Inspiron 1521- Problem with windows/system 32/msimg32.dll

The overall objective is to

copy

d:\windows\system32\msimg32.dll

to

c:\windows\system32\msimg32.dll .

 

1. If you computer was acting like mine, there was no way even to get to windows to do anything.
2. I put the Vista OS disk in, did a hard shut down (hold power button down for a couple seconds) then restarted.
3. You have to be pretty quick, but press the F12 key when the Dell startup screen appears. This allows you to boot from the Vista DVD instead of the hard drive.
   There are a couple of choices you have to make, but just use the arrow keys to choose and the enter key to activate the choice.
4. Eventually you get to a screen that gives you the options to install or repair Vista. Click repair.
5. The last of about 8 choices is display a command prompt. Click that.
6. Now you're in the world of MS-DOS, pre-windows-95, command line computing.
7. If you just want to get to the end result skip down to the Bold Italics line.

The following is instructive but not necessary.

• Just to explore your hard drive from another point of view type in the following. 
• dir c:\  
  to see a list of files and folders in the root directory of the c: drive.
  (The same list you'd see if you double clicked My Computer | Local disk (c: ))
• dir c:\windows
  to see a list of files and folders in the windows folder of your c: drive. Note the system32 folder.
• and finally
  dir c:\windows\system32\ /p      (there's a space between \ and /p)
  which shows all those files one "page" at a time. A key press advances through the list. Under the M's you'll see msimg32.dll which is the file that seems to be corrupted.

Drive D: is a partition on the hard drive that seems to contain a virgin copy of the system files. Its organization mirrors that of the C: drive in that it contains a windows directory which has a system32 directory which contains the msimg32.dll file.

 

You can't do any damage by just looking. 

The next step is to copy a good file to replace the corrupt file.

If you aren't careful, you can to some damage by this process.

(If you get the syntax backwards, you could replace a good file with the corrupt file.)

 

The syntax is: copy sourcedrive:\sourcepath\filename destinationdrive:\destinationpath\filename

The good file is on drive d:

The corrupt file is on drive c:

 

Let's practice by making a backup copy of msimg32.dll.

Type in:

copy d:\windows\system32\msimg32.dll c:\msimg32.dll
(There's a space before d: and before c: )

(This places it in the root directory on the C: drive which you probably ought to delete when you boot back into windows.)

 

Let's check to see if you were successful.

Type 

dir c:

msimg32.dll should be in the list of files.

 

Now for the real thing. Type in

copy d:\windows\system32\msimg32.dll c:\windows\system32\msimg32.dll

(there's a space before d: and a space before c: )

You get a warning message advising you that the file already exists and asking you to confirm your action.

Double check the syntax. If it's right, go ahead and OK the replacement.

If you didn't get the warning message you should double check the syntax as well.

 

That's it. Back out until you see a restart option and restart your computer. With any luck at all it should cruise through to a normal log on.

 

A little tedious perhaps but nowhere near as tedious as having to install a new os and recovering all your program and data files.

 

Good luck.