Black screen with blinking cursor - even after system restore

Well I knew things have been running to smooth. I restarted my XP Home system and while everything appeared to be starting up like normal it stopped dead with a black screen and blinking cursor. I tried restore, safe mode, check disk for error and tried restarting and cold start many times. I finally did a non destructive recovery thinking I could at least safe my data files, but that didn't work either. My next step will be a total format and recovery of the system, which I am trying to avoid if at all possible. Does anyone have other suggestions before I move on with total recovery. I have no floppy so any suggestion using it is out.

Thanks for the help.

 

I assume the HDD is being recognized since you ran chkdsk.

Without a floppy drive you can still make a boot CD to see if the problem is in the bootloader files. XP boot Image file

Download that (it's about 2 megs so be patient) and you can use it along with your burner software to create a boot CD that will bypass your HDD MBR and bootloader and us its own for the boot process. That's an ISO file so it will work with any burner. The boot CD it creates is a generic version that offers three drives and two partitions on each. If your install is standard, you can select the first option of drive 1 (rdisk0) partition 1.

If it boots to Windows with the CD, copy the files from it to the root of your C: drive and you should be back in action.

 

surferdude2 I am making some progress. I created the boot CD and when I fired it up I got the following message, Windows Root>\system32\hal.dll is missing. This is just the beginning I suspect. Has I said before I have already tried a repair using the console and a non destructive recovery, which should have loaded these system32 files I would think. Anyway is there another way to restore just this missing file or all the syste32 files?

Thanks

 

hal.dll

you can use your xp cd to repair. you don't want to new install. or you would lose your files that you saved.

 

if you don't have xp cd ask a friend you would not be installing his p/n

 

Let's be sure you are covering all the bases as to what partition the system is located on. Some systems have a hidden partition for recovery files and the OS is located on the 2nd partition. Using the boot CD, select the second partition and see what happens. That would be the line:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS= "Physical Disk 1(rdisk0) Boot Partition 2" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

The error message you got when trying the 1st partition is common when you try to boot a partition that doesn't contain Windows so there is still hope that the system lies elsewhere.

It it still doesn't boot and you have important files to save, consider getting some imaging software and burning the drive image to CD's. Either Acronis True Image or Symantec Ghost can boot to a recovery CD and image a non bootable drive. You'll have to make the CD on your healthy system of course. I'd do that before doing much else since you may destroy any possibility of saving the data by troubleshooting or it may be necessary to wipe the system and reinstall anew.

Post back any questions or progress.

 

No luck on on using the second boot cfg. Finding someone that has an actual copy of XP CD these days is a real challenge these days with all the OEM systems that don't provide such an animal. Let me take this mess in another direction. Have don't what I'm about to say, but I have forgotten how since it has been so long. I have two drives in my system, C & D. Both have XP home on them. Is there any way in my present situation to switch the drives internally. I remember doing this before, but not under this condition. I figure if I can change the drives I may be able to boot XP on what is now my D drive or will I still run into the same problem trying to boot the D drive. If this is not a way to go can I add the C drive that will not boot as a slave in another computer and access it to get my files before I reload the drive with my recovery disc? I even have backup files on my D drive.

Thanks

 

That gives you another possibility. From the boot CD select:

Physical Disk 2 (rdisk1)Boot Partition 1

and see if the system on your second drive is viable.

 

maybe i missed it who made your machine?

 

The PC is an HP and like most of today's PCs you don't get any CD's with the machine. You can order recovery type CD's. I did make a Console CD, which can be used for repairs. It contains system32 files on it, but after I run it the PC still will not boot up. I have tried copying the Hal.dll file from the CD to the hard drive from the windows prompt by using the command e:\i386\hal.dl_ c:\windows\system32\hal.dll. but I keep get a bad command. However I would think that this file with others are reloaded when I do the repair from the console CD.

Any thoughts

 

"Physical Disk 2 (rdisk1)Boot Partition 1 "

Same error occurs surferdude2.

 

Found the below information on the Windows XP from A to Z internet site. Any thoughts or comments.

Windows XP Setup - Missing HAL.DLL

Error Message: Cannot Find \Windows\System32\hal.dll

TIP: Recovering Windows XP using the Recovery Console

Update:

Shaun Gray (3/2005) states:

Let me review my experience / problem with hal.DLL with you all:

I Received a computer with win XP home sp2 that after uninstalling IML4, and Installing IML5, and rebooting. (IML being Imesh light)
Computer displayed windows root\system32\hal.dll is missing or corrupt, please re-install.

NO MODES would boot from advanced boot options
Only bootable option was from CD
Repair console would not EDIT system from OEM XP HOME CD
FixMBR did not solve anything
Bootcfg /list, bootcfg /rebuild did not solve anything
Fixboot did not solve anything

Solution Option 1 wouldn’t work with multi attributes with out "|" in between them. ******
Solution Option 1 didn’t solve anything, except inadvertently adding a second OS to boot.ini
Solution Option 2 was unusable with OEM XP HOME SP2 CD.
Solution Opt 2 with XP PRO SP2 Integrated CD "Functionedâ€, but was "unable to expand file "

REINSTALLING WINDOWS IS NOT AN OPTION.

Final Solution:

Removed hard drive from system.
Added Hard drive to a 2nd WORKING XP PRO System. As Slave on Cable select.

***(all references to "D:\" are the Slave Hard drive damaged windows)***

Booted system and enabled - Explorer\tools\folder options

Display contents of system folders.
Show Hidden Files and Folders.
UN-check Hide Protected OS Files.

Go to "D:\" open Boot.ini in NOTEPAD, remove the Extra OS’s added with option 1.
Close and Save changes to Boot.ini

Go to "My Computer" Right click on "D:\" select SEARCH "D:\â€

Search "All or Part of the File Name" = "halâ€

Hal.dll may or may not be found in "D:\WINDOWS\System32" either way it’s no good.
A working copy of hal.dll WILL be found in "C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386â€
COPY THAT FILE "D:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386\hal.dllâ€
And Paste it to "D:\WINDOWS\System32" folder; if it asks to overwrite say YES.

You may now un-do the changes made to Explorer\tools\folder options to RE-Hide files.
Shut Down the computer.

Remove the 2nd Drive and reinstall it to its own tower as Master.

You should Now be able to boot the computer up as if nothing ever happened.

With the exception that it will prompt you to reinstall some drivers, Just say YES and let it auto detect "¦THEY ARE ALREADY THERE. And will setup fine.

This "FIX" assumes that the computer in question HAS at ther very least service pack1, if not service pack 2.

If these patches have NOT been installed , I dont belive any such Reserve copy of hal.dll will wxist on the drive!

Thanks for reading,
Shaun Gray

 

Check the data and power cables to the drives and reseat the RAM sticks just for luck. Bad or loose intermittent RAM can stall the boot process.

I'd say it's time to get the data backed up if you have the tools I mentioned earlier and get to doing a repair install. That's worth a try before doing a clean install.