Likely this is comodo.....fresh install of winxp pro sp2 with only spybot and adaware the only additional programs running (other than ms os and office) and startup mechanic, all of which i have been using for years. Hal.dll became corrupted after a week of the system just being tested. i am on a router firewalled also, and this has never been an issue before, the only new/different change is from norton antivirus to yours. There is no fix for this but if you are saavy enough you can get back in to transfer everything to another h/d for keeping. I'll check in here for the next few days to see if you get a patch or reg fix, but when i am ready to reinstall (thanks alot!) i will not reinstall comodo products! p.s. the firewall looks good, just needs some tweaking, but i will not install it either if the anti virus isn't patched.
Removing norton and installing new security programs has caused this also, not just Comodo. Norton integrates itself into the system and almost becomes a part of it, which just one reason I would never use Norton. Many have had the hal.dll error sometimes immediately or a while AFTER norton was uninstalled. Just my opinion but I would say the norton removal had much to do with this. No need to be to savvy to get your info, knoppix will do just that. Also , start up commander has the ability to kill running\startup processes. While typically good reviews , many will say it's easy to shoot yourself in the foot if you don't properly configure it as it will stop many things from running correctly. Also there is a restore feature with SC isn't there? In case any files become corrupt? Could be wrong there.
Also, if you are talking being savvy enough, then I would have to assume you know how to fix this error without reinstalling ? If you don't , let me know. You do need your XP disk however.
Hope this helps,
Paul
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