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General discussion

Computer not booting correctly

by gbrito1 Jun 7, 2009 4:27PM PDT

Hello all, so ive recently was given a computer, Thermaltake case, with fans and PS also same brand, the mobo brand im not sure of but it comes with AMD Atholon processor, two disc drives, one dvd, the other cd, a WD 120gb HDD IDE. it was given to me because when booted, the OS would not show up on screen, error message "shell32.dll missing", and the screen would be blank. so i brought it home and now when booted, bios are booted, POST is booted, but when the OS is suppose to boot i get an error message telling me that Windows was unable to boot. 5 options appear, safe mode, safe mode with netowrking, safe mode with command prompt, last known configuration, and start normally. it doesnt matter which one i chose the computer re-boots and comes back to the same error message. im not sure what the problem is. im thinking it might be the OS, ive tired reformatting the HDD but it wont let me install the OS again. im baffled, any advice would be greatly appriciated. sorry for long post, but i wanted to be thorough.
thanks,
Gbrito1

Discussion is locked

5 Posts
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I'd put in the Windows CD and check for..
by FrankQC Jun 7, 2009 9:52PM PDT

.. an option called "repair" and it'll check all the dlls to make sure they're working.

p.s. you're lucky to been given a free computer =)

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If you're not attached, you might try loading WIndows 7
by RonS [WINDOWS-TEAM] Jun 8, 2009 7:19AM PDT

If you're not attached to anything that's on the system you could always try booting Windows 7 if you don't have the install discs for the original OS.

Here's a link to the download: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx. Instructions on the other tab as well.

Cheers,

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Computer not booting correctly
by DataCabbitKSW Jun 10, 2009 11:27AM PDT

Much like FrankQC said, try putting in the Windows install disc and try to do a Repair. That is the fastest way to see if you can get it back up and running. Short of that, you may need to try a fresh install. If you have to go that route, do much like RonS said, and try out the Win7 RC. It?s free for now, and the official commercial release comes out October 22nd. If you have problems installing it, you can hop over to the official Windows 7 RC Support Forum located here:
http://tinyurl.com/9fhdl5
It is supported by product specialists as well as engineers and support teams. You may want to post your question there.

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its been a....
by gbrito1 Jun 10, 2009 11:22PM PDT

Pretty busy week for me, but now I have a few days off so I will try both segestions and see what happens hopfully ill get some sort of result, thank you for the advice and info, ill make sure to post the resultsif any.

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You know...
by FrankQC Jun 11, 2009 7:21AM PDT

If Windows won't work properly and you don't feel like spending any money, you should perhaps try installing Linux on your new computer.

If you're new to Linux there is GREAT documentations on the Internet for new Linux users.

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