I am out of country, and completely screwed. Parallels build 5160, MBP 17" Core Duo 2.4 GHz, 4Gb RAM, Leopard for two weeks, Windows XP. All worked fine, although I occasionally got that funny dialog box/warning, which I just clicked out of. No new programs. Up to date firewall and anti-virus. I shut down properly, then made the radical move of starting the computer (my sarcasm added!). Mac OS starts fine. Parallels starts fine. Then I get the fun stuff: When I load the Windows Guest OS, I get the selection dialog for a user (I have only one), after which I click on that single user, then a blank alert box, with a red 'X' in a circle, but no text. If I click on 'OK', I see the blank desktop of XP for a short while, then the 'Logging Off' message for that user, then back to the selection dialog. I can find no way out of this endless loop, so I select 'Turn off computer' in the lower left corner, and Parallels usually freezes. I have to force quit Parallels, which I never did before. I did manage to get XP started as a VM by starting in safe mode. So I tried booting into Boot Camp, but get the dreaded 'hal.dll' message. Next, I did some reading on Safari, and created two new users, one after the next, the first with all my files and settings transferred from the old user, the second without anything except a new user. Same problems with Parallels. So I used Safari, downloaded a copy of hal.dll, and figured out a circuitous way to replace the copy in my C:/Windows/System 32 folder. No luck. So I have multiple problems, do not have my Windows XP or Parallels install disks, and am at my wit's end (what little I have left of my wits at this point). Any suggestions where to start? Thanks! Update: After a bunch of searching on Google and these forums, I began to suspect my boot.ini file. I replaced it from a backup, and now Boot Camp starts up without the hal.dll error message. Unfortunately, in both Boot Camp and Parallels, I get the same logon-logoff loop with the goofy empty alert box. I tried a system restore, without luck. Parallels still crashes when I turn off Windows VM. Help?
Damn! Another problem. I cannot get a network connection when I start my Windows VM in safe mode. How many problems do I need?
