Question

Windows won't start on a laptop I have because there's a driver screwup. I'm pretty sure that's the reason. In safe mode, it gets hung up on ...system32/Drivers/Mup.sys and asks if I want to cancel SPTD.sys.

Unfortunately, I don't have the Windows discs. (It's a legal copy of Windows.) Is there anyway to fix the computer without being able to start Windows?

Answer 1

Easiest way may be to do a windows repair. You will need a windows disk and your cd key.

Windows repair basically resets the windows and windows component install to the defaults and original file versions that are on the CD.

When you put the CD in set the laptop to boot to CD.

Once in the setup screen hit Enter to setup windows then F8 to accept the agreement. Then hit R to repair the detected version of windows. Setup will run through its thing and you will then be prompted to enter the CD key, administrator password, computer name, etc. The repair basically reinstalls windows but doesnt format the drive.

Answer 2

Did you try Last Known Good? That should eliminate the driver issue if it was installed just before the last shutdown/restart

Answer 3

I once had problems with SPTD.sys, so try this before you do anything "destructive" like repair or reformat!

If you can get your hands on a Windows CD, then create a BartPE CD: http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

If you can't then download a live version of a Linux distro, I would say Ubuntu, but you use Linux to mount NTFS AT YOUR OWN RISK. I actually had the ntfs-3g Linux driver screw up a NTFS drive and I lost ALL data that was on that drive. Once you boot up the LiveCD launch a terminal and run the following commands:

dmesg | grep sd

You should see lines like:

[ 2.159429] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0

[ 2.159628] sd 0:0:1:0: [sdb] 156301488 512-byte hardware sectors: (80.0 GB/74.5 GiB)

Then try to mount it:

the L in sdL corresponds to the letter that Linux detects the drive as...ie in the above case it would be b sdb

mkdir /mnt
mkdir /mnt/hd
mount -t ntfs /dev/sdL1 /mnt/hd
cd /mnt/hd/Windows/system32/drivers
mv STPD.sys /mnt/hd/Windows
umount /mnt/hd

And reboot.

Similar idea using bartPE, you just want to move the driver to the root of your C so it doesn't get loaded and that you can restore it later just in case.

Answer 4

Without a windows CD you might be out of luck. Maybe you can borrow one from a friend and boot into the recovery console, from there you can rename or remove SPTD.sys from the windows\system32 directory.

Answer 5

This article should apply:
How to fix an XP\Win 2000 System that freezes after loading mup.sys while booting

In my experience, I have never found that the mup.sys driver is actually the cause of the problem but replacing it with a known good uninfected version won't hurt if just to exclude that possibility. Also, disabling the mup.sys driver by using the recovery console normally does not help either. Windows will then just hang at the driver that loads prior to mup.sys.

So, What happens after we see the mup.sys driver load on a safe mode boot?

The windows OS is looking in the registry, executing PnP (Plug and pray) and ACPI routines checking the components and resources found. It then starts these components possibly causing more draw on the power supply. Consider here the load of non-self-powered USB devices.

In other words : This means a hardware problem, probably Power Supply.

You may also look at the follow-up article:
How I resolved my mup.sys hang issue
in which readers of the first article list their solutions to this problem.