Windows could not start?

[MaryG]

Hi there,
if anyone could help me out that would be fabulous! I'm trying to help my mother out. I thought it was that she left a game in the CD ROM but I removed it and thats not it. I was doing a system scan Friday night and told her to let it run. She called me and said this message was across the top.

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt
\stystem32\hal.dll, please reinstall a copy of the file.

I put in the Operations disk and it would not boot, should I try and create a boot disk? Ideas? Any and all help is appreciated!
thanks,
Mary

[Kov-Ice]

Is this computer running Windows XP? And is the Operations Disk what the computer manufacturer provided for recovery and repair?

When you booted with the disc in, did you see the light on the CD drive flicker or hear the drive try to access the disc?

[MaryG]

Hi there,
yes it is windows XP and the disk is the OS I was going to try and repair. When I put it in the CD ROM the light does flicker.
Thank You,
Mary

[Kov-Ice]

When I asked about the CD light, what I was trying to establish was whether or not your computer was set to boot from the optical disc drive. It may be that you have to enter BIOS (usually press DEL or F2, but it should tell you on the POST screen as the comp tries to boot) and change your boot order so that the CD-ROM is first. Hopefully it will boot into the Repair console from there.

[MaryG]

Oh sorry, yes my cd rom is listed to boot from.

[Kov-Ice]

So it's set to boot first from CD, but it's still not picking up the disc? Or is there another disc that the manufacturer provided for repair and recovery? What brand computer is it, btw?

HERE is the Microsoft article on what may be your problem, but it seems you're going to need to get into the Recovery console to address it.

[MaryG]

Thank you!

It's a P4, with Windows XP. I'm just putting in the original cd for reinstallation. I was going to just do a repair first to see if that could somehow fix the problem. Isn't that right?
Thanks,
Mary

[MaryG]

Maybe I should have mentioned that the Windows Xp comes up like it's trying to boot then dissapears and I am left with nothing but the cursor in top left corner.

A. There is no choice to enter the R recovery console
B. I can't Edit the Boot.ini File, because my computer doesn't load all the way to see the desktop.

Suggestions?

[Les28]

This is a useful site about missing or corrupt hal.dll are you getting the option to press any key to boot from the CD as soon as the screen loads ?

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/findby...singhaldll.htm

[MaryG]

No I'm not getting any choices. It starts to load Windows XP, then the screen goes black and all I see is the cursor at the top left corner.
Thanks,
Mary

[MaryG]

I tried it last night and I was able to go into safe mode, and try to choose last know good config, when I tried to reboot, a new screen now appears, keyboard failure. Very bizarre, any ideas?
Thanks!
Mary

[Les28]

What type of keyboard are you using? Have you tried a different keyboard and/or with a different type of connection? Do any other options in safe mode work?

Have you tried again booting from the XP cd, it is an MS XP cd is it or is it a recovery CD provided by the manufacturer? The CD must be clean, no fingerprints.

Do you have a sata hard drive? Or is it the older pata drive?
If it's a sata you could try in the bios probably main page changing the IDE configuration settings from advanced mode sata to compatible mode, save and exit, then try booting from the XP disc, if no luck you can reset the bios IDE configuration to Enhanced Mode S-ATA mode.

Did you ever try booting from a set of floppy xp set up discs?

Have you tried your hard drive as slave drive in another computer?

Have you thought of trying to access your hard drive using a live boot distro like Knoppix?

You don't have a hidden recovery console that is accessed by tapping a certain key do you? The PC's manual might tell you.
Is everything plugged in securely in the PC and no external drives connected?

When you said in your first post you were doing a system scan Friday night, was this Windows own Scan Disc checking the disc for errors, the check that you schedule to run at next boot time?

Sorry not to be specific, these are all just ideas, are you posting on other forums as well for help? Les.

[MaryG]

still having problems, keyboard works fine.

I'm having bit of a problem. My Dell XP computer starts to boot then I get this message: can't find file please reinstall file: windows/systm32/hal.dll
My computer wants to boot, I briefly see the Dell across the screen then the message.

Now I'm not completely incompetent so I did the all of the above:

booted with XP cd (no avail)
booted with floopy (no avail)
booted then F8 went into bios to try and establish last known good config (no avail)
simply won't go past the error message.

is there a way to get to the command prompt bypassing the boot?

I even opened the case to make sure everything was seated and all looked well. I think it may be hard drive? I'm really at a lose. There are so many other avenues I could take if I can simply get to the start/run command.
any and all suggestions are welcome please. Thank you for your time!

Mary

[glc]

Fix the CD drive. You *NEED* to boot with a CD to troubleshoot this.