Windows won't load...

[LuLu]

For once it's not mine that's broken! lol My brother's friend has an Acer Aspire laptop that won't load windows. He says he slammed the screen closed pretty hard and ever since then, he hasn't been able to use his laptop. My brother took out the hard drive and replaced it with the one from his own laptop and windows still wouldn't load. He says with both drives the screen stays black for a really long time and then he gets a message saying "Windows failed to load" or something similar to that. He says when he leaves the hard drive out, he can put in his Vista cd and apparently boot from that with no problem. He said he tried installing Vista on the original hard drive and the first time it got to 67% and then it said installation failed. The second time it got to 100% and then asked to reboot and when he did, he was back to the original problem of windows not loading. So my question is, what could the issue be? My first guess was the hard drive until my brother said he used his own in it as well. Then I guessed maybe a motherboard issue. Any takers on this one??

[Nergal]

Will the friend's HArd Drive load in your brothers machine? (Did I read this corect that the broke laptop has tried both hard drives and gets the error message?)

 

is this the error

 

[LuLu]

I'm not sure if thats the message but I'll ask him when he gets off work. In fact I'll fwd the image to him as soon as I'm done here.

 

He can't try the friend's drive in his machine because his screen is busted. If he was here we could try it in mine but unfortunately he's a little over 3 hours away.

 

Another friend of mine suggested reseating the memory, the processor and the rest of the cards in the laptop. Is that something he should go ahead and do or is it unlikely that that's the issue?

[login123]

Hi Lulu.

 

Here is a topic in another forum that deals with an Acer that would not boot, and got fixed. It was, however a software/boot loader issue, and yours sounds like hardware. Ugh.

 

Its a big thread, but the fixed Acer part starts on page 6 at post 54. Should be HERE if I copied everything right.

 

Post back whatever works, OK?

[Nergal]

also try opening the Broken laptop up it may well be a loose cord somewhere. . .

[LuLu]

Thanks login! I'll give him the link so he can look it over.

 

Nergal, that's actually the first thing I told him to look for (mostly because of my past experience lol) and he said everything was connected good and tight. I still haven't heard back from him about that message but when I do, I'll post.

[LuLu]

Ok this is take word for word from my brother. "No, it says windows didn't load because some Hal file is either missing or corrupt. Halmac file."

[redhawk]

Access the hard drive from another Windows machine and run chkdsk.exe d: /r (assuming d: is the laptop drive).

Alternatively you can use an XP install CD and chkdsk from the Console Recovery.

 

Richard S.

[LuLu]

He doesn't have another computer he can use to do that and no XP install disk either. Will my brother's Vista disk work for that?

[ishan_rulz]

I'm almost certain, this is your problem: http://blogcritics.org/scitech/article/haldll-missing-error-killed-my-pc/

Please read through.

 

EDIT: Also, this: http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm

[LuLu]

Thank you!! Sounds like that may very well be the issue. I'll fwd it to my brother, but I get the feeling it won't be worked on much until his next visit in to see me and mom...so I can do it instead of him. lol

[login123]

Hey, lulu, while you are waiting, look around and see what key combination is required to access that BIOS boot menu. For that old Acer it is listed in that link I gave you, and I think I remember that chkdsk as mentioned by Redhawk is what finally fixed the Acer, but only after it could be forced to boot up. Was alt + f10 for that one.

 

There was an old program called ERD Commander which used to be available free from Winternals which MS bought and renamed Sysinternals. It was a boot disk, and had chkdsk built in. It is not available now, MS renamed it and sells it.

 

Might be that another bootdisk would work.

 

Gotta go.

[LuLu]

He says he's already been into BIOS on it and didn't see anything that may fix it (though he's not sure what he should be looking for in BIOS anyway). He also said he can't get it to boot up even in safe mode. He has also now clarified that he cannot actually boot from the Vista cd he has. He says it won't boot, but instead asks to install. He tried installing and it still didn't work after the customary reboot. So he's stumped. And so am I.

 

But I do have a question. What are the chances that downloading Peppermint (or another free OS) could help the situation? If it won't install Windows, do you think it may install another OS? Maybe we'd be able to boot from the disk then? I'm taking any all feasible suggestions/ideas at this point. lol

[login123]

edit october 1: Yes you can run one of those alternate OSs right from the CD if the computer will boot from the CD. Try the latest Puppy first, it will run in RAM without using the HD or the original OS.

 

But don't give up on windows until all else fails. I have only ever used Linux OSs for fun, and for data recovery, not as a permanent installation. Don't want to have to change years of habits so that I can use the unfamiliar Linux all the time.

 

What you want to do is get the computer to boot from a CD/DVD.

Once you get it to do that, you can boot whatever operating system or repair tools are on that CD/DVD.

 

If the computer doesn't boot from the DVD drive automatically, you get it to show the boot menu at startup. This allows you to pick which drive to boot from.

 

You need to know which keys to push at startup to access the boot menu. The manufacturer probably has the information available, and Google knows everything.

 

For example, on this computer, you start tapping <esc> immediately after powering on, and the boot menu comes up. That allows me to select the drive to boot.

 

When you get to the boot menu, don't change anything, just select the DVD drive to boot.

 

If you have a rescue CD in the drive at this point you can use the apps on it to fix the computer, maybe, if it isn't a hardware problem.

 

If you have linux operating system on the (now booting) CD, it will be able to see the files and folders on the hard drive. Be careful! ... If you delete something using linux, it probably won't warn you, it will just be gone.

 

Among the linix OSs listed on here, I best like Puppy 510 and Slitaz (thanks, Hazelnut ). Puppy is much more "intuitive", Slitaz is light and fast. Both run in RAM, so you can take the boot CD out and copy files to a new one.

 

But those were just for fun. I don't know enough to compare them for use as a primary OS. Rridgely has made a Linux Mint installation to the hard drive, and liked it for a while, and Tasgandy has installed Ubuntu the same way. Those are apparently more suitable for primary OSs.

 

I know of 2 good repair disks, which I have used. Hopefully other members know more and will ring in.

- Hirens Boot CD is pretty good.

- - a description is HERE

- - The download is HERE, at the bottom of the page, click on "+ Direct HTTP Mirror" in small black print.

- The old Winternals ERD Commander was good if you know someone who has a copy. The repair shop will probably have it.

 

Try chkdisk first, as Redhawk said. It may be all you need.

 

At this point we just passed beyond my knowledge. I cannot help more, would be glad if other members posted better fixes.

 

edit...well, cannot help more until you post up what has happened...didn't mean for that to sound like a brush off.

Edited October 1, 2010 by login123

[LuLu]

Login, you are awesome. I will pass this on to my brother, though I may be working on it myself by the time the weekend gets here. lol

[login123]

Login, you are awesome. I will pass this on to my brother, though I may be working on it myself by the time the weekend gets here. lol

 

Well, thank you for the kind words, but actually it was Redhawk who made the suggestion which will probably eventually fix it. Gotta get it to boot first, tho.

Post back whatever works out, OK?

[LuLu]

Well in that case you're both awesome. lol

[LuLu]

Ok so I now have the laptop in my possession and am downloading Hirens as I type this. I have no way to run chkdsk on it though. So what should I attempt to do? I was looking through the list of programs on the Hirens thing and don't know where to start. Any takers? lol

[redhawk]

Boot the CD, select "Mini XP" and let Windows load.

 

When you're at the desktop "Start", "Run", cmd.exe

 

A black box with white text appears, you enter the following:

 

chkdsk.exe c: /f

exit

 

Richard S.

[LuLu]

Ok awesome, thanks! I'm burning Hirens now. Hopefully I did it right.

[LuLu]

Ok no matter what letter I use for the hard drive (since i dont know what it is), it keeps telling me that it cannot open volume for direct access. I've made it all the way to H with the same results. My brother didn't know what it was either so we had to keep guessing since it doesn't tell me under My Computer.

[redhawk]

At the desktop double click on "My Computer" if all you see is "Hard Disk Drives" B: and X: then the laptop hard drive is probably dead or has no valid partitions.

If you run "HBCD Menu" from the desktop there are some Hard Disk and Partition Tools you could run to determine the condition of the hard drive.

 

Richard S.

[LuLu]

That's what I thought. I think the drive is kaput.

 

When I try to run HBCD Menu, nothing happens.

[login123]

If you did get Hiren's to boot, a linux distro would boot also, and would allow you to see whatever is left on the HD. And copy it if you wish. I have done that with Puppy Linux. Worked great. Don't know if Hiren's can also do that...will it, Redhawk?

 

Edit, answered my own question...there are tools on the cd. They are in the HBCD menu, but I don't know enough about them to offer responsible suggestions.

 

Logged on here using Opera browser from the Hiren's cd. It is in \HBCD\WinTools, is creatively named opera.bat. :-) So if you can get the cd to spin up, you can get onto the internet from it.

[LuLu]

Well like I said before, when I try to open HBCD, nothing happens and I can't figure out why.