re: Mup.sys? Hangs but not? Wha's happening?
Monday, July 12, 2004 at 3:07 am
Windows XP Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by moses
(1 messages posted)
I know my post may sound a bit out of line, but I believe it's gonna help someone
here in some way or another, I can almost guarantee you that one. My trouble with
XP lasted about 3 days. Specifically, I'm gonna talk about these things:
- Cloning
- Mup.sys
- Activation
I see very little mention of the word *Activation*, but I have to stress that activation
has a lot to do with hardware! This means that when you mess with XP's activation
mechanism, then XP may Not even *report* to you that you are tempering with it's
Activation mechanism, so you could be stuck without a clue for many hours/days. You
may be left with a hanging screen (typically the Mup.sys mentioned all over here).
This might also explain why there is No discussion about this topic on MS websites.
Anyway, why would you expect to find a place for *Activation Bypass* on any of the
MS websites :-)
My post applies to the following symptoms:
1. You cloned your XP hard disk to another hard disk and
now you want to start the cloned XP on another/new system
which probably has different hardware.
2. You are attempting to start XP on a machine
where you did Not do the Setup, ie: You came
with a HDD that already had XP installed on it
and you attempted starting that HDD/XP on another
machine (possibly with lots of different hardware).
3. You attempted re-installing XP from the XP CD onto
the new system, but still with the cloned HDD in it!
ie: You Don't want to Partition/Format the HDD and do
a clean install, because you Don't want to lose your data.
Normally, the new machine should attempt booting properly, unless it really, I mean
REALLY has broken hardware. if you have broken hardware, then I suggest you test
the hardware by installing another OS on it. Lindows OS is a very good OS for testing
hardware,
1. Lindows OS runs from a CD (No need to install/setup on HDD)
2. Lindows will test & use lots of RAM, if your RAM
is somehow corrupt, you're sure to see Lindows crashing!
3. Of course Lindows uses the Processor. A faulty CPU chip
would Not go far with Lindows!
4. You VGA/AGP adapter will be equally put to test by Lindows.
Other good choices of alternative OS are BeOS, FreeDOS & Linux. If Lindows (or whatever
you chose as alternative OS) loads & boots properly, then we can rule out the possibility
of faulty hardware, at least CPU, RAM and VGA. Alright, let's move on...
From this point on I have to assume that you have No broken hardware. Now is the
time to come back to XP.
When you attempt starting XP on the new system, it hangs on Mup.sys (in SAFE-MODE).
I believe the reason it hangs will be activation related. Remember, when XP sees
too much NEW Hardware (new onboard chips, BIOS, etc) then it thinks you're messing
with its activation. You can try to remove add-on cards, disable onboard USB/devices,
etc. You can even try to re-install XP from the CD or even from setup files on the
HDD itself, it may still hang at Mup.sys or In fact, when you reinstall, it may hang
at the Repair screen or some other screen earlier/later than the Repair screen. As
long as the HDD you're trying to install to has a working/activated installation
of XP, XP will try to prevent you from even repairing that installation, because
there is too much New Hardware and that's against the activation law. Ideally, you
would want to Partition or Format the HDD and then do a clean install (but you obviously
Don't want to do that!).
My suggestion is actually very simple. It doesn't need all this typing. I suggest
that you take the HDD back to the original system where it boots properly, or just
put it into any system where it boots without problems. Once you've done that, just
start the XP Setup/Installation on that system. To be more specific, copy the setup
files from the CD to the HDD (in Windows Explorer) and then run XP setup from the
HDD right there within Windows Explorer by simply double-cliking the Setup.exe file
(Make sure that you are Not double-clicking setup.exe from the CD or from the DOS
Prompt, etc).
What you're basically doing is that you are Re-installing XP, even if you and I know
that there's Nothing wrong with the currently installed XP on that HDD, cuz it just
booted properly on this other/old hardware and here you just got to the Desktop,
isn't it? :-)
When the XP setup begins, you will see it preparing a lot of things and it will examine
the system and copy setup files, etc. A few minutes later, it will want to **Restart**
the system for the First Time! Now this is the place where we're gonna catch it.
When it restarts the system for the First Time, Don't let that Setup to Ever boot
on that system again! Let it shutdown, but when the system is busy doing the POST
or loading the BIOS (Before it Boots!!), turn the system off, remove power and take
the HDD out.
Go back to your new system and connect the HDD in there. Now you should be able to
**CONTINUE** with the XP Setup on the new system which has Lots of New/Different
hardware. Now, what's gonna happen is that this XP installation/setup process is
Not as strict as the other process of trying to boot a previously activated XP on
a new system (system with Lots of New Hardware). Normally the XP Setup will be more
forgiving than a cloned XP installation being started/booted on a system with lots
of New Hardware. Just continue with the setup and let it finish. You should Not Lose
any of your data & settings (even Desktop settings) since you are simply Re-installing
XP, you are Not doing a clean-install by Partitioning/Formatting.
Although I put a great deal of typing into explaining this process with so much detail,
my post can actually be summarized as follows.
On any system where you can boot your XP installation, do so. Once booted successfully
and in the Desktop, copy the XP setup files from the CD to the HDD. Run XP setup
(Re-install XP) from the HDD from within Windows Explorer. Let the setup run until
it restarts the system for the First Time! Once the system has shutdown, cut-off
that Setup and go and continue the setup on a new system which possibly has Lots
of new hardware. Setup should continue on the new system and it should Not be aware
that it's being continued on another system, because it is yet to discover/configure
hardware,etc. Continue with setup on the new system/hardware and enjoy.
If you have any hardware hang, etc on the new system, then it is time to start removing
Add-on/PCI adapters and disabling devices in the BIOS, etc, cuz now you have hardware
detection/config problems (don't rush to conclude that you have faulty hardware (CPU/RAM/VGA),
cuz then the other OS's above would have crashed, right? or they would have been
written by magicians if they could work on faulty CPU, RAM & VGA!). As a rule-of-thumb,
when removing hardware/devices, always start with the most luxurious adapters. DVD/Video-Decoder
Cards, Sound Adapters, VGA/AGP Accelerator cards, TV Cards & USB Ports/Hubs should
be the first ones out. According to me, the bare minimum hardware for starting the
system is only 5 pieces...
1. Motherboard
2. Power Supply
3. Video Adapter
4. RAM
5. Screen (Controversially Optional, But how
R u gonna see anything without it?)
Contrary to popular belief, a Keyboard and Mouse are Not quite *necessary* for the
system to start, but I would Love to see a keyboard (even a faulty one, I mean a
PS/2 keyboard) causing the system to hang :-) Well, these days there's just so much
sophistication. Oh, by the way, yeah, now that we have USB Keyboards, I am inclined
to believe that a Keyboard can indeed hang a system within Seconds of starting, ..also
one of the posts here emphasized that a USB Mouse can cause an Mup.sys hang, which
I truly agree with :-)
_______________________________________________________
That's all for now.
On Sunday, January 18, 2004 at 6:54 am, Chas wrote:
>OK, I've had the same problem with XP freeze and Safe Mode stall at Mups.sys.
>Final solution was to re-flash the BIOS (downloaded the file from another computer).
>It seems to me that Mups.sys is just the last file shown before XP goes graphic
mode.
>It did the same pause once I resolved the problem. It may be at this point that
it
>does the hardware "head count" to match its security settings aginst the activation
>code.
>Reading through other forums, it appears that XP is highly sensitive to hardware
>instability. In my case, the capacitors on the m/board are swollen which may have
>lead to damaged ROM.
>Apparently, some m/boards reset the BIOS ROM on ESCD; so occasionally a hardware
>change fixes the problem and sometimes it doesn't (like my Epox). It became obvious
>that it was a hardware glitch when Win98 on my second hard drive started to freeze
>as well.
>Because of previous fiddling (made the mistake of deleting "viaagp.sys", so lost
>graphics) I had to do a complete re-install of XP on the main HD; and now she hums
>along better than before. Next freeze and the M/board gets ditched - it's about
3
>or 4 years old.
>
>
>
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