I hope this helps for everyone...i think its work for me. It seems the real problem is a combination of my motherboard and the file update.sys (sp2) please see the following website for details. I disabled the cache as the website suggested but my pc and that allow windows to continue installing but it was wayyyy too slow so i rebooted ...enabled the cache and deleted update.sys from the repair/recovery section. this worked immediately and allowed windows to boot and not freeze up. its not finished installing but i guess i'll have to go download the new update.sys when im fully up and running.

I have the foxconn motherboard listed.

see this website: http://winhlp.com/node/125

Boot or shutdown problems after Service Pack 2 installation
Intel P4 Prescott, Celeron D, or Extreme Edition processor

Processors based on the Prescott design with a C-0 processor stepping are affected when the motherboard BIOS is out of date. The cause appears to be that the machine's BIOS does not install a production level microcode update (a correction to a fault in the microprocessor's own microcode).

Some affected motherboards
Abit IS7-V
Albatron PX865 PE Pro
Aopen AX4SG Max
Aopen EA65
Asus P4P800 Deluxe
Asus P4P800-E Deluxe
(requires BIOS version 1017)
Asus Terminator T2-P
Foxconn 865A01-G-6EKRS
Gigabyte GA-8PENXP
(requires BIOS version FF)
Jetway i875P
Shuttle SB61G2
Soyo P4I865P

A BIOS update is the best solution, but Microsoft has also released a fix, which can be downloaded from:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9b99c...20727be8d8

Background: The update replaces the SP2 file update.sys, version 5.1.2600.2180, with a new version 5.1.2600.2508 that works correctly on the affected CPUs.

Try to boot into safe mode or disable both L1 and L2 caches in the BIOS to get the machine to boot, then uninstall Service Pack 2, then wait for and obtain an updated BIOS or install the fix. If you cannot get Windows XP to boot at all and cannot get an updated BIOS in time, you may have to do a repair installation of Windows XP.

Tan Dylan said:

Hey, just wanted to add my experiences since i was able to finally fix my computer. I had the problem where xp would try to boot, it would get to the splash screen and then freeze for half a sec and then reboot. After it did this the first time, i went into safe mode sucessfully, but after that first time in safe mode, it wouldn't even go into safe mode. It would get stuck loading the drivers for services and the last line would show agp440.sys. I disabled this service from booting using the recovery console. Then it did the exact same thing, and would freeze after loading mup.sys. After trying several things including running chkdsk /r, recreating the boot.ini, replacing the ntldr and ntdetect files, and verifying that I could access the files on my system partition, attempting to figure out what was causing the problem from the boot logging log (ntbtlog.txt i think), i realized that this really might be a bios issue. I didn't quite understand why it would be a bios issue, but i guess it was. I had already tried booting up with nothing but the essentials connected to my computer (this means no usb devices or anything but power, 15pin dsub (vga cable)) and hadn't had luck, which initially steered me away from the idea that it was bios related. I figured that i hadn't changed anything in the bios and since i had the latest bios firmware (from back in 2003), nothing nefarious could really be happening... i mean, seriously, how often does a bios resource conflict come up anymore... Back in the day, yes this would happen all the time (before xp, and with older bios systems), but i never hear about it anymore....

anyway, i eventually came back to the bios possibility and first tried to just reset the ECSD... which clears out all the memory assignments for system resources so that the bios rediscovers everything... This didn't work... as a last ditch fix attempt, i moved the CMOS jumper so that it would physically clear all of the settings from CMOS (bios).. THis worked like a charm. I'm guessing someway and somehow the cmos settings just got corrupted or something. I feel like i know a fair bit about computers, but I can't explain this one any further. Either way, i'm happy to have solved my problem. THis thread was helpful in pointing me back to the bios as a possible cause...

-Mike



Tan Dylan said:
[/quote]

Here is what is happening:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT_startup_process

"For the purposes of booting, a driver is either a "Boot" driver that is loaded by NTLDR or IA64ldr prior to starting the kernel and started before system drivers by the kernel, a "System" driver, which is loaded and started by ntoskrnl.exe after the boot drivers or an "Automatic" driver which is loaded much later when the GUI already has been started. "Boot" drivers are almost exclusively drivers for hard-drive controllers and file systems (ATA, SCSI, file system filter manager, etc.); in other words, they are the absolute minimum that ntoskrnl.exe will need to get started with loading other drivers, and the rest of the operating system. "System" drivers cover a wider range of core functionality, including the display driver, CD-ROM support, and the TCP/IP stack."

This "mup" hang occurs after the BOOT FILES have been LOADED into memory and before ntldr turns over control to the kernal. The list you see is just what has been loaded but not started by ntldr, thats why you always fail at the LAST file ... after you see the last file then ntldr starts up the boot files in the order you see here:

If you get this program

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897416.aspx

You will see the order (boot then system then automatic) that ntldr is initilizing the programs. Sadly there is no indication which fails.

YOUR PROBLEM is one of the "boot" files. Which narrows it down to almost anything to do with pci buss, ide drives, scsi miniport drives etc. etc.


The best three solutions i have seen in this thread are:

"March 28, 2006 - A note from Daniel on improving/modifying the above procedure.

I was taking a look on your procedure to "Replace Motherboard on a Windows XP System" and I think I could improve it...

While the old motherboard was still usable, I used the following procedure

- I changed the IDE+AGP controller driver to the Windows default driver (Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller and PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge respectivelly)

- Uninstalled the VGA Card drivers

- Changed the motherboard

- Reassembled the pc again with all the cards and cables that were previously attached

- At this phase, I could boot Windows without any blue screen and also without making a installation repair!

- Next step: install the new chipset drivers and VGA drivers

One more note: I had success with this procedure with Windows XP Pro, Windows XP Home, Windows 2000 Professional and also a Windows 2000 Server Domain Controller (changed a P3 board with damaged capacitors to a new P4 board) all of them with full success! This Windows 2000 Server is running for more than 7 months without any problem!

I hope you find my real world "experiences" of any use.

Many thanks!

Daniel"

and

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/824125

Also (lol you only have to buy 50 of them at $20 each):

http://www.uiu4you.com/

Ok a clue could be in this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\

Look up all the ones in that boot list (under boot only), it seems that those with errorcontrol = 3 are the only ones that will stop the process, assuming XP is the same as Win2K (which I have). Thus the error seems limited to just those with errorcontrol = 3, because if the others fail to load the load process continues.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/r...x?mfr=true

I'm at a loss... about three weeks ago my PC crashed and when I tried to reboot, it started locking up. Booting in safe mode shows that it locks up after the mup.sys file, which led me here.

I can't try any of these solutions because I can't get a Windows Install CD to load. It starts loading, then locks up before I get to the recovery console or install options. I've since loaded Ubuntu onto a secondary drive, and I can access all of the files on the first drive, but I still can't get any of three XP CDs (mine, a buddies, and a corporate copy from work), Windows 2003 Server, or a WinPE boot disk to load. They all lock up on me during the load sequence (they load drivers, then 'Starting Windows' and lock up).

I've run memory tests from the Ubuntu install CD and everything passed, but I can't check an NTSF drive with Linux.

Any suggestions?

Hi Scott,

I don't know if you understand the previous, recent postings (things are getting highly technical recently) but what is being said is that XP tries to load a setup previously used from the registry, but updates this from what it sees (during bootup) in the BIOS. A lot of people do not seem to be aware that the settings in the registry are updated during every reboot and the system gets very confused if the hardware does not tally with what was detected during previous bootups

What this means in practice is that if the BIOS gets corrupted the system may get very sick and do the mup.sys thing (the BIOS can be altered with older systems because the battery gets low - often causing the system clock to show the wrong time or date - or due to some viruses, serious power surges - or lightning strikes! ). Another reason is if the hardware sensed during bootup goes sick - drivers fail then because the hardware does not respond to the driver originally used to control that hardware feature. After several bootups, the situation may get worse, as faulty data on the hardware available may get loaded in the registry. Faulty memory chips may cause similar problems, because the data sensed can be different each time the system boots, due to data getting altered as the memory chips warm up! In this case it may not be possible to start up ANY operating system reliably, while a registry fault may only stop XP from booting.

Diagnosis

As others have already posted, a good method is to strip the system down to a basic state of hard drive, CDROM, one memory stick and NO USB devices (a bit difficult if you have a PC with USB mouse & keyboard ) and remove extra cards (USB 2.0 or Firewire etc.). Also check during bootup that the BIOS shows the correct date as great confusion can occur if the BIOS is corrupted to show a date well before many of the updates already installed - and a wrong date probably means the battery is dead! It does not matter what operating system you use to boot when doing BIOS checks, so it is a good idea to boot a CD based Linux system (it does not matter how sick the BIOS is if it cannot alter what is on the CD). If strange things happen - different each time you boot - change the memory chip. Also change the BIOS/clock battery and if that does'nt work, download a copy of the latest BIOS (on another system) burn it to a CD or to a bootable DOS floppy and follow the manufacturers directions to update the BIOS.

If the BIOS seems OK, try booting a windows XP CD again - but make sure it is THE SAME VERSION as used on the hard drive! Do NOT try to use a corporate version CD to fix an OEM XP pro or home XP system - mixing systems is deadly (the worse case I had was when someone tried to fix a Polish XP system with a UK CD ). If the CD will boot, run checkdisk to be sure the hard drive is OK.

If you can only boot with a non windows CD, the data on the hard drive may be corrupted and the drive may have a serious fault. To check this, try booting a 'Gparted live CD' - if the partitioner can access an NTFS partition, it is probably OK, but if not, the drive may have developed a serious hardware fault, possibly needing the drive manufacturers utilities to be run to fix it (from a bootable CD or floppy). Try connecting the drive to another XP system - preferably in an external USB box and run checkdisk on it - but if you connect an IDE drive with a hardware fault as slave on the same IDE socket as the boot volume, you may crash that system too . Similar problems may occur if you are using an SATA drive and connect it to another system.

If you get to the point of a successful safe mode boot (no mup.sys error) plug in other parts (like additional memory, hard drives and PCI cards) into the board, one at a time, checking that the system still boots and finally connect USB devices. If it starts to crash again, you have found the sick hardware part!

If the system works after replacing parts, run checkdisk anyway and defragment. It may also be a good thing to run your favourite registry repair program to tidy up the registry, as this sort of fault often leaves a lot of false registry entries and slows the system down a lot.

If this is an OEM version of XP, don't be surprised if you get a request to reactivate when connecting to the 'net again after changing several hardware parts to new types - if a part is faulty, fitting an identical replacement helps to prevent such problems.

Nick

Not sure if this will work for you but I had this same problem with my Dell dimension e510 and after a 4 hour call with Dell tech support we finally tried removing one of the two memory chips in the computer and the computer booted up fine. Turns out one of the memory chips was bad. They sent me a replacement and everything is back to normal!

hi,
i have a notebook with Windows XP and linux fedora core 7. the linux part works perfectly fine but with the windows have the same problem as everyone up to now - it freezes at Mup.sys . everything was fine up to now, i had both - windows and linux working more than an year, but now just cant boot windows. cant go on safe mode because it stops on Mup.sys and doesnt go further; because of the same reason cant have any console. i read some tricks but for them i have to have safe mode running. also tried with the recovery disk for windows - also didnt work (well it stuck at some point and didnt go further, so i was unable to continue with it).
any suggestions what can i do ?

A lot of these errors are caused by the fact you cannot just move a hard drive from one computer to the other. In my case most of my errors were caused by the 10.3 MB limit on the system hive, in WIN2K, this limitation is not present in XP or better I think.

None the less, this stop indicates a system hive problem. Again stopping at this point (mup) has virtually NOTHING to do with individual files or drives in MOST CASES. If your system hive is proper you will get to the GUI.

There are two free programs to help. One, VsScrub will reduce the size of your registry, use this along with the phantom program to remove "phantom hardware" and you can vastly (I went from 10MB to 6MB) reduce the system hive (this one loads the drivers needed to start). The other is the microsoft sysprep which prepares a drive for a computer with different hardware.

I wrote these notes for myself so they might not make a lot of sense:


1. Clone Disk. Disconnect the source drive. Boot into the clone.
2. Prepare Clone. Regedit Mounted (remove all) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices. You want to remove all enteries (a lot) in this key to force the OS to get information on the current drive in the system and not use old stuffs, or something.

Defragment. Remove Phantom Devices. Remove SoundMax if going to other hardware. Shut off roboform and currentuser software Microsoft windows current version run, stuff you don't think you will need on new computer. Rename to new computer name for network, set video size to new computer.
3. VxScrub to reduce registry size.
4. Run from cmd line. Run VxScrub -p
5. Hard Shut off computer (don’t shut down from windows).
6. New Computer must have mouse and Keyboard to ps2 or usb.
7. If going to same hardware remove drive from source computer and put into new computer.
8. If going to different hardware boot up into clone drive (don’t install anything if prompted), run sysprep, will hard shut down system.
9. Move drive to different hardware. Will boot into win2K setup (if used sysprep), will need operating system key. Answer questions and load drivers until stable.

To install the mouse drivers for the odd receiver click on the receiver in device manager, do the windows update then do other drivers not the oem83info and the Logitech driver will show.

http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/277301.htm

I guess there are better ways to remove the phantom drivers:

http://www.petri.co.il/display_phantom_drivers_in_windows_2000_xp_2003.htm

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/EB620573B05B70DD86256E8E002519AD

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302577


Using the registry editor can destroy your system and those links may or may not have virus in the downloads - proceed with caution. Anyway the above took me 100 plus hours of reading to make, you can also just try some products from Arcronis

http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/snapdeploy/

for $30. I didnt use this but it was my next step.

Oh ya, you can get into the recovery console by booting from the actual windows CD, get into the recovery console and just type "listsvc", you don't have to really change anything. Then type exit. You will then PROBABLY get into the GUI on just the next boot up, from the hard drive that stopped at the MPU spot. Just going into the Recovery console causes some kind of resync between the OS and the BIOS or something I havn't figured out. Of course next time you shut down the same problem will reoccur. But you should be able to get into your failed system to do some fix ups, plus you dont feel like you have to lose your hard drive anymore lol...

Also if you dont care about your programs or data just do a clean install, you will save 50 hours of work.

Dear all,

Having looked though some of this forum I have another problem for you:

I am attempting to retrieve some data from a friends hard disk. They have the mup.sys issue. I have plugged their HDD into my working system. When I boot the working system, from the working disk, with their HDD I get the mup.sys error.

The aim here is to get at the data on my friends HDD. So:

- Can I disable mup.sys and still boot into windows?
- If I disable mup.sys how do I re-enable it? (Obviously when I remove their HDD I don't need it disabled)

Many Thanks
Jeremy

to disable mup.sys you just write -
disable mup.sys or because sometimes gives something like "unknown ...." then is just - disable mup

for enabling it - enable mup.sys SERVICE_BOOT_SYSTEM

Again it has nothing to do with that file, I mean he is booting from the good hard drive thats been loading mup from his good drive for months, he puts in a 2nd drive that he is not booting from, is that going to stop his good drive from booting from its mup? No. His system is not using the bad drive mup file, its using the good dive mup file.

You added a hard drive that the bios/os is not syncing with. Just go into recovery consol you might fix it up. Then try to jumper the bios to erase it, which will again force a resync.

its true, this is a system file and is just a warning that something is wrong with your system, hard drive whatever .... many reasons to have this message.
what i did is to check the disk for errors, i had some bad sectors fixed them and reinstall windows.
disabling that file will allow you to go at least to the safe mode but will not fix the problem.

TURN OFF SATA MODE IN BIOS U LAMERS!

37 pages and counting?!?

Anyway, i thought my system was completely screwed this morning. I wanted to flash bios, replace cmos, disconnect cards, etc. etc. Then i managed to disable mup.sys from the recovery console. And now, everything works fine...

My computer was constantly freezing. It wouldn't even reboot. No BSOD. Sometimes it didn't even make it past bios or post. When it did, it lasted about two minutes before freezing. I don't know what started this problem, but i suppose it could have been a power failure. Anyway, after making it into safemode, i realised that it stops at mup.sys. I saw people on the net saying, that's not the problem, it just gets blamed because it's last to display. Well, i did this, and now i can boot to XP and linux, no crashes, all fine. I did a dskchk, which did its thing, re enabled mup.sys as boot start service, so now it's (hopefully) back to normal.

Why would disabling, fixing and re enabling this service solve everything?

For those of you with multiple hard drives(who doesn't), this might be of interest:
I have a desktop which I rarely use (prefer laptop), however was working fine last time I used it. Booted it up the other day and you guessed it, hung at mup.sys. The only difference with mine is that after a long time, it would finally boot to desktop but nothing seemed to work very well etc. Tried many of the cures on here, but all to no avail. Finally I was going to back up some data from C: drive onto one of the other ones and reformat C: and start from scratch. However, when I tried to access D: drive to copy the files over, the system sat there looking at me for a very long time. Booted to DOS and discovered it couldn't find D:. Unplugged D: drive's cable, and the boot went fine and computer now works no problem. D: drive had died, just like that. So, of course this is no cure all, but simply another thing that people need to check if they think they are having mup.sys problems.

Short words is much better.

Same problem as you folks

1.- I removed the extra memory I put of 128 MB 133 Mhz
2.- I enabled the ESCD in BIOS
3.- Turn on computer

and the problem is solved, without formatting, re-install Windows, download drives etc etc

The computer I have is a Pentium III who had already Windows XP working without any problem for almost 1 year until OS begon hang in the Start of Windows.

To be honest I dont think that Windows XP SP2 has the problem, maybe the motherboard (I dont know). Bydaway the computer had already 512 MB (2x256MB 133 MHz each).

I tried also to use a memory of 256 MB 133 MHz but hang again the system.

Cheers

for everyone that has tried all the hardware options here is what resolved my problem. like everyone else my systems stopped at mup.sys, the last file to load before the prince of darkness windows stopped responding with no additional indication of what the hell is wrong. corrupt registry. thats right the registry had become corrupt so i went through the process of restoring the registry from the repair directory under windows. now it means taking the system back to a very early state but after the restore my system booted, then i went through the hassle of reloading drivers.

http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;307545&spid=11...mp;sid=156

this was my last resort and it got the system back online.

good luck