Programs won't open. Associations seem to be broken. Any advice?

Question

I've been trying to fix my sister's computer all afternoon (over the phone), and I am having absolutely no luck helping her. All of her program associations are .lnk, System Restore won't work, neither will regedit and the pc won't boot from cd either, so I can't even walk her thru a re install. I have asked a friend of mine who deals more in hardware than I do, and he said to tell her to get a new hard drive. And no, I can't actually go to her place because she lives 1200 miles away, and she doesn't have any money to spend on a housecall tech.

Any other ideas before I go buy her a new drive?

Ok, I told her how to create the propper associations (I'm not an idiot, thanks very much), and she tells me that nothing happens. The "hourglass goes, and then just stops and nothing happens." She told me this happened after she installed a bunch of MS updates.

And yes, my brother knows how to install hardware. He could pop in a new drive if he had to.

Answer 1

I doubt she needs a new hard drive.

1) Retry a system restore after booting safe mode

2) In nomal or safe mode:
Start> Run> enter "sfc.exe /scannow" in the run box.
Run. You will need the windows XP disk. This utility will check all system files against the disk and repair if needed.

System File Checker (sfc.exe)
http://www.updatexp.com/scannow-sfc.html
http://www.networkclue.com/os/Windows/commands/sfc.aspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/185836
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310747

3) You could have her ship it to you with the disks.
You fix it and send it back.

4) Reinstallation problem:

She probably needs either to enable the bios to allow booting from the CD or needs a floppy boot disk to start the computer and install the CD drivers to allow installing windows from the windows CD .


Floppy boot disks:

If she is using WIN 98 a floppy boot disk should have come with the 98 CD.

If she is using XP someone will have to make the floppy boot disks per directions below.

How to obtain Windows XP Setup boot disks
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994

Windows XP Home Edition Utility: Setup Disks for Floppy Boot Install
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&familyid=e8fe6868-6e4f-471c-b455-bd5afee126d8

The Windows XP startup disk allows computers without a bootable CD-ROM to perform a new installation of the operating system. The Windows XP startup disk will automatically load the correct drivers to gain access to the CD-ROM drive and start a new installation of Setup.

Answer 2

its not the hard drive,,its the system,,get the xp disc and walk her through repairing her system,,,if you buy a new hard drive as you know the drive wont have an operating system on it..so get the xp cd,,this is more likely to work for you,,if this doesn't work then you buy a new hard drive,,which would mean that you needed both anyway.after the system is repaired she wil still need to get the latest security updates\files and patches from windows update Including SP2 or the system will be out of date

Answer 3

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Answer 4

After reading what you said, it sounds as if her hd did crash. The thing is, if she cannot afford a tech to come out--can she put the new drive in by herself. They are simple to install, but can she afford someone to come out if she cannot put it in?My hd crashed not long ago, and I know how she feels. Has she tried starting in Safe Mode or Last known good?

Answer 5

I'm assuming you are stating that ALL programs now show this .lnk file association? If so, she will need to change each program to it's required association ...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307859

if you need more assistance, contact me.

Answer 6

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Life's a ****** and then you die.



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