[AMD 2400]

Ok I just got another 512 mb of ram. its pc3200 and i know my mobo doesnt support it but when i first put it in everything worked just fine. it was reading it at pc2100 and i didn't have any problems with it.. Since I already had the side of the case off I decided to switch my heatsink because the one I installed was running hotter than the original.. so i got it all hooked up and i turned on my computer only to get a screen saying that windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have caused this. so I tried last known config and it restarted and went back to the same screen execpt at the bottom it said <windowsroot>system32/hal.dll was corrupt or missing.
Please try reinstalling the file
I tured of my computer and took out the ram and left the original in it. Got the same screen. tried safe mode, last known good config, and start normally.
I didn't get the error saying system32/hal.dll was corrupt or missing all the time though.
Well I havn't gotten that error for the last couple times i tried to boot I don't know what else to try. I have the restore disk but i really dont want to reformat since i have a bunch of stuff on my computer. what should i do?

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If you have a DVD burner i would back your stuff up onto disk then reformat, its not a bad idea to make some backups in the first places, HDDs when they go rarely give warning.

It may be possible to do it without a reinstallation of windows but after adding new hardware its often a good idea to reinstall windows. Also you should always always back your data up before making major hardware changes.

[warriorscot]

If you have a DVD burner i would back your stuff up onto disk then reformat, its not a bad idea to make some backups in the first places, HDDs when they go rarely give warning.

It may be possible to do it without a reinstallation of windows but after adding new hardware its often a good idea to reinstall windows. Also you should always always back your data up before making major hardware changes.

[Samm]

Hi there

This type of error is likely to be caused by bad or incompatible RAM.
Since you removed the new ram stick & booted up sucessfully using last known config, has the hall.dll error (or any other system file error) appeared at all?

[warriorscot]

Yeah i would check the ram with memtest86 with just the new stick. google metest and follow the instructions.

Should have told you to do that in the first place its getting late, i would make some backups still.

Edited by warriorscot, 06 December 2005 - 05:25 PM.

[AMD 2400]

Sorry I didn't clarify but the computer will not boot up period. No safe mode.

Can only get to the Windows did not start successfully.

It won't move forward from this window with any option tried.

[AMD 2400]

It was fine until I changed my heat sink. That is when it went sideways and I pulled the new ram out. Now Im stuck.

[warriorscot]

Ah right, thats a different kettle of fish i assume you have access to another machine. I would take the Hard drive out put it in the machine you have that works and back up what you want to keep.

You wont need to get past that window to run memtest it goes on a floppy and you boot from that and it runs memtest on the ram. You are probably going to have to reinstall windows i would think.

[AMD 2400]

Thanks for the help.

Got the memtest. Off to see what I can see.

[AMD 2400]

Well the first time i ran memtest i got an unexpected interrupt. since i will have to reformat anyway i just decided i will find out if the ram is bad after i reformat cause it will screw up.. well i put in the restore cd and it said memory allocation error and like a paragraph of other stuff and said try again... well im running memtest again since i couldnt reformat with it in im starting to think i got a bad stick or ram. so is there anyway to save my stuff.. you said take my hard drive out and put it in another machine.. but if the drivers are messed up and it wont boot on my computer why would it boot on this one?

Edit: Ok the memtest got stuck in the same place as last time. Should I assume that the ram messed up my computer and send it back now?
Edit 2:ok well i took out the new ram and put the old stuff back in and now it just says NTLDR error press ctr alt del to restart
I can't get anywhere to select boot in safe mode
ok now this is getting my mad... i cant even reformat my computer it just gives me a couple errors.. any ideas?

Edited by AMD 2400, 06 December 2005 - 07:44 PM.

[Samm]

Hi
First off, don't worry about formatting the computer until AFTER you have the memory issue resolved. You may be able to format the drive but I promise you now that Windows will not reinstall if the ram is bad.

You said you ran memtest on the new memory & it found errors, right.
Can you also test it on the old memory as well? (Remember to only place one stick of ram in at a time for memtest).

Another quick thought as well...
You mentioned earlier that you replaced the heatsink. Are you able to check the CPU temp in the bios?

[AMD 2400]

Yes I can check the cpu temp in the bios its at 48 C right now.
I havn't checked the original ram for errors yet so ill do that and see what i get


Edit: ok well memtest got an unexpected interrupt and halted just like the other stick.. i don't know if this means that the memory is messed up or what.. but i find it hard to beleive that both sticks would just go bad all of the sudden because i had them both in my computer and working before i changed my heatsink.. after i changed my heatsink everything messed up.

Edited by AMD 2400, 06 December 2005 - 08:40 PM.

[AMD 2400]

ok well i put both sticks of ram in and i was showing my mom what errors it had when i tried to do system restore and i didnt get any errors this time.. so now i just lost everything on my computer... oh well i guess ill have to stay up all night downloading everything once it gets done


Edit: Well I'm back on my computer... everything works just fine. I have both sticks of ram in. I'm so depressed now I just lost over 6 gb's of music. I part of me died with the reformat of my computer... Well I don't know what was up with that crap memtest thing that just froze on me. All it did was make me beleive both my ram sticks were bad when I'm using them just fine right now.
Thanks for the help everyone I appreciate it.

Edited by AMD 2400, 06 December 2005 - 11:04 PM.

[warriorscot]

Well i did tell you to stick it in the other machine and get your files from the drive first. You didnt actually have to boot from it you can boot from the drive in the other machine then put the drive form the broken machine in ad set it as a slave drive, you could have then taken all your music and whatever else off of the drive onto the other one or onto disk.

I assume by system restore you mean you reformatted and reinstalled windows, they are two different things system restore is a windows utitlity that takes windows back to an earlier stage while still preserving files.

6gig isnt that much im pushing twenty now, and ive lost 5 gigs of it before it doesnt take that long to put back on. I sometimes like it to happen with my CD stuff if i lose it i can re rip it in a newer smaller higher quality codec.

[AMD 2400]

I didn't know that you could just get files off the drive if it was in another computer, I was thinking I had to boot it up for some reason. Havn't really done that before, and I say system restore because thats what the cd's are called that I used but yes it does reformat everything.

[Iceman512]

I realise that this thread is well over two years old, but for anyone else with a similar problem:

The following error: <windowsroot>system32/hal.dll was corrupt or missing.
refers to the Hardware Abstraction Layer, which can easily become corrupted on a Windows XP system if the hardware profile changes significantly.

The hal.dll file can be copied from your Windows XP CD over the corrupt file, along with the boot.ini file, repairing the problem. This is done using the recovery console. To access the recovery console, put your XP disc in the drive, boot the pc and start tapping F8 on your keyboard after it has completed the first loading screen, just before it tries to boot from the HDD. This should start the console, though some machines are different. For the further instructions, see the Microsoft knowledgebase article here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314477

Hopefully that saves someone a full re-install.
Regards, Iceman

Edited by Iceman512, 24 May 2008 - 06:25 AM.