from missing hal.dll file to shutdown at recovery console or even during setup.....

[redgtxdi]

So I don't have a history on what this kid *might* have done but lady at work's stepson has a Compaq Presario on the fritz. I would stop booting at "missing hal.dll" file. I was ready to replace that....BUT....when I go into recovery console it's not reading right (doesn't recognize any version of windows & just goes straight to a C prompt)

So i figured I'd just do one of my "screw it" repairs and select the 2nd of the two "R" repairs in XP's setup. But it doesn't give the option of which operating system I want to repair because it says it's either "too full, damaged or corrupt". (I've never seen that before) So I'm guessing it's gonna need a format/reinstall but it also did the power-off thing to me as I was reading the "too full...." part. I was like......WTF?

Anyway.....I think I know the answer but am up for any feedback about why it powers itself off like that.

 

[ViRGE]

It's dead, Jim. Time to nuke it and start over.

 

[redgtxdi]

Bones.........there MUST.....BE........something...........SomeTHING......we can do!!

Kinda what I figured. Gonna relay the bad news this morning.

I'm wondering if the cause is viral or otherwise??

 

[ViRGE]

That's always a decent possibility. You could always scan it before you wipe it, though it's probably not worth the time.

 

[redgtxdi]

Well looks like it's futility. I had to wait 'til yesterday to confirm with the owner it was ok to wipe & they concurred so last night I tried no less than 3 times to get that sucker wiped & it would do its 'power down' trick after a few minutes of formatting.

First time it never got off of 0% formatted.

Second time ditto

3rd time I got it to 1% formatted and then right as I gave it a "Thank God!!" it laughed at me & powered off.

Sounds like this one's got a hardware problem, not an OS problem. As far as I'm concerned this one just bought the farm!!