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I'm running windows me. And it is now broken. It doesn't even load into safe mode. Here is some background.
Last night I ran windows update. There were 3 critical updates listed, one for windows media player 9, a patch for internet explorer and a direct x update which had to be installed seperately.
I selected the media player and IE patches and downloaded and installed them. Everything went fine at first and then I was told to restart the computer. So I did. In the bootup sequence before Windows loaded it gave a message saying that "windows has failed in updating configuration files %1 :%2."
Then it said that windows may not boot properly or may have problems, hit any key to continue.
I continued, and windows booted fine. I think it was the IE patch that had the problems. I tried uninstalling the patch (it was #878250 or something like that) and then reinstalling it. No better. Same error message.
I also then downloaded the Direct X update. Again all seemed fine. Then on the restart I had similar problems. Except it I didn't have the option of trying to boot windows anyway.
I tried using a boot disk and running scandisk and reinstating an older registry from the week before. Nothing. The only way I got into windows to even ask for help was to use the boot disk to load the CD Rom drivers allowing me to run the setup program in the vain hope that it would over write any corrupted system files. 65% of the way through copying system files it crashed.
At that point I removed all disks and hit reset. Windows then booted up. However there are still problems. I had two error messages pop up.
"A required .dll file, winspool.drv, was not found." and
"Error loading powrprof.dll
One of the library files needed to run this application cannot be found."
Windows update isn't working either. I tried running the windows me setup program from within windows. It managed to copy all the system files without crashing. But on restarting I had the same problems, and many other dll's are missing or will not load.
Short of a complete formatting and reinstallation of windows is there anything else I can do? The reason I don't want to do that is that it is a big hassle, and there are some files which I don't have backed up.
Any way of clearing up this mess? Any suggestion are greatfully received.
Biggles
Last night I ran windows update. There were 3 critical updates listed, one for windows media player 9, a patch for internet explorer and a direct x update which had to be installed seperately.
I selected the media player and IE patches and downloaded and installed them. Everything went fine at first and then I was told to restart the computer. So I did. In the bootup sequence before Windows loaded it gave a message saying that "windows has failed in updating configuration files %1 :%2."
Then it said that windows may not boot properly or may have problems, hit any key to continue.
I continued, and windows booted fine. I think it was the IE patch that had the problems. I tried uninstalling the patch (it was #878250 or something like that) and then reinstalling it. No better. Same error message.
I also then downloaded the Direct X update. Again all seemed fine. Then on the restart I had similar problems. Except it I didn't have the option of trying to boot windows anyway.
I tried using a boot disk and running scandisk and reinstating an older registry from the week before. Nothing. The only way I got into windows to even ask for help was to use the boot disk to load the CD Rom drivers allowing me to run the setup program in the vain hope that it would over write any corrupted system files. 65% of the way through copying system files it crashed.
At that point I removed all disks and hit reset. Windows then booted up. However there are still problems. I had two error messages pop up.
"A required .dll file, winspool.drv, was not found." and
"Error loading powrprof.dll
One of the library files needed to run this application cannot be found."
Windows update isn't working either. I tried running the windows me setup program from within windows. It managed to copy all the system files without crashing. But on restarting I had the same problems, and many other dll's are missing or will not load.
Short of a complete formatting and reinstallation of windows is there anything else I can do? The reason I don't want to do that is that it is a big hassle, and there are some files which I don't have backed up.
Any way of clearing up this mess? Any suggestion are greatfully received.
Biggles
Notorious Biggles wrote:
> Thanks folks. I got a hold of winspool.drv and that meant that windows
> would boot again. System restore was not working at that point.
> Getting back to normal now, got a few things to update.
Although Symantechs 'goback' has had some bad press, it is actually a good program to have. If your computer screws up like yours you can run goback at boot up and restore your computer to an earlier setting!
> Thanks folks. I got a hold of winspool.drv and that meant that windows
> would boot again. System restore was not working at that point.
> Getting back to normal now, got a few things to update.
Although Symantechs 'goback' has had some bad press, it is actually a good program to have. If your computer screws up like yours you can run goback at boot up and restore your computer to an earlier setting!
Thanks folks. I got a hold of winspool.drv and that meant that windows would boot again. System restore was not working at that point. Getting back to normal now, got a few things to update.
Personally to be quick I would back everything up and format but you said you didnt' want to do that so download the dll files and put them in ur system32 folder. You can download all dlls from:
http://www.dll-files.com
Then try booting windows again. Otherwise, (i know there is with XP) but can't you just write over windows with a recovery pack or OS disk. It doesn't touch the file system, just reinstalls windows over the C:\WINDOWS directory. I have recently had a problem booting windows on one of my PC's and this method worked for me.
* You will have to reinstall applications after this process (necessary program files are located in the WINDOWS directory.
Hope this helps ya out mate.
SS
http://www.dll-files.com
Then try booting windows again. Otherwise, (i know there is with XP) but can't you just write over windows with a recovery pack or OS disk. It doesn't touch the file system, just reinstalls windows over the C:\WINDOWS directory. I have recently had a problem booting windows on one of my PC's and this method worked for me.
* You will have to reinstall applications after this process (necessary program files are located in the WINDOWS directory.
Hope this helps ya out mate.
SS
I'm running windows me. And it is now broken. It doesn't even load into safe mode. Here is some background.
Last night I ran windows update. There were 3 critical updates listed, one for windows media player 9, a patch for internet explorer and a direct x update which had to be installed seperately.
I selected the media player and IE patches and downloaded and installed them. Everything went fine at first and then I was told to restart the computer. So I did. In the bootup sequence before Windows loaded it gave a message saying that "windows has failed in updating configuration files %1 :%2."
Then it said that windows may not boot properly or may have problems, hit any key to continue.
I continued, and windows booted fine. I think it was the IE patch that had the problems. I tried uninstalling the patch (it was #878250 or something like that) and then reinstalling it. No better. Same error message.
I also then downloaded the Direct X update. Again all seemed fine. Then on the restart I had similar problems. Except it I didn't have the option of trying to boot windows anyway.
I tried using a boot disk and running scandisk and reinstating an older registry from the week before. Nothing. The only way I got into windows to even ask for help was to use the boot disk to load the CD Rom drivers allowing me to run the setup program in the vain hope that it would over write any corrupted system files. 65% of the way through copying system files it crashed.
At that point I removed all disks and hit reset. Windows then booted up. However there are still problems. I had two error messages pop up.
"A required .dll file, winspool.drv, was not found." and
"Error loading powrprof.dll
One of the library files needed to run this application cannot be found."
Windows update isn't working either. I tried running the windows me setup program from within windows. It managed to copy all the system files without crashing. But on restarting I had the same problems, and many other dll's are missing or will not load.
Short of a complete formatting and reinstallation of windows is there anything else I can do? The reason I don't want to do that is that it is a big hassle, and there are some files which I don't have backed up.
Any way of clearing up this mess? Any suggestion are greatfully received.
Biggles
Last night I ran windows update. There were 3 critical updates listed, one for windows media player 9, a patch for internet explorer and a direct x update which had to be installed seperately.
I selected the media player and IE patches and downloaded and installed them. Everything went fine at first and then I was told to restart the computer. So I did. In the bootup sequence before Windows loaded it gave a message saying that "windows has failed in updating configuration files %1 :%2."
Then it said that windows may not boot properly or may have problems, hit any key to continue.
I continued, and windows booted fine. I think it was the IE patch that had the problems. I tried uninstalling the patch (it was #878250 or something like that) and then reinstalling it. No better. Same error message.
I also then downloaded the Direct X update. Again all seemed fine. Then on the restart I had similar problems. Except it I didn't have the option of trying to boot windows anyway.
I tried using a boot disk and running scandisk and reinstating an older registry from the week before. Nothing. The only way I got into windows to even ask for help was to use the boot disk to load the CD Rom drivers allowing me to run the setup program in the vain hope that it would over write any corrupted system files. 65% of the way through copying system files it crashed.
At that point I removed all disks and hit reset. Windows then booted up. However there are still problems. I had two error messages pop up.
"A required .dll file, winspool.drv, was not found." and
"Error loading powrprof.dll
One of the library files needed to run this application cannot be found."
Windows update isn't working either. I tried running the windows me setup program from within windows. It managed to copy all the system files without crashing. But on restarting I had the same problems, and many other dll's are missing or will not load.
Short of a complete formatting and reinstallation of windows is there anything else I can do? The reason I don't want to do that is that it is a big hassle, and there are some files which I don't have backed up.
Any way of clearing up this mess? Any suggestion are greatfully received.
Biggles