My name is Susan. I have logged into this site on and off since last year and I have found so much helpful advice in your forums. I really appreciate all the free downloads for spyware, virus and malware detection.
My current problem is this...
I have a desktop computer Compaq presario SW4120 with XP. It was new in 2003 so by computer standards it is already swiggin' a lot of Geritol on a daily basis. I have been using my son's laptop for about 6 months to get me by, but I would like to try and retrieve some documents and photos from the crashed computer if at all possible. (Yes I know back up, back up, back up....) Always meant to make recovery disks but never did. Procrastination is my middle name I guess.
Anywho, I was able to get the compaq to start up today. (Normally when I push the start button, it makes a few grunting sounds and never starts up.) In the past I would just turn it on and it wouldn't do anything except hum a tune. When I started it up I hit the F1 key a bunch of times and I sent me to the screen with blue background and white printing and lots of options. From there I tried to get it to start normally. The message on my screen right now says
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.
My husband (God bless his heart) was trying to help me fix the darn thing one day and clicked on some command I didn't know about. Now we get this message on a black screen.
Is there any chance of getting this computer to recover? Or??? I never received XP discs with the computer.
Thanks for any help you can give and for taking the time to read this.
Susan
Edited by Fizzygirl, 19 September 2008 - 02:30 PM.
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