Not a good way to start the morning (Sad PC Edition)

7 thoughts on “Not a good way to start the morning (Sad PC Edition)”

1. Can you get it up to a DOS prompt? If you have your Windows install DVD you can use that to access a recovery mode and try SFC /SCANNOW. I think I got that correct. That should check and repair/replace any system files. That assumes the disk hasn't failed. Call me if you need help.

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2. +Les Jenkins Yeah, every time I have booted up my machine since I brought it home … holy crap, three years almost to the day … ago, I have been presented with a "Hey, do you want to burn a set of install CDs?" And I've said, "Wow, that's an awesome idea, and I won't click the 'Dismiss this message forever' button because it's something I really, truly, surely should do … next time."

   So I don't have Windows Install DVD for the machine. And like the guy in the Margarita song said, "It's my own damn fault."

   And, no, not even a DOS prompt. It flashes the BIOS banner and then immediately goes to this message (actually, except for the one time that prompted that message, it just goes to a rapidly blinking cursor in the upper left hand corner).

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3. Feel free to give me a call or whatever your preferred method of connection you wish to use (assuming you have a second PC).

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4. Yerah, I've got my work PC. Will reach out later, maybe — today's been kind of zany.

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5. https://neosmart.net/wiki/hal-dll-missing-corrupt/

   That gives you a couple of steps. You could also download/burn to CD Hirens Boot CD and try to manually repair. Hirens Mini XP will also let you pull data off if you can't fix it.

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6. Also, if you need a windows iso, Microsoft has them published. From there, you can kick off the system recovery console.

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7. +Nick McIntosh Thanks — I actually found teh Neosmart stuff and gave the recovery stuff they have a try, burning it to a USB.

   As it turns out, even telling my machine through the BIOS to boot from the USB (which the BIOS sees), it simply wouldn't go anywhere. And the stick boots up off my work laptop (whence I'm typing this), so that's not the problem.

   +Les Jenkins has given me some hardware diagnostics to try, to see if I can get past that point. There may be a significant hardware problem behind what's happening — only the one time did the HAL.DLL error come up, and every other time it's just gone to a blinking cursor.

   So … I'll see what happens.

   Not worried about data loss — +Backblaze has my back.

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