Can't get XP Professional to boot

[marriedhsdad]

This problem started just before we were to leave for out of town for
Thanksgiving.

I had been working on something and the computer froze. I pressed the quick
flash to restart the computer. As it was going through the XP Windows startup
screen, the system froze again. I closed it down and decided to deal with it
when I returned home. Now I can't get into the machine.

I tried to open it normally and it froze in the same place. So I chose to
startup from the last known boot that worked. It froze in the same place. So
I tried to start in Safe Mode. The computer went through loading the drivers
until it came to "mup.sys" and it froze. Then I tried putting the original
installation CD in and rebooted from the CD. Windows started to load all the
drivers. When it tried to start Windows, it froze again. It's been sitting
here for the last hour and nothing has occurred.

What should I try now? I'm frustrated and NEED to access this thing today.

HS Dad

 

[Gerry]

What is the computer make and model? Is it a desktop or a laptop? Do you
own a second computer? If yes is it a desktop or laptop?


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[philo]

This problem started just before we were to leave for out of town for
Thanksgiving.

I had been working on something and the computer froze. I pressed the quick
flash to restart the computer. As it was going through the XP Windows startup
screen, the system froze again. I closed it down and decided to deal with it
when I returned home. Now I can't get into the machine.

I tried to open it normally and it froze in the same place. So I chose to
startup from the last known boot that worked. It froze in the same place. So
I tried to start in Safe Mode. The computer went through loading the drivers
until it came to "mup.sys" and it froze. Then I tried putting the original
installation CD in and rebooted from the CD. Windows started to load all the
drivers. When it tried to start Windows, it froze again. It's been sitting
here for the last hour and nothing has occurred.

What should I try now? I'm frustrated and NEED to access this thing today.

HS Dad

Your Windows installation is *probably* OK
so do NOT fool with it.

It looks like a hardware problem...

Check your cooling fans...especially the one on the CPU cooler and video
card (if you a video card with a fan on it)

Also, if the fans are OK

run a RAM test

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

 

[Big D]

It looks like a hardware problem...

Quite possible. Will be very difficult for a home user to diagnose.

Check your cooling fans...especially the one on the CPU cooler and video
card (if you a video card with a fan on it)

Also, if the fans are OK

Moronic recommendation. Think about it: the problem occurred on a
computer that had been shutdown for a couple days too. i.e., it was
COLD.

run a RAM test

good start.

 

[Leonard Grey]

A web search yields lots of information, including:

"How to fix an XP\Win 2000 System that freezes after loading mup.sys
while booting"
http://www.aitechsolutions.net/mupdotsysXPhang.html

Unless you can think of a likely cause for your problem (e.g., recent
change to hardware or software), and if you don't think of yourself as
particularly geek-esque, this may be a diagnosis best made by a
professional. I would definitely recommend against the inclination to
'try this and try that and see what happens'.
---
Leonard Grey
Errare Humanum Est

Security Tips for Everyone, from PC Magazine
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2334856,00.asp

 

[marriedhsdad]

It is one I built myself 3 years ago. It has an AMD 2400 processor with 2G
RAM. It's a desktop. Yes I have three other computers... Two desktops and one
laptop.

 

[marriedhsdad]

If I could ge that far I would do it. Tried to start with XP startup disks
rather than CD. It froze after loading all the drivers. I have removed the
side panel of the computer to alieviate any heat buildup. The fans are
working just fine.

 

[Gerry]

You could remove the hard disk from the computer and put it in another
desktop as a slave drive. An alternative is put the drive in a external
cradle linked to another computer. Often you can then read / access the
drive. This one way to recover data but also you can look at Event
Viewer reports and logs to see what brought the computer to a halt.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us

The file you will be interested in is SysEvent.evt located i
??\windows\system32\config. Make sure it is dated when the computer
failed.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[philo]

Quite possible. Will be very difficult for a home user to diagnose.


Moronic recommendation. Think about it: the problem occurred on a
computer that had been shutdown for a couple days too. i.e., it was
COLD.

No you are quite wrong there.
depending on the type of CPU...without a working fan
the machine will heat up very fast...


I had one on my bench that I was working on and got some wires caught in the
fan.
It shut down so fast the machine never even booted up.

Even if the fan turned out to be OK...it's a good precaution

 

[philo]

If I could ge that far I would do it. Tried to start with XP startup disks
rather than CD. It froze after loading all the drivers. I have removed the
side panel of the computer to alieviate any heat buildup. The fans are
working just fine.

OK

I figured it was probably not a case of overheating
but figured it's better to be safe than sorry

time to run a RAM test

or substitute with known good RAM

 

[Snidley W.]

OK

I figured it was probably not a case of overheating
but figured it's better to be safe than sorry

Yeah, right.

 

[Anna]

"marriedhsdad" later adds...

It is one I built myself 3 years ago. It has an AMD 2400 processor with 2G
RAM. It's a desktop. Yes I have three other computers... Two desktops and
one
laptop.

"marriedhsdad" later adds...

If I could ge that far I would do it. Tried to start with XP startup disks
rather than CD. It froze after loading all the drivers. I have removed the
side panel of the computer to alieviate any heat buildup. The fans are
working just fine.

HS Dad:
While this could very well be a hardware problem as others have suggested,
it's quite possible the problem is not hardware-related but involves a
corrupt OS.

You mentioned that you "rebooted from the (XP OS installation) CD" but that
when you "tried to start Windows, it froze again".

Are you indicating that when you boot to the XP installation CD you are
unable to reach the XP Setup screen display? It's a bit unclear from your
original description of the problem because you refer to the system
"start(ing) to load all the drivers" as you boot to the XP installation CD.

Then again you refer to using "XP startup disks rather than CD". Are you
referring to the series of floppy disks containing the XP OS installation
program?

In any event, if you *are* able to reach the XP Setup screen, hopefully
you'll be able to run a Repair install of the OS, so that if you are able to
do so and the problem is not hardware-related but is one of a not-terribly
corrupt OS, perhaps the Repair install will return the system to a bootable,
functional system.

It's entirely possible I may be misunderstanding the precise nature of your
problem but I thought I'd mention the above as a possibility for your
consideration in the event you are able to reach the Setup screen via the XP
OS installation CD. I assume you know how to undertake a Repair install of
the OS.
Anna

 

[John Wunderlich]

=?Utf-8?B?bWFycmllZGhzZGFk?=

This problem started just before we were to leave for out of town
for Thanksgiving.

I had been working on something and the computer froze. I pressed
the quick flash to restart the computer. As it was going through
the XP Windows startup screen, the system froze again. I closed it
down and decided to deal with it when I returned home. Now I can't
get into the machine.

I tried to open it normally and it froze in the same place. So I
chose to startup from the last known boot that worked. It froze in
the same place. So I tried to start in Safe Mode. The computer
went through loading the drivers until it came to "mup.sys" and it
froze. Then I tried putting the original installation CD in and
rebooted from the CD. Windows started to load all the drivers.
When it tried to start Windows, it froze again. It's been sitting
here for the last hour and nothing has occurred.

What should I try now? I'm frustrated and NEED to access this
thing today.

HS Dad

Try booting from a free live Linux CD/DVD such as Knoppix.
You can also try booting using the "Ultimate Boot CD for Windows"
(UBCD4Win).

<http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html>
<http://www.ubcd4win.com/>

HTH,
John

 

[philo]

Yeah, right.

Idiot


***PLONK***

 

[marriedhsdad]

Anna,

When booting from the original installation CD, the set of 6 floppies or
from the C drive, I never get to the XP setup screen. When using either form
of installation, the computer hangs when it says it is loading Windows.

 

[marriedhsdad]

OK, I removed the C drive and installed it into another computer. The Event
Viewer only seems to give me information about the computer I'm working on
and not the one my C drive is from. How do I access the records to find out
what happened? I searched for *.msc on my drive and found many in
Windows/System32. When I open them, they don't refer to my drive, but the one
I'm using to access it. Any suggestions?

 

[Daave]

Then I tried putting the original installation CD in and rebooted from
the CD. Windows started to load all the drivers.

What version of Windows are you running and at what Service Pack level
is it?

At what Service Pack level is your installation disk?

What is the make of your motherboard? Are you sure you configured the
BIOS correctly to boot off the CD-ROM drive? Or to put it another way,
is it possible you are still booting off the hard drive?

When you boot off the isntallation CD, what exactly are you trying to
do? Recovery Console? Repair Install?

 

[Anna]

Anna,
When booting from the original installation CD, the set of 6 floppies or
from the C drive, I never get to the XP setup screen. When using either
form
of installation, the computer hangs when it says it is loading Windows.

HSDad:
It sounds as if you're *not* actually booting to the XP OS installation CD
(nor the XP installation floppies for that matter). Rather it sounds as if
you're actually booting to your HDD.

I would guess that your BIOS boot priority order setting indicates a *first*
boot to the HDD rather than to the optical drive. But since you obviously
have some familiarity with your PC (having built the machine) I assume
you've checked your BIOS boot priority setting to insure the optical drive
is *first* in boot priority order. You have done this, yes?
Anna

 

[Gerry]

Yes I can see the problem. I tried some tests but these did not come up
with a satisfactory resolution. To read the file you need it in a
different format and you need the original Event Viewer running to be
able to save it in that format. Opening the file using Wordpad succeeds
but it is not in a readable form.

I cannot at the moment suggest anything else to resolve your problem.
You can of course backup any data files you wish to recover from the
original disk.


--



Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[marriedhsdad]

Anna,

Quite on the contrary. I went into the Bios and changed the booting
sequence. It now checks A: then CD then C: When I boot it from the CD, it
goes through installing the drivers and then at the very bottom, it says it
is loading Windows. All of this is on a blue screen with a small XP logo at
the top right, but more DOS looking than Windows. After a few seconds of the
notice that Windows is loading, the computer freezes. This happens when I
boot to the CD or to the A: drive, when it asks for the next disk several
times.