[kmiyamoto]

Hey,

Here's my problem.

My parents bought a new PC and gave me their old 2002 Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop. I have a good PC but hey, it was a free laptop. They had issues with it being very slow, probably due to viruses... so I decided to reinstall Windows XP to wipe out whatever was on there.

So I put the Windows XP disk in, and the first thing it said was that it wouldn't reinstall because the XP version on the disk was an earlier version compared to the OS on the laptop. Obviously they had someone install serivce pack 2 XP on it.

So I booted from the disk itself and reinstalled in the C drive partition... therefore going over the OS that was already on there.

Went through, started installing, got to the point where it asked me to name the computer and what not, and once I thought it was a success, boom, I was told that the Log On DLL msgina.dll was not installed. Told me to contact system admin or install it manually (no idea how to do either).

So I thought, okay, maybe if I use my service pack 3 XP that I have for my home PC, maybe I'll have better luck. Same thing happened. Couldn't get past that Log On DLL msgina.dll install warning which always forces me to restart. Happens over and over.

So how do I get past this point. I basically have no laptop now because there is no OS system. Sucks. Lastly, when I do do the install the screen is smaller in blue.

Any help would be MUCH appreciated.

Thanks!

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That laptop should have recovery partition.
Press CTRL + F11 at Dell's logo.

[Broni]

That laptop should have recovery partition.
Press CTRL + F11 at Dell's logo.

[kmiyamoto]

Will this work if I've already made attempts to reinstall over the C partition, thus erasing what OS I had on there? Thanks!

[Broni]

It should, because recovery partition is a separate part of your hard drive, usually D drive.

[kmiyamoto]

Okay, I tired that and the following came up:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt" Windows Root/system32/hal.dll

Please reinstall a copy of teh above file.

[kmiyamoto]

Okay, I tired that and the following came up:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt" Windows Root/system32/hal.dll

Please reinstall a copy of teh above file.

Not sure if I should use fast reply or not so that's why I'm doing both. Let me know;) First time here. THANKS!

[Broni]

Either reply is fine, but not both
Now, I'm not sure what you did, and at what point the error popped up.

[kmiyamoto]

Thanks. When the Dell logo popped up, I did the ctrl + F11... then that warning came up over a black screen and just stayed there.

[Broni]

In this case, you may have some hard drive issues.

Run hard drive diagnostics: http://www.tacktech....ay.cfm?ttid=287
Make sure, you select tool, which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn .iso file to a CD, and make the CD bootable.

NOTE. If your hard drive is made by Toshiba, which is not listed, try using Hitachi tools.

[kmiyamoto]

Cool. I'm headed to bed and will try this weekend and get back to you. Thanks!

[Broni]

Not a problem
Good luck...

[kmiyamoto]

Figured it out. I tried what you suggested initially and for some odd reason it just wouldn't comply. I ended up trying one last thing by running the install as a quick NTS or NFTS or something like that and IT WORKED! I had to restart once because it locked during install, but when I rebooted it started up where it left off and worked. Now I just have to download the correct video driver, which I found.

Thanks for the suggestion though!

[Broni]

Nice job