XP Blackscreen of death: "Following file is missing or corrupt." No Admin password!

[Matt_Stevens]

Dear Lord, why oh why is it everyone I know is computer stupid?!

My boss' system has the Black screen of death. blah blah blah "following file is missing or corrupt"
<windows root>\system32\hal.dll

Normally one would use the WinXP install disc, boot and repair. But to repair I need to enter his admin password.

He has no idea what his Admin password is. WTF! How do people not write these things down?! We have tried every single password one can think of. There is no guessing it.

The issue is his old XP machine was never in any way backed up so he will lose ten years of email. His fault, yes. But he will blame me. That's what he does. Blames others.

So I am grasping at straws here. Is there a workaround for the password? Any advice? I've tried going into safe mode but I just get the error above.

The HD itself seems fine, by the way. This is likely a corrupted XP registry.

 

[Burpo]

Why would he lose 10 yrs of email? That's all on servers..
Check for proper boot order in BIOS. You might see the hal.dll error if the boot order in BIOS is first looking at a hard drive other than your main boot hard drive. Boot order MUST be correct.

Note: If you've recently changed your boot order or recently flashed your BIOS, this may be what's causing your problem.

Not a registry problem, more likely boot.ini.. Follow this document to repair..

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00044897&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en

 

[Smoove910]

can you create another admin account on the PC and reset your boss's admin account? Just a thought...

Also, I could be mistaken, but if you can access his Outlook (assuming that's what he uses for email), could you not download/save the .pst file in case stuff does get borked? AFAIK, you can upload this .pst file to a new Outlook session and retain all of his e-mails. (I could be wrong though, since it's been a while since I messed with Outlook in school).

 

[Matt_Stevens]

I'm fairly certain earthlink defaults to just 30 days for email storage on their servers.

That doc looks helpful' other than the fact it states... "type the login password."

As i stated earlier, my boss has no clue what that is. Neither does his secretary or his daughter (who gave him the PC). No one there hasever made changes to that pc. They wouldn't know how.

Depressing situation.

There is no way for me to access anything on the system since it flat out won't boot.

 

[OlyAR15]

Best thing to do is remove the hard drive, hook it up to another computer and backup the data (assuming the drive is not encrypted). Then reformat, reinstall the OS.

 

[denis280]

Why would he lose 10 yrs of email? That's all on servers..

Best thing to do is remove the hard drive, hook it up to another computer and backup the data

those +1

 

[ninaholic37]

My boss' system has the Black screen of death. blah blah blah "following file is missing or corrupt"
<windows root>\system32\hal.dll

Are you using a monochrome screen? I thought the screen of death in XP was blue. :hmm:

 

[Ketchup]

As I mentioned in your other thread, after you connect the drive for backup, the shortcut on the user desktop folder will tell you what program it is. Some googling should tell you what program he uses, and where the data is stored.

 

[denis280]

As I mentioned in your other thread, after you connect the drive for backup, the shortcut on the user desktop folder will tell you what program it is. Some googling should tell you what program he uses, and where the data is stored.

dint see the other post.but was it mention to try in safe mode

 

[inachu]

HAL HARDWARE ACCESS LAYER.

The dll is kinda like a cop who directs traffic flow from software layer to the hardware layer.
You can google "OSI 7 layers"
https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome-psyapi2&rlz=1C1CHWA_enUS610US610&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8&q=osi%20model%207%20layers

 

[ninaholic37]

We have tried every single password one can think of. There is no guessing it.

Did you try "Administrator" or "Admin", or just leaving the password field blank?

 

[Bubbaleone]

Askvg's site put together all the methods that'll work with XP, in this article: How to Reset/Recover/Change Forgotten Administrator Password.

.

 

[VirtualLarry]

There is no way for me to access anything on the system since it flat out won't boot.

Unless your boss was using EFS, then the above statement is false.

Just use a bootable Linux disc, and a USB portable HDD and back up everything.

Also, have you tried logging in with the built-in Administrator account? (Not your bosses admin account).

 

[VirtualLarry]

Are you using a monochrome screen? I thought the screen of death in XP was blue. :hmm:

Nope. BSODs are kernel-mode bugchecks. But HAL.dll loads before the kernel. Thus the error during the bootloader process, which is white text on black.

 

[VirtualLarry]

HAL HARDWARE ACCESS LAYER.

The dll is kinda like a cop who directs traffic flow from software layer to the hardware layer.
You can google "OSI 7 layers"

Um, not quite. OSI model is for networking, not OS kernel design.

 

[schmuckley]

Bcdedit might fix it.
also..pressing f8 @ startup allows you to bypass xp password thingy.
safe mode er summin.
I would plug that hdd into a working computer and back everything up.
That's been suggested already..

 

[mikeymikec]

My boss' system has the Black screen of death. blah blah blah "following file is missing or corrupt"
<windows root>\system32\hal.dll

Probably a disk or a file system issue.

After backing up the data:

With an XP CD, go into the recovery console and do chkdsk /p.

You can also copy the hal.dl_ file from the CD (assuming that the disc's SP level matches that of the Windows setup on the computer) into system32, though back up the old one first.

Secondary possibility: RAM

 

[Hugh Jass]

Dear Lord, why oh why is it everyone I know is computer stupid?!

The irony is so, so thick.

 

[Matt_Stevens]

The irony is so, so thick.

That's a rude statement so you can stick it. I am no expert, but I know my way around. And unfortunately most people I come across are completely insanely clueless about computers and flat out refuse to do anything about it. I pretty much begged my boss to do something about his system but he refused and now BOOM. Look at what has happened.

I have tried everything I can with this and had no luck. I'm not an expert so unfortunately without a password I seem stuck to fix the problem.

 

[Ketchup]

That's a rude statement so you can stick it. I am no expert, but I know my way around. And unfortunately most people I come across are completely insanely clueless about computers and flat out refuse to do anything about it. I pretty much begged my boss to do something about his system but he refused and now BOOM. Look at what has happened.

I have tried everything I can with this and had no luck. I'm not an expert so unfortunately without a password I seem stuck to fix the problem.

So the shortcut didn't tell you what the program was?

 

[Ketchup]

That's a rude statement so you can stick it.

Dear Lord, why oh why is it everyone I know is computer stupid?!

Calling your boss (and everyone you know) stupid on a public forum isn't so bright. Did you hear about the kid that got arrested recently for a Facebook post?

 

[Matt_Stevens]

So the shortcut didn't tell you what the program was?

I haven't been able to look yet. Christmas came upon and I said screw that sh*t for now. I'm back to work today and want to get into the system but my boss is too angry allow me the time. I'll hope to get to it next weekend. :'(

 

[Ketchup]

I haven't been able to look yet. Christmas came upon and I said screw that sh*t for now. I'm back to work today and want to get into the system but my boss is too angry allow me the time. I'll hope to get to it next weekend. :'(

Well, for your sake I hope you and he can calm down and get this done, but if not maybe there is something better out there.

 

[Matt_Stevens]

Calling your boss (and everyone you know) stupid on a public forum isn't so bright. Did you hear about the kid that got arrested recently for a Facebook post?

Considering my boss just got done yelling at his employees and calling them shits and **** suckers... I am not really caring too much.

 

[Ketchup]

Considering my boss just got done yelling at his employees and calling them shits and **** suckers... I am not really caring too much.

I shouldn't have laughed at that but I did. See my last comment "maybe there is something better out there."