Won't boot - safe mode stops at Mup.sys

I did physically remove the card and connected the monitor to the built in vga plug, and that is what resulted in no change to it locking up during the boot process. I still get a blank screen with normal boot, and what I described initially with the safe boot.

I just sent a request to Dell to provide me with XP on a CD, so when that arrives and after my 200 gigs of pics, docs,etc., are safely in the new Dell, I will try to load the XP to finally determine if the problem is the motherboard or the software. Thanks. Tom

 

well damn,we tried.hope it all works out.Al.

 

f11 just takes me to the screen that says Windows did not start normally and gives me the options of start normally, safe boot, etc. Does this indicate a windows problem?

That is the same screen it has gone to since the day it froze, last Friday. When I try to start normally, or last good settings, I get a black screen. If I try safe mode, it stops at the Mup.sys line.

 

windows problem not sounding like hardware at all

 

dell most likely it is the seagate hard drive did you upgrade the firmware for the seagate hard drive seagate has a firmware update for windows machines for all 500 gig sea gates

 

Well, Dell came through with an XP DVD for me to reload, so I pulled out the main 500GB drive to save everything on it and left the older working 160GB drive in to load XP onto that one.

I ran the DVD and got a nice blue screen showing it was loading, and it loaded lots of files, but then it said "Setup is starting Windows," but nothing else happened. It froze there. I tried it twice and it stops at that part, like it cannot finish loading. So now are we thinking hardware?

Thanks for continuing to try to help. Tom

 

boot to prompt only and set to run the tools I suggested.. often it takes a couple of goes to get windoze to fix itself enough to work which is the problem.. people run them once, they fail and so they give up...

I know safe mode jamming up on the file after mup.sys can be fixed by those methods because I have done it hundreds of times.

Quick trickery to save your data nice and safe.. get the latest puppy linux (it boots pretty much everything and will confirm this is a windoze problem not a hardware problem) .. then make a empty directory on one of your drives called "backup" and copy everything there..If you make it on the drive you want to backup it's even easier and faster.. use the move instead of copy.. Then if you have any version of windoze installer disk you can delete the entire stuff on the root of the drive and all of windoze folder.. and reinstall.. then you just move your "backup" dirs back when it works.. simple and quick... DO NOT FORMAT THE DRIVE.. no matter what windoze installer says.. Puppy will delete the stuff properly!!

XP is easy to find in the wild.. I would say use Borg V5 and class it as all us *nix people do.. use until it breaks (about 6 months) then reinstall... windoze is unstable and disposable.. not for critical systems or data storage.

http://puppylinux.org/main/Download Latest Release.htm

 

My new Dell arrived yesterday and is up and running with my old 500GB inside which will now serve as a backup. But, I can't stop myself from seeing if the old Dell with XP will work.

Now that the big drive is safely out, I formatted the 160GB that is inside the old Dell, and I just got the same result when I try to load XP from the new CD that Dell sent me. The CD drive runs hard up to the point where the screen shows, "Setup is starting Windows," then the CD slows down or stops and it stays on this screen. Not I need to give it a really load time after this? Could this possibly be a software issue, if the drive was wiped and I started a fresh load of XP? Just wondering. Thanks for suggestions.

 

I will give that a try. There are four stick inside, two are 1GB and two are 1/2 GBs. Right now they are undergoing a diagnostic test, but when I did this test before, it would not let me run the March B, C, X, or Y tests that are listed. I wonder if that's a sign of ram trouble. I'll let you know if it works. Thanks.

 

No change. Tried three different sticks. And the sticks passed their tests.

Again, it loads lots of drivers, etc., but the after the CD is running at high speed, with the screen showing it is setting up for about 30 seconds, the CD quits.

One thing I did last week was upgrade the bios with a 2007 update. Would that matter if Dell gave me XP software from 2006?

I am thinking it is time for the sledgehammer to this thing. Any last thoughts?

 

ddp, I do not have one, and from looking at this link where someone else had the same errors and tried many things without success, it appears to be the motherboard. I can see what else it could be.

http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f15/xp-wont-load-error-4c00-041c-194263.html

You all were a great help during this process. I have learned a lot. And to run this out, I might keep shopping until I can find a very cheap board to stick in the box and see. Thanks again. Tom