I have just had something happen to me that apparently has been happening for
more than two years to a lot of ppl. I found two forum discussions going
back to 2003 that are huge, but none of the things proposed there have worked
for me.

My problem just began a couple weeks ago. I am running XP Pro and have for
several years with no problems at all. I shut the machine down one night and
the next day it wouldn't boot. It goes to the XP loading screen, all the
drive lights blink several times, then it loops back to reboot, endlessly. I
can't boot into safe mode or anything else. It will not load from the CD or
DVD drives - I tried to reload XP Pro and can't. I have to power it down by
holding the on button down for a few seconds - sometimes, then, it will give
me the option of using safe mode, but the drivers list to mup.sys (that is
what i searched on through Google and how I found out this is a big problem)
and it hangs. Shut down, it reboots all over again, same problem.

The forums offered all sorts of ideas, some worked for some ppl, some
didn't. Disabling features in the bios, disabling USB support, all sorts of
things, all of which I've tried unsuccessfully. This is an older machine and
all I really want is to be able to get some files off the hard drive and then
I'll recycle it, lol. Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks!!!

Gene;
If all you want to do is get files off, probably the easiest at this point
is to take out the hard drive and slave it in another computer.
From there you can copy the data to another computer/drive.

You may have ownership issues if you made the folders private, #9 on this
link:
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/adsecurity.htm

Following that, if there was ever personal data on the drive, a Clean
Installation will clean the drive:
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/cleanxp.htm

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar
http://www.dts-l.org


"gene" <gene.jacobson@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:E5D07FCB-F12C-4CC9-9CA3-4062C8F65E58@microsoft.com...
>I have just had something happen to me that apparently has been happening
>for
> more than two years to a lot of ppl. I found two forum discussions going
> back to 2003 that are huge, but none of the things proposed there have
> worked
> for me.
>
> My problem just began a couple weeks ago. I am running XP Pro and have
> for
> several years with no problems at all. I shut the machine down one night
> and
> the next day it wouldn't boot. It goes to the XP loading screen, all the
> drive lights blink several times, then it loops back to reboot, endlessly.
> I
> can't boot into safe mode or anything else. It will not load from the CD
> or
> DVD drives - I tried to reload XP Pro and can't. I have to power it down
> by
> holding the on button down for a few seconds - sometimes, then, it will
> give
> me the option of using safe mode, but the drivers list to mup.sys (that is
> what i searched on through Google and how I found out this is a big
> problem)
> and it hangs. Shut down, it reboots all over again, same problem.
>
> The forums offered all sorts of ideas, some worked for some ppl, some
> didn't. Disabling features in the bios, disabling USB support, all sorts
> of
> things, all of which I've tried unsuccessfully. This is an older machine
> and
> all I really want is to be able to get some files off the hard drive and
> then
> I'll recycle it, lol. Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks!!!

I've had this problem once. Going to console mode and run check disk fixed
it. I'm not sure if it will fix your problem

"gene" wrote:

> I have just had something happen to me that apparently has been happening for
> more than two years to a lot of ppl. I found two forum discussions going
> back to 2003 that are huge, but none of the things proposed there have worked
> for me.
>
> My problem just began a couple weeks ago. I am running XP Pro and have for
> several years with no problems at all. I shut the machine down one night and
> the next day it wouldn't boot. It goes to the XP loading screen, all the
> drive lights blink several times, then it loops back to reboot, endlessly. I
> can't boot into safe mode or anything else. It will not load from the CD or
> DVD drives - I tried to reload XP Pro and can't. I have to power it down by
> holding the on button down for a few seconds - sometimes, then, it will give
> me the option of using safe mode, but the drivers list to mup.sys (that is
> what i searched on through Google and how I found out this is a big problem)
> and it hangs. Shut down, it reboots all over again, same problem.
>
> The forums offered all sorts of ideas, some worked for some ppl, some
> didn't. Disabling features in the bios, disabling USB support, all sorts of
> things, all of which I've tried unsuccessfully. This is an older machine and
> all I really want is to be able to get some files off the hard drive and then
> I'll recycle it, lol. Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks!!!

well, i don't know how to do that slave thing, but i can try to learn, lol.
then again i do have a dog so i know all about being ordered around...

i found a way to get the XP disc to boot from the floppy, sort of. i opened
the box and disconnected the hard drive, booted, which made it start setup
from the cd. that only gave me two options, xp install or recovery - i
plugged the hard drive back in (first time i forgot and it hung becuz there
was no drive!) and recovery failed but gave me a dos prompt (i really miss
dos - peter norton and i could do anything in those days, lol) tried chkdsk
which was one of the suggestions on the other forums, it ran slowly, got up
to 50% stopped a while, then went to 75%, then back to 50 and hung. so, i
tried again, and this time said do an install (which leaves the files i want
on the disk), that started it back into the reboot cycle.

"Jupiter Jones [MVP]" wrote:

> Gene;
> If all you want to do is get files off, probably the easiest at this point
> is to take out the hard drive and slave it in another computer.
> From there you can copy the data to another computer/drive.
>
> You may have ownership issues if you made the folders private, #9 on this
> link:
> http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/adsecurity.htm
>
> Following that, if there was ever personal data on the drive, a Clean
> Installation will clean the drive:
> http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/cleanxp.htm
>
> --
> Jupiter Jones [MVP]
> http://www3.telus.net/dandemar
> http://www.dts-l.org
>
>
> "gene" <gene.jacobson@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:E5D07FCB-F12C-4CC9-9CA3-4062C8F65E58@microsoft.com...
> >I have just had something happen to me that apparently has been happening
> >for
> > more than two years to a lot of ppl. I found two forum discussions going
> > back to 2003 that are huge, but none of the things proposed there have
> > worked
> > for me.
> >
> > My problem just began a couple weeks ago. I am running XP Pro and have
> > for
> > several years with no problems at all. I shut the machine down one night
> > and
> > the next day it wouldn't boot. It goes to the XP loading screen, all the
> > drive lights blink several times, then it loops back to reboot, endlessly.
> > I
> > can't boot into safe mode or anything else. It will not load from the CD
> > or
> > DVD drives - I tried to reload XP Pro and can't. I have to power it down
> > by
> > holding the on button down for a few seconds - sometimes, then, it will
> > give
> > me the option of using safe mode, but the drivers list to mup.sys (that is
> > what i searched on through Google and how I found out this is a big
> > problem)
> > and it hangs. Shut down, it reboots all over again, same problem.
> >
> > The forums offered all sorts of ideas, some worked for some ppl, some
> > didn't. Disabling features in the bios, disabling USB support, all sorts
> > of
> > things, all of which I've tried unsuccessfully. This is an older machine
> > and
> > all I really want is to be able to get some files off the hard drive and
> > then
> > I'll recycle it, lol. Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks!!!
>
>
>

well, i don't know how to do that slave thing, but i can try to learn, lol.
then again i do have a dog so i know all about being ordered around...

i found a way to get the XP disc to boot from the floppy, sort of. i opened
the box and disconnected the hard drive, booted, which made it start setup
from the cd. that only gave me two options, xp install or recovery - i
plugged the hard drive back in (first time i forgot and it hung becuz there
was no drive!) and recovery failed but gave me a dos prompt (i really miss
dos - peter norton and i could do anything in those days, lol) tried chkdsk
which was one of the suggestions on the other forums, it ran slowly, got up
to 50% stopped a while, then went to 75%, then back to 50 and hung. so, i
tried again, and this time said do an install (which leaves the files i want
on the disk), that started it back into the reboot cycle.


"Jupiter Jones [MVP]" wrote:

> Gene;
> If all you want to do is get files off, probably the easiest at this point
> is to take out the hard drive and slave it in another computer.
> From there you can copy the data to another computer/drive.
>
> You may have ownership issues if you made the folders private, #9 on this
> link:
> http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/adsecurity.htm
>
> Following that, if there was ever personal data on the drive, a Clean
> Installation will clean the drive:
> http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/cleanxp.htm
>
> --
> Jupiter Jones [MVP]
> http://www3.telus.net/dandemar
> http://www.dts-l.org
>
>
> "gene" <gene.jacobson@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:E5D07FCB-F12C-4CC9-9CA3-4062C8F65E58@microsoft.com...
> >I have just had something happen to me that apparently has been happening
> >for
> > more than two years to a lot of ppl. I found two forum discussions going
> > back to 2003 that are huge, but none of the things proposed there have
> > worked
> > for me.
> >
> > My problem just began a couple weeks ago. I am running XP Pro and have
> > for
> > several years with no problems at all. I shut the machine down one night
> > and
> > the next day it wouldn't boot. It goes to the XP loading screen, all the
> > drive lights blink several times, then it loops back to reboot, endlessly.
> > I
> > can't boot into safe mode or anything else. It will not load from the CD
> > or
> > DVD drives - I tried to reload XP Pro and can't. I have to power it down
> > by
> > holding the on button down for a few seconds - sometimes, then, it will
> > give
> > me the option of using safe mode, but the drivers list to mup.sys (that is
> > what i searched on through Google and how I found out this is a big
> > problem)
> > and it hangs. Shut down, it reboots all over again, same problem.
> >
> > The forums offered all sorts of ideas, some worked for some ppl, some
> > didn't. Disabling features in the bios, disabling USB support, all sorts
> > of
> > things, all of which I've tried unsuccessfully. This is an older machine
> > and
> > all I really want is to be able to get some files off the hard drive and
> > then
> > I'll recycle it, lol. Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks!!!
>
>
>

that is one of the suggestions i found when i googled mup.sys try that
you'll find two threads, the first one that will pop up is hardware
analyses.com that has a thread going back to 2003 on this issue. the third
one in the list will be annoyances.com, their thread starts in 2004.

there are a LOT of ppl who have had this happen to them. some of them, many
of them, after they added something to their usb port, some other software,
but a LOT just like me, who were just cruising along with no problems when
suddenly the system stopped. the ONE thing we all have in common is that
when trying to run safe mode, the last line we see says mup.sys. which means
that whatever loads after that is bad. but even those who have found that
out, have found different answers. the other thing in common, is that this
has ONLY happened to machines after sp2 has been applied.

there are as many answers as posts almost, none of them work for other than
the poster. which to me says the fix is accidental, and we still don't know
what caused it. for some of them, the fix is temporary, but when it happens
again, the same solution works. but NONE of those solutions have anything in
common. other than mup.sys. i am just amazed microsoft doesn't do anything
about this, with a patch or something. it has happened to SO many ppl, they
do KNOW about it, but they are saying nothing. searching THIS site brings no
suggestion anything like this has ever happened. yet google it. you'd think
with as many billions as bill has he'd be willing to spend a few thousand to
put a programmer on an issue that affects so many ppl and fix it with a
patch. gawd...
"adoys" wrote:

> I've had this problem once. Going to console mode and run check disk fixed
> it. I'm not sure if it will fix your problem
>
> "gene" wrote:
>
> > I have just had something happen to me that apparently has been happening for
> > more than two years to a lot of ppl. I found two forum discussions going
> > back to 2003 that are huge, but none of the things proposed there have worked
> > for me.
> >
> > My problem just began a couple weeks ago. I am running XP Pro and have for
> > several years with no problems at all. I shut the machine down one night and
> > the next day it wouldn't boot. It goes to the XP loading screen, all the
> > drive lights blink several times, then it loops back to reboot, endlessly. I
> > can't boot into safe mode or anything else. It will not load from the CD or
> > DVD drives - I tried to reload XP Pro and can't. I have to power it down by
> > holding the on button down for a few seconds - sometimes, then, it will give
> > me the option of using safe mode, but the drivers list to mup.sys (that is
> > what i searched on through Google and how I found out this is a big problem)
> > and it hangs. Shut down, it reboots all over again, same problem.
> >
> > The forums offered all sorts of ideas, some worked for some ppl, some
> > didn't. Disabling features in the bios, disabling USB support, all sorts of
> > things, all of which I've tried unsuccessfully. This is an older machine and
> > all I really want is to be able to get some files off the hard drive and then
> > I'll recycle it, lol. Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks!!!