At 13:00 02/03/09, DHSinclair wrote:
Bill, I have read thru your share several times. Many years ago FORC5
schooled me in the use of removing old ghost devices in the Safe Mode
and the use of the "View Hidden Devices" switch in the CP/Device
Manager. I now plan to view and decode all the items of my current
hidden devices from the fully booted perspective.
Thank you for the idea about the "system" file. I was able to find it
after allowing hidden system file view temporarily. Normally I leave
this stuff hidden because I can be a klutz!!!!! :)
o-Yes, my "system" file is now 10,240 KB and dated yesterday.
o-I do not overclock any of my systems any more.
o-I do not see a "Reset ESCD" switch in my current 0502 bios (Asus
P5Q3). I'm off to study the UM again.
o-I have re-flashed my bios w/o any change. There is a newer bios
available (0603) but the release notes do not suggest any improvement
to my kit stack. Still thinking here anyway........ :)
There is a 39 page discussion (pages are short, with only a few posts
per forum page) entitled "Windows XP freezes at mup.sys, how do I fix
it?" at <http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/31874/>. My
suggestion is mentioned, as well as the idea that mup.sys is not the
culprit but only the last good on screen (or log) entry before the
problem happens. Several people mentioned that they have the problem
when trying to boot in safe mode but not in regular mode. Some solved
their problem by making hardware changes (swapping a memory stick,
updating their motherboard BIOS, changing device driver version, new
keyboard, disabling processor cache, for example) and some downloaded
and installed a fix (a file download) from Microsoft or Intel.
In my last email, I talked about "%WINDIR%\System32\Config\System".
"System" holds the System Hive which is the part of the Registry
(HKLM\System) that's referenced when windows is starting up. I'm not
sure about Windows XP, but Windows 2000 can only use 16MB of memory
when first loading, and this limited memory must be shared by the
kernel, the HAL, the boot drivers, and the system loader. If the System
Hive gets too big, or badly fragmented, then it cannot load and windows
stalls. That's why I asked you how large your "system" file was. My
problem happened when my "system" file was about 9.8 MB in size. That
was too much. (The limit is supposed to be 10.3 MB for Windows 2000
Server.)
You can shrink the System file manually (ADD-REMOVE HARDWARE or
equivalent) or use the Veritas VxScrub utility which you can download
using the link <http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/277301.htm>.
(You have to type in your name, phone number, and email address. I
tested the link last night using fake personal information and the
download works fine.) I used the Veritas utility (Vxscrub –forcepurge)
to shrink my system hive from 9.8MB to about 4MB on one system. (Every
time I changed one or both of the SCSI controllers in that system, I
acquired 26 more SCSI devices in ADD-REMOVE HARDWARE, two entries per
device, and I had changed SCSI cards several times over that year's
period. Every time I added a USB device, multiple entries were added in
ADD-REMOVE HARDWARE.) Using Vscrub looks complicated (you run it in
command mode using switches) but the directions as listed on the
webpage I gave are straightforward. It helps if you print them out.
If something happens and you cannot boot up your system (to shrink the
system hive) you could try the FixBoot command in the recovery console
(boot from the WINDOWS CD and run \I386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons). This
should fix the error temporarily. When I did this, the problem
reoccurred every few days. Apparently the "system" file changes size
during during daily use and "system" kept going over that 10 MB size.
Another helpful utility is NTREGOPT (Registry Optimizer) which is a
separate utility that is included with ERUNT (Emergency Recovery
Utility NT which makes a copy of your registry...or lets you replace it
with a previously saved copy). Both work for Windows
NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista. NTREGOPT can shrink a registry if it's
fragmented or contains too much white space. Get them from
<http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/>. All these
utilities (VXSCRUB, ERUNT, NTREGOPT) require a reboot after running.
Regards,
Bill
primary email: [email protected]
list email: [email protected] (because I can't get list email at my
Road Runner address)
