# Another “dumb-computer-won’t-boot” question.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-dumb-computer-won-t-boot-question/386194>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 31, 2006, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-dumb-computer-won-t-boot-question/386194 "2006-12-31T05:27:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![BACI](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ce73a5/32.png) [@BACI](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BACI)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2006, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-dumb-computer-won-t-boot-question/386194/1 "2006-12-31T05:27:30Z")

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Another “dumb-computer-won’t-boot” question.

Dell PC, running XP. When I boot from the hard drive I get a “hal.dll missing or corrupt” message. When I boot from the recovery CD it sits on a blue screen for a bit while various files (kernel debuggers and the like) get loaded, then comes up with the message that the pci.sys file is corrupted and won’t go further.

Do I have any other options?

Michael

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**Author:** ![Rico](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rico/32/3582_2.png) [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2006, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-dumb-computer-won-t-boot-question/386194/2 "2006-12-31T06:14:38Z")

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Well, this is what I found:

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

Not sure this will work because it sounds like you can’t boot from your recovery CD. I’ll keep looking through my notes.

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**Author:** ![Rico](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rico/32/3582_2.png) [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2006, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-dumb-computer-won-t-boot-question/386194/3 "2006-12-31T06:17:09Z")

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This site has a few workarounds. Try this:

[http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp\_haldll\_missing.htm](http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm)

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**Author:** ![BACI](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ce73a5/32.png) [@BACI](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BACI)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2006, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-dumb-computer-won-t-boot-question/386194/4 "2006-12-31T06:35:10Z")

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Thanks for the input Rico - I can’t get to the point where I get the option of pushing “R” key. It’s not booting from the recovery disk at all - goes through the motions but hangs when it finds the pci.sys file either lost or corrupted.

Could I get a whole new copy of XP and start from fresh?

Thanks for your reply, it is appreciaated.

Michael