I got a hal.dll missing message at boot-time and solutions from several forums (and from MS itself) recommend running the R option of the OS disk (Repair Console, I think) I access the BIOS (Del key at early boot-time) and change boot devices to CDROM. But at boot time it displays "Press any key to boot from CD/DVD)", and pressing the keyboard has no effect, ... after a few seconds, the hal.dll message appears and the system stops. Anallogally, pressing F8 at boottime causes no effect, and pressing F9 makes a custom utility (Giga) to show up, but again, no key is effective to interface with it. Am I doing something wrong that stops the keyboard to work????? thx thanks santiago

USB keyboard? If it is, try a PS/2 keyboard.

The fact that your computer is recognizing missing HAL.DLL indicates that you are not booting from CD, but from hard drive. You can change your boot sequence from BIOS. Try F4, F8, F9, 10, 11, or 12. One of the Function Keys would allow you to ge into BIOS setting. Once in BIOS, you go to BOOT SEQUENCE (I do not know what might be for GIGA). Using + or - (on the numeric key pad) change the BOOT SEQUENCE ORDER. Next place you XP CD in the CD Drive. Then completely SHUTDOWN (not just restart) for two minutes, with power cables unplugged. Once you plug the power cable, computer should whirr the CD and will run XP INSTALL. Note, XP likes to have PS2 keyboard rather than USB, so use your old computer keyboard, or jus borrow from a neighbor for an hour.

"USB keyboard? If it is, try a PS/2 keyboard." That was my thought too, until I saw he said he can get into the bios Setup, so that's probably not it. Do you have more than one CD or DVD drive on this computer? If you do, try the CD in the other drive. Some bioses will only detect and boot a bootable CD in one CD or DVD drive, such as only the first one detected. Look for a list of the CD or DVD drive models, probably someplace near the boot order settings - the first one in the list is the only one a CD can be booted from - you can often change the order in which they are listed. If that doesn't help, make sure the Windows CD is clean, and use a laser lens cleaning CD in the drive. If you are using a copy of an XP CD, a CD-R will work in virtually any drive, but a CD-RW or other type of disk may NOT be recognized as bootable or read properly except in the drive it was made in. If you copied the visible contents of an XP CD, not the whole CD (e.g. disk at once) , the copy cannot boot unless you have also copied the hidden Microsoft image file to the CD as well - in that case the CD will not boot on any computer unless the hidden image file is also on it - it does not show up in Windows on the original CD - only certain programs can make it visible to you. "I access the BIOS ...... and change boot devices to CDROM..... Did you SAVE the bios settings after that? The CDROM doesn't have to be first in the boot order, it just has to be before a hard drive. If you have a floppy drive, if you can set the boot order this way, you usually don't ever have to change it again - floppy drive first, CDROM, hard drive. In all the bioses I know of except one, a bootable floppy in a floppy drive will not be recognozed if the floppy drive is after the CD drive in the boot order.

The mouse and kbd work now, and I am stuck in the hal.dll mistery, what seems to be very serious according to other threads and to what I am seeing thanks santiago

That's good to hear. It would be helpful to us, and to others who come across this thread in the future, if you told us what you did to accomplish that. Did you get the XP CD to boot the computer? If you did...... run an XP Repair Setup. Using the first Repair option in Setup which takes you to the black screen interface called the Recovery Console and typing some stuff there might work, but a Repair Setup, the second Repair option in Setup, is more likely to fix your problems in more situations. DO NOT press R at the first screen that asks you if you want to Repair Windows if you want to try a Repair Setup procedure - continue on to Setup, and the Repair your existing Windows installation option is probably also available there too. An XP Repair Setup will not harm your existing Windows installation, but it can only fix things Windows detects as wrong, and/or replace corrupted or missing Windows files that are on your original XP CD. In the case of drastically changed hardware, it will set Windows to the new hardware situation. If running it doesn't cure enough of your problems and/or the problems are caused by things not on the original Windows CD, you will probably have to make a clean install of Windows from scratch. You will need a Windows CD of the same version as the one of your Windows installation, and the Product Key, preferably the one that was used to install it, but it can be one for the same version as the one of your Windows installation. how to do an XP Repair Setup, step by step: http://www.windowsreinstall.com/win... If your Windows CD did not have SP1 or SP2 updates included, and you updated to SP2, you may have to install SP2 updates again to get SP2 working properly. Some call a Repair Setup procedure a Repair Install. Repair Install and precautions and fixes, slipsteam references, in place install references. http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/X...