Hi Jim,

I just started helping someone with exactly this same problem (but a Toshiba 
Notebook).

Here are a couple of resources that address this issue.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314477

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm

Unfortunately, in my situation, I've so far found that booting from the 
WinXP CD and trying to use the Recovery console is not working, since the 
windows installation isn't seen, at this point.

I've put the Toshiba's hard drive into an external USB drive enclosure and I 
plan on trying to manually replace/repair the files that are mentioned in 
the Microsoft Knowledge Base article by using my working desktop's version 
of Windows XP.  (When it is installed in this enclosure, I seem to be able 
to read the notebook's drive fine.  All the files seem to be present.)

I don't know how this will work out; so, I'll post back with an update after 
I know more.

John Sproule

Original Message:

Date:    Fri, 6 Oct 2006 20:09:31 -0400
From:    "James W. Cooley" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Missing hal.dll

When I turn  on my HP Laptop, with Windows XP it says the file hal.dll is
missing and stops.  In Win 98 I would have run the emergency startup
disk, and in  DOS, I would have copied hal.dll, via a floppy, from another
machine.  I am new to XP.  How do I do this in XP?

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