My laptop was bugging me to run scandisk before it booted up. I resisted a few times, but I finally let it go through yesterday. Consequently, Windows doesn’t start up now. It goes to the Windows XP loading screen, but after it’s loaded and usually goes into Windows, I get a box saying:
“The application or DLL C:
WINDOWS\system32SHELL32.dll is not a valid Windows image. Please check this against your installation diskette.”
I hit enter and the same thing pops up. I hit enter again and I get a box titled “User Interface Failure”. The rest of the box says:
“The Logon User Interface DLL msigna.dll failed to load. Contact your system administrator to replace the DLL, or restore the original DLL.”
Am I fried? Would I best off reformatting somehow and installing a new copy of Windows? For what it’s worth, this is a laptop I got from an old job. I don’t have a Windows CD and the computer itself is a castaway. I do have a Windows product key on the bottom of the laptop, though.
Firstly, you should be able to boot into Safemode to back-up your data files and attempt fixes. To get into Safemode, press F8 when you get to the white bar as Windows loads, and choose Safemode from the list.
After you have backed-up important files to somewhere safe, you have a few things to try before reinstalling Windows.
These include…
Try a System Restore once you get into Safemode.
Replace the two affected dll files from your Windows CD (it’s MSGINA.dll, by the way).
Try another F8 but choose “Try last known good…” rather than Safemode.
Ah, ok, at this point I would be looking to use a boot CD such as BartPE to gain access to the drive for backups and to attempt fixes. This can take a bit of messing around though.
Basically, you download an .iso file, burn it to a CD, and then you boot the computer straight from this CD (you may need to change the boot order in your BIOS to boot CD before hard drive). This will run a cut down version of Windows directly from the CD, which will allow you to copy data over to another drive/USB/CDR and run simple recovery tools (included on the CD).
You can download the .iso file to burn to CD from here…
Of course, if you don’t have important data on the computer you have to weight up the hassle of recovery against a simple reinstall.
Whoa…wait…what? Download this file (the latest version at the bottom of the page, I presume), burn it to a CD, boot from the CD, and do what now?
And I don’t really have important data on the computer. If I can do a pretty easy fix (like this sounds, honestly), then that’s cool.
So let’s see if I get this straight…download the file, burn it to a CD, run the program on a computer that’s running fine, then take it to the screwed laptop and boot from that CD?
Well, I simplified things a little there, but it’s fairly easy to run the basic recovery tools. You’ll probably need to have a read of the manual (which is on the website), but the basic steps are…
Download the pebuilder program from that website.
Install this program on a working computer.
Run the program and follow the instructions to create an .iso file.
Burn this .iso file to a blank CD.
Put the CD into the non-starting computer’s drive, and start it up. All going well, it will boot into a Windows-looking interface with BartPE scribbled on it. There are disk checkers and tools under the start menu.
If the computer ignores the CD and still boots to the error message, you need to either go into your BIOS and put the CD drive above the hard drive in the boot order, or press f12 when the computer is starting up and choose the CD drive from the list of options.
If you read the manuals on the link above it will tell you how to use the recovery type tools, and it is even possible to add more. It is a lot of fiddling about though, so if the included tools don’t work and you aren’t losing data, it’s much easier to reinstall Windows.
I don’t have a Windows dusk, but I do have that serial number on the bottom of the laptop. Could I still install Windows with that? Would it matter if it were home edition or professional edition with that verification code?
You will need some sort of windows XP disk to install. The key on the back should say “Home” or “professional” on it, and yes it does matter. The key will only work with a disk that has home or professional. However you don’t need a true copy of XP, a recovery disk from say HP usually works.
Man, I feel your pain! Nothing wastes more time than trying to recover from a Windows crash, but the advice posted is very good and covers about all you can do.
It is a good idea to always create a bootable CD (or even a floppy if you have a FDD) for every computer you have for just such emergencies.
Also, forgive my oft-given lecture, but you should always back up everything frequently to a second HDD or an external HDD. One very good backup program is Retrospect. That not only lets you restore from crashes, usually getting right back to where you were, but also lets you create a Disaster Recovery CD for drastic cases where nothing else works.
This also creates an .iso file to burn to the CD, which is bootable. When all else fails, pop it in and follow the prompts. It installs a small version of Windows, just enough to open Retrospect, and restore your entire system, Registry, files, programs and all.
This just gave me a thought - I think BartPE will actually require an XP (or server 2003) CD to create the .iso. This is because the boot CD uses some Windows files, but they can’t include these copywrited files for download. Therefore, it asks for the Windows CD halfway through to grab them, if I recall.
Sorry about that. I wasn’t thinking straight. In any case, you’ll need to get hold of a Windows XP CD, and you will need to get the correct version for your key as Queuing says above.
Can you borrow one from work or a friend seeing as you have your own legit key?
Ah, there’s the rub…of my friends in the state, he happens to have an Apple. I don’t know if anyone I know has XP Professional. I’m using the PE Builder as we speak…er…type.
Getting the XP CD really is your best bet, because then you could both try to fix the problem with BartPE and simply reinstall if not. I’d be really surprised if there’s no one you know with it. If not, see if the computer you are running pebuilder on has a “i386” folder. Companies often copy the XP install files onto the local machine under that folder, and then you could probably point BartPE to that when it asks for the Windows install files.
That said, post back here if you really, really, can’t get the Windows files, as there are some Linux boot CDs with recovery tools. It does start getting more complicated then though, and you’ll have to weight up your time/hassle against getting an IT guy in or buying a CD.
Ask nicely at a computer shop. OEM install disks are no biggie to copy, the licence is what you need to activate it and or keep it from shutting down in 30 days. You will just need to make sure it is an OEM XP Pro install disk, a retail copy will not work with your key.
For what it’s worth, I created the PE disk and put it in the laptop. It’s not reading from it, so I’d have to change the order in the BIOS, something that I have no idea how to do.
When the computer first starts up press F12 a few times. This should bring up the boot order menu and allow you to select to boot from the CD.
Change the default boot order in your BIOS to boot from CD before attempting to boot from the hard drive. How to do this varies between computers, but it’s usually pretty obvious or explained when you get into the BIOS and find the boot order part. Usually you press F2 or the Del key on start up to go into the BIOS.
How did you create the BartPE CD with no Windows CD though? Did it generate the .iso, which you then burnt to CD?
This link shows the keys to press to get into the BIOS on many common computers…