QBert said:
As recent as last evening my computer was working fine. This morning the
computer was down and would not reboot to windows. I receive an error
message when turning the computer on that says, "windows
root>\system32\hal.dll. file missing or corrupt.
After getting this message several times, I tried the F1 and F12 options
that appear when the computer boots. One of those gave me a message stating
that there was keyboard failure and that the computer was initializing intel
boot agent version 2.6. Nothing happened, however. I am certainly a novice
with computer problem shooting and my dos background is long forgotten. Any
help would be greatly appreciated, as right now, my computer is useless.
Thanks
We need to determine the reason for this problem before we can fix it.
There are two categories of possible causes - hardware failure and
damage to the data files on the hard drive.
The fact that you also got a keyboard failure message indicates that
we need to be especially alert to the possibility of a hardware
related problem.
1. Download one of the following free memory test utilities and boot
your computer with the disk that it creates. Run the memory test for
several hours (at least).
DocMemory
http://www.simmtester.com
Windows Memory Diagnostic
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp
Memtest86:
http://www.memtest86.com/vxcz
2. Determine the make and model of the hard drive in your computer,
go to the manufacturer's web site, and download their free diagnostic
test utility. Again this will create a bootable diskette or CD which
you use to boot the computer.
Once RAM and hard drive failures (the two most common causes) have
been eliminated and assuming that there are no other error indications
during these tests, we can switch the focus to the data structure on
the hard drive and try to fix that.
Start by booting your computer to the Windows XP Recovery Console.
There are a number of ways of doing this:
1. If you have a Windows XP Installation CD (not a System Recovery
disk) then you can boot your computer with this and choose the R for
Repair - Recovery Console from the first menu.
2. If your computer is from HP/Compaq then there should be a startup
menu that appears briefly when the computer first boots that gives you
the option to boot into the Recovery Console.
3. If your computer has a 3.5 inch diskette drive then you can
download the boot diskette images for your version of Windows XP from
http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=310994
When you have booted the computer to the Recovery Console enter the
following two commands:
Bootcfg /list
Bootcfg /rebuild
The first command will show you what the existing boot.ini file
contains. Make a note of the complete contents of what it reports so
that it can be rebuilt manually if things go horribly wrong.
The second command rebuilds the boot.ini file based on what actually
exists on the hard drive.
Type EXIT to quit the Recovery Console and reboot the computer.
Good luck
Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm