dell inspiron 1210

[scrapykillz]

hi my laptop has changed all the icons are adobe and when i try and open it it is saying "windows cannot open this file: file: rundle32.exe" and it's doing this on all the programmes i can not reinstall windows as it will not pick up the dvd rom which is external and i can not connect to the internet. also can not do a system restore as i get all the way to the last bit where u click next and nothin happens any help would be very nice thanks for looking

[MorriSoft]

Originally Posted by scrapykillz

hi my laptop has changed all the icons are adobe and when i try and open it it is saying "windows cannot open this file: file: rundle32.exe" and it's doing this on all the programmes i can not reinstall windows as it will not pick up the dvd rom which is external and i can not connect to the internet. also can not do a system restore as i get all the way to the last bit where u click next and nothin happens any help would be very nice thanks for looking

This sounds very peculiar..

Firstly, you mention all icons are now adobe ones? This would suggest your file associations have become messed up somehow, but at the same time, not being able to get online, and not detecting the ext dvd-rom, suggests something more malicious is at work.

Do you have antivirus software installed? If yes, what, and when were the virus definitions last updated?

Have you installed/changed anything recently? Anything like that could help.

Also, how old is the laptop and when did it first start to display symptoms?

[scrapykillz]

Originally Posted by MorriSoft

This sounds very peculiar..

Firstly, you mention all icons are now adobe ones? This would suggest your file associations have become messed up somehow, but at the same time, not being able to get online, and not detecting the ext dvd-rom, suggests something more malicious is at work.

Do you have antivirus software installed? If yes, what, and when were the virus definitions last updated?

Have you installed/changed anything recently? Anything like that could help.

Also, how old is the laptop and when did it first start to display symptoms?

there is no anti virus software on the system and like i said i can not get no exe rogrammes to run nothin at all i really have no idea

[Mickha]

You can get some free anti virus software, like AVG or Avast, which will do a reasonable job, and running nothing leaves your computer wide open.
Try booting up in safe mode, either by pressing the F8 key on boot up, or go to start, Run and type in msconfig click the boot tab and select safe mode, then restart your laptop. Once in safe mode try a system restore.
You will probably need to load some anti virus, and anti malware, software and perform a thorough scan of you hard drive, personally I would do a back up and fresh installation, although be careful what you back up as you might also include any viruses currrently on your laptop.

[scrapykillz]

Originally Posted by Mickha

You can get some free anti virus software, like AVG or Avast, which will do a reasonable job, and running nothing leaves your computer wide open.
Try booting up in safe mode, either by pressing the F8 key on boot up, or go to start, Run and type in msconfig click the boot tab and select safe mode, then restart your laptop. Once in safe mode try a system restore.
You will probably need to load some anti virus, and anti malware, software and perform a thorough scan of you hard drive, personally I would do a back up and fresh installation, although be careful what you back up as you might also include any viruses currrently on your laptop.

sounds good apart from i can not run no exe programmes and i can restore but it gets all the way to the end the last click next button and dos nothin

[Mickha]

It wont if you have a virus stopping it, hopefully running it in safe mode will bypass this.
If you have access to a PC I'd consider removing the hard drive, from your laptop, buying a 2.5 to 3.5 adapter, they are very cheap and available on the net or from a PC shop, and fitting it in your PC, changing the drive to a slave.
You can then use any anti virus software, on the PC, to scan the drive, or copy your documents and then format the drive.
As you state you can't load XP, using your laptop, you will have to load an earlier Operating System, like Windows 98, or ME, and then you can return the drive, to your laptop, and use the XP disk to upgrade.

[Simond]

Is the problem with a reinstall that the laptop cannot boot from an external drive? As I would expect this machie to be able to boot from a USB drive (I assume thats what you have) Are there any boot options in the bios or can you press a function key to enter boot options on start up? Can you even get into the Bios. As the other guy suggests it definately sounds like a virus.