger to it and it shuts down for safety? Is that logical or indeed possible?

I had a fault with a P4 processor about a year ago and the symptoms were the same. It turned out that the thermal paste had been applied and let sit too long before the heatsink was installed by the tech who upgraded the system. The processor was fine after being cleaned and reinstalled with new paste. That system is still in use by a lady who does 3D graphics for a living. I would suggest that it would be worth the effort to chase up enough parts and build a basic system (if you're like me that means just look arond the office and recycle some old stuff !!!) You might end up with a system that you can use as a backup.
Cheers
Gary

Gary Stokes said: Since the NTFS.SYS file is mentioned in the error message, I'd say it's certainly related to the problem. Unfortunately, Google doesn't reveal a bevy of folks having 0xD1 STOP errors with NTFS.SYS files mentioned, and without an assist from Google, I'm worthless to you.

My suggestion would be to try another forum (or maybe start a new thread on this forum) where you might find some folks with better insight into your BSOD. Here's the kind of discussion I'm hoping you can get into with someone smart: http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=42187

Good luck,
Jim

PS: I don't think your OS is shutting down because it senses danger. I think that something somewhere is honkered and causing an interrupt-related error that the system can't handle. Unfortunately, I'm not smart enough to get you any farther than that (and even that's just a poorly educated guess!).

further to my previous post on page 29.
just upgraded the first pc with a winfast motherboard, AMD 3000+ processor and new memory. formatted the hard drive and reinstalled windows xp pro. installed the motherboard drivers and got office xp on it, winzip, avg anti virus. as soon as i put service pack 2 on the thing died and went back into rebooting mode. am i being paranoid or does it sound like SP2 is a culprit. i used a disc that i've used numerous times in the past with no problems.

Instead of using a disc to install SP2, how 'bout going through Windows Update and getting the necessary patches that way? Millions of people are using WinXP SP2 without issue, and most of 'em got it via download. Might be tedious, but it's certainly doable. I helped a friend reload his computer recently using a WinXP SP1 install disc, and it tood three our four trips through the Windows Update process with a reboot after each, but we were done in less than two hours.

You didn't mention in your original post how that first PC first exhibited its reboot problem. Did it just start doing that one day, or did it start after you tried to install SP2, or make some other change to the system?

If it started rebooting after you tried to install SP2 from that same disc, then sure, I'd certainly agree the disc is suspect.

Edit: Whoops, sorry; forgot the part where you said you've used the disc before without problems. Still, I'd recommend going the Windows Update route. There have been hundreds of patches to Windows over the years. Let Windows Update sort 'em out for you and apply them in the proper order.

It's certainly possible that your disc worked fine on older hardware, but it's missing important updates that are necessary for everything to work on newer mobos/CPUs like your current machine.

I just fixed this problem on a customer's computer and wanted to add another data point here...
First I tried resetting, and adjusting the BIOS. No Help.
Second, I booted with the Windows HP home CD and went into the recovery console, ran "chkdsk /r", and the problem was solved.

After reading thru this thread and searching the internet....Mup.sys appears to be an indication of a registry corruption....Either hardware or software....

Mine specifically came with the addition of the latest JAVA update on top of IE7....

This fix works....But as a last resort....To get your very important data files off of your computer.....you may need to reload the whole OS afterward....But you can get your files...If you have a recent restore point.....You will be much better off than I was....AKA....A year ago....

So this is where I was at:

All Safe Modes and et all did not work....all hardware removals and replacements did not work....Ability to see hard drive thru recovery console prompt with original XP OS CD was the only in.....Even Repair after going down the installatioin path would not see the old version of the XP OS....Chkdsk /r......worked but did not fix.....

It depends on how corrupted your registry gets.....Period....Some are worse than others!

So this is the procedure:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545/en-us

This is a last resort and works....

You may become stable if you have a good restore point....Mine was very old....But I was able to get networking back....and sent my files to another PC in my Workgroup....

For those of you reading this.....and this scares you....it should.....But you can do one thing....Click Start...Programs....Accesories....System Tools....System Restore....

Open the sofware and make a restore point of your stable working operating system.....Now you have a place to go when your registry craps!....and it will!

If you have this.....This procedure from Microsoft looks to be bullet proof and is followed to the letter.....This procedure is a last resort and is very dangerous if not followed exactly....AKA....definite loss of everything!

But when having nothing to lose....and you are about to wipe your PC anyway....and you want your data back.....This is the method.....

I would recommend doing a restore point every 3 months.....Just a real good precaution that takes 3 minutes......

Hope this helps....

I have been dealing with this problem for a few days and I think i have it figured out in my situation just posting to help someone else out

I usually run my machine with 2 monitors but recently have been taking the second monitor off about every other boot, there has also been some fiddling with the graphics settings.

My suspecion is that XP was not happy with this fiddling and refused to boot. The first few times this happened I was seeing nothing after the boot progressed past prompt so i can only assume it was stopping on mup.sys.
I originally suspected i might have toasted my video card so i booted a version of linux (backtrack 2.0) from CD. This was succesful and demonstrated that it was not my graphics card. After booting linux I rebooted to Windows with no problem, fiddled a bit, only to have the computer freeze on reboot to Windows, but this time i could see it was stopping on mup.sys.
Progress!!
I booted to Linux again and had to reconfigure its setting to get it to boot and this seems to have fixed my problem in Windows at least temporarily (i havent rebooted yet)
Hope this helps someone

Cheers and happy hunting

It is almost 100% certainly something to do with the registry- this is how I know:
1) My laptop froze on mup.sys
2) I took a complete backup of the registry
3) I built a new computer and installed Windows XP on it
4) I applied that backed up registry to it
5) It failed to start at mup.sys and had all the issues (IE crashing, WMP not loading, user accounts not showing etc...) my laptop had.
6) I reinstalled Windows with the same disk on it
7) It had no issues at all
8) I reinstalled windows on my laptop
9) It works great!

James Dugan said:

alex glynn said:

Thank you for posting what worked for you. That's the best value of this thread: It's a collection of solutions that have worked for a variety of people, and hopefully someone struggling with this problem can find ideas in here that they haven't tried yet.

But please don't say things like, "This must be a registry problem," or "This is a last resort, but it works." This so-called "mup.sys problem" is really just a symptom, and the underlying problems that result in this symptom are many and varied, including both hardware and software issues. No single remedy will work for all problems, which is why this thread is 30 pages long.

In my case, the problem was a faulty IDE cable, for instance. Nothing I could have ever done with my registry, including trying to boot from backup System Restore points, would have helped in that case.

Also, Alex: Trying to duplicate a Registry from one machine to a competely different machine is generally not a good idea. There are way too many system-unique things stored in there, and unless the second machine is essentially an exact duplicate of the first (in which case, it shoud already have a Registry that looks just like the first machine's), you're likely to have issues.

Anyone reading this who has the MUP.SYS problem, please read on...

Tried most of the above fixes with no luck so decided to take it to the experts...

Result = Motherboard has been damaged, possible causes are surges etc... we had a power cut and no surge protection on the plug so if you havnt got one, then get one... I am luckily covered by my insurance so a new pc being built as I am writing this...

I know its not good news but it may help to solve some peoples problems as to how to solve it...

Hi everybody,
i almost forgot i am registered here, so i was only reading your posts, until i finally realized that i can also post replies here
I had the same problem, and tried almost everything (except recovery console, as i dont have recovery diskette, and i couldnt get on without it, and except linux)
and nothing has helped, until i havent tried another drivers, cos that previous WHQL i had was causing that that f***d WHQL windows xp wont run, that previous drivers are bundle for nforce 4, 5 and some mobile chipsets i think, exactly: MCP04SSS="NVIDIA nForce4 Intel® Edition Serial ATA RAID Controller"
MCP04SSS="NVIDIA nForce4 Intel® Edition Serial ATA RAID Controller"
CK804SSS="NVIDIA nForce4 Serial ATA RAID Controller"
MCP51S="NVIDIA nForce 430/410 Serial ATA Controller"
MCP55S="NVIDIA nForce 590/570/550 Serial ATA Controller"
MCP61S="NVIDIA MCP61 Serial ATA Controller"

so they must be never one, that i was previously using, they were directly from DFI (my mobo is DFI NF4 SLI-D)

a think its really weird, annoying, and more but its still microsh*t windows that allow to install these drivers, install itself on raid using the same drivers, BUT CANNOT RUN ITSELF ON RAID USING THE SAME DRIVERS

i am just very disappointed with that, i have lost all my data just cos of bad drivers, i hope nobody of you will face the same and i wish you all your data will be saved.

PS: could somebody recommend some good recovery soft, as there can still be hope

Hi All Fellow Sufferers!
I have managed to fix several Win XP systems (at friends houses) recently, using info from this forum. It is extremely useful and covers many things which cause the mup.sys problem (and the associated BSOD phenomena!).

Registry problems certainly can cause an mup.sys hangup and I think this includes problems caused by an incorrect driver loaded (probably by a mainboard manufacturers CD) which results in Windows sensing that the hardware that is supposed to be present is not there! This will upset the system which checks to see if you have changed too much hardware in the last 120 days (requiring reactivation) and may also lead to interesting messages from the 'WGA Validation Tool'!

Anything which results in corrupted information, or wrong information being loaded onto the hard drive during windows installation can cause this type of problem. A short time ago, I posted a reply on this BB about a damaged Windows XP CD which failed to read properly, resulting in a corrupted copy of Windows.

I have just come across a similar problem, with a DVD-RW drive. These normally read CDs very well, but I had problems some years ago with early CDROM drives, which would not read older Windows CDs properly (the Msoft approved fix was to copy the windows CABS to the hard drive, using DOS and run setup from there - which does not help much with XP installation). The Liton DVD-RW I was using was recognised by Windows, and wrote CDs or DVDs fine (using Nero 6.6) but would NOT reload Windows XP Pro onto a new HDD. This was getting desperate, as the original HDD was dying and I tried five different CDs. The ones that read best were copies - made on a DVD-RW drive - but I always got a corrupted copy of Win XP, often leading to a BSOD or mup.sys hangup! The motherboard was a good quality ASUS, with an Athlon 64, but I became suspicious of the handling of the DVD-RW by the XP installation utility.

I eventually found that I had to set the BIOS to accept the DVD-RW as a CDROM in order for the loader program to read a CD properly and install an uncorrupted copy of Win XP! This then allowed the original Microsoft CD to be read perfectly. Once XP was loaded, the full windows drivers were operational and XP recognised the drive as a rewriter - and Nero accepted it as a DVD-rewriter!

Nick Law

I thought I would share with the board a solution to a very perplexing problem:

Machine: Dell 610
OS: Windows XP SP2 - Professional
Blue screen of death
Booting in safe mode hung on Mup.sys

Corporate Laptop that was locked down pretty hard, no access to administrator password

In fact the administrator password had been removed/renamed

When this occurs it is nearly impossible to use the Windows Recovery Control Utility by booting the Windows XP Disk

So here is what I did:

1 - Created a linux ram disk with several registry and sam file utilities
2 - Discovered the missing administrator account, found I couldn't mount the ntfs partition due to corruption on the disk
3 - (Optional) downloaded and ran the Dell 32 bit diagnostics disk and found 2 corrupt bad sectors

** this most likely caused the Mup.sys error as the hard drive had physical errors

At this point I needed a way to fix the disk so that I could mount the ntfs partition to some type of machine to manipulate the file system

I found a Windows PE utility that was developed called "Bart's PE Builder"

I had to download and compile this into a bootable ISO image which wasn't that hard

By building a Windows PE RAM disk, you can then mount a corrupt NTFS filesystem and run commands against it.
Specifically you need to run chkdsk /f to force a fix on the corrupt filesystem.
In most cases this will fix your machine to the point where it will run, unfortunetly, I corrupted the sam file when I ran the linux ram disk.

So now it got past the blue screen, but gave me an authentication error as the sam file was bad.

When windows first builds, it creates a backup of the same file, it is located in one of two places:

c:\windows\repair\sam
or
c:\winnt\repair\sam

The bad file is located at:

c:\windows\system32\config\sam
or
c:\winnt\system43\config\sam

Once you fix the corrupt ntfs partition, you can remove the drive, and put it into a usb drive and connect to a working system

backup, then delete the sam file in the \windows\system32\config directory
copy the sam file from \windows\repair to the \windows\system32\config directory

Put the hard drive back into the laptop or desktop that was corrupt.

You will now be able to log in with the default admin/password that was used at build time, normally this is a blank password.

You now have complete control.

In addition, if you used a corporate AD login before, the credentials are still cached, so if you aren't on the network, you can use your AD login and get back in.

Good luck, this took me two days to figure out, hope it helps somebody out.

I fixed my issue by streightening my SATA cables.

I pulled them out of the case, and stretched them out straight, and looked for any tight folds, etc. I straightened them out and massges them a bit and plopped them back in.

Worked flawlessly.
Absolutley no software changes in my case.

My solutions was to unplug a USB 1.1 mouse and Brother HL 5140 Printer and turn off a USB 2.0 external disk drive and reboot.