Hal.dll missing or corrupt even after replacing it!

[j.venning]

Hi everyone, if you read my previous post "My day : who the hell invented computers!!" then you will know that I have had extreme problems with my laptop. It's just got a whole lot worse.

I formatted my hard drive, twice, and then installed Windows XP Home SP2 (the first time) and Windows XP Pro Corporate (the second time). The installs went fine but when it rebooted to go to the graphical installation, I get the following message:

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.

This message came up when installing both Home and Pro editions of XP.

The thing is, I have re-installed a copy of the file, twice. I think it may be due to all those nasty viruses and spyware I got from installing XP Home without any service packs or updates previously (when it worked), but how did the viruses stay after two formats? In the memory?

Even more strange, my other PC came up with the SAME message regarding the "ntoskrnl.exe" file. I think it may be a virus that spreads via your network deleting system files?

I have done a mem check and a virus scan via a bootable disc but to no avail.

Anyone know what I could do?!
Thanks for any correspondance in advance,
James.

 

[borat_sagdiyev]

no doubt that its not working. hal.dll i believe is Hardware Abstraction layer which is like the most important thing in windows. lol

try using a different hard drive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal.dll

 

[j.venning]

Its a sata laptop hard drive which in my case is quite hard to get! Looks like a a complicated resolution with Dell will have to be in order!

 

[borat_sagdiyev]

come on dont tell me you going to call those asshats.

"ello ow mai i elp u toodai?"

i cant understand anything they are saying. they should get proper customer support representatives.