Jump to content

Welcome to Geeks to Go - Register now for FREE

Need help with your computer or device? Want to learn new tech skills? You're in the right place!
Geeks to Go is a friendly community of tech experts who can solve any problem you have. Just create a free account and post your question. Our volunteers will reply quickly and guide you through the steps. Don't let tech troubles stop you. Join Geeks to Go now and get the support you need!

How it Works Create Account
Photo

System32 DLL Replaced


  • Please log in to reply

#1
Emexare

Emexare

    Member

  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 13 posts
Hi,

First off, I wanted to thank you all in advance. I've become incredibly frustrated by this.. mostly because the problem is entirely my own fault.

Bear with me on this one. The computer in question is an Asus Eee 1005HA netbook. Basically, while customizing my computer, I decided that I wanted to change the volume icon in the tray. I found it via Resource Hacker (which is a freeware program intended to modify executable files, most notably shell32.dll) in the stobject.dll file within the system32 folder, and switched it out via Replacer. When I restarted my PC, I received an error notice about the corrupted stobject.dll file, the shell (bb4win) crashed almost immediately after logon, explorer.exe crashed immediately after being opened, and windows task manager crashed upon clicking File > New Task (Run).

Since I couldn't open any applications or windows, I decided to boot Windows XP setup (from a USB drive, since it's a netbook and it doesn't have a CD drive) and repair the existing installation. After getting through the repair setup, all I ended up with was a dual boot screen upon turning my system on, with two installations of Windows XP Home Edition that share the same name. Going on either one brought me back to the same issue I stated earlier (shell crashing, explorer crashing, task manager crashing, etc.) So essentially, instead of one installation with the problem, now I have two.

I think that immediately after running the recovery, I got into one of the installations via safe mode and was able to see/access all my files. But once I restarted, I could never get that far again. The next time and every time since then, I've gotten the stobject.dll error message and the crashing, even in safe mode. So essentially I am faced with my wallpaper and nothing else.

At some point, a third option appeared on the dual boot menu, one that reads "USB Repair NOT to Start Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition." When selected, it gives me an error screen with the following:

Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem.
Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware.
Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information.
At that point, pressing any key brings you back to the dual (now multi, I guess) boot menu.


Any tips on how to figure this problem out would be greatly, greatly appreciated. I suspect the main issue here is still the stobject.dll corruption, though I can't see any way of replacing it.

Edit: Okay, I booted with ubuntu and I was able to successfully replace stobject.dll, but for some reason that didn't solve the problem - everything still crashes upon login, on either Windows XP options in the dual boot screen..

My data is still intact and I can still access it with ubuntu, but it looks like Windows is trashed..

Edited by Emexare, 26 December 2010 - 03:04 PM.

  • 0

Advertisements


#2
Amlak

Amlak

    Member 1K

  • Member
  • PipPipPipPip
  • 1,470 posts
Ok, sounds like a lot of work to be done.

But first, did you try what was stated in this thread:

http://www.geekstogo...air-windows-xp/
  • 0






Similar Topics

0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users

As Featured On:

Microsoft Yahoo BBC MSN PC Magazine Washington Post HP