AGP 2.0 possible problem

M

mak

Geek Trainee
Hi,

I bought a new motherboard, processor, memory and graphics card yesterday, I put it all together and it started fine and installed Windows XP SP2 fine, but when it boots, it gets to loading Mup.sys and restarts every time so I cannot actually load windows.

The only thing I can spot which may be a problem is that my motherboard specifies it has an AGP socket so I bought an AGP graphics card, but it appears the card is AGP 2.0 and the board does not say AGP 2.0, could this cause the problem? Would the card work at all if the port was not AGP 2.0?

Thanks in advance.
 
It would work so long as the Slot and the card could work at one AGP transfer rate. If the motherboard supports AGP 4x, it's AGP 2.0 compliant. I don't know what you have, so I can't say if that's even a possible problem to start with. It may be that the mup.sys file got corrupted somehow.

See if you can get into safe mode (hit F8 during the Windows load screen) and then look for the mup.sys file. According to what I've found, it should be in C:\Windows\System32\drivers. Rename it to something like MUP.OLD, and then restart. If it boots up, you should be alright. If not, get back into safe mode and search for MUP.SYS again. There should be one instace of it under C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles\i386. Copy that and paste it in C:\Windows\System32\drivers.
 
It's a fresh install of Windows XP, and it won't boot into safe mode either, it stops at Mup.sys in safe mode too.

The motherboard I have is a Fujitsu Siemens D1675, I don't know anything about AGP, but it only specifies that it has an AGP port, it doesn't say whether it's AGP 2.0.

Is it possible that something being loaded on startup is causing a conflict between the motherboard and graphics card if they are not both AGP 2.0?
 
There shouldn't be. The motherboard uses the SiS 648FX chipset which supports AGP 4x/8x, as per the AGP 3.0 spec. However, your video card is AGP 4x compliant, and while it's only AGP 2.0, the AGP 3.0 spec specifies that it must be backwards compatible with AGP 2.0.

The mup.sys file doesn't look to have anything to do with the hardware. I don't know if you've got a badly produced copy of XP, or if something was copied in error.

Things I would do:
1.)Clear CMOS. Unplug the power from the motherboard and pull out the CMOS battery and leave it out for an hour. Put it back in. You will have to re-set any changes you made, including setting the correct processor speed. Fiddle with this last, unless it won't boot off the CD-ROM first. For whatever reason, there might be a setting that was changed, and without knowing exactly what setting or combination of settings triggered this, clear it and start from scratch.

2.)Check and make sure all the cables are secure. You might even want to replace the IDE for both the hard drive and CD-ROM. It usually doesn't happen, but if you get a bad cable, getting a corrupted file is pretty much going to happen.

3.)Do a repair install of Windows. Basically, you'll boot off the Windows XP disc as if you were going to install, but instead of formatting your hard drive, you don't. You'll have the option to install Windows over itself, which you want to do.
 
The copy of XP I have is definately ok because I have it installed on another HDD which boots fine on my old motherboard but does the same thing as the new install on the new motherboard.

I have also tried a different IDE cable and that did not make a difference, the only thing I haven't tried is removing the CMOS battery, I will try that this evening. I have also borrowed a PCI graphics card to see if that is the problem, if that doesn't work either it must be the motherboard as I've removed everything else.

I will let you know if it works later, thanks!
 
It might be as SP2 installs newer drivers than the original XP disk. try reinstalling windows then installing the latest graphics drivers then installing SP2.
 
Unfortuantely the XP disc I have is a Windows XP SP2 installer so it installs the complete SP2 with it.

I've got a PCI graphics card to test, so I will let you know how it goes tomorrow (Or hopefully later if it all works!)
 
Removing the battery didn't help, it still does the same thing, I also put the HD in another machine and installed the GeForce drivers and it still does the same.

It is rebooting when the Windows splash screen first appears, before the blue progress indicator appears, what would be happening at this point?
 
But I have booted okay from the HDD on another machine, it only crashes on that machine, in fact I'm running it now.

I have just cleared the system log and enabled full logging, also disabled auto-reboot, hopefully that will tell me what's happening.........
 
Right, with AutoReboot switched off, I get a blue screen with the usual 'Windows has stopped to prevent damage to your computer......' message, but the information at the bottom is:

*** STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF8A91524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

Does that mean anything to anyone?
 
http://search.microsoft.com/search/results.aspx?view=en-us&st=b&na=82&qu=STOP:+0x0000007B+

According to the above, it's looking more like an inaccessible boot device. If you installed Windows on the other machine on the hard drive for the problematic system, that's what's screwing everything up. Windows is very picky about having the hard drive controller swapped out from under it.

What are the specs of this system you've put together? List all the parts, including the brand.
 
Right, it consists of a Fujitsu-Siemens D1675 motherboard, Western Digital 200GB IDE HDD, Toshiba SD-R5112 DVD/RW drive, 512MB DDR RAM from Time computers and a PNY Technologies GeForce FX 5700 LE 128MB video card.

That's all that's installed at the moment.
 
Well, I can say that the GeForce FX cards are all AGP 8x (AGP 3.0) compliant, so that's not a problem, or shouldn't be. Even if it is a problem, the symtoms point to it being a data or hard drive controller issue. It could be that the motherboard is screwed up for some reason or another. I haven't dealt with Fujitsu-Siemens products much at all, and none have been motherboards, so I really can't comment on the quality. What I can say is that you might want to look into replacing the motherboard. IMO, you might want to go for a motherboard using a different chipset altogether if possible. If you can, you should be able to find a motherboard with the i865 chipset on it for around the same price as what you currently have.
 
1st: mup.sys is the loader for multiple processor, I'm guessin your putting in a HT processor? To correct this, you will need to reload XP. All hardware is compatable, prob is with the HT processor and the initial loading of XP. Are you installing Home or PRO? Home doesn't have native support for HT.
2nd: the agp 8x is backwards compatible ONLY if the VOLTAGE is correct. can't use a 3v card in a 1.5 volt slot, will burn both board and card up. That nvidia card and board are compatible, I have that board and use an fx5500.
 
is your ram compatible with the motherboard? how about u install windows xp pro or some other previous OS,maybe windows98 or millenium edition then try installing SP2 from there. that would require you to do evrything from scratch...but it mite b worth it..
 
I replaced the motherboard and all is well, I'm running XP Pro SP2 with absolutely no problems at all, must have been a dodgy motherboard
 
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