reboot after mup.sys

[lawpoop]

Hello all -

I had a problem with my main computer where it would boot extremely
slowly, and sometimes reboot during startup. After progressively
escalating problems, the machine finally refused to boot off of the
disk. After trail-and-error testing the IDE disk, motherboard, and IDE
cable, I decided that the problem was the motherboard, and replaced
it.

Now the machine boots to the drive okay, but the machine reboots
during startup. After seeing what was loading, I discovered that the
machine reboots during a slight pause after it says it's loading
mup.sys.

Of course, I can't boot into the machine to troubleshoot it; it
reboots no matter what mode I boot into. Unfortunately I don't have a
rescue disk. My installation CD has disappeared after several moves.

What might be causing this reboot?

If bet my problematic windows system disk on another system, is there
a way I can edit the registry on it?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hello all -

I had a problem with my main computer where it would boot extremely
slowly, and sometimes reboot during startup. After progressively
escalating problems, the machine finally refused to boot off of the
disk. After trail-and-error testing the IDE disk, motherboard, and IDE
cable, I decided that the problem was the motherboard, and replaced
it.

Now the machine boots to the drive okay, but the machine reboots
during startup. After seeing what was loading, I discovered that the
machine reboots during a slight pause after it says it's loading
mup.sys.

Of course, I can't boot into the machine to troubleshoot it; it
reboots no matter what mode I boot into. Unfortunately I don't have a
rescue disk. My installation CD has disappeared after several moves.

What might be causing this reboot?

If bet my problematic windows system disk on another system, is there
a way I can edit the registry on it?

In view of long history of problems on your machine, I suspect
that your Windows installation is damaged. A new motherboard,
unless identical in every respect to the old one, would make
matters worse, not better. Your best course of action is a fresh
installation onto a formatted disk. Ask a friend for a copy of his
WinXP CD, making sure that it is the same type as you have
(OEM or Retail), then enter your product key when prompted.

While it is theoretically possible to edit your registry while the
system disk is installed in some other machine, in practice this
is unlikely to work. Not only does the typical registry have
10,000 or more lines but you would not know what you're
looking for and if you found the problem key(s) you would not
recognise them. They are not flagged with a red exclamation
mark!

 

[PosterInNews]

I just repaired a pc this morning with the same issue.
There are several things that can cause it. I have repaired at least 4
other pcs with the same issue by testing the RAM and found one or
several sticks bad. Try starting the pc with just one stick at a
time. I don't know how many sticks you have. Use one stick in the
slot closest to the processor. If it doesn't work take that stick out
and try another one.

You might want to try one of these software memory testing apps. I
use a couple of different ones but here are two that work and they are
FREE also.

1) Memtest86+: http://www.memtest.org/
2) Microsoft: http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp#top

I have used both of these successfully.

 

[lawpoop]

I just repaired a pc this morning with the same issue.
There are several things that can cause it. I have repaired at least 4
other pcs with the same issue by testing the RAM and found one or
several sticks bad. Try starting the pc with just one stick at a
time. I don't know how many sticks you have. Use one stick in the
slot closest to the processor. If it doesn't work take that stick out
and try another one.

Thanks for the idea, but I neglected to mention that I did test the
memory using memtest86, and got no errors. I've also used the system
with a Knoppix DVD, and got no problems doing that. It seems safe to
rule out bad memory.

 

[Thee Chicago Wolf]

I had a problem with my main computer where it would boot extremely

slowly, and sometimes reboot during startup. After progressively
escalating problems, the machine finally refused to boot off of the
disk. After trail-and-error testing the IDE disk, motherboard, and IDE
cable, I decided that the problem was the motherboard, and replaced
it.

Now the machine boots to the drive okay, but the machine reboots
during startup. After seeing what was loading, I discovered that the
machine reboots during a slight pause after it says it's loading
mup.sys.

Of course, I can't boot into the machine to troubleshoot it; it
reboots no matter what mode I boot into. Unfortunately I don't have a
rescue disk. My installation CD has disappeared after several moves.

What might be causing this reboot?

If bet my problematic windows system disk on another system, is there
a way I can edit the registry on it?

That's really odd for mup.sys to be causing you issues as it is a
system driver related to Universal Naming Convention. I would think if
there were bad spots on the HD it would cause this kind of behavior.
You could always see what happens when you boot into Safe Mode by
pressing F8 just before Windows XP starts to boot and see if it makes
it all the way to the desktop.

You can also try getting the update mup.sys from KB906866 as it fixes
a lot of stop issues though not necessarily spontaneous reboots. The
actual file you'll need is WindowsXP-KB906866-x86-ENU.exe and you can
get it free from Microsoft at the following web page:
https://support.microsoft.com/contactus2/emailcontact.aspx?scid=sw;en;1410&WS=hotfix

Enter the KB article number from above, enter XP SP2 as the product
affected, platform x86, and a valid email address and they will send
you a link to the patch file in a few short house. Good luck.

- Thee Chicago Wolf

 

[lawpoop]

That's really odd for mup.sys to be causing you issues as it is a
system driver related to Universal Naming Convention. I would think if
there were bad spots on the HD it would cause this kind of behavior.
You could always see what happens when you boot into Safe Mode by
pressing F8 just before Windows XP starts to boot and see if it makes
it all the way to the desktop.

Well, I think it might be what happens right after it loads mup.sys --
whatever driver it tries to load after that.

You can also try getting the update mup.sys from KB906866 as it fixes
a lot of stop issues though not necessarily spontaneous reboots. The
actual file you'll need is WindowsXP-KB906866-x86-ENU.exe and you can
get it free from Microsoft at the following web page:https://support.microsoft.com/contactus2/emailcontact.aspx?scid=sw;en...

Well, I can't get to the desktop. No matter what mode the system is in
( Normal, Last Known Good, Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking,
Command Prompt) it reboots. The only way I know it reboots after
mup.sys is because I booted into safe mode and it shows me what
drivers it's loading.

Enter the KB article number from above, enter XP SP2 as the product
affected, platform x86, and a valid email address and they will send
you a link to the patch file in a few short house. Good luck.

Is there a way I can update the file on the drive without booting into
it?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Well, I think it might be what happens right after it loads mup.sys --
whatever driver it tries to load after that.

Well, I can't get to the desktop. No matter what mode the system is in
( Normal, Last Known Good, Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking,
Command Prompt) it reboots. The only way I know it reboots after
mup.sys is because I booted into safe mode and it shows me what
drivers it's loading.


Is there a way I can update the file on the drive without booting into
it?

Won't your Knoppix DVD give you full access to the system partition?

 

[Thee Chicago Wolf]

That's really odd for mup.sys to be causing you issues as it is a

Well, I think it might be what happens right after it loads mup.sys --
whatever driver it tries to load after that.

Well, I can't get to the desktop. No matter what mode the system is in
( Normal, Last Known Good, Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking,
Command Prompt) it reboots. The only way I know it reboots after
mup.sys is because I booted into safe mode and it shows me what
drivers it's loading.


Is there a way I can update the file on the drive without booting into
it?

Mup.sys will be the last driver shown loading during the safe-mode
boot but there are drivers loading after that one.

Ok, here's one thing you could probably do to figure out what is
gumming up the works. If you're not able to boot to your desktop you
should be able to create a boot log and find out exactly what's
failing.

Power on the PC and begin pressing F8 when just before Windows would
normally start its boot process. You'll wind up getting to the menu
options screen where you normally would be able to choose Boot XP
Normally, Safe Mode, etc. The one you want to choose is the Enable
Boot Logging. This will create a boot log in the form of a plain TXT
file in the C:\Windows folder called ntbtlog.txt. Let Windows boot and
when it fails and reboots, do the next step in the paragraph below.

Power off the computer and plug in a USB flash drive (if you have one)
or insert a floppy (if you machine has a floppy drive) and insert your
XP CD. Boot the CD and go to the recovery console. It will ask you
which Windows installation to work with so press 1 and then Enter if
you only have it on C:\ drive. It will ask for the Admin password so
do that step. The default folder will be C:\Windows.

Now the fun part, enter the following command at the C:\WINDOWS
prompt: type ntbtlog.txt and then press Enter. This will display all
the stuff loading up (or not) during boot and you'll likely be able to
see what's failing. It'll show it one screen at a time.

As far as replacing the mup.sys file without being at the desktop, it
would require 1) removing your hard drive, 2) placing it into another
machine as a SECONDARY drive, and 3) overwriting the mup.sys file in
C:\windows\system32\drivers and c:\windows\system32\dllcache folders
with the mup.sys from the KB article I mentioned. It can be done but
it does require a bit of juggling. Check the boot log first to make
SURE it's mup.sys that's failing.

- Thee Chicago Wolf

 

[lawpoop]

Won't your Knoppix DVD give you full access to the system partition?

Well, it can read NTFS. Supposedly it can write to NTFS, but I'm not
sure it it's safe. Also, what form is the registry in? Is it a single
file? Do I need a registry editor? I don't think Knoppix has one on
board.

I'm trying to get my Windows partition back up, not simply access it.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Well, it can read NTFS. Supposedly it can write to NTFS, but I'm not
sure it it's safe. Also, what form is the registry in? Is it a single
file? Do I need a registry editor? I don't think Knoppix has one on
board.

I'm trying to get my Windows partition back up, not simply access it.

Create a Bart PE boot CD (www.bootdisk.com). Since it is built
on WinXP, it can easily and safely read/write NTFS partitions.
AFAIR, it also includes regedit.exe. It also includes drivers for
a number of NICs.

The registry consists of several files. The system-related files
are kept in %SystemRoot%\system32\config, the user-related
files in %UserProfile%.

 

[lawpoop]

it does require a bit of juggling. Check the boot log first to make
SURE it's mup.sys that's failing.

- Thee Chicago Wolf

That sounds like a plan! Thanks much, Wolf!

 

[Thee Chicago Wolf]

it does require a bit of juggling. Check the boot log first to make

That sounds like a plan! Thanks much, Wolf!

Sure. I seem to have forgotten to mention the reason for using the
USB drive or floppy though. If you get the KB patch file, you can
always get the mup.sys file out of it by running the patch file then,
using My Computer, go to C:\ and look for the temp folder the patch
creates (usually something like h2534hjgh5243k5234435gk5234 or some
strange string) and extract the mup.sys file and put it on a USB drive
or floppy to copy over later. A "Live" Linux distro should also allow
you to be able to get at the NTFS file system as well so that's always
an option too.

- Thee Chicago Wolf