hal.dll missing and ntldr boot error messages

[DocStone]

Having read throught the posts on the subject of hal.dll missing (a clients PC has just started showing this message, the search function is a wildly overlooked tool) as well as the ntldr not detected messages sometimes reported I have asked myself the question...

Why?

What causes this to happen seemingly at random.

I have a theory, bear with me. Had one client always got the Ntldr missing message, new HDD still the same, turned out to be a faulty PSU. The hal.dll with another on a brand new laptop, did the microsoft fix, worked fine. Yet another hal.dll error this time on a 3 month old office machine.

What they all have in common is the fact that they all live ib remote areas, and I dont mean a town in the middle of nowhere, but in houses in the middle of no-where, without a guaranteed stable power supply.

Could a power dip, and not a surge, be causing problems with the boot sectors of the drives, causing them to be corrupted?

I may be totally off the track here, so shoot me down if needed, just a hunch I have.

Cheers,

The Doc

 

[BadBigBen]

IMHO - Yes, dirty or unstable power can attribute to PC malfunctions... But this does not only happen in RURAL out of the way places, I used to live in Tucson AZ, on the Campus of UofA, in a dorm that had 40 yrs old cables...

where a TV or vacuum-cleaner would just putter along, when the power drops more than 10%. A PC may not cope that well, and during the read/write cycle of a HD could cause Magnetic-fluctuations in the heads, thus causing files to become corrupted...

In these cases using a SOUND UPS would alleviate alot of problems...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[linney]

Anything. I suppose may cause corruption to the boot sector, MBR and other hard drive sectors. Happily it is not a common occurrence.

Incidentally I live in a isolated rural area with a dodgy power supply, prone to failure after one clap of thunder!
I have never had an NTLDR missing message that I could attribute to a power failure (touch wood).

Understanding the boot process is a good way to solve the error. Unfortunately this next article requires a cash subscription to read (a new requirement to a previous free article).

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=3952

This one is still free but not as good.

http://www.devhood.com/tutorials/tutorial_details.aspx?tutorial_id=313

 

[ISLukin]

many times you can get a hardware abstraction layer dll error, which will coincide with a ntldr error after removing or replacing hardware (in particular dvdrom devices). Alot of times simply reconnecting, or removing rebooting then reconnecting the device(s) will fix it as it will rebuild the link library.

as far as the utter randomness of the error, perhaps there are malnfunctioning devices on the machines in question. (which could be caused by power outage, low voltage, etc).

just my thoughts.

 

[JockMullin]

Good advice from Linney and ISLukin.

If your power is dodgy you definitely should be on a UPS. In a rural area you should also protect your phone line (if using a modem).

Meanwhile, I would disconnect all unnecessary devices (CD, DVD, floppies). In particular be sure not to have anything sharing the same IDE controller as the hard drive. A flaky device may be constantly interrupting and causing the boot process to miss disk sectors during the crucial bootstrap stages.

If you can get it running reliably then reinstall devices one at a time until you isolate the problem (or it may just go away). However I always try not to share the HDD ide controller if at all possible.

Jock