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Dll troubles


AnnieMS

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winxp sp3 on thinkpad x41

Today I went to open a pdf and got the message that adobe's core dll hadn't loaded. Repair thru add/remove programs didn't work.

The tablet's onscreen keyboard won't open and 2 dll's are listed as faulting modules in event viewer. Access Connections [lenovo software] crashes on startup and lists another faulting module dll. In the last month I've had to reinstall firefox twice, word and paperport each once.

Disk defrag wouldn't work but running system file checker fixed that.

At one point chkdsk, disk defragger, device manager & I forget what all wouldn't open - again system file checker fixed that and event viewer listed several file replaced by SFC.

I've had these "dll problems" since replacing my failing hdd and reinstalling via lenovo's recovery disks. I use avast 5.0 prof which updates itself daily or more often as needed and total scans have been neg. A scan by malwarebytes was also neg. I've used lenovo's toolbox, both inside winxp and from the thinkpad's recovery partition [outside winxp] to scan the cpu, memory, & hdd [including surface scan] and everything checked out. A scan by HD Tune also found no problems w/ the hdd.

Any ideas what could be corrupting my dll cache? Or is some winxp function/file damaged?

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My external dvd drive is apparently not reading cds, but I burned the iso to a dvd and am running the memory test now. It's been running 13 hours, 10 passes, 0 errors. Do I just let it run for 24 hrs or do I press c and configure it to do a 24 hr test? I did something like that w/ windows memory diagnostic on another computer. I didn't find any instructions on the memtest webpage. What are the scroll lock and unlock options for?<br><br>Also, could these dll problems result from bad usb or firewire connections to an external hdd or an external hdd going bad? Winxp has slowed down/frozen when I've had my ext hdd attached recently and I've had error messages about being unable to write the $mft file to the external hdd drive letter. The dll problems started way before that problem, tho. The same drive attached to my mac hasn't given me any problems yet, but I just read from it when attached to the mac. I copy files to it when it's attached to the tablet pc.<br>

Edited by AnnieMS
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I'd say let it finish a 24h run. If you have a Windows Memory Test handy, you can also give it a 6h run, just in case. But I think you've already proven the RAM is sound. Would you consider reinstalling from scratch? You might acquire a full drive sector-by-sector image, just in case, before doing it...

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I plan to run memtest for 24 hrs. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't supposed to configure it to run different tests for that 24 hrs. My windows memory diagnostic is on cd I think. If I can find it I'll try burning it to a dvd.

How do you acquire a sector by sector image? Is that a scan that directly scans the hdd so that the bad sectors compensated for and usually hidden by the os or the hdd controller are seen? I checked Hitachi and lenovo for that type of utility but neither had one for my particular hdd that I could find. I've run the same surface scans thru lenovo's toolbox and HD Tune that found the bad sectors on the previous hdd.

I've been reading about making an installation disc for winxp tab ed so that I could try a clean install, but the instructions are for sp2. Since my tablet is updated to sp3 I don't think it would work. I might could reinstall to sp2 via recovery options, make the install disc, then do a clean install. Reinstalling from the recovery partition or the recovery discs [iffy w/ my external optical drive] is a mess since it puts the machine back to 2005. I was hoping after the last install to figure out how to do backup cloning of the hdd so that I never had to update both winxp and lenovo's drivers and weed out the bloat again.By the time I got this latest installation to the point where Windows update didn't find any more updates and lenovo's software update didn't list any critical or important updates I started having one problem after another or several problems together. Maybe if I could do a clean install w/ uptodate lenovo drivers and then just have to update winxp, winxp tab ed would work.

Tripredacus,

I don't know how those br's w/ bracket got in my post. I just started a new paragraph - via the enter key. I wondered what they were when I posted. I'll try not to do whatever I did again.

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Usually the drive makers provide imaging tools. Seagate, for instance, provides Acronis, which is quite good. Then, there is the free Partition Saving, which can do full disks also, despite its name. I've been discussing imaging on some unrelated threads, the latest which is this (and there are pointers on it for the older posts in other threads). There's also a sticky thread about imaging programs. In any case, the bullet-proof backup is a full-disk, sector-by-sector "dumb" cold image, which must be acquired (= collected) while booted from a bootable CD (or DVD or diskette or other device), since the disk containing the OS must be passive during the imaging (that's what the "cold" part means). The "dumb" part means that the imaging program should make no assumptions and just copy all the disk sectors, without skiping any of them.

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I've read the links on disk imaging problems, but I'm going to need to read them again. I've only associated disk images w/ backup cloning programs - not w/ diagnostic uses. But I guess the ability to read the hdd directly at the sector level for troubleshooting purposes lead to backup cloning programs? I've been thinking in terms of diagnostic scans rather than disk imaging. Back in the old FAT days I think it was called a raw scan or low level scan and when the format changed to ntfs that level scan wasn't available for awhile. The purpose of doing one, per my understanding, was to note the number/frequency of bad sectors being hidden as a sign of impending drive failure. In my case it would be sectors going bad corrupting my files, then being hidden by the hdd controller. Is that what I'd be looking for?

I'll check the hitachi and lenovo support sites again for a utility. The thinkpad has a Hitachi Travelstar C4K60 and the diagnostic utilities excluded that drive, but things may have changed so I'll recheck.

The memtest scan ran for 24+ hours w/ no errors reported.

My hdd was replaced under warranty and may well be rebuilt so I think there is a chance it's the culprit. I've also suspected that 1) the lenovo winxp tab ed install is flawed or 2) the "automatic" update processes aren't automatic enough or 3) winxp tab ed itself is a problem. Was winxp tab ed around long enough before it was replaced by vista and then win 7 by those who could afford to for people to determine if it was equivalent to winxp? Was it basically winxp prof w/ a few changes that shouldn't affect its stability? I had 1 winxp prof computer and 1 winxp tab ed computer and the tablet always had way more crashes and error messages than the winxp.

If there is no hardware cause for the tablet's problems I will need to do a reinstall, but I don't think it will solve anything unless I do it differently. I checked w/ lenovo support and the tablet isn't hardware compatible w/ win 7 - one video thingie I think. The thinkpad is a neat little tablet - if only it would work.

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I rechecked hitachi and their utilities exclude the C4K60 series. Lenovo support only offers a "quick test" that I've already run both in windows and from the thinkpad's recovery partition [outside windows] I don't think the scan from the recovery partition is a sector by sector scan because it runs too quickly [as per its name] and it doesn't give you a sector by sector report. Maybe it checks sector headers for that 7 that means bad - I don't think so but now that I understand disk image type scans better I can run it again. I think it's the same test as from w/in windows. In which case it runs a funnel test, a random seek test, a surface scan that checks for accurate reading and a surface scan that writes and then reads to check for accuracy. It also checks the SMART status. I just remember it ran quickly and found no problems.

<br><br>There's also a firmware update on lenovo that checks the firmware revision number, tells you if you need it and offers to do the update. I haven't run it because the supported model numbers don't match the model number of the new drive. The firmware revision date is 2007 and my drive was replaced in 2010, so theoretically it shouldn't need a firmware update.

<br><br>I don't know why the model # changed w/ the new drive. Supposedly per forum posts the only 1.8 drives that fit in the thinkpad x41 are the hitachi travelstar C4K60's. It's a pata drive connected via an adapter to a sata interface. I don't think hitachi still makes the C4K60's and IBM doesn't make drives anymore, so I don't know what hdd I have now exactly. I was guessing maybe lenovo put a C4K60 HDA in a new casing. . Hence my suspicion that the drive could have problems.

<br><br>Is there a 3rd party utility that will run a diagnostic sector scan? It doesn't have to be free if it's not too expensive.

Edited by AnnieMS
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Sorry for not replying any earlier, AnnieMS! I'm more busy than usual these days. What I had in mind was not so much testing, but creating a good and faith-worthy backup from the present state of your disk, so that we might then mess with it in many ways and still be able to restore things to just as bad as they were when we started. It also helps for pursuing an avenue of troubleshooting for some time, then giving it up, and starting again *from the exact same point*, along another avenue of troubleshooting. In short, I think along the line of the old Greek physicians: "First of all, do no harm!". The free Partition Saving, which I had mentioned before, should be good enough for this purpose.

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Thanks dencorso, <br><br><br>Edit<br>I'm going to have to do a reinstall. I found an old [2006] article on making a winxp te install disk using the i386 folder on the thinkpad and a winxp disk. Since my tablet is sp3 and my install disc is sp2 this may not work - then I'll use the lenovo recovery disks. IF I get a good install this time around I can then make a backup w/ partition save.<br>end edit.<br><br><br>I read over the info at the partition saving website,  made a bart pe disc w/ partition saving on it and booted from it w/ my ext hdd attached.  I found a partition on the ext hdd by trying different drive letters in command prompt until I recognized the folders of one of the partitions on the ext hdd. I wrote down the partition's name when I booted back into windows - from the instructions that's how I'll recognize it in partition saving.<br><br><br>I didn't understand from the instructions exactly how this works. There were some instructions about running partsave.exe within windows

to create files and dividing those files into sizes to burn on dvd's  - I don't think I need to do that since I'm using the windows version vs the DOS version and I'm not trying to save an ntfs partition onto itself.  I don't think I have to mount the ntfs volume on the ext hdd either. I do have to turn CTRL + ALT + DEL off in windows before shutting down and rebooting into bart's pe altho I don't know why. I don't CTRL + ALT + DEL or login when bart's pe loads.<br><br><br> I used the latest version download vs the savepart.cab plug-in download for bart pe. I loaded the folder that savepart installed when given the option building bart's pe and savepart.exe is one of my choices  when I browse the run command, so I think it will work. There weren't any instructions on what to do w/ the cab file download. I guess you just point to it when given the option building and bart's pe can extract from cab files?<br><br><br>So do I run partition saving and direct it to that partition on the ext hdd when it gets to the "saving mount" part? It doesn't look from the screen shots that I can direct partsave to a folder, but only to a partition. Will partsave create a file on the partition w/out overwriting the folders/files already there?<br><br><br>I don't know why I'm getting those br's in my posts when I hit the enter key and I don't know how to get rid of them. <br><br><br>Edit: I had to reinstall firefox again - it crashed on opening. Now Word is crashing on opening - but in a continuous loop of crash-automatically reopen-crash so that I have to shut down windows to end the process. It doesn't hang around in task manager long enough for me to end it there. I still can't open the tablet onscreen keyboard and I get numerous messages that acs.exe has crashed on loading windows.<br>I reran malwarebytes and avast scans and nothing was found. I'm rerunning system file checker. I redid the lenovo quick hdd scan from the lenovo recovery partition last week and as it runs it shows sector numbers and says 0 errors so it appears to be checking for bad sectors on the windows partition. The log report I get at the end doesn't say anything, tho. If I didn't watch the scan being done I wouldn't have seen the 0 errors. <br>

Edited by AnnieMS
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