Urgent Win XP help needed please

[mannginger]

My laptop died yesterday. It refuses to boot windows and has the error message:

systemhal.dll. This file is missing or corrupt.

I am looking to sort it out today, but I can't for the life of me work out where to create a start up disk from within XP. I am using a friends laptop at the moment and any help would be much appreciated.

Many thanks

Phil

[luca brazzi]

Have a look here...you can download a startup disk file...

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310994

Let me know if it works.

LB

[mannginger]

Thanks Luca

That looks like it will have the required information. I am waiting for a friend with more knowledge than me to come over and sort it out, however has has never used XP before but he is a bit of a wiz with the earlier Windows, he wanted me to sort out the start up disk.

Here's hoping I can get it sorted.

Phil

[annodomini2]

If the files been deleted, restore the file, backup your data, fdisk it then run fdisk/mbr, to wipe the hd clean. Switch the laptop off and pull the battery out. leave for 30mins. then reinstall windows. (unless you deleted the file yourself by accident). could be a virus

[andyf007]

One very overlooked tool that ships with 2000 and XP is the Recovery Console. For whatever reason it doesn't install automatically, you would need to run the following command in the start-run box "D:i386winnt32.exe /cmdcons" (D being the location of your i386 folder). It initially gives an error, just OK it and carry on. This gives you administrator access to the Hard drive, file copying, driver and service disabling, etc from the start up selection screen (you will need the local admin account and password). You should make this one of the first things you install after the operating system.

I know it's a bit late in this case, but worth considering once fixed.

Andy

[mannginger]

andyf007 said: One very overlooked tool that ships with 2000 and XP is the Recovery Console. For whatever reason it doesn't install automatically, you would need to run the following command in the start-run box "D:i386winnt32.exe /cmdcons" (D being the location of your i386 folder). It initially gives an error, just OK it and carry on. This gives you administrator access to the Hard drive, file copying, driver and service disabling, etc from the start up selection screen (you will need the local admin account and password). You should make this one of the first things you install after the operating system.

I know it's a bit late in this case, but worth considering once fixed.

Andy

If this is the tool that resets Windows to the last safe point, then it's not working.

As an aside, the start up disc was too big for a floppy disk, so I have burnt it to CD, however I can't seem to get my computer to read it before it tries to open windows. It will read a floppy before, but not the CD - does anyine have any suggestions at all?

[luca brazzi]

In the BIOS (press and hold DELETE key when switching on), there should be a BOOT FROM option with a list....

Probably set to boot from floppy 1st then HDD second.

Select First Boot Device as CDROM, and see how you go.

LB

[andyf007]

mannginger said:

andyf007 said: One very overlooked tool that ships with 2000 and XP is the Recovery Console. For whatever reason it doesn't install automatically, you would need to run the following command in the start-run box "D:i386winnt32.exe /cmdcons" (D being the location of your i386 folder). It initially gives an error, just OK it and carry on. This gives you administrator access to the Hard drive, file copying, driver and service disabling, etc from the start up selection screen (you will need the local admin account and password). You should make this one of the first things you install after the operating system.

I know it's a bit late in this case, but worth considering once fixed.

Andy

If this is the tool that resets Windows to the last safe point, then it's not working.

As an aside, the start up disc was too big for a floppy disk, so I have burnt it to CD, however I can't seem to get my computer to read it before it tries to open windows. It will read a floppy before, but not the CD - does anyine have any suggestions at all?

No, by that you are refering to the "last known good" boot profile. That enables you to boot to the last good logon and is only useful if the registry is corrupted. The systemhal.dll is the "system hardware abstraction layer dll" and deals with the way the system talks to the hardware, with it corrupted you will be unlikely to boot by any method. You may still have to re-install XP.

The "recovery console" is a seperate thing and would give you a second option to boot to, rather than Windows XP. The options would appear just after the usual BIOS stuff, but before the "starting windows" screen. It's like booting to a boot disk, but with more options and capabilities. You would have to have installed it (as above) for it to be available in your situation.

Andy

[mannginger]

Yup all is not looking good. I don't think I can save anything as my resident techie (mate) is having problems too. I think I may have to reinstall the lot. Thank god it has happened now after all my uni work has finished, (although I am loath to lose a lot of my work - remember people - back up to disk!) At least I don't actually NEED it.

I will keep you posted but thanks for the help anyway.

Phil

[mannginger]

OK update time...

I was forced to reformat the drive and have dropped Win ME in. Problem is, whilst it is recognising my sound drivers ok it doesn't want to recognise my video drivers, hence I am stuck on a 512 square in 16 colours.

I have tried to download the drivers from here: http://ranger.s3graphics.com/swlib/290-298drv/ on a friends laptop and when I get the disk to my computer there only appears to be an option for uninstall (which doesn't run anyway) amongst many readme files and a few .dll type files which I don't want to touch as I don't know what they do!

The driver I need is for an S3 Graphics Savage MX. I am running a Toshiba Tecra 8100 Laptop.

Can anyone offer me any advice at all - please?

Thanks

Phil

[miniman]

I posted this for lois22 a few weeks ago, should help you also...

Go to www.toshiba.co.uk

Click "Computers" in the red area on the right
Click "Support and Downloads" on the navigation to the left, then click "Download Files"
Half way down the page on the right is a link "click here to go to our archived driver section" - click it
A new window will pop up. Scroll down to Tecra 8100 and click it.
Click "T8100 WIN98 SYSTEM FILES"
Third from the end is the video drivers


Only problem I can see is that you are on Win ME, not 98. ME is not listed, and the "up-to-date" search doesn't return any results for the 8100 series.

Might be worth a try... if you look at the S3 site, the drivers are grouped with Win 95, 98 and ME using the same driver.


>> Edited by miniman on Wednesday 4th June 22:24

[mannginger]

Miniman

Cheers - got the files and have extracted them to my laptop. The only problem is...I have no Idea how to make them work! (My system info is only showing the standard pci graphics chip - hence the tiny screen and 16 colour)

I have some questions...

1. Do I need to get my laptop to be able to see the S3 card before running the drivers, if so how do I go about doing that (my laptop was built for me at my old work and given as a leaving present, but with no drivers!)

2. If I don't need to do the above how the devil do I get the damn thing to run? I can't make head nor tale of it, when I try to run the application files, nothing happens at all.

Sorry to be so annoying, but I want to get this sorted asap as my flatmate comes back tommorow and that will severely limikt my ability to get online (read "get to PH"!)

Phil

[andyf007]

The extracted files do not contain an installer, but they do contain the savagemx.inf file, so do the following.

Go to the Device Manager window and open the properties for the standard PCI graphics card. Choose to update the driver and follow it through to the bit where you click "have disk" and browse to the folder where you extracted the new drivers. It should then display the driver for your card and continue through the installation process.

edited to add: ME is crap! Use 98SE or XP if you can.

Andy

>> Edited by andyf007 on Thursday 5th June 09:29

[rlk500]

OK. I have only just seen this thread, so I don't want to sound like someone being flash after the event but.....You didn't need to reformat your laptop. The Recovery Console that comes with XP allows you to recover from trashed registry's, missing files etc etc. You do need the bootable XP CD which has this utility on. You could then have dowloaded the file from the web and applied it through the console. Granted that you would need access to another PC to do this.

One final thing, and this is for all laptop/notebook users, never, unless it's the absolute last option reformat the hard drive. Laptops use a multitude of bespoke little cards and drivers, these drivers are often unique and are a complete arse to get hold of. Getting the video drivers re-installed etc etc can turn into a lifetimes work. I learnt this pretty early on in my days of support and it always amuses me (even after I told them not to do it) when the junior comes into my office and says "oh yeah I rebuilt joe bloggs laptop, but the screen output is crap and the network card doesn't work......"

[mannginger]

OK everyone thank you SO much for all the help. I am now up and running at an almost full level - I just have to go around and add various programs from the net and update various drivers.

As far as not reformatting the drive, unfortunatly I had no disks etc etc as the laptop was built for me at work and given without any disks etc as they were using their corporate licences I believe.

Anyway, all is well and so far ME is runnin really well. Much quicker than XP, I guess my laptop specs weren't quite enough to run XP smoothly.

I am back however so all is well (for me at least - I can now get back to annoying you lot on here!)

Thanks again

Phil

[annodomini2]

one recommendation, don't use ME its seriously bug riddled, get hold of a copy win 98 SE the second edition they only sold it on OEM license. the first edition of 98 bug riddled too, but it's not as bad as ME.