I have a friend with a problem. He a few computer issues with spyware and what he thought was a virus. He mentioned just doing a system restore to and earlier time. I told him it was worth a shot, so he did it and now when he starts his computer all he gets is a blue screen of death that reads:
stop: C0000221 {bad image checksum}
The image gdi32.dll is possibly corrupt. The header checksum does not match the computed checksum.
Anyone know what is causing this or more importantly how to fix?
EDIT: I did find these two links:
As far as fixing this, replacing the corupt file seems to be the most logical choice, but since he is unable to start the computer because of this blue screen of death, how do I replace the file? Should it still let me load in safe mode? Then I can change it like that?
Edit/Delete Message
You could try safe-mode although I don’t know if it will work because gdi32.dll is used in creating the visual aspect of Windows.
Other Options:
You could try loading windows into the command prompt and replace the file through there. Also there is the Windows recovery console on the CD if you load it in and boot from the CD.
Also you could download a live CD version of Linux which will allow you to boot into Linux from the CD without installing anything. After you do that you can replace the DLL.
Here is a link to a copy of the DLL file that is causing the problem:
How would I go about loading windows into the command prompt to replace the file when windows doesn’t load? That sucks about safe mode…didn’t realize the .dll had to do with visual aspects of windows.
The windows recovery console on the CD, I assume you’re talking about Windows XP CD? I went into the BIOS and tried to boot from CD, but that didn’t work either. Or are you talking about something else?
hmm yes I was talking about the Windows install CD which will let you repair a copy of Windows XP. It is odd that it doesn’t work for you, and if it doesn’t you may have a bigger problem then just that corrept file.
To boot into the command prompt: after the computer has finished its checks you hit F8 until a menu pops up asking how you want to load windows. One of the options there should be the command prompt. You’ll have to have the file on some sort of disk and then the commands to replace the file will look something like:
cd "the name of the drive and director with the replacement file in it (without quotes)"
copy gdi32.dll C:\\WINDOWS\\system32
That is assuming Windows is on the C drive. Also you might want to take a copy of gdi32.dll from a working version of Windows XP like maybe the computer you are working on? Instead of the link I provided just so you get the correct version.
Also, if when you replace the file and you notice that other files start becoming corrupt it is usally a sign that your hard drive is dieing in which case you will need to get a new one and try to pull as much data off the old one as possiable before it completley dies.
Off Topic:
Permantly I live in Northern Kentucky but as for the moment I’m attending the Univeristy of Kentukcy so I’m in Lexington.
I finally figured out how to boot from the XP CD…seems that I had the CD in the wrong drive (athough I didn’t think that would matter.) My friend has a CDRW and a DVD drive, and I had the XP CD in the CDRW at first and it wouldn’t boot from it, so I changed the location and put it in the DVD drive and it worked. Dumb me I guess…on my Dell I can use either drive to read CD’s.
So I get it to boot from the CD and I get to the point of where it asks which partition I want install too. I was kinda lost on this, but I selected the C: partition NTFS with the most amount of space (is that right?) From what I understand it should have asked me to format the exsisting harddrive but it didn’t…so I kept following the on screen directions and installed everything. The computer loads up and when windows loads, the only icons on the desktop is the recycle bin, and the monitor resolution is stuck at 16 bit color at 640 x 480 and wont budge off that. The keyboard will not work either. Tried to change the resoution to higher, but not working.
Also from what I understand, it should have asked me to enter the product id. It did not ask me for that either, so…
Do you know what’s going on now? Did I select a wrong partition or something?
What you did was install a new copy of windows unto the C: Drive.
If you wanted to delete everything you could have had to select that on the screen where you choose the partion I think you have to hit the D key to delete and start over.
As for where you are now… You need to install all of his drivers. Once you install the video driver that should correct your res problem and if he has a werid keyboard (such as a USB one) you will need to install the drivers for that as well.
It probably didn’t ask for the product id because it detected it from the pervious install.
Yeah I went ahead and installed it on the C: drive. Yeah, and it also told me it detected a previous install. Would all the drivers I need also be on that XP reinstall CD? I looked breifly but couldn’t find anything…it was late last night though.
I’m thinking it’s probably easier to just go back and delete the partitions and start clean maybe?
Thanks for all of your help thus far. Don’t think I’d have made it this far with out ya.
The drivers won’t be located on the CD. If the computer was built by a company say Dell then the drivers should all be on their website. If the computer was custom built you will have to find out what hardware they are running and go to the manfuactures website to get the drivers.
Also they might be on the CDs that came with the computer if it was made by a company or if he had it built hopefully he has all his driver CDs somewhere.
Well with the crappy install from last night it wouldn’t allow us to get back on the net to even try and download the drivers. It kept saying the resolution was to low for insight broadband. So hopefully doing this clean install will make everything alright.
If you still can’t get on the internet after the full re-install I would download the drivers on another computer (at least the video drivers) burn them to a CD and then install them that way.
Yeah, still a no go. I didn’t actually go over to my friends house, but he went through it and deleted all of the partitions and reinstalled XP and still no icons are showing up on the desktop, and the resolution is stuck on 640x480. So don’t know?
That’s a good idea about the drivers though…just get them on my computer and take them over to him. Still don’t know what to do about the icons and such not showing up.
Yeah you’re right…I’m an idiot. That hit me last night around 11 pm.
He finally got it to work after trying a clean install a couple times. I wasn’t there though. I think everything is good to go though now. Again, I really appreciate your willingness to help!