Mup.sys

I'm having some weird problems here...

Problem 1: An eMachines XP 1800+ desktop suddenly doesn't want to boot into Windows (XP Home) anymore. As soon as it reaches the graphical Windows start-up screen, it reboots. After reboot, I get to the Safe Mode screen. Normal reboot will make it do the same thing (reboot). If I boot in Safe Mode, the box loads everything, then suddenly stops at mup.sys, over and over again.
One possible solution (according to what I found so far) would be to disable mup.sys through the recovery console. Problem: I don't have a Windows CD, only an eMachines recovery disk (without a recovery console).

Problem 2: This just happened 20 minutes ago on a month-old Toshiba Satellite laptop. Guess what: the EXACT same problem. Again, only a Toshiba recovery disk is available...

Both machines worked fine untill a week ago (for the desktop) and 20 minutes ago (for the laptop). No hardware was added, no significant changes have been made.
Both machines are running Windows XP Home, both have Sygate and updated Nortons running, both are scanned with AdAware and Spybot at least once a week.

Any opinions?

Update: the laptop managed to get into Windows after 15 consecutive spontaneous reboots. Everything is running EXTREMELY slow. I just rebooted it to see what it does, and it looks like it's hanging on the logon screen...

Here is a link to Annoyances.org with dozens of people describing the same problem (I'm glad I'm not the only one...). All have different "solutions" and explanations for the problem, but nobody seems to know what exactly causes it.

This seems to be a relatively "new" problem, and it's really weird that two boxes that aren't even in the same location have this same problem within two weeks...

I put this in Newbie Security Questions since I have no idea what causes this (OS? Virus? Hardware?...)

Have you run a windows update lately Neg? If so, that may have you hooped?

Cheers:

The laptop was completely updated with all patches/updates/hotfixes...
The desktop was being used by my mother-in-law. Before we gave it to her a month ago, I installed all Service Packs and hotfixes. Since then, it's worked fine for two weeks, then suddenly ran into the problems. She hasn't applied any patches...

I saw this same issue a few months back. mup.sys is not the actual problem, it's just the last thing that loads before your lock up occurs.

I'll have to dig through my notes to remember what I did to fix this, but I'm guessing it's been at least 6 months, and more likely 8-10 months back. I do however remember that mup.sys is NOT the problem.

I also seem to recall it has something to do with MS thinking that the license number you are using for the OS is bogus. I did a reinstall/repair installation over my exisiting installation to fix it (I think). More on this later when I find my notes.



***EDIT***

Just thinking on this some more, I seem to remember my issues started shortly after upgrading my video card. I too had the mup.sys issue (but this is just the last thing that successfully loads, it is whatever comes AFTER mup.sys that is causing the lockup), then suddenly it would boot in to the OS after about 15-20 retries. I also remember everything CRAWLING... I think that's when I attempted a reinstall/repair installation, but my memory is still fuzzy.

So back to looking for my notes :)

Well I found this on another forum, not sure it's going to help though Neg because you already said you don't a the Windows CD. :confused:

Quote:

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Boot off the windows cd, load the recovery console.
Type "disable mup"
Hit Enter
All done, windows works. Mup.sys is the service to connect to Novell servers . %99.99909 of people won't need this.

Maybe an admin should sticky this. Almost every Win NT/2K/XP/2003 user will encounter this at some time or another.

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Any chance you can borrow a CD from somebody?

DjM the problem is that it is NOT the mup.sys that is causing his issues. I disabled it to no effect, and I saw the same listings that negative is talking about also. I too thought it was a "new" issue almost a year ago...

gah, I hate not remembering exactly what the problem was though. Notes, who needs notes?

I just booted another box in Safe Mode, and the device driver loaded after mup.sys is agp440.sys... indeed, a video driver. That's what might explain your previous problem, Lv4 (Here's the Microsoft Knowledge Base explanation). Still doesn't explain my problem (definitely not for the laptop)...

Continues rebooting can also be caused by a corupted registry. But i think this problem is probably due to a bad driver.

http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=winxp

Use the cleanboot instructions above to troubleshoot driver issues.

Problem is that Windows hangs in Safe Mode, and there is no way to get into Windows...

I know you would prefer to fix these machines yourself, however I seem to recall a post of your's that said these two computer are new. Is getting them fixed on warranty an option?

Cheers: