Hangs On Mup.sys, Looping Startup, Missing User32.dll After Recovery Attempt - Help

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Well I have looked around for help with this issue and frankly I trust no one in any other community right now so WebProWorld it is!

To make a long story short and to summarize elaborate on the title of this post, I awoke this morning to a frozen computer (Compaq Presario, NTFS, Dual Channel 64bit) (it's getting a little old (on 6.5 years)) as usual as of late I gave it a hard reboot (pressed power off) and thereafter have gone through the infinite loop restarting in regular mode, safe mode, safe mode with DOS, recovery mode and so forth.

In safe mode and with DOS prompt, it hangs on Mup.sys. In regular mode it seems to load up to the login prompt screen but I can't see a thing and therefore do nothing. In recovery mode (pressing F10) it gives me an error saying User32.dll is missing.

I removed the drive, purchased some hardware that allows me to turn the drive into an external drive so now I can see all my files and so forth.

I can't start in safe mode and start system restore because it hangs on Mup.sys.

Does anyone have any idea how I can overcome this problem?

All help is appreciated. Thank you.

P.S. My original Window's CD in long gone...

[deepsand]

If you haven't already done so, read How to fix an XP\Win 2000 System that freezes after loading mup.sys while booting for background on all of the possible causes here.

It sounds like you probably do not have Recovery Console installed as a bootable partition. If that's the case, on another machine, download and burn an ISO CD copy, or to USB, of it from http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/...-Console.shtml . With that you'll be able to run CHKDSK.

Does your machine have any COMPAQ diagnostics installed and accessible from a boot menu?

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Hello Penn State Ticket Man, I have no idea. This is stressful. I've ripped my box apart and can't remember but I'll put it back together and try rebooting and checking for COMPAQ diagnostics...why?

I (think) I remember using CHKDKS at one point today and was asked for the administrator password, that too failed. I looked around and there were a few suggestions on getting past that issue but...

With respect to your second link, I downloaded it onto another PC but how would I use that? I have access to every file now as I'm using hardware that turns my (dead) harddrive into an external harddrive...

And the ISO CD copy I presume would be from the official COMPAQ site...*tired...

OK mucking around here, I believe the files from the second link you gave me should be saved to the USB right? (I don't have a floppy or CD rom drive (anymore))...

And then I believe from there I should try getting into COMPAQ diagnostics from there and load from the USB...

Correct me and forgive me if I'm wrong...

[deepsand]

The cited source for Recovery Console provides for both downloading an ISO image for use in burning a bootable CD as well as for creating a bootable USB.

Recovery Console contains its own copy of CHKDSK.

If there are Compaq diagnostics pre-loaded on the drive, then they should be accessible via either the boot or setup menus if you are booting from the HD in question.

The idea behind running CHKDSK and OEM diagnostics is to try to isolate the problem. CHKDSK/ScanDisk itself can fix a lot of HD errors. The OEM diagnostics can nail down hardware problems.

If you can't find access to Compaq diagnostics, do as search for Compaq Presario [insert the model no. here] diagnostics; there's a lot of info out there.

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OK so first, I pressed F10, and it couldn't go any further because user32.dll is missing (?)
then I hit the boot menu option at startup (esc), selected Ch1 M. as my "hard drive group"...

It's saying SAMSUNG

Wow, I think I figured this out...I uninstalled SAMSUNG programs from my computer a while ago (haven't restarted since) and this is happening...

I think this is what it is because why would SAMSUNG be in my hard drive group??

OK Maybe not (SAMSUNG), I think that's my HD manufacturer...either way...

So I selected the boot device (SAMSUNG) and it brings be back to the regular start up screen...the windows logo shows up, then it restarts and goes into the restarting loop...

[deepsand]

Samsung is the manufacturer of your HD. And, any related drivers should not have been removed by way of uninstalling any user installed applications, although such may have screwed up the Registry Hive, so that one or more DLLs have been unregistered, even though they are still physically present.

[morestar]

*going ahead here, threw the files from your second link onto a formatted USB and connected the USB to my (broken) PC and hit ESC for the boot menu and there it is, let me see if I can get this started...

That didn't work...it told me to remove other disks...

OK now I seem to be in C:\WINDOWS> as I tried to login to the Recovery Console...it asked for my Admin PW again and didn't allow me. I hit escape and here I am at C:\WINDOWS>...

OK from the DOS prompt in C:\WINDOWS> I typed CHKDSK and it said all is in good condition...

Now what deepsand??

[deepsand]

You need to boot from the USB drive, which should yield a boot menu that has only Recovery Console as an option.

What did you try as the Admin. PSWD?

Are you saying that you ended up booting from the Presario's HD?

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OK I'm going to figure out how to do that...

...but to let you know, CHKDSK /r said CHKDSK found one or more errors on the volume. I believe that could mean anything and not related to this issue...I'm not sure though...

[deepsand]

Presumably that means CHKDSK found and repaired found one or more errors.

Have you tried to reboot following that?