"hal.dll" missing error

Support for your LENOVO branded Laptop.
For those on the road to ThinkPad ownership..!
Post Reply
Message
Author
hotkeyau
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2007 7:25 pm
Location: Caboolture, Queensland, Australia

"hal.dll" missing error

#1 Post by hotkeyau » Tue Jul 24, 2007 7:26 am

I received the nasty "hal.dll file missing or corrupt" error on my Lenovo R60 and cannot recover. Tried inserting XP CD-ROM and repairing Windows but Setup told me I have no hard drive installed now. Eeek!

No idea where to go to from here...

Can anyone help??

Narelle
Last edited by hotkeyau on Tue Jul 24, 2007 8:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
IBM Diehard from way back...

tomh009
Moderator Emeritus
Moderator Emeritus
Posts: 3021
Joined: Wed Feb 23, 2005 3:30 pm
Location: Kitchener, ON

#2 Post by tomh009 » Tue Jul 24, 2007 8:02 am

HAL is the Hardware Abstraction Layer. If Windows is complaining about it missing, then it most likely cannot read the disk. And the repair not finding it, either, supports that. But since Windows does start to boot, then at least the boot sector is there.

Try enabling the SATA controller compatibility mode in the BIOS -- it may be that the Windows boot disk you are using (is it the R60 one?) does not include the latest SATA drivers, and this can't access the disk. Once Windows is running again, you can then turn compatibility mode back off.
X220 (4287-2W5, Windows 8 Pro) / X31 (2672-CXU, XP Pro) / X61s (7668-CTO, Windows 8 Pro)

ryengineer
Moderator Emeritus
Moderator Emeritus
Posts: 4393
Joined: Wed Sep 20, 2006 9:29 pm
Location: L.A. (home town) CA, Toronto ON.

#3 Post by ryengineer » Tue Jul 24, 2007 8:02 am

In the BIOS change the HDD settings from SATA to Compatibility mode. Your thinkpad will see the hard drive.

Afterwards do this:
Insert and boot from your Windows XP CD.
At the first R=Repair option, press the R key
Press the number that corresponds to the correct location for the installation of Windows you want to repair.
Typically this will be #1
Type bootcfg /list to show the current entries in the BOOT.INI file
Type bootcfg /rebuild to repair it
Take out the CD ROM and type exit.
"I've come a long, long way," she said, "and I will go as far,
With the man who takes me from my horse, and leads me to a bar."
The man who took her off her steed, and stood her to a beer,
Were a bleary-eyed Surveyor and a DRUNKEN ENGINEER.

hotkeyau
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2007 7:25 pm
Location: Caboolture, Queensland, Australia

#4 Post by hotkeyau » Tue Jul 24, 2007 3:33 pm

Thanks guys for the fast response!

I got to the rebuild and it gave the following response:

Windows scan installation successful

Add to boot list? (Yes/No/All)

As per microsoft support, I typed in Y, entered the load identifier as Windows XP Professional and hit enter to the next question.

Exit and reboot but I find I have two XP Professionals to boot from -- one says Microsoft XP Professional and one says XP Professional. An enter on the Microsoft XP Professional pulls up another error and an enter on the XP Professional pulls up hal.hll error again.

I'm still back at square one except that the compatability change helped setup find my hard drive.

Ready to try something else when you are.

Thanks again and waiting for further instructions.

Narelle
IBM Diehard from way back...

hotkeyau
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2007 7:25 pm
Location: Caboolture, Queensland, Australia

#5 Post by hotkeyau » Tue Jul 24, 2007 3:42 pm

p.s. After the 'R' for repair, the system never asked to key in the number '1' or otherwise. It went straight to the prompt, where I typed 'bootcfg /list' and finally 'bootcfg /rebuild'. Was this correct?

Narelle.
IBM Diehard from way back...

Pascal_TTH
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 668
Joined: Sun May 28, 2006 7:17 pm
Location: Liege, Belgium, Europe
Contact:

#6 Post by Pascal_TTH » Sun Aug 26, 2007 4:17 pm

You need to update DirectX. It will work.
Apple MacBook Pro MB133
T61p : Core 2 Duo T9300, Quadro FX 570m, 2GB CL4, 320GB, WUXGA
T60p : Core 2 Duo T7200, FireGL V5200, 2GB, 160GB, 14.1 SXGA+
T61 : Core 2 Duo T7300, Quadro NVS 140m, 2GB, 160GB, WXGA+

Retired : R61, T41p, T40p, X31, A31p, A30, X24, A21p, A20p

Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “3000 Series Laptops”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest