If anyone can help me it would be heaven sent. I have a Compaq Presario V6171CL laptop. it was running really slow when I got home yesterday so I restarted it. Now if I try to boot in normal mode it goes to the windows logo screen with the blue bar running over and over. If I try to boot in safe mode it goes to the drivers\mup.sys adn stays there. trying to boot from the cd it says setup is starting windows and stays. I ran a harddrive test and it came back as passed. Any suggestions?

my guess is mup.sys is currupted, but since you can't use your xp install cd, that is a problem, but I 'really' doubt its hardware on your computer, it's most likely the cd's fault.

try cleaning the disk, even if it doesn't look dirty or very scratched. use alcohol and a high quality cloth, like the kind used for eyeglass cleaning.
If it won't work, call up compaq and tell them your installation cd got damaged. It might be like 10 bucks to have them send you a new set of cd's. I'm guessing this is the cd that came with your computer. that means it's an 'OEM' copy of xp. noone elses is going to work right.

once you have an xp cd that will boot properly, you have several options:
1. just replace mup.sys from the recovery console. using the windows recovery console (you can access this from the xp cd, just copy the version off the cd over your version.
problem with this is, if there's one thing currupt, odds are several other files will be too.
2. do a 'recovery install' from the cd. this covers the 'other windows files are currupt' problem, and it's much simpler than recovery console.
3. backup all your files, and do a full reinstall.
if you already have all your personal files on a different drive, perfect. you can try a pre-installed enviornment otherwise.
A PE is simply an operating system that boots off of a disk. there are plenty of linux ones, and simple research will tell you if they are compatible with USB memory sticks and the NTFS filesystem. there is also BartPE. you can use anyone elses XP cd to build a 'BartPE' installation.
If there is a 'lot' of essential stuff on your computer that hasn't been backed up, you may want to consider the other options.

So, that's my 2 cents. good luck orbweaver.

Thanks I will try cleaning the cd first. It is actually the cd that came with my desktop not the laptop. Should I try a different disk or just go ahead and order from compaq?

try the disk from your desktop. if it doesn't work, it doesn't work, and you'll need to order from compaq.

If it does, you might have problems with registration. the key from your laptop might not neccessarily work with the copy from your desktop.