Royally Screwed?

[midfidelity]

a short while ago, i performed this tweak:

"11. audio machines always benefit from removing acpi (advanced computer &
power interface) as windows then has less control of your pc. go to control
panel > system > hardware > device manager > click on computer then
double click on Advanced Computer and Power Interface (ACPI) pc. click
on the drivers tab, then on update driver. don't let windows install
automatically, choose to select the driver from a list. select 'standard pc'
then install the drivers and allow the pc to reboot.

also, go to control panel > system > hardware > device manager > click on
computer then double click on standard pc (there may be 2 of them, do
this on both)."

upon reboot, window announced it had found new harware, and proceeded to reinstall EVERYTHING (i.e. all hardware on my computer), as well as resized my desktop. after putting my desktop back to it's original size, i rebooted.

after POST, i got a blank screen stating:
"windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \System32\hal.dll
please re-install a copy of the above file"

um... WHAT HAPPEN?!
can i reinstall this from my WinXP cd or do i need to download it? neither option is available to me at this time as i am at my girlfriends house without my xp cd, and have access only to THIS computer, an iMac that does not burn cd's and of course does not have a floppy drive

any advice would be EXTREMELY appreciated, obviously :|

possible lesson learned: leave well enough alone.

[mikeL]

Have you tried running System File Checker? If I read your post right it looks like you are running XP?, I know in W2K pro at the CMD prompt I type SFC /? and I get a list of options, make sure your OS -CD is in the drive.

[Alfie]

Change the jumpers on your cdrw and dvd drive as we mentioned in your "hardware' post.
Put the XP cd in the drive,choose boot from cd as first boot option,hit any key to boot from cd when prompted.
After XP's cd does it thing,click on install,XP will ask(should)would you like to repair or install,click on repair,XP will fix the existing installation.
Note:As you run the XP disk,an initial screen will appear with a repair option,this is for the XP console,that isn't what you want,unless you have advanced knowledge of the console,what you want is the option to repair offered after you click on install,if the option doesn't appear,reboot and try again.
Removing the acpi function may not be the best option with XP!

[Blakhart]

There are two different kernels in xp, one for acpi and one for standard pc. If you have all the pci slots filled, have every comm and lpt connected, you had best leave acpi on...
I have only a soundcard and a modem, and have turned off all the ports/lpt and usb. I am no fan of acpi so I run without.
Soon the mobo makers will give us no choice: acpi only.
My thoughts...

[audiyoda]

You know midfadelity, there are some tweaks going around for DAW or audio production PC's that are pure crap, pardon my language.

I was looking over bluelife audio zone and found many of their 'tweaks' to be useless and some to be dangerous to the point of making your PC unstable -- the last thing anyone doing music on their PC wants.

I look at all these tweaks going around the internet this way: CPU's and RAM are so fast right now -- as are most software applications dealing with audio -- that there is no need for 1/2 the supposed tweaks some genious figured sounded cool so he posted it all over the 'net but has never actually tried.

With my Win2K box in my studio, I have done very little in terms of 'tweaks' and that thing is as stable as stable gets. And that's the way I want it. Same with my WinXP pro box in my office. I do some audio/video work on this one when my other box is rendering or I'm working on a big project -- this thing is stable. I don't want to tweak it to the point of instability.

-Craig

[scooby]

audio,

I'm looking to start playing with audio/video editing and also looking at ripping cds or mp3 files to be played from the pc through the stereo system.

what would be the recommended way? tools?

[midfidelity]

thanks for the replies guys. after i make a 2 hour drive back home to retrieve my cd, i'll let you know how it worked out. i

Craig, you're right, and i was thinking the same thing last night after it happened- what the heck do i need to do tweaks like that for? last computer i used for production was a pII with only 32 megs ram (mostly softsynth type production and editing). my boss at the studio produced a top 40 hit on a p3 300 MGz with 128 megs of ram. here i am tweaking this computer yet it's more than powerfull enough already. that's the last time i try crap like that.

i guess that's the whole reason i built my system anyway- to learn. i tell myself that whenever something doesn't do what i want or when i have trouble with the system, and it keeps me from getting too peeved.

anyways, lesson learned. i emailed the author at that site and told him what happened. while i don't hold him responsible (it's MY fault really), he should state that the system will reinstall the hardware if that's the case. it was written like a very minor tweak, and i figured "hey, i can always undo it or use system restore and roll back", totally overlooking the possibility the machine might not even boot up.

lesson learned, maybe someone else will see this and think twice about it, too, and it will be worth it.

[midfidelity]

looks like everything is under control. thanks for your help.

i'm not an idiot, but i can be naive. looks like that got the best of me this time. i will no longer perform any tweaks without double, triple, and quadruple checking it's results first by asking about it.

fortunately, i very carefully documented EVERY minute change i made to my pc so i can undo any changes (whether a tweak or very simple settings change) if it causes problems. at least i've got that

i really had no business messing with things like that anyways. i want to make music, not spend 9 million hours messing with the computer and no productivity. now that the system runs again i can do that. thanks again, guys.

moving on...

[Alfie]

How did you fix it?

[midfidelity]

Originally posted by Alfie How did you fix it?

with your advice i had to drive back two hours to retrieve my disk at home. my computer was down, my boss was in the hospital, i couldn't work with him gone, and i had a parking ticket on my car. i guess i picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue

i came back and followed your directions. thanks for making them clear or i might not have realised i needed to go to INSTALL and THEN repair, and not repair through the console. i would not have been successful that way.

everything's okay now. like i said, a major reason i chose to build my own system was to learn about the device that i was going to be relying so much on. i'm actually glad it happened because i learned a lesson.

i did have to reinstall one or two things, mainly just my midi controller, but that was it. when the whole thing happened, i emailed the author of the tweak to let him know how bogus he is- no actually i was very nice and just told him what happened and politely asked for his advice, and make him aware that the tweak had given me problems. that was three days ago and i have not heard back from him.

anyways, thanks for the help. as much as i've learned in the last few months, i'm still learning, which is why i'm here every day reading through posts and articles. thanks again.