Sadly the MS Answers forums does not prompt for any system information when a new question is asked, so we know very little about your system that will expedite problem resolution.
Not knowing fundamental information about a problem prolongs the frustration and agony of resolving these issues.
But how do you like the width of the message box where you type stuff Pretty impressive, huh? That is one of the latest MS Answers forum enhancements that they say you should be excited about. Does it help you solve your problem?
Thank you MS Answers, for continuing to make the resolution of simple problems as frustrating and time consuming as possible.
Please provide additional information about your system as best you can:
Describe your current antivirus and anti malware situation: Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), McAfee, Symantec, Norton, Spybot, AVG, Avira!, Panda, Trend Micro, CA, Defender, ZoneAlarm, PC Tools, Comodo, etc.
Was the issue preceded by a power interruption, aborted restart, or improper shutdown? (this includes plug pulling, power buttons, removing the battery, etc.)
Does the afflicted system have a working CD/DVD drive (internal or external)?
Do you have a genuine bootable XP installation CD that is the same Service Pack as your installed Service Pack (this is not the same as any Recovery CDs that came with your system)?
What do you see (exactly) that you don't think you should be seeing and when do you see it?
What do you not see that you think you should be seeing?
If the system used to work properly, what do you think might have changed since the last time it did work properly?
If the system was working okay yesterday, what do you think happened between yesterday and today?
Onto your issues:
If you boot in Safe Mode and your computer appears to hang on mup.sys, it is really not hung on mup.sys - it is doing what comes after mup.sys and if your HDD light is blinking, it is running a chkdsk with error correction - either because you scheduled it
to run on the next reboot, or XP has found that the boot volume (or any volume) is "dirty" and needs to have a chkdsk with error correction run on it.
Sometimes an afflicted external USB device can cause a system to hang on what comes after mup.sys too, so unplug anything like that and try again if necessary.
If the HDD is blinking, you need to wait it out and that could take a very long time depending on what the size of your HDD, the amount of data on the HDD, the speed of your system and what chkdsk finds to do. It could take many hours for things to start moving
again, but if the HDD light is blinking, it is doing something.
From the F8 Advanced Boot options menu, you should choose to Disable automatic restart on system failure for more clues.
If there is a problem booting, XP is configured to automatically try to boot again and you can get stuck in a loop of just being unable to get past the boot options screen or none of the boot options you choose will work.
Sometimes when XP has a problem starting or crashes and tries to start again, it will give you a "short" menu of boot options and none of them will seem to be the right ones to get your system going again. Something like this:
Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command Prompt
Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked)
Start Windows Normally
You've tried them all!
The options resemble the XP Advanced Boot Options menu, but the one option you need (Disable automatic restart on system failure) is not offered because XP has gone too far along in the boot process and offers you a limited number of boot options.
If that is the case, you must manually invoke the Advanced Boot Options menu yourself until you do see the option:
Disable automatic restart on system failure
When you do get to the correct XP Advanced Options Boot menu you want to see, it has options on it like these:
Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command Prompt
Enable Boot Logging
Enable VGA mode
Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked)
Directory Services Restore Mode (Windows domain controllers only)
Debugging Mode
Disable automatic restart on system failure
Start Windows Normally
Reboot
Return to OS Choices Menu
What you need to choose from that menu is the option:
Disable automatic restart on system failure
Then if XP fails to boot normally, you will see an error screen with information and clues regarding the problem and then you can decide what to do next.
If you do not see the Disable automatic restart on system failure option, you need to reset your system and start tapping the F8 key on the keyboard until you do see the Disable automatic restart on system failure option.
If you miss the F8 window of opportunity, you need to try again and start tapping the F8 key with more urgency (sooner and more frequently) until you do see Disable automatic restart on system failure, then select it.
You need to keep trying the F8 menu until you do see Disable automatic restart on system failure option, and select it.
If your system is experiencing a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), we need to know what the screen says:
Here is a BSOD example showing information you need to provide:
http://techrepublic.com.com/i/tr/downloads/images/bsod_a.jpg
Send the information pointed to with the red arrows (3-4 lines total).
Send the entire *** STOP message line since there are clues in the 4 parameters.
If it looks like there is some kind of file name listed under the STOP message, send that line too.
Skip the boring text unless it looks important to you. We know what a BSOD looks like, we need to know what your BSOD looks like.
Next, I think I would boot into the XP Recovery Console and run the chkdsk /r from there so you can see what it is doing and run it again until it runs clean. That is sometimes better (psychologically) than just seeing it sitting there wondering what it
is doing...
Your other problem that looks like this:
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting Broadcom PXE ROM
This is because you have your system configured in the BIOS to try to boot of off the network and if you are not in a corporate environment, you should just disable that in your BIOS since it is just a waste of time to check for that.
