Problem with msi.dll corruption or invalid

Terrorsquad1990

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Sep 29, 2015
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After multiple overclocking failures and forced/failed restarts/POST's, I have a problem with msi.dll files. I cannot open any Office software and some other software apart from it.

It gives an error stating "...EXE is invalid" with a long message containing my System32 path and msi.dll.

I've read on the internet lots of ppl having this issue after forced restarts of the system and/or failed POST's but they're stuck in how to fix it. So am I!

- I tried to run Cmd in Safe Mode (admin) and try sfc /scannow which doesn't work: http://imgur.com/itzyy72
- I tried a System Repair but it only let me go as far as few hours AFTER the problem was already there (I did run it though but problem remains)
- I browsed around for software but they all seems to be not free (and virus)
- I would've Clean Install Windows 8 to spare me all the hastle (aside for downloading/installing everything back >_>) but I do not have the CD as this was installed prior when I bought the PC. However, I do have the key which I found through Belarc Advisor. (or a Windows 10 installation if you would suggest that)
- My OS is Windows 8.1 (x64) and is on my SSD, which is almost full (120GB and 11GB free)

I'm wondering if there's any other way of repairing this?

Also I'm quite new to software and installations so if you might have suggestions, I would love to be able to understand it 😛 (noob-friendly)

Cheers
 


thats the problem: I dont know what is missing, if its even missing at all. I rarely get the error message saying something about "system32", only once a day. Also I have no idea on how to install those files.

When I'm trying to start an Office program, this is the error I'm mostly getting: http://imgur.com/YjT60jj

So it's not telling me anything except "Problem with shortcut" in the header and a Chinese symbol. Some thought it was a illegal Office installation but it's not that. It should be something corrupt and maybe with the registry (following some websites)

When I scanned my PC for msi.dll issues, it scanned over 600 errors, so it's not only Office although I don't know what else is corrupt.

My PC is trying to do an update for the past 2-3 days now and it can't even install the update, it re-tries everytime I restart the PC. So surely it's not because of Office itself.. I'm really stuck here

 
msi.dll is for Microsoft Installer, so if you're missing it, that would probably break most Microsoft software such as updates and office.

You don't need to install anything with a .dll file. Just extract the msi.dll file from the zip archive and move it to the location it needs to be in. The only difficulty is knowing where that is. I'm on a public computer right now and won't be home for a few hours, so I can't check where it is on my computers.

Regardless, if you're having issues with other things too, then you might need to reinstall windows to fix everything. As for 600 errors, well, that might be true, it might not. Most programs that do things like "cleaning" the PC will vastly over-exaggerate what's wrong, if anything. Oftentimes what a program thinks is an error is actually how it is supposed to be, it's just the program that supposedly has an error functions in an odd way.

That error message with office is something I have not seen before. I agree in that it is almost certainly data corruption and a reinstall of windows is probably necessary to fix that. I'm not aware of any other way, especially if there is also damage to Windows itself.

Is your copy of Windows a retail copy or an OEM copy? If it's retail, then you should be able to find a .iso download for windows 8.1 and use the key you have to reinstall. If it's OEM, then your options are more limited because you'd need the OEM's recovery media and that usually costs a little money and needs to be delivered by mail.
 


I think its retail since I do have the key though.
However, if I re-install Windows 8, I'll lose Microsoft Office right? It's not like I bought it, since I didn't activate it yet (key) but I guess I wont be able to use it anymore?

If you want, I can wait a couple of hours to see if we can fix it with the msi.dll zips. Problem is I really don't know if there's more than 1 msi.dll which is corrupt.. If so, I dont know which I need to replace by the zips xD
 
Yes, you would lose Microsoft Office if you reinstalled windows. If Office isn't activated yet, then is it just a trial version that will expire in a few months? Usually, if you buy MS office yourself, you can download the installer from Microsoft and install it on multiple machines simultaneously so long as you still have the key.

Sure, we can wait.
 


I actually had the Trail Office for like.. 2-3 years without any problems 😛

And cheers for helping trying to figure it out! :)
 


The problem seems to be bigger than just Office:

Went to Control Panel and tried to enter the Programs tab but it doesn't let me. All other Control Panels work fine.
Just the one we use to remove programs doesn't open lol.. Oh god xD

Btw, I just remembered: if I'm going to re-install Windows, I might have a rpoblem when it comes to drivers though, I dont have any of the drivers for my PC (except for the GPU which you can download) but not for the rest.. Will that be a problem?
 


That might still be caused by msi.dll.

Look for your drivers online. They're all online somewhere. You can usually find them on the manufacturers' websites for each piece of hardware and much of them will already be handled by Windows when installing. For example, motherboard/chipset drivers, network drivers, and audio drivers are often found by Windows during installation, at least to a point where they function enough to go to the manufacturer's site and download newer/specific driver versions.

Last time I installed Windows on my older Toshiba laptop a few weeks ago, it found all the drivers it needed to on its own except for the graphics driver.

sometimes there are issues, but so long as you can still connect to the internet to get drivers or at least download them on another computer and move them over with a usb flash drive or something, there shouldn't be any problems.
 


I also never re-installed Windows 8 with a SSD, though. How will the re-instal process go? Also, I dont have any external driver to save Windows 8 on except an USB with 8GB and iPod of 32GB.. Will I also lose everything set on the connected HDD (which I use for storage mostly)?

Also, I only got 11GB free space on the SSD so wont that be a problem when selecting this drive as the one running the OS at install? Or will the old OS be erased from it/replaced by the new?

Kinda want to ask the questions now before its too late and I cant search on the internet if I re-install W8 and encounter problems lol
 
I tried to Reset Windows 8 by going through Safe Mode and it doesn't let me Reset NOR going factory preset either, because "files are missing"... Wow, my PC is totally fucked up for some reason. I can't seem to download Windows 8 from anywhere either, I wonder how I'll be able to re-install Windows 8 without CD...

EDIT: I found a way to get a Medium onto an USB and only requires 4GB. I'll prolly just re-install it right away and see if it fixes any of my problems (asside from downloading and installing every single game again ;o )
 
How much of your current data do you need to keep? If you can move what you need onto the ipod without it running out of space, then you could do a clean install, wiping the SSD first.

If you had more space on the SSD, like 25GB, then you could just install a new copy of windows and all of your old data would be kept (windows moves it into a folder called windows.old). This is not ideal, especially if there is data corruption where formatting the SSD to completely wipe it would be best, but this is an option. You could try clearing as much space as you can by deleting things you don't need or are just completely broken by the data corruption.

I'll be back in a bit again and Ill find you a link to a legal copy of windows 8. Microsoft usually hides a download link or two on their website somewhere.
 


You're not allowed to put anything else on the iPod so decided to do a full wipe. Everything works.. for now. I do notice my system hangs sometimes, takes a while to load something small. I think it's from overclocking but not sure..

But my msi.dll issue seems to be gone, though. I'll need to see if I can get Office back one way or the other to check
 


Ye but sometimes even running Prime95 is making my system freeze. Althoughthe tests were good if my system didnt freeze though.

Now, I've gone back to the default clock speed.
Im now downloading and installing everything again.

What I did notice is when installing my fav game on my SSD (where my OS is) is making my PC freeze every 10 seconds aswel, for about 30sec - 1minute. My SSD goes to 100% load. I remember when I installed the game before on SSD? I didnt have this problem.

Anyway on installing it on my SSD without freezing my system every 10s?
 
If running Prime95 made it freeze, then there was definitely a stability issue, especially if the freeze occurs in less than a few hours of running Prime95.

When the SSD goes to 100% load, is the process that is causing that full load steam, or is there another process running when you install steam games and this other process is the one loading up the SSD? There might be an overzealous antivirus program trying to scan everything or a similar problem. Installing a game should not load up an SSD on its own, especially if it is installing from a download which can't possibly run fast enough to load up an SSD on its own.
 


It's a really weird problem, just now when I was gaming (from SSD #2) my SSD #1 went on full load again and froze my PC. I do have AVG but I never experienced issues before I did a Clean Install so wouldnt know why I would now. Might explain if its doing something weird every hour or so, I'll have to check its settings. I'll keep you posted, bud!

And no, I'm not yet downloading my Steam library and its not running in the background.
EDIT: I got steam and everything to do with gaming set on SSD #2 so it shouldnt be reaching out to SSD#1 that much

Cheers