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Hal.dll error - can't boot

L

luger

Member
Helping out a friend. His XP tower won't boot. When starting to boot, it would first throw up a missing boot.ini error, followed by a hal.dll error.

I booted into GParted off a USB stick and created a boot.ini file, which resolved that error. Still had the hal.dll error. Using a file manager off a boot usb stick, I copied the hal.dll file from a working XP laptop and placed it into the windows\system32 directory (there was a hal.dll file already there, so I just renamed the old file). Still get the hal.dll error.

The other thing I've been trying to do is launch into bootable WinXP dvd, but the dvd drive seems to hang and not boot into the dvd, even though the boot order was adjusted to make the dvd drive the first boot device. I then created a bootable usb stick with WinXP on it, and that would boot into XP setup, but would blue screen pretty early on in the setup process. Repeated with a new SATA drive (existing hard disk is also SATA), with motherboard SATA setting set to compatability mode. Same issue - blue screen early on in XP setup process.

The initial boot.ini and hal.dll errors had me thinking it was a drive problem. But the other issues are making me wonder if the motherboard has gone bad.

Any suggestions on how to further diagnose this? I'd like to either be able to boot into the existing XP installation on the old hard disk, or at least be able to do a clean install of XP on either the old disk or new disk. I don't have another desktop handy to throw the old drive into, nor do I have a SATA enclosure.
 
HAL is the "Hardware Abstraction Layer" and it is sounding like some kind of hardware (MB?) issue exists. Recommend for now abandoning Windows and trying to test the hardware at a more primitive level (eg, use a hardware test program that runs from bootable media).
 
I could see a bad SATA cable or Hard Drive controller causing issues like this. I would try new SATA cables. A PCI SATA controller card if that doesn't work.
 
I picked up a new SATA cable. Same blue screen when trying to install XP.

The BIOS can see the hard disk just fine. Ran hard drive diagnostics from the BIOS boot menu on the new (blank) disk and it passes.
 
Oh ya, forgot to add that if you are going to reinstall, then "WIPE" the HDD. Ive been involved in cases where something happens to the HDD (gets written on the drive) and the OS wont install. "WIPE" thoroughly cleans the drive. (Seen formal repair facilities make the same mistake of not "WIPE" the HDD and state that the MB was problematic.)
 
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