missing mfc42.dll

Thank you for your quick response.  I am on the forum from my laptop.  Once I get out to the internet on my PC, I will see if I can get the scan to work.  Stay tuned, I may be back!

 

THAnks again,

~P

Try this, do a full service scan, be patient it may take some time to complete.

 

http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm

 

When the scan is done run the System File Checker on your PC as described in this article

http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/howto-24.html

If you have  a folder C:\I386 on your PC, you can extract the file from there. If not use the XP CD. To do this:

 

click start, run, type cmd, press enter or click OK.

 

In the command window that opens, type

 

expand C:\I386\mfc42dl_ C:\Windows\System32\mfc42.dll  <---- if extracting from C:\I386 folder; note spaces between expand and C and between _ and C

 

OR

 

expand D:\I386\mfc42.dl_ C:\Windows\System32\mfc42.dll  <---- if extracting from your  CD (if your optical drive is not D:, replace by the correct letter.

 

Press enter. You should get a a message in the command window that it is extracting and copying the file.

 

Note: some apps include mfc42.dll in their own program folders, and will look for it there rather than in the \system32 folder. So if the above does not solve the problem, please post the specific applications that say they cannot find mfc42.dll, and I can advise on where to put a copy.

Hi,

Well, I was trying to get out and run the scan that the last poster suggested.  However, the PC is moving so slow, I can't get even get to the site!

 

I will try what you suggested, hopefully the PC will cooperate.  There are specific apps that keep popping up that are looking for the file.  I don't remember them right now of course, but I will start a list.

 

By the way, why is this happening to my PC?

 

Thanks!

~P

I received an error message...

can't open output file: c:\windows\system32\mfc42.dll

 

Any suggestions?

 

I think there is a good possibility you have a virus or malware on the system. That or a failing hard drive. FYI the mfc42.dll was targeted by both the sobig virus and the xupiter malware. Do you have a good, functional antivirus such as AVG Free installed and running ? Also, do you use a anti-spyware utility such as Windows Defender ?

I don't have either of those, but had Norton.  I loaded McAfee the other day but haven't been able to access it yet.  I have had two instances where I have gotten message from Smartdrive saying that my hard drive may fail.  I did some disk clean up stuff and thought that since the error message went away that the drive was okay.

 

I don't know what the next step is here...  I have an external drive.  I suppose I should try to back my stuff up tonight if I can.

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

last desperate plea...

 

I have been able to back up most everything to my external drive.  The only thing I can't save is my .pst file in Outlook.  I can't get Outlook to open because outlook.exe is looking for the mfc42.dll file.  I see it on my computer, so why isn't if finding it??  I tried to just copy the pst file to another location and I got an error.  I would really like to salvage my email files if possible.  Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

~P

If you mean your Office Outlook .pst file, it is in

 

C:\Documents and Settings\your user name\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

 

As the local settings folder is hidden, in control panel, Folder options, view tab, you need to set show hidden files and folders (and also uncheck hide extensions of known file types so you can see the .pst extension), click apply, OK 

You can copy the outlook.post file, which containd all your emails, contacts, calendar, etc. to your external hard drive.

 

Later, when you are up and running again, put that file in some convenient folder, then in Outlook, File menu, import and export, and import from your saved file to get all your emails, contacts, etc. back into Outlook.

Thank you!  I was able to back up my .pst file.  Then a very kind "tech" friend walked me through a chkdsk process and looks like we fixed the problem with my hard drive.  I am still going to get a new one just in case.  He mentioned something about mirroring the hard drive??

 

Anyway, immediate crisis averted...

 

Thanks for all the help and suggestions!