Dell boot troubles

[Shadowvlx]

My brothers Dell Dimension 4400 is giving a message on bootup of

"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll
Please re-install a copy of the above file"

We first got this message a couple months ago with the 2x256megs of ram that came with the computer. In order for me to re-install windows xp I ended up taking out one of the sticks (I assumed it was some bad ram). I bought him a new 256 meg stick and put it today and am now getting the same error. I've tried taking the new one out and just running it with the orginal 256 but I still get the same error and cannot boot. I've updated the bios to the latest version and all bios settings are at default.

Config
P4 2.0 (400mhz)
800 series chipset
Windows XP
All cards have been pulled except for ATI Radeon 7000

Thanks for the help!

 

[beatle]

I suggest running memtest86 if you suspect it's bad memory. Bad memory can corrupt Windows (it's happened to me too) very quickly. It's a standalone application that doesn't need Windows to run.

 

[watdahel]

reset bios

 

[Shadowvlx]

Thanks I'll give both suggestions a try!

 

[dwendel]

Was any software changed, such as Messenger disabled with TweakUI or anything of that nature?