Re: Rundll32exe
Aisha wrote:
| Have been doing what you advised & found my old accounts program
| hanging, rest seemed O.K. Computer happily went on line & antivirus
| started updating so I thought, good I can then scan for any nasties.
| Program wanted to restart so clicked 'yes'. Computer shut down &
| died. Tried to reboot, got 2 flashes & a beep & it shut down again. I
| thought either the power pack's gone or the HD's b****d. Put in my
| trusty start up disk & all came to life again, so I got to where I
| could scan the disk which came back no errors or bad sectors.
| Restored to a previous working registry but computer still shut
| down.Think its now format & reinstall but I've never done anything so
| technical, and I would need help in words of one syllable as I'm a
| very old lady, but would really like to have a try. Have looked at
| Microsoft's article 255867 & can follow to number 9, then
| 'partitions' yes but 'logical drives' ''Que!!!''
| I would really like your comments please.
I'm sure Richards & others can talk you through a fresh install of
Windows, if necessary. Some pointers...
a) Ensure you know your ProductKey before beginning.
(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
ProductKey "12345-12345-12345-12345-12345")
b) Hunt for necessary drivers before beginning.
(State what are your main peripherals or at least
everything you installed separately after installing
Windows. Did you install it yourself?)
c) Get a copy IE6 (or at least IE5.5) before beginning.
(You won't be able to use Windows Update otherwise.)
Here is something else to try first, if your machine is booting directly
to shutdown. Get a new Wininit.exe...
Can you boot to Safe Mode? (Hold CTRL as you boot to get the Startup
Menu, & select "Safe Mode".) If so...
(1) "START button, Run, SFC"
(2) Bolt "Extract one file from installation disk"
(3) Enter "Wininit.exe" in the "Specify..." box.
(4) Click "Start". It should offer to "Save file in C:\WINDOWS".
If not, make it so.
(5) In "Restore from", if not already pre-filled, browse to
(a) Installation CD (likely the Win98 folder) or
(b) The folder that has your cabs on the hard drive, likely
"C:\WINDOWS\options\cabs\".
(6) Click "OK"
If it discovers the file already exists, it will offer to back it up.
May as well do so. If it discovers the file is "in use", it will request
that you reboot to complete the install.
If you cannot boot to Safe Mode, then you must do it in DOS. Boot to
Command Prompt Only from the Startup Menu or use a Startup Diskette to
get to an A:\prompt. Then...
(a) DIR /s /a C:\Wininit.exe
Will say whether you have it, & where it is. It should be
in "C:\Windows"
C:\>DIR /s /a C:\Wininit.exe
Directory of C:\WINDOWS
WININIT EXE 41,973 04-23-99 10:22p WININIT.EXE
1 file(s) 41,973 bytes
(b)
"EXTRACT /a /L C:\Windows <LOC>\Base4.cab Wininit.exe"
That is all one line between the quotes with 5 spaces, but do not enter
the quotes. It will offer to overwrite, if one is already there.
<LOC> is the location of "Base4.cab". This may be discovered as
follows...
C:\>DIR /s /a C:\base4.cab
Directory of C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS
BASE4 CAB 168,960 04-23-99 10:22p BASE4.CAB
1 file(s) 168,960 bytes
If you have the .cabs on a CD, you will use your CD-ROM drive letter,
instead of "C:\" in that DIR command. And probably it will find it to be
located in... "X:\Win98"... where "X:\" is the CD-ROM letter.
So, in my case, the command is...
"EXTRACT /a /L C:\Windows C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS\Base4.cab
Wininit.exe"
All one line: no quotes: there are 5 spaces in the line, including one
after "Base4.cab". That will search all cabs for Wininit.exe & extract
it into C:\Windows. You may need to use something other than
"C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS" as explained above.
Here is the full article about your condition...
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;141898&Product=w98
Windows 95/98 Boots Directly to "Shut Down" Screen
WARNING: Some say an over-install of Windows, especially involving a
laptop, is a bad idea, as it may not get .vxd's right. But it should be
fine just to extract Wininit.exe.
........Quote of article............
SYMPTOMS
When you start your computer, you may see the following message:
It's now safe to turn off your computer
This behavior can occur in any mode.
CAUSE
This behavior can occur if the Vmm32.vxd or Wininit.exe file is missing
or damaged.
RESOLUTION
To resolve this issue, follow these steps:
1. To Obtain a New Copy of the Wininit.exe File
Extract a new copy of the Wininit.exe file from your original Windows
95/98 disks or CD-ROM to the Windows folder. In Windows 95, the
Wininit.exe file is located in the Win95_11.cab cabinet file on the
Windows 95 CD-ROM or disk 11 of your original Windows 95 disks.
(In Win98SE, it's in WIN98_47.CAB... PCR.)
For more information about using the Extract tool, click Start, point to
Programs, click MS-DOS prompt, type extract, and then press ENTER.
For additional information about using the Extract tool, please see the
following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;129605
129605 How to Extract Original Compressed Windows Files
2. Restart the computer.
NOTE: If you installed Windows 95 from a CD-ROM, you may need to enable
the Mscdex.exe line in the Autoexec.bat file or reinstall the real-mode
CD-ROM drivers included with the CD-ROM drive before you can reinstall
Windows 95. After you enable the real-mode CD-ROM drivers, repeat step 1
to restart the computer.
To Re-Create the Vmm32.vxd File
1. Restart your computer. For Windows 95, when you see the "Starting
Windows 95" message, press the F8 key, and then choose Command Prompt
Only from the Startup menu. For Windows 98, press and hold down the CTRL
key after your computer completes the Power On Self Test (POST), and
then choose Command Prompt Only from the Startup menu.
2. Type the following line to change to the Windows\System folder:
cd \windows\system
3. Type the following line:
ren vmm32.vxd vmm32.old
4. Reinstall Windows 95/98.
(I guess it will want to go to "C:\Windows.000", but you must direct it
to "C:\Windows". PCR.)
NOTE: If you installed Windows 95 from a CD-ROM, you may need to enable
the Mscdex.exe line in the Autoexec.bat file or reinstall the real-mode
CD-ROM drivers included with the CD-ROM drive before you can reinstall
Windows 95. After you enable the real-mode CD-ROM drivers, repeat step 1
to restart the computer.
MORE INFORMATION
A Vmm32.vxd file is included on the Windows 95 disks and CD-ROM.
Extracting this version of the file does not solve the problem, as it is
an incomplete version of the file. You must run Setup to re-create a
system-specific Vmm32.vxd file.
If Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) is enabled in your
computer's Basic Input/Output System (BIOS), the "It's now safe to turn
off your computer" message may not be displayed when you shut down
Windows 95/98.
If this article does not describe your shutdown-related issue, please
see the following Microsoft Web site to view more articles about
shutting down Windows 98:
The information in this article applies to:
Microsoft Windows 95
........End of quote.................
| "Jeff Richards" wrote:
|
|> That error message is not giving enough information to be helpful,
|> although you can use the DIR/s command to confirm that rundll32.exe
|> really does exist on the disk. I would recommend that you ignore
|> that message for the moment on concentrate on confirming that
|> ordinary operations are working OK, and getting that mouse working
|> so that further troubleshooting will be simplified.
|> --
|> Jeff Richards
|> MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
|> "Aisha" <Aisha@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
|> news:83894A0C-9EF0-4372-AEC3-67FA0B212491@microsoft.com...
|> > Exact message: Cannot find file C:\windows\rundll32.exe
|> >
|> > "Jeff Richards" wrote:
|> >
|> >> That sounds like a file version problem or possibly another
|> >> missing file. Please provide the exact message, verbatim.
|> >> --
|> >> Jeff Richards
|> >> MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
|> >> "Aisha" <Aisha@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
|> >> news:6493F511-D0C8-4DA7-AE7E-D2B7C5AF1AE5@microsoft.com...
|> >> > After restoring win.com on my 98SE & successfully rebooting,
|> >> > thanx to Jeff. I
|> >> > am now trying to get into add/remove programmes & it cannot
|> >> > find file: C:\windows\rundll32exe. How can I sort this?
--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
Should things get worse after this,
PCR
pcrrcp@netzero.net