hal.dll problem

My computer recently went shutdown on its own and while rebooting the message "hal.dll missing or corrupt" apears and the comp doesnt boot..

Before posting this thread i saw other had problems with this and read through all the different solutions and tried them following each step but without any results..

Replacing the boot.ini didnt have any efect because when i select the added boot entry the computer doesnt start.. Also reading through the windows help database found a solution specified for XP sP2 users using a fixboot and fixmbr comand but apparently i might lose access to my partition which i rather not cuz i have many files that i dont want to lose

Any thoughts? Im using XP SP2, the file system is FAT32

 

Have you seen the different solutions posted here?
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm

 

Thanks ill give it a go. expand the hall.dll file seems the only option now

Ill post the results soon

 

so i tried the expand command and nothing again. it said "unable to create file" which was the same response i had when tried the first step "replacing the boot.ini". i wrote down "c:\ren boot.ini boot.in2" then "c:\ren boot.bak boot.ini" then once more it showed "unable to create file"...

im guessing there is something wrong with the cd im using for recovery?! because when i did the final step for the bootcfg /rebuild also there was no work done from the cd... i dont know if its normal

the cd is a licensed XP Professional, it could be scratched or something... but the boot from cd works perfectly

Well this obviously not going well and even before i get the "hal.dll missing or corrupt" message now i also get "boot.ini invalid starting from c:\windows"...

Could someone guied me through the steps before i do even more damage!

Thanks

 

even if u dont know how to help me fix it, i would like to ear your opinions on the problem..


much appreciated

 

Hi,

I'll try to work through a couple of ideas with you. Could you give me a little info on your set up? How many partitions do you have? What is your XP drive letter? What is your CD drive letter?
Am I correct that you are able to boot into Windows and it runs okay if you boot with the CD in the drive? If Windows doesn't start with the CD then are you running off of a command prompt?

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I'm thinking that the boot.ini error is fairly easily fixed (either restore your backed up copy or create a generic boot.ini using partition (1)--the default. The problem expanding the hall.dl_ may just be a matter of syntax (making sure that you are trying to expand it to the C: drive rather than to the CD drive).

 

Hi sach and thanks!

Im using an Acer laptop, Pentium M 1,6. 2x 256MB DDR, 60GB, ATI 128 MB. The HD has only one partition beeing C:\ the drive letter and D:\ for the cd drive.

I am able to boot into Windows in MS DOS style not normally.. if thats what u mean. When the boot from cd finishes it asks if i want to install or use the recovery console so i use the recovery console command prompt.

I just realised that i have Windows XP Home Edition instaled and the CD im using is a Windows XP Professional, maybe its why im not able to fix the problem?


The boot.ini error doesnt appear anymore since i ran the bootcfg /rebuild command.. but im not sure this is a good way

Oh and i think i ran the expand command correctly. I used expand d:\i386\hal.dl_ c:\windows\system32\hal.dll but response was "unable to create file"

 

I've been playing around with recovery console and hal.dll.

I put an XP Home hal.dll in my XP Pro and it booted up but had to go through the process of rediscovering all the hardware. I didn't bother letting it go through the whole process but it looks like it should work ok. The screen resolution is low but I assume after it discovers the display drivers it is adjustable.

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I don't believe the hal.dl_ file is actually compressed even though it is named that way. After finding no way to get the expand command to work, I just copied the hal.dl_ file from the XP disk to C:\WINDOWS\system32 renaming it to hal.dll and it worked exactly the same as the uncompressed version I tried earlier.

I would go ahead and try copy d:\i386\hal.dl_ c:\windows\system32\hal.dll and see if you can boot up. Give it time after the desktop loads to find your hardware. When it finishes reboot and see how it goes. [This is assuming that in recovery console you have a C:\WINDOWS prompt. Otherwise you would have to adjust the drive letters]

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Just to be safe go ahead and ren C:\windows\system32\hal.dll C:\windows\system32\halbad.dll BEFORE copying the file from disk.

 

I was just thinking if the copied hal.dll lets you startup you could try system restore and look for a date before the bad shutdown. That way your original hal.dll would be reinstated and you wouldn't have to mess with any changes to display resolutions etc. This is what I did after my testing phase.

 

so i tried your recovery sugestion and it worked to an extent..

The rename command didnt work "parameter not valid" im guessing the file hal.dll wasnt there anymore. Copy command worked perfectly, you were right about the file not being compressed in the first place, so it should have from the start a copy instead of a expand.

Now i dont get the message "hal.dll missing or corrupt"... BUT the boot doesnt start, it just goes into a black screen. I think i may have damaged the boot settings, i remember particulary the fixmbr command that while i ran it i was advised that i could loose access to the partition... but i didnt know what else to do so i ran it anyway

Is there a way to restore the default boot settings? or is this some other problem?... i can still access the recovery console normally.

 

Have a look at bigarricks contribution,
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=145431

 

Thanks, i did that before the hal.dll solution but i will try once more now that is fixed.

However i belive i found what is the problem now, apparently fixmbr will destroy the drive overlay master boot record information (has stated here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315679/en-us ) and one of my current symptoms, the black screen hang, is stated there also

 

Yes, I would try it again.

Afterwards, In recovery console if you type "dir C:\boot.ini" does it find a boot.ini file?

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It looks like the drive overlay is for older machines. A60gb laptop shouldn't be using one. Do you have a blinking cursor at the top left?

 

Hi

I tried the bootcfg /rebuild and still nothing, but found the boot.ini file. Running the dir command this is what i got:

directory of boot.ini
07/18/08 08:54p -arhs--- 279 boot.ini
1 file(s) 279 b.....

The blinking cursor appears for a split second, then it loads the maker image and after it goes to complete black. Boot.ini is there but it looks like its not performing, if that makes sense..

 

That looks like the boot.ini was created by bootcfg and should be good, if the following doesn't provide something obvious I'll play around in recovery console a bit more. Try two commands in Recovery Console.

1) map arc

2) type C:\boot.ini

Can you write down the results of "map arc" and for "type boot.ini" just the default and OS lines. I just want to make sure that your boot.ini default is your large OS partition.

Fixmbr could not have messed things up too badly because you can still access files on the C: drive so your partition table should be ok.

 

So here the results

map arc

C: FAT32 57231MB multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)
D: \device\crdrom0

type C:\boot.ini

[bootloader]
timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows
[operatings systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows="Microsoft Windows XP Home" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

Everything seems ok... could it be a virus?

 

I don't think it's a virus. It's the FAT partition that bothers me. I think you said you ran both FIXBOOT and Fixmbr. Did you run these in this order?

If the primary boot partition is a FAT partition, use the FIXBOOT command from the Windows XP Recovery Console to write a new boot sector on the system partition, and then use the FIXMBR command to repair the master boot record.

 

Yes always in that order.

Ran them again and still the same problem. After did bootcfg /rebuild and again nothing...

It looks everything is in order and theoreticly should work, but it doesnt... !? Its like Windows is not responding to the boot and it doesnt load, or the harddisk is also not responding.

Maybe its time to give it a good old punch to see if it works

But something seemed strange when i was running the fixmbr command, it said: "writing a new master boot record on physical drive \device\harddisk0\partition0." shouldnt it be "\device\harddisk0\partition1." ?

 

I'm unsure what to tell you since you can't do a repair install because of the XP Pro disk and the XP Home system.

One thing I thought of is that since your boot.ini file has two lines and would thus give you a screen asking which OS to boot, it is not getting that far. So the problem would appear to be the MBR.

I'm not worried about fixmbr writing to partition(0) it is probably just a tiny, hidden boot partition on the HD.

Maybe try hitting F8 to get into Safe Mode immediately after POST. Microsoft seems to think it may be possible with a blank screen error. http://support.microsoft.com/KB/314503

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The other thing you could try is going ahead and installing XP PRO to a different folder on the same partition (assuming you have a product key with your disc) and seeing if that fixes the MBR. The downside is that it won't do anything to fix the original installation if it is not the MBR causing the problem. I just don't know without any error messages to go by.

 

I can get a XP Home disk, if it would help...

I do get that screen to choose which boot line. The problem is after i choose it doesnt go anywhere, even with safe mode.. last known good config... i tried them all

The problem with installing the windows in a different folder is that i dont think i have enough free space in the computer for that. But i can try. Would i be able to access my data though from the new OS?

Since i backup my data regularly i dont have such a big problem but there are some very recent files i wouldnt like to loose. Is it possible connecting the External HD and from recovery console do a copy of the files writing down their directory?

Also what is the NTLDR file, in that link Microsoft say it could be the cause...

 

Hi,



I didnt try those programs but i took my drive out of the laptop and connected it to an IDE/USB converter and then connected to another pc. I managed to access my drive with no problem and backed up all the data. Also ran a virus scan and only found a trojan that i believe was the cause of the crash on the first place "ewDR.exe" and "17.tmp.exe".



Is it possible to run a diagnosys of the windows files i have on the drive to find errors and through the other pc correct them? Formating is not an option...

 

While connected to the other computer, go to start, right click manage, clickdisk management, and click on your hard drive, which will show up as additional disk, (usually disc 1 - Disc 0 is the usual reference to the first hard drive on your, or your other computer, and all partitions will refer to disc o on that hard drive- a second hard drive will show as disc 1- if you have two cd/dvd drives, they can also show as cd-rom 0, and cd-rom 1.)
when you right click on that second (your hard drive), click properties in the box that pops up, then tick the 'check this volume for errors', .then tick both boxes in the next stage, the first will attempt to fix file errors,and the second will check and attemp recovery of bad sectorsclick - click start in that box, and it will scan , and attempt repairs.

 

Do that but it wasnt very helpfull, even made the file ntoskrnl.exe missing or corrupt. Also ran Victoria and some other disk recovery programs and nothing.

Anyway solution found!

Format and reinstall.

Thanks for all the help anyway

 

:duck

Pleased to see you are up and running again.
Sometimes, windows internal check and repair will work- but as files were corrupted already, I have, also, seen further errors occur, when I had an iffy stick of ram.

If you find it has errors occuring, after running the format, and re-instal, it would be worth re-checking your ram- or, replacing it.:duck