What is hal.dll and why does it cause a memory dump in Win 2K?

[Matt L]

I keep getting memory dumps that refer to hal.dll. This is driving me up the wall. Happens mostly when I'm using Explorere 5.5, and I click on a web site. Any ideas?
Thanks, Matt

 

[bigshooter]

It has something to do with the hardware abstraction layer, which because of my lack of understanding exactly how it works, and because it would probably be a long and boring read, just keeps NT secure by not allowing software direct access to hardware. The HAL accesses it, and the software accesses the HAL in effect. It means that you are having hardware errors, do you have an overclocked pc? It might be the vid card if your AGP bus is overclocked becasue I have had visual problems with IE 5.5. Hopefully they get fixed with SP1.

 

[SufferinSuccotash]

The Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) does prevent software from directly accessing the hardware, and it is also the key to making NT protable to other platforms. Rather than rewriting the entire OS, all they have to change is the HAL to move it to an Alpha, MIPS, or PPC. It could be a hardware problem like bigshooter said, and overclocking might be causing it (if you are overclocking). The other possibility is that hal.dll might be corrupt. Maybe try a fresh copy of this file from the CD.

 

[Matt L]

Yeah, I'm overclocked, hasn't been a problem in W98Se, but who knows in W2k. I may have a problem with drivers since a number are not truely W2k drivers, some are NT. I still haven't found a driver that will work with my scanner, system finds my scsi adapter but no go with scanner. I've been too busy and too lazy to try and track all the drivers down, but I guess I'll have to try now. I do think I will re-install the hal.dll from the cd, wish the update wasn't such a big download, hope I can pick up a disk somewhere....
Thanks again,
Matt

 

[HomerSapien]

I've had the same problem on my overclocked 466. When i go to 525, i get those memory dumps often. Odd thing is though at the 72Mhz bus, it is stable as a rock at 500.