Need help from the DIS Computer Pro's again!

[lynxstch]

A few weeks ago, some helpful DIS'ers gave me some great advice when I had to reformat my Sony computer (with XP)..that all went fine, everything has worked great..till Saturday morning..
I went to go to add/remove programs to delete a game I had finished..as soon as I clicked on it, I got a box that said "an exception occurred while trying to run "C\WINDOWS\system32\shell32.dll,Control_RunDLLappw iz.cpl"
and then one of those 'do you want to send an error report to microsoft boxes..so I sent it..thought maybe there was a glitch..so rebooted the computer..same exception again..I tried system restore going back to yesterday..it said 'no changes have been made, so it can't restore'...the last time I know that it positively was working right was last Tues...if I go back and do a system restore before Tues. date..would that fix the problem?..or do you think running a scan disk for errors thing would?...any other suggestions? I really, really, really DON'T wanna have to reformat this thing again so soon! for now, I have been using the search function to take out anything I want to get rid of..but that's fairly inconvenient and I don't know if it's really taking everything out!
When we formatted, we put XP back in..put in service Pack 2...added service Pack 3..and upgraded IE to 8 instead of the 7 we had..in case any of that helps!
I tried posting on the Microsoft community board..but noone has replied..so I guess they don't know either..lol!
Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions!
Lynn

 

[OK!]

I'm not an expert, but I'd say your thought about creating a new restore point to last Tuesday night (or whenever it was that you know for sure everything was working OK) is a good place to start. Do you have your system set to download Windows updates automatically? It could have downloaded something that's causing the problem. When I get a new computer, the first thing I do is disable automatic updates. I want to be the one determining when I update things, darn it!

Good luck!!

 

[lynxstch]

I'm not an expert, but I'd say your thought about creating a new restore point to last Tuesday night (or whenever it was that you know for sure everything was working OK) is a good place to start. Do you have your system set to download Windows updates automatically? It could have downloaded something that's causing the problem. When I get a new computer, the first thing I do is disable automatic updates. I want to be the one determining when I update things, darn it!

Good luck!!

I too, want to pick and choose which updates I put in and when I put them in..I don't want to pay Microsoft $49 for an email answer..and I sure don't plan to call them at the rates they charge..I may check out some of the windows forums and see if I can find anyone else complaining of the same thing
Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[nd5056]

You may have the Hard Drive going bad (bad clusters). Open up My Computer, right click on Drive “C”, and select “Properties. Select second tab “Tools” and run error checking utility, first from the top.

Second possibility:

...I went to go to add/remove programs to delete a game I had finished..as soon as I clicked on it, I got a box that said "an exception occurred while trying to run "C\WINDOWS\system32\shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL appw iz.cpl"...

Was this a free game? Free games are next to those free screen savers in my books – loaded with adaware. Easiest thing to do, reinstall and stay away from those free games… .

 

[themarquis]

Are you saying that the error message only pops up when you're in add/remove programs and you're trying to delete that particular program?

It's most likely an issue with the game that you're trying to remove, not anything to do with your windows installation itself. A lot of games (esp. stuff you got for free online, like someone said!) cause mysterious problems.

Options:

a) ignore the problem and let the game just live on your computer forever (seriously -- unless it's taking up a lot of room, why bother?)

b) delete the game files manually (may work, may not)

c) look to see if the game has it's own "undelete" program in its game folder.

If this is a more general problem, i.e., you're unable to add/remove anything, here are some possibilities

a) I agree a system restore may work (it certainly won't hurt)

b) use the windows disk to fix errors (or whatever that is called ... windows repair?)

c) scan disk and repair bad segments

d) get adaware or some other adware remover program and let it delete anything it finds. (good idea regardless, esp. if you're downloading games online)

 

[lynxstch]

Are you saying that the error message only pops up when you're in add/remove programs and you're trying to delete that particular program?

It's most likely an issue with the game that you're trying to remove, not anything to do with your windows installation itself. A lot of games (esp. stuff you got for free online, like someone said!) cause mysterious problems.

Options:

a) ignore the problem and let the game just live on your computer forever (seriously -- unless it's taking up a lot of room, why bother?)

b) delete the game files manually (may work, may not)

c) look to see if the game has it's own "undelete" program in its game folder.

If this is a more general problem, i.e., you're unable to add/remove anything, here are some possibilities

a) I agree a system restore may work (it certainly won't hurt)

b) use the windows disk to fix errors (or whatever that is called ... windows repair?)

c) scan disk and repair bad segments

d) get adaware or some other adware remover program and let it delete anything it finds. (good idea regardless, esp. if you're downloading games online)

I used search feature to remove the game in question (shockwave game..we pay for a subscription to it with our month ISP bill),,never had this problem with any of their games..so I don't think that's it
Haven't tried scandisk yet...where do I find the windows repair thing?..I have a sony, only have the system recovery and applications disks..used these to format
I am already running Norton and windows Defender..but will try adaware and see if it finds anything..
lastly..I sent you a pm days ago..but you never answered..that's why I posted a new thread..hoping you would see it..lol!

Thanks for all the suggestions

 

[lynxstch]

You may have the Hard Drive going bad (bad clusters). Open up My Computer, right click on Drive “C”, and select “Properties. Select second tab “Tools” and run error checking utility, first from the top.

Second possibility:




Was this a free game? Free games are next to those free screen savers in my books – loaded with adaware. Easiest thing to do, reinstall and stay away from those free games… .

it's not just something that happened from a game..it won't let me access it at all without getting that exception error...I will run error checking utility again, but don't know if that will help!
Thanks for the suggestion!