Computer project

[The reaper]

Hello there,

I have recently found an old computer in my stash of electronics and decided to see what I could do with her. So I found a power cord, mouse, keyboard and plugged everything in. But, when I hit the power button, it boots up to an error screen saying something about "Missing hal.dll" so I take that it was completely wiped. Any ideas on what I could do to install a new OS, maybe even a server edition?

[oracleguy]

You could install Linux on the machine. That would be the cheapest route.

[The reaper]

I haven't had much experience with linux installation. I downloaded the ISO file and burned it to a cd. But it doesn't nothing when I put it in the computer. I'm guessing since the computer cannot boot due to missing windows files.

[Apostropartheid]

You need to alter the boot order. You can do this in either the BIOS setup or going to the boot menu. Both should be displayed when your computer starts to boot up (though the screen will be gone quickly). Usually the button is F2 or F10, sometimes F12. A corrupted Windows installation should not affect the motherboard's ability to start up.