Missing system32/hal.dll

[mearnswood]

Hi there,

Switched on my Dell Dimension 5000 yesterday and to my shock I ended up with part boot and a black screen with <windows root>\system32\hal.dll please re-install a copy of the above file.

Which, I thought, sounded straight forward .....

I cannot get away from this screen - I have been F2, F12, F8, and nothing. I have put the windows CD in the dvd drive and rebooted and nothing.

Can someone PLEASE help me before I go off my head ?

I have reviewed that other threads but everything I try keeps bringing me back to this screen.

HELP !!!

Kind regards
Mearnswood.

 

[Rich-M]

Go here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314477

 

[mearnswood]

Hi there,

OK tried Method 3 which most suits the problem.
Typed in the command and I have an "Access denied" returned

Any other thoughts on this one ?


Kind regards
Mearnswood

 

[Rich-M]

You are not doing something right but I would suggest # 4 anyway as chkdsk /r and please not the space between "k" and "/".

 

[Arcadion]

I find this normally happens because of a hardware problem, like a faulty hard disk or dust in the RAM slots. HAL.DLL is one of the first files Windows tries to access as it loads, and so anything that is corrupting data being read from the hard disk can cause it.

 

[mearnswood]

Hi Guys,

Just got my PC back from the shop - The hard drive had 1000's of bad sectors in it and they couldnt do anything with it at all. Got a new HD installed - so super fast now ... well until the updates slow me down.

I downloaded some software called PerfectDisk and did a defrag on the HD - it was only after doing this did this missing file error appear - dont know if it was only bad luck and timing or perfect disk had something to do with it - anyone else know this software or had similar problems ?

Kind regards
Mearnswood
www.mearnswood.com

 

[Elvandil]

Hi Guys,

Just got my PC back from the shop - The hard drive had 1000's of bad sectors in it and they couldnt do anything with it at all. Got a new HD installed - so super fast now ... well until the updates slow me down.

I downloaded some software called PerfectDisk and did a defrag on the HD - it was only after doing this did this missing file error appear - dont know if it was only bad luck and timing or perfect disk had something to do with it - anyone else know this software or had similar problems ?

Kind regards
Mearnswood
www.mearnswood.com

No, no problems like that are common with Perfect Disk. But any defragmenter can wreak havoc if chkdsk is not run before defragging. Moving files on a drive with errors magnifies the errors. Of course, with bad sectors, there is nothing that would run right. Poor, poor, Windows and Perfect Disk were doing the best they could.