[mantis484]

Motherboard: MSI KT4 Ultra with VIA Apollo 400 Chipset (Model MS-6590) Product Site
Processor AMD Athlon XP 2400+
Memory: 3 slots 1.5 GB split in to - 1x 1GB Generic PC2700 & 1x 512mb Generic PC2700. 1 slot free.
Video: ATI Radeom 9800 Pro
Sound: Creative Soundblaster XFi External Sound Card & Onboard Matrox sound card.
HDD: 2x HDDs, both partitioned. System drive is C:\
Optical Drives: 1x LiteOn combi DVD ROM & CDRW, 1x LG DVDRW
Floppy: 1x FDD
Keyboard: Labtec PS2
Mouse: Logitech USB Trackball

History

I have in the last two days installed a new Creatice SB XFi USB sound card. There were some problems getting it installed that I traced to the USB extension cable I was using causing the device to keep reconnecting which interferred with the driver install. I binned the cable and things worked fine. The Matrox sound device was disabled in Windows Device Manager.

I left the PC burning a DVD and downloading some updates for the Creative Media software. The PC is set to only turn off the monitor and not to hibernate when unattended. When I returned the disk had been ejected by Nero but I could not get the monitor to come on. PC would not respond to anything and the Num Lock light on the keyboard had frozen. I reset the PC and then the problem started.

The Symptoms

PC gets to the "Your PC failed to start correctly" screen. Any of the options you select including safe mode all generate some HDD activiy but then the PC locks up. When booting safe mode it locks up after loading MUP.sys.

This is a constant loop of restarting and unable to boot.

What I've tried

Unplug all devices and try booting I unplugged all optical drives, the second HDD, all USB devices but had to leave Vedeo card in as there is no on board video.
It still locks up in all the same places.

Insert XP disk and boot to recovery console - PC locks up when loading the boot disk on the blue screen that says "Set Up is starting Windows" - I understand this to be just before it displays the windows setup options to get in to the recovery console.
I then tried doing this with no HDDs attached, so only with video card and memory inserted and this problem occurs

Test memory: Ran Microsoft Memory Diagnositic from boot disk and it passed. Tried different combinations of the memory and different slots but the problem remains.

Test video card: tried swapping video card for my old Radeon 9500 card and the problem remains.

Try booting to ERD Commander 2005 Tried booting to this but it locks up after it finishes loading the grey bar along the bottom. This is both with the System HDD and without it attached.

Load Defualts in BIOS Loaded defaults but problem remained.

Flash BIOS Flashed BIOS to latest version but the problem remains.Flashing the BIOS involved me booting from floppy using a Windows 98 Start Up disk and loading the flash files in to the RAMDRIVE. This is the only 'boot' that has been successful.


Does anyone know anything else I can try?

 

[dai]

Re: PC locks up after loading MUP.sys

have not seen that for awhile the service that loads after mup from memory is this

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324764

 

[mantis484]

Re: PC locks up after loading MUP.sys

Thanks that's useful info.

It says that I should use the recovery CD but I'm afraid the PC locks up when I try to :4-dontkno

 

[dai]

Re: PC locks up after loading MUP.sys

do you have a recovery cd or a normal windows disk

if you have a restore disk have you installed any sp's since you got the computer

what does the bios list for your 12v line voltages

what power supply

brand

wattage

d/load and run the h/drive makers diagnostic utility on the h/drive

 

[mantis484]

Re: PC locks up after loading MUP.sys

Hi cheers sorry I meant to say Recovery Console rather than recovery CD.

12V lines are coming in at +12.1 and -11.9 - 5s are +5.1 and -4.9
Is a Macron Power Model MPT-301P 300W Output


1. Today I cleared the CMOS using the jumper this time and the problem remained so I hooked up another HDD that already had Windows 2000 on it and it booted with no probs!

2. I then went back and configured the BIOS settings to how they are normally and then rebooted and it froze while booting W2000. I cleared CMOS using the jumper again and it booted.

3. I took this oppurtunity to slave the original system HDD and run ScanDisk on it. I was able to browse the files fine and could see that agp440.sys was in the "C:\Windows\System32\Drivers" folder. I rebooted back to the original drive again and the problem remained.

4. I booted back on to the W2000 HDD and replaced agp440/.sys with the back up copy in the Service Pack 2 uninstall directory [I am running Home with SP3 by the way]. Rebooted back to the original and the problem remained. So I undid this change.

5. I then reseated the CPU and the problem remained. Then I swapped the CPU for another AMD Athlon XP and the problem remained so I'm confident now that this is not the CPU at fault.

6. To try to overcome the Windows Set Up disk not booting I loaded a different HAL (on advice I'd read online) and loaded the Standard PC HAL. This worked and I was able to get in to Recovery Console.

7. Following loads of advice I have read I ran a CHKDSK /r and the problem remained.

8. Following the KB article I did a listsvc and agp440.sys is not listed.

I know that you can register DLLs but is there anyway I can add agp440.sys as a service from the recovery console. MY initial searches for docs on this have come up negative.

 

[mantis484]

Re: PC locks up after loading MUP.sys

Okay forget the above question. I used the Advanced Boot Menu to do boot logging. I then ran a failed boot.

Then hooked up the W2000 HDD and checked the boot log and it turns out it was failing to load everything from the HAL driver onwards

I verified that the HAL file was there so replaced it with the HALACPI.dll from the Windows CD and bam she boots!!

 

[dai]

Re: PC locks up after loading MUP.sys

glad you have it sorted