Hi all,
Here is my dilemma: I have a Gateway system (bought 12/05) with an Intel Motherboard. (System is owned by b-inlaw). I am trying to help him techwise. I have an AAS in Comp Science but have not worked with the hardware for a while. Anyways, his system went down: got an error about something with his USB port not responding. He has an external backup drive via USB and his monitor is connected via USB. He would reboot the system but was getting an error on screen upon reboot (HAL.DLL file missing or corrupt). Unfortunately, he has a business that requires use of the pc to run it (wire machine). Therefore, he had to call Bestbuy's Geek Squad to come out and try to figure what was wrong. I couldn't take the day off work to troubleshoot. To make a long story short, here is my question:
The tech said his motherboard was bad (I wasn't there but my b-inlaw said he had something on the screen that said motherboard was bad). I don't know of any diagnostic software that can tell you if a motherboard is bad (any ideas)??? Anyways, there are software settings for his wire machine that we needed from his hard drive so the tech removed it and transferred all his data over to a new system that my b-inlaw HAD to buy because he was told his motherboard was bad. The only way to access his windows on his hard drive is in safe mode (I put drive into my pc). Well, I started to research specifications on motherboards and troubleshooting them. I decided to try and hook up my monitor via the serial cable because of that error he was getting with the usb. I restored the windows op sys from the orig restore disc while it was in my pc. I put the hard drive back in the supposed bad motherboard system and it booted up just fine.
Here are my final questions: 1) What diagnostic tool would the tech guy have used to say the motherboard was bad? 2) If his monitor or the external hard drive is bad (because of the usb port) would that have corrupted the HAL.DLL file? I have not tried the monitor because I don't want to kill my system if it has a short in it. How can I troubleshoot this? Sorry for the long story. I hope someone can help answer my questions. The pc has win xp pro on it. Thanks for any help,
navycpo:4-dontkno
Here is my dilemma: I have a Gateway system (bought 12/05) with an Intel Motherboard. (System is owned by b-inlaw). I am trying to help him techwise. I have an AAS in Comp Science but have not worked with the hardware for a while. Anyways, his system went down: got an error about something with his USB port not responding. He has an external backup drive via USB and his monitor is connected via USB. He would reboot the system but was getting an error on screen upon reboot (HAL.DLL file missing or corrupt). Unfortunately, he has a business that requires use of the pc to run it (wire machine). Therefore, he had to call Bestbuy's Geek Squad to come out and try to figure what was wrong. I couldn't take the day off work to troubleshoot. To make a long story short, here is my question:
The tech said his motherboard was bad (I wasn't there but my b-inlaw said he had something on the screen that said motherboard was bad). I don't know of any diagnostic software that can tell you if a motherboard is bad (any ideas)??? Anyways, there are software settings for his wire machine that we needed from his hard drive so the tech removed it and transferred all his data over to a new system that my b-inlaw HAD to buy because he was told his motherboard was bad. The only way to access his windows on his hard drive is in safe mode (I put drive into my pc). Well, I started to research specifications on motherboards and troubleshooting them. I decided to try and hook up my monitor via the serial cable because of that error he was getting with the usb. I restored the windows op sys from the orig restore disc while it was in my pc. I put the hard drive back in the supposed bad motherboard system and it booted up just fine.
Here are my final questions: 1) What diagnostic tool would the tech guy have used to say the motherboard was bad? 2) If his monitor or the external hard drive is bad (because of the usb port) would that have corrupted the HAL.DLL file? I have not tried the monitor because I don't want to kill my system if it has a short in it. How can I troubleshoot this? Sorry for the long story. I hope someone can help answer my questions. The pc has win xp pro on it. Thanks for any help,
navycpo:4-dontkno