TSGL: Compaq Desktop With Boot Problem

[Glen Bigelow]

I've been following along on Russ's Toshiba laptop boot problem and I've
felt badly that I could offer no ideas.

But now I need to throw my own boot problem in the mix.

I'm working on a friend's Compaq...AMD 64 3500+...XP Media Edition...ATI
Radeon...1 GB RAM.  She bought it last April.

She told me she hadn't installed anything new or made any changes...just one
day she turned the system on and it came up to the Windows XP screen where
you see the bar underneath as the little progress marks run along
underneath...which would normally be followed by a blank screen with the
mouse pointer and then open on up into Windows.

Except in this case...it would stop on the Windows XP screen for only about
2 seconds and then it would go to a blank screen and stay there.

If you try to boot into safe mode, it gets to MUP.SYS and stops.

She had already told me that there was nothing on the system worth saving,
so I tried using Compaq's built-in restore function.  Which would run
successfully, but when it completed...you still had exactly the same
problem.

So, I decided to order a complete set of Restore Disks from and Compaq and
while waiting for them to arrive and fired up my Mr. DOS 6.0 which came with
my personal Compaq desktop and let it run it's complete diagnostics.  It ran
for about 6-8 hours and supposedly tests, RAM, hard disk, video, etc.  It
reported no problems.

The restore disks arrived on Saturday and when you install them they
completely re-partition and format the hard disk and then lay down a brand
new image of build on the C: partition and new copy of the restore program
in the D: partition.

So, now I'm excited...I fire up the system and guess what...same thing
happens...only this time it doesn't come out of the Windows XP boot-up
screen.  The little bars run across the bottom about 3-4 seconds and then
the bars stop moving and that's where it stays.  If you try booting into
Safe Mode...again it gets to MUP.SYS and stops.

I have never seen this kind of behavior and I have worked on literally
400-500 systems in my computer life.  Does anyone have any ideas?

Glen B.
Sacramento, CA