Help! Disaster!!!

[falsterbo]

My computer:
AMD64 3700+ @ 2,91GHz
2Gb ram
2x SLI 7800GT
X-Fi ElitePro
2x 250Gb in RAID0

I have 2x 250Gb in RAID0. Here comes my problem:
When I worked with my computer yesterday I got a problem when switching between resulotions (was only balck screen in windows...) so I restarted the computer and see a flashing red text go by that says that my RAID0 has an ERROR. But it continues loading and I meet a message of system32/hal.dll is not found or is broken. Replace the missing or broken file... So I searched around yesterday and didn´t find anything to help. The RAID0 says that it is healthy but hal.dll is not found...

So I sat about 3 hours with the computer and installed windows and every program again! And guess what happends today again. Hal.dll is missing due to that I had to manually reset the computer... So either I am now selling the pice of shit or can you please come up with a solution?

I will not spend 3 hours again to install windows... I have tried to copy hal.dll from the xp cd, but it didn´t help. I got a bluescreen in safe mode and normal mode that said something about error 0x00000024... So I tried to copy hal.dll from my other computer and that didn´t help, it just restarted itself everytime it tried to load windows.

I have never had any problems with my old computer wich have:
P4 @ 3,6GHz
1Gb ram
120Gb ATA-drive
FX5950Ultra

So please can anyone help me? I know it has something to do with RAID0, I don´t trust it, but it increases the perfomance so much that I want to have it...

 

[qwertycopter]

Well I would recommend running an XP repair install by starting your computer with the XP CD in the drive. And here is a page that discusses missing hal.dll problems:

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm

 

[falsterbo]

I know I have read that site over and over again... Only the last bit may work, but then I would need to install XP on one of the other disks. Maybe that is my solution.

Normal mode: Does not work
Restore to the last working state: Does not work (hahaha Microsoft-shit...)
Safe mode: Does not work
Safe mode with network and bla bla: Does not work

Nothing works because of hal.dll.
I have 2x250Gb RAID0 (Windows) and some other harddrives. I am going to try to install windows AGAIN on one of my other harddrives and then copy hal.dll from that one to the other. Would that work or is NTFS stopping me from entering the harddrive?

 

[qwertycopter]

Well do you really need raid0? I mean, really? What great performance increase are you getting?

 

[falsterbo]

Seems that you haven´t tried it... It gives me a huge perfomance increase!
In Battlefield 2 I was always about the 3 man in the game, but now with RAID0 my computer always loads many seconds faster than everbody else! Everything is loaded from the harddrive so if you have a great computer and a bad harddrive like only one SATA or ATA you will loose a lot of perfomance...

But really! I have always liked XP until now, 3 hal.dll is missing in one week... If it doesn´t stop I will have to do something like going over to Linux, but the problem is that no programs support Linux.

 

[qwertycopter]

Well IMO that is only a moderate performance increase and certainly not worth the double risk of HDD failure. Google has a lot of links that refer to Raid 0 and hal.dll, check it out.

 

[falsterbo]

So it´s a known problem that nobody has fixed... Bad microsoft, bad!

Realy with RAID0 I get a huge perfomance increase. It´s true!

 

[BigTom4Prez]

Just a suggestion but how long you been running OC'd? Are you sure the SATA ports are locked for that model motherboard?

On my old MSI nforce3-250, I found out the hard way that the SATA0 and SATA1 were not locked when I overclocked.

 

[falsterbo]

I have haid it overclocked since I bought it for some months ago... My first thought of the AMD64 3700+ was that it was slow, compared to my 3,6GHz P4 back then, but after a litte overclock it goes like hell!!!

I hope the ports are locked or they are working at something with 264MHz HTT now

I reinstalled windows and backuped the system32 folder on another harddrive. So if it happeneds again I will have a backup.

 

[MCGTech]

Falsterbo, are you paying attention? BigTom PROBABLY nailed it on the head and you did not address his comment.

It's well known that overclocking with an Nforce3 chipset (maybe others) will cause errors, raid or not, on SATA 1 + 2 because they run too fast. SATA 3+4 can be locked down so use those.

 

[Mobius]

Yet more evidence that RAID sucks donkey testicles.

ONE DAY CONVENTIONAL WISDOM WILL TELL EVERYONE TO AVOID RAID 0 LIKE THE PLAGUE.

 

[bmouring]

A blanket statement that RAID0 is the devil is a bit premature. Rather, you should weigh the benefits versus the risk and make sure that you'll reap the maximum benefit (large, contiguous reads). And not matter what, always have a backup plan, the more rigorous the better. I have a weekly image backup of my RAID0 so that, in the case that I have such a failure, I am back up and running in minutes. It's the manual 3-disk RAID 1+0.

But you are correct, most people here should not be running it.

 

[1Tanker]

If it doesn´t stop I will have to do something like going over to Linux, but the problem is that no programs support Linux.

Getting a RAID array configured and detected in Linux will probably have you running back to Windows in no time.

 

[fowang]

sooo true, linux is good but only in the right hands, and my hands arnt the right ones, i'd agree with wot everyone is saying take the raid off and see wot happens! Also are u sure ur raid is setup properly?

 

[maxtoons]

Hi
I had the same problem about 5 moths a go.
I have the same Asus mobo you have.
What I did is a complete format of the hard drive.
This fixed my problem, but I don't use Raid.
No what cosed the problem was one of these two:
The Ride Drivers from Widows
OR
The Ride Drivers from Asus
I never tried to retest the thing to see what went wrong.
My recomendation:
Reformat the thing again but don't Raid it and see if it works out.

 

[bmouring]

If it doesn´t stop I will have to do something like going over to Linux, but the problem is that no programs support Linux.

Getting a RAID array configured and detected in Linux will probably have you running back to Windows in no time.

If you are just switching to only Linux, using the software RAID is a breeze. But if you wanted to use the BIOS-raid, then I agree, it is *not the easiest thing to get running.

Edit: added important *not*

 

[Pain]

Yet more evidence that RAID sucks donkey testicles.

ONE DAY CONVENTIONAL WISDOM WILL TELL EVERYONE TO AVOID RAID 0 LIKE THE PLAGUE.

I personally think it's more evidence that when something breaks one should stop overclocking and put it back to stock speeds instead of trying to troubleshoot something when there are multiple variables. :roll:

 

[bombasschicken]

so im guessing since you use raid0 for your games and operating system on the same drives?? (not very clear on that one..) i would say go out and pick up a nice seagate 7200.9 8mb cahce 80gig drive as your primary operating system drive.. then install all your games on the raid0 array.. you will resolve the problem with windows on the raid0 and you will see a performance boost too..

 

[mikeyp410]

This should help you....

go here.


http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm


I had the same kind of issue with HAL once but it was for ACPI. it was quite the PITA I tell ya.

 

[kittle]

Yet more evidence that RAID sucks donkey testicles.

ONE DAY CONVENTIONAL WISDOM WILL TELL EVERYONE TO AVOID RAID 0 LIKE THE PLAGUE.

Agreed.

although from what ive seen here on these boards 90% of the problems come from trying to get windows to boot from a RAID array.

my reccomendation of the proper solution here is to go get another drive. 40-80gb sata or one of the small raptors. Install windows on that. Then run your games and apps and other stuff off the RAID 0 array.

 

[bombasschicken]

my reccomendation of the proper solution here is to go get another drive. 40-80gb sata or one of the small raptors. Install windows on that. Then run your games and apps and other stuff off the RAID 0 array.

damnit thats what i said... haha beat ya to it..

 

[falsterbo]

I am back and I maybe have found the problem...
You see for a few days ago I bought an Acer 37" LCD-TV/Monitor. I ran it at 1920x1080 but it would only do this at 30Hz, which everything act slow, except movies...

So when I try to switch between resolutions the computer just hangs itself and I have to restart it, normaly this would resolte in hal.dll failure and the only way out is to install windows again. But after I installed Norton GoBack it solves my problems. I can I always go back into windows, but sometimes it is a complete failure with the resolution.

So I always need to run it at 1360x768@60Hz, some things are big, but I´ll get used to it. I hate to not run it at the highest resolution...

So the problem wasn´t with the RAID0 setup. I hope nvidia fixes this problem, because it is there driver that stops working everytime... (My driver: 84.21 and Video BIOS version: 5.70.02.16.68).

Maybe someone knows how to get my screen to run at 1920x1080 with higher Hz... I was looking for atleast 50Hz so that it can run smoothly.

 

[Kholonar]

I'm not totally sure of your solution to the problem. You quoted the 0x00000024 error which is a problem with ntfs hard drives. The natural thing I would do would be to do a full format as the other guy said. You said you did a format and the error continues. This most likely means you've got a hardware fault with the hard drive.

Obviously, it's always good to try out as many things as possible before replacing something so I would use a program like zero fill. These programs fill your hard drive with 0s so essentially nothing is left over when you format your drive (formatting doesn't actually do this even though it takes a heck of a long time). After this is done, you can then format safe in the knowledge that nothing is being carried over from the previous installation.

Oh and yes, you should make sure your pci bus is locked (you never gave an answer to whether it was locked or not).

 

[1Tanker]

So when I try to switch between resolutions the computer just hangs itself and I have to restart it, normaly this would resolte in hal.dll failure and the only way out is to install windows again.

So the problem wasn´t with the RAID0 setup. .

RAID can be very
fragile, and even random crashes can kill your Array. So don't "totally"
dismiss RAID as the problem. :?

 

[bmouring]

RAID can be very fragile, and even random crashes can kill your Array. So don't "totally dismiss RAID as the problem. :?

Real, actually redundant RAIDs (like 1-6 or a hybrid like 5+0) are actually robust. Many don't even consider "RAID0" a RAID and accordingly call it AID0.