Win dows root>\system32\hal.dll - Please help!

Hi Peter, thanx for your help.

Tried F12, selected option 4 - 'IDE CD-ROM Device'

receive the following warning:

Keyboard failure - strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility.

F1 then repeats 'strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility' with every hit, and F2 takes you to setup menu!

Any ideas? ;-)

well wen your in f2 mode look in all the available places and look for restore default values if it not there try and look for something similar.

thxs

 

peter

 

Hi Peter,

Sorry - I did warn you I wasn't terribly computer literate! Doh!

Tried selecting F2 which takes me to Bios (I think!) page, with a whole list of stuff, but cannot see either 'maintenance' or 'restore default values' options! ;-)

Message Edited by robin-uk on 08-28-200609:42 AM

have you tried pressing f12 on the dell loading screen then booting from your cd rom drive?if not im out of ideas.

 

thxs

peter

Hi Peter,

Tried all options but cant find anything along these lines.

F2 gives the following options:

System Time ........................................... 16:03:03
System Date ........................................... Mon Aug 28, 2006

Diskette Drive A: ..................................... 3.5 inch, 1.44 MB

Primary Drive 0 ....................................... Hard Drive
Primary Drive 1 ....................................... OFF
Secondary Drive 0 ..................................... CD-ROM Reader
Secondary Drive 1 ..................................... CD-ROM Reader

Boot Sequence ......................................... Options: CD-Rom/Diskette/HD

System Memory ......................................... 256 MB RDRAM
AGP Aperture .......................................... 128 MB
CPU Information ....................................... CPU speed etc

Integrated Devices (Legacy/select Options) ............ Ports etc
PCI IRQ Assignment .................................... adapters list
IRQ Reservations ......................................
System Security ....................................... Passwords etc

Keyboard NumLock ...................................... On
Report Keyboard Errors ................................ Report

Auto Power On ......................................... Disabled
Remote Wake Up ........................................ Off
Low Power Mode ........................................ Disabled
AC Power Recovery ..................................... Off
Fast Boot ............................................. On
Suspend Mode .......................................... S3

System Event Log ...................................... Event Log status

Asset Tag .............................................


And that's it!

Sorry - any further help you can offer will really be appreciated - Thyanks again ;-)

Thanks for the help.

In the end, I paid a small fortunr for Dell Tech Support to help me fix it.

It took an eternity, but we got ther in the end!

Thanks again,

Robin ;-) 

The cause of this error message can be varied. A major virus or malware infestation can lead to this error. Installing and/or uninstalling software that is spyware laden, such as so many peer to peer (P2P) file sharing programs, or a faulty hard drive can also lead to this error.

The most common causes of this error are:

1. A missing or corrupt boot.ini file
2. A missing or damaged hal.dll file

What is the boot.ini file and how do I repair it?

This is the file that is used that identifies the location of Windows. It is a hidden system file located in the root partition of the primary hard drive (C). It identifies which hard drive, which partition on the drive and the folder where Windows is installed.

The steps to repair a missing or corrupt boot.ini file are:

1. Insert and boot from your Windows XP CD.
2. When you receive the "Press any key to boot from CD" message, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM.
3. When you receive the "Welcome to Setup" message, press R to start the Recovery Console.
4. Press the number that corresponds to the correct location for the installation of Windows you want to repair, typically this will be #1.
5. Type bootcfg /list to show the current entries in the BOOT.INI file. At this point you may get a message telling you that the boot.ini file does not exist. The next step will correct this error.
6. Type bootcfg /rebuild to repair it. This will scan your hard dives for installations of Windows XP, 2000 or NT and display the results. Follow the on-screen instructions to add your Windows installations to the boot.ini file. Those step will be:
   1. Total Identified Windows Installs: 1
      (1) C:\Windows
      Add installation to boot list? (Yes/No/All)
      Type y and hit enter
   2. Enter Load Identifier
      This is the name of the operating system. When you receive this message, type the name of your operating system, and then press ENTER.
   3. Enter OS Load options
      When you receive this message, type /fastdetect, and then press ENTER.
      
      Note: The instructions that appear on your screen may be different, depending on the configuration of your computer.
7. Take out the CD ROM and type exit.

What is the hal.dll file and how do I repair or replace it?

HAL is an acronym for hardware abstraction layer. The hal.dll file is a Windows NT file that is used by windows when communicating with your computer's hardware. It enables hardware from different vendors to allow them to accept a common set of Windows commands. If it is missing Windows will not function.

In situations where it has become damaged, either from virus activity or hardware failure, it may be necessary to replace it with an undamaged copy. Here are the steps necessary to replace the hal.dll file with an undamaged copy from the Windows CD:

1. As above, insert and boot from your Windows XP CD.
2. When you receive the "Press any key to boot from CD" message, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM.
3. When you receive the "Welcome to Setup" message, press R to start the Recovery Console.
4. Press the number that corresponds to the correct location for the installation of Windows you want to repair, typically this will be #1.
5. At the command prompt type: expand d:\i386\hal.dl_ c:\windows\system32\hal.dll. (where d: is the drive letter of your CD and c:\windows is the location for your Windows installation folder.) If prompted for permission to overwrite an existing version of the hal.dll file select yes.
6. Once you have expanded the file type "exit" to exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer.

In rare cases this will not replace the hal.dll file. In those cases you have three choices.

1. Remove your hard drive and install it in another computer with the same OS as a slave or D drive, so that you can copy an undamaged hal.dll file from that system to your hard drive. In this case Hal.dll may or may not be found in: D:\WINDOWS\System32 but regardless if found it will need to be replaced. A working copy of hal.dll will be found in: C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386. Copy that version of the file to: D:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386\hal.dll as well as the D:\WINDOWS\System32 folder; if it asks to overwrite say YES.
2. Perform a repair installation of Windows.
3. Reformat and perform a complete installation of Windows.