I wonder if someone could help me? Every time I swith on my laptop I receive an error message saying that 'windows could not start because the <windows root>\system32\hal.dll. file is missing or corrupt please re-install a copy of the above file. i tried booting the windows xp cd rom to repair/install the file and still nothing happend, does anyone know how to solve this problem?

Are you sure you ran the repair utility correctly? When it deletes all the windows system files, copys clean ones back, reboots and sits there for about 45 mins reconfiguring the system?

Otherwise, try pressing F8 just before Windows Boots and choose the safe mode option.