Loads of .dll files randomly disappeared

[Mike_262]

Hey everyone,

So, I've looked everywhere for answers to this and wondered if anyone had any ideas before I go nuclear and reinstall Windows.

I was watching a livestream, went away to get food, came back and for some reason everything had crashed. I rebooted my PC and then several programs just straight up refused to start. When I tried to launch them, I got various error messages saying some .dll files were missing:

gdi32full.dll
shell32.dll
oleaut32.dll
wininet.dll

There might be more, but these are the ones I keep being told about. Does anyone have any ideas as to why this might have happened, or any suggestions for ways to fix it?

I've tried running the sfc scannow command and it got to 67% verification before saying it couldn't complete the process.

Thanks in advance,
Mike

 

[GhislainG]

Hard disk or SSD? Did you run the manufacturer's tools to determine what the issue is? Reinstalling Windows may help, but the issue will come back if the drive is defective.

 

[Mike_262]

Hard disk or SSD? Did you run the manufacturer's tools to determine what the issue is? Reinstalling Windows may help, but the issue will come back if the drive is defective.

Errmmm... pretty sure it isn't an SSD. Think it's just a hard disk. What kind of manufacturer's tools could I use?

Thanks for the info.

 

[GhislainG]

It depends on the manufacturer. Use Seatools for a Seagate drive, Data Lifeguard for a Western Digital drive, etc. All drive manufacturers provide tools to check if the drive really has issues.

 

[Mike_262]

It depends on the manufacturer. Use Seatools for a Seagate drive, Data Lifeguard for a Western Digital drive, etc. All drive manufacturers provide tools to check if the drive really has issues.

Thanks very much for this. I did a memory diagnostic and it came up clear. Any thoughts on what I could do next?

 

[GhislainG]

It could be the motherboard, but I strongly suggest you start by running the manufacturer diagnostics for your hard disk.

 

[Mike_262]

It could be the motherboard, but I strongly suggest you start by running the manufacturer diagnostics for your hard disk.

I tried installing SeaTools but it couldn't due to the missing dlls - gdi32full and shell32, specifically. 🙁

Any other ideas? (sorry for the endless questions)

 

[GhislainG]

Since you downloaded Seatools, then you have a Seagate hard disk. Windows is broken; therefore you should use Seatools for DOS and burn the image to a CD (I presume you know how to burn an image and you already have the tools, but if you don't then visit http://www.imgburn.com/).

 

[Mike_262]

Since you downloaded Seatools, then you have a Seagate hard disk. Windows is broken; therefore you should use Seatools for DOS and burn the image to a CD (I presume you know how to burn an image and you already have the tools, but if you don't then visit http://www.imgburn.com/).

Thank you again. After some fiddling I got the HDD tested. It couldn't complete the 'long' tests and failed the HDD (also couldn't fix the issues), so I'm guessing that means it needs replacing?

 

[GhislainG]

That's correct. That happened to me with a Seagate hard disk, but fortunately it still was under warranty.

 

[Mike_262]

That's correct. That happened to me with a Seagate hard disk, but fortunately it still was under warranty.

Thank you sir. You've been a big help today.

I did a fresh install of Windows 10 and it seems to have patched things for now, but I'll create a restore point and look into getting a new HDD. Any recommendations of where to go/how much to spend?

 

[GhislainG]

I've always had good reliability with Western Digital Black hard disks, but I'd also consider other drives like the Seagate BarraCuda Pro that offers the same warranty. Unfortunately there's no guarantee that a more expensive hard disk won't fail and you still need to perform regular backups if your data is important.