Where to begin

So, you will figure this out on your own, but I'll say it up front: I'm no computer expert. Let me start with the initial problem.

Almost 7months ago, we installed the Windows live protection onto our computer, which was running Windows XP home Edition. It picked up everything and anything and warned us to either get rid of it or ignore it. After ignoring as much as we could stand to ignore, my husband finally decided to delete the Rundll32.exe file (or so he thinks). Didn't have really any problems after that.

3 months ago: we started installing the disney interactive games for the kids. One of which usually ended up in a blue screen that mentioned something along the lines of "Dumping physical hard drive memory." I was a little freaked out by that, but decided we just wouldn't play that game anymore.

1 month ago: My husband bought the magicjack (the phone plugged into the computer). Tried to install it, and the computer said no. Error message that the rundll32.exe file was missing, and you do not have permission to do what you want to do. At first, I assumed, virus and that sucks. Tracked down my live support for my virus protection, and got nothing out of it. After a week of that is when the initial deletion of the rundll32.exe file was brought to my attention. I have since been scowering the net with the hopes of fixing my problem.

You might be asking yourself now "Why is she on the VISTA forums?" heh, well, my creative mind figured, if I can't get the file on my XP HE, then I can UPGRADE and that should solve the problem... Yea, that didn't work either. As an administrator, I still can't address my Securities, or even time/date items. Same message about no permission and the rundll32.exe file.

It's getting long, sorry. Found on the net that I could replace it by DLing it and putting it in the System32 folder. Did that, no change. Figured .exe, must be somethign I should run first. Tried that. Said no because the msvcrtd.dll file wasn't right, and I should try to reinstall. Ran the puter in Safemode and found 3 different setups as users for my comp, and wondered what that was all about since it doesn't show up outside of safemode. Looked on the net for info on this new msvcrtd.dll file. Find LOTS of libraries full of the .dll files. Invest in Uniblue which says it can fix my dll problems. Run it, restart, problem still there. More internet, DL RegCure, finds more problems than the Uniblue. I really didn't feel like buying another program promising to do the same thing the first one said it did. Hence why I'm here. I'm tired now. Exhausted from dealing with this issue. It doesn't prevent me from checking my email or even playing my online games. We've since installed the magicjack successfully, and utilized its wonderfully crappy service. I am now in it for the fact that I want my control back. I've invested too much money on virus, spyware, malware, whatever protections in the world. I've paid with the assumption that my lack of computer saviness would be much at ease with these items. But as you can see, they have cause me much more suffering than anything.

Sorry for the length, but thanks for whatever you can offer.

Ok, well first, never delete a .dll file unless it is found by a virus scanner and listed as a virus. .dll files are system files that if deleted, can truly screw up your comp, as you can tell. Second, you said that you tried an upgrade but never listed which you upgraded to. So which Operating system are you currently running now? Third, that blue screen you saw is considered the BSOD or Blue Screen of Death. It seems scary at first but usually it's really not that big of a deal unless you consistently get it. And lastly, if you have the original install disc try to boot from the CD Rom.

If you're not setup to do this what you need to do is when the computer restarts and you see a screen that should say something along the lines of press DEL to enter setup or TAB to post the bios information. You will want to press the DEL key which on a standard keyboard is the Delete key below the home key. This is different from the backspace key. Now you are in your bios setup, look for Boot at the top on the menu toolbar. Just use your arrow keys to navigate and your enter/return key to select things. Now under BOOT go to something along the lines of Boot Device Priority. Now make sure that the 1st priority is to boot from a CD rom. Your choices are usually CD Rom, Removable, Hard Disk, or disabled. Make sure the 1st is CD Rom and then you don't have a repeating one after that. So if your 3rd is CD Rom currently, change that to whatever the first is.

After all that is done. Restart again, and it should ask you "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD". So do just that, but do it quick because you only have like 5 seconds before it tries to just boot up normally. Once you do this, it'll load up from your windows CD/DVD rom and there should be a "Repair your windows" option. Try that to fix your .dll and any other issues you might have. If that doesn't work let me know. There are always lots of things you can do.

I upgraded to Vista Home Premium. When I put the CD in, and hit the delet button at the BIOS screen, it brought me to the start up screen. My options being normal mode, safe mode, etc. I assumed that wasn't where I was supposed to be. Restarted again, saw that if I hit the F12 button I could get to the boot menu. You said boot, so I hit that button. I didn't see exactly Device Priority or boot from CD. But I did see Onboard or USB CD Rom DvD. So I selected that one. It said boot from Cd Rom or DVD press any button. It took me the install page of vista, and I did see the repair my computer button. Clicked it. It said no errors were found.

Would it be possible for me to go into my original Windows XP home Edition CD and replace my current system 32 with the one from the CD or would I really be asking for it then?

By booting from your CD you can reformat, and reinstall your OS. However, I suggest if the computer is in good enough working order, backup everything to an external HD of some sort so you don't lose any important information. Also, for people who aren't very computer savvy, reformatting is something I suggest as a last option simply because to get your computer back to what it was but fixed, is a pain. You have to get all your drivers back and patches and anything and everything. If you backup your HD properly though, this will be an easier process. One suggestion I do that helps, is everytime I download an .exe type file or a patch of some sort I save it to a folder in my documents called installs. That way, I can back up my installs folder to a flash drive even bec it is usually under 700mb let alone I have a 4gig flash drive. Just a suggestion.

You could also try running system file checker. Info here: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66978-system-files-sfc-command.html

Gary

I really am not sure what I did. But it worked. I now have complete control over my computer. Yay! I just opened the disk from my desktop and clicked on every file. Restarted. Killed items on my puter that really didn't need to be there (norton virus scanner, threatfire, spybot search and destroy, and the list goes on). Doing that enabled me to DL the vista update. Restart. Bam, problem fixed. Now, the only issue I see is that when I start up my Window One Livecare... my desktop shows up twice. My husband informs me that there's another file of my computer on the network screen as well. There is... which I thought was wierd and probably means I screwed something up or someone is hacking my system... But with everything working, I can live with that... sorta