D: Maybe you should ask an expert... If you can't, maybe someone knows more than me about that on Yahoo! Answers, that somewhat helped me most of the time.

Erf. Computer problems suck. Sorry if this seems random, but here's a least an attempt at help:

When you reinstall, are you doing a clean format of the drive, or just installing windows over the existing copy? If you're having driver issues, a clean format is you safest way to get through the problems, and clean out all the old crap that might be giving you fits.

Assuming that you are using Win XP, the 32 bit version, your P5N-E motherboard should accept these drivers ('chipset' drivers): http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket775/P5N-E%20SLI/Chipset_Win32&64bit_V826.zip

The drivers for the SATA, RAID, audio, and LAN are probably here on this page: http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=P5N-E%20SLI

My advice would be to clean format the drive, install windows from the disk, and see if it boots. If you can get into windows, try to install the chipset drivers before anything else, and then you should be okay. Otherwise, I'd say that there might be a hardware issue cropping up.

Sorry if that's not much helpful advice. The last thing anyone wants to do is reformat and lose data, but it usually helps out a bunch.

Arg, I forgot to mention: Windows XP is a pain in the butt when it comes to RAID. You have to install the RAID drivers while you're still in the middle of installing the OS most of the time. It varies depending on what motherboard you're using and what kind of hardware you've got in the box, but sometimes you need to use a floppy disk to install the RAID drivers this way.

That's an F6 during the initial blue screen, isn't it?

Thanks, I think the lack of chipset drivers is the problem in windows. However I've yet to fix the hal.dll error. It seems to manifest in many different ways and I've yet to find a conclusive fix. Even reinstalling windows doesn't seem to help.

Those types of problems usually require an absolute wipe and clean install along with a reset of the bios. I had to do a clean install the last time my hal.dll broke. Is there a bios update for the board? Is the battery dead on your board?

i can boot normally with the XP disc in the drive. Without it my comp complains about the hal.dll file. It all started after my trip, one of the electrical cables fell loose during transport and i didn't notice until after i booted up my computer. Ever since then the hal.dll error has prevented normal booting.

The hal.dll is a software issue. Doing a repair type of reinstall won't fix the issue. I once tried to fix the issue with a downloaded version of the dll, but that did nothing. There seems to be enough crosstalk between the master boot record and boot.ini and hal.dll that any inconsistencies cause massive failure. The only thing I know that works is to get your computer to new build status and work from the ground up. It needs to be fresher than a newborn babe.

I'll probably have to do that. Fortunately I won't have to lose any data :P

Bah, formatted the system drive and everything. No help, hal.dll error still persists. Now gonna check for hardware faults.

I'm thinking now that the hal.dll isn't being copied properly from the disk. If there's a hardware fault, it's looking like maybe the cd/dvd drive or the disk itself. There is always the off chance that there's an issue on the HD platter, but not as likely as the other two.

The RAID array and networking is now functioning normally. The external drive has stopped, i may have removed whatever was making that work.

HAL stands for Hardware Abstraction Layer, and is what handles shared PCI interrupts and stuff. Chances are your RAID array won't work 100% unless you install the proper chipset drivers, first. Update those first before messing around with your RAID settings, or anything else. That tends to be an issue with nForce boards. If you really have problems, try getting a BIOS update. I used to have an nForce board, and it worked well, but when it failed to work, it REALLY blew up.

This isn't a striped RAID, is it? Speed isn't a big deal to me, so I just use a normal HD and make regular backups. If RAID itn't SCSI, I don't trust it. ;)

...my head hurrrts...

I thought I ahd probelsm with my laptop, good luck mate.

HORRIBLE COINCIDENCE! That EXACT same thing happens top me whenever i turn the comp off and turn it on i need the xp disk in. >.< im not that much of a computer nerd but i can get a comp working if its broken kinda. >.>.

Horrendous coincidence: My computer died Friday like that and I haven't yet managed to even make the rescue CD due to various busy-ness.

Get Vista! I reinstalled XP so many times it's not funny. Vista seems indestructible.

Vista may be indestructable... (I know from experience that it is), but it has too many forthcomings to be used in this situation. It would have problems with a lot of that hardware.