"..." is not a valid windows image

juror · 10-10-2009 11:35am #1

I'm trying to fix a computer for a friend who recently had a power cut. Ever since the power cut (3/4 days ago) when he starts up windows he is met by multiple messages saying

"The application or DLL C:\WINDOWS\System32\... .dll is not a valid Windows image. Please check this against your installation disk."

... is in replace of the DLL name

Can anyone suggest what might be wrong and/or what needs to be done to fix it?
I haven't tried the installation disk in case i make it worse for him.

Thanks.

Kevster · 10-10-2009 12:58pm

Interesting problem... ...In all my years of being the PC family handyman, I think I've only heard that error message once. Which OS is it? - XP? Get a list of the DLL's that the OS is having issues with and try to get them from your Windows CD, and then just copy them across. I find that usually solves such problems.

Capt'n Midnight · 11-10-2009 6:30pm

it it actually says ... then just do a system restore.

there is no point waisting time trying to fix a potentially corrupt registry only to find out later other parts of it were also corrupt

Kevster · 11-10-2009 9:40pm

hmmm...maybe it's a corrupt Master File Table (MFT) instead? You could try to re-index the disk?

ActorSeeksJob · 11-10-2009 9:45pm

Would be a good idea to give the full file path

Sounds like malware to me though

Bodan · 11-10-2009 11:34pm

It could be any number of problems. As someone else has said, you will need to give us the full path, up to and including the name of the dll file.

RoadKillTs · 13-10-2009 1:46pm

Would be a good idea to give the full file path

Sounds like malware to me though

Ya, me too. Seen it a few times. not good if its the one im thinking off.

ronkmonster · 13-10-2009 2:08pm

Can u log in after that message appears?

if so, you could try run

sfc /scannow

it'll probably need the windows cd but it checks all the windows files are matching the originals

"..." is not a valid windows image

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