Hi I am looking for some advice with my notebook. Please bear with me whilst I try to explain the problem. Recently I had been experiencing problems with the notebook, new drives would appear and disappear, the hidden files setting would turn on and off, and some of my personal files had become corrupt. So I decided to follow the standard help line procedure, and reset the notebook back to the factory state. I had done this several times before, so I did not see how it would be a problem. I used the image discs that I had created when I first got the notebook, to reset it back to the factory state of windows xp home, then I used the upgrade discs that I got with the notebook to install Vista home premium. The first problem came when I tried to install the provided drivers for Vista, the automatic program would not install them, but after several tries, I was able to install them manually. The second problem was that at some point in the vista upgrade, the computer lost track of the DVD player and DVD burning suite software, I was able to find them on the hard drive, but windows refused to locate them. The third problem was that vista refused to update. After all of this, I decided that something must of gone wrong in the upgrade procedure, and so I tried to start at the beginning again. I reset the notebook back to xp, but during the initial start up procedure for xp, (The bit were it asks for all of the details, i.e. computer name, your name) the notebook froze, I left it for several hours, to see if it would sort its self out, but to no avail. So I turned it off and back on again. Now all I get is a message saying: "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." I have tried resetting the notebook back to XP, but it does not work, I just get the same message. I have been able to boot the notebook using a version of Knoppix that can boot form a DVD, and the hal.dll file is in place, and appears to be fine. I am now stuck as to what to do next, as I cannot send the notebook back to where I got it form, as the Warranty has expired. I need the notebook , as I use it for all of my university coursework. Any advice or suggestion would be welcome Thanks
We had a desktop computer at work which had the northbridge cooler off, and it had similar problems (of course we didn't notice the missing cooler before we opened it up). Make sure all the temperatures are OK.
How old is the laptop? It could be the hard drive is dying. If it is dying, it is clearly still reading so you should be able to get all the data off it. Also, see if the heatsinks/air outlets are clogged up with dust. You'll probably have to take the laptop apart to do this properly, make sure you remember where every bit you take out goes back in
Thanks for the quick responses. The temperatures seem to be fine, no hotter than normal, I think that pimonserry may be right, and that the hard drive is dying. The notebook is almost 2 year old, and it is on 24/7. If it does need a new hard drive, do you have any ideas on how to install windows on to it? I only have the discs that I made, and the vista upgrade discs. I do not have any discs for installing windows xp.
