Last year I bought this for my son and now there is nothing I can do to get it to come up. I get the following message regardless of what mode I try to bring it up in.

<windows root>\system32\hal.dll missing or corrupt

I can't find the system restore CD and although it does not have a cd drive I purchased one for him but do not have it here. I hoped if I could get the file on my PC (Windows 7) that I could use my external hard drive to get it on his PC running Intel Atom. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

My Acer Desk Top did not come with any recovery disks.
They politely reminded me to make a back up copy of the operating system for a few days and then I said "Do Not Remind Me Again, I should have
I'm sorry I can not offer you any assistance or further advice.
I am sure you will get it worked out sooner than later with the help of someone more tech savy than I.
Rob

 

You can only boot from a USB CD drive or USB flash drive. An external hard drive will not work. So if you can find the restore file you'll have to use one of those.

 

Thanks Bingee. As this is running XP can I somehow copy the OS from one of the other laptops I have running XP and transfer it over with a flash drive? The broke PC is using an Intel Atom processor if that makes a difference.

 

That one particular file is part of the XP service pack 2 and service pack 3. I could email you that file but if he's missing that one, he's probably got more missing or corrupt.
If you have or can borrow a copy of the original OS you can make your own factory disks. I've done so for the three Acers I have and made several for friends other computers. All you need is an XP disk, download the drivers from the Acer America website and the proper software to do it.

 

You can try ALT+F10 or CTRL+F10 during the initial boot cycle - this will prompt the laptop to access the recovery partition on the hard drive.
Basicly you need to replace the Hal.dll file from a windows xp cd, but you can also do a system recovery from the hidden partition holding the recovery files.
What model is it exactley?

 

IT WORKED!!!!! Thanks a ton Lynn!!!!!! BTW it is an Acer Aspire one. Both my son and I are very grateful.

 

Glad it worked, always nice to help.
By the way nice ride, my wife says purple is good luck, both our other bikes the 02 wide glide and 99 sporty are both concord purple.

 

Exactly. I always like to believe that what goes around comes around.