Hardware·18,997 discussions

not executing programs

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i have a dell optiplex 320 that does not want to open up selected programs on the first attempt. Running xp pro sp2, ran virus scan (gui and bootable), malware, spyware scans, hdd scan, memory test, cpu test all clean. I cant even get sp3 on it, i get an error message stating “installation successfully completed” even though it just extracted it, not installed it, any suggestions?

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Clarifications

In reply to not executing programs

Clarifications

Little more information

In reply to not executing programs

Is it always the same programs that won’t open, or is it “random”? If it is the same programs all the time, are they in anyway related, such as they are all part of Microsoft Office, etc?

Little mre information

In reply to Little more information

sorry no its not the same program every time, appears like all executables

2 things to try

In reply to Little mre information

1) have you tried doing a system restore to a point in time before you were having this issue?

2) Boot to your Windows disk and do a repair installation (not the repair/recovery console). NOTE: Before doing a repair installation it is very important to backup any and all data you cannot lose. The one time you do not back up data is the one time you will end up losing it. Also, depending, you may need your Windows XP product key.

thought about it

In reply to 2 things to try

cant do system restore as for some reason it has been turned off previously as for the repair installation, i’ll give it a whirl. where would i get the product key for office for we no longer have it

M$ Product Keys can be got with Magic Jellybean Keyfinder

In reply to thought about it

http://www.soft82.com/download/windows/magical-jelly-bean-keyfinder/

But this really sounds like some kind of infection. So what did you use to and how did you scan this system?

Probably much more importantly did you start it in [b]Safe Mode[/b] before running the scans? If not then there could be infections that where not picked up because they where running processes at the time of the scans. 😉

Col

If there is no infection, or if it has been removed

In reply to thought about it

try the executable association fix here. For XP systems – if you aren’t using XP, use it as a guide to pull the correct info out of a computer with a properly functioning OS of the same type. (Of course, the entries may not be any different across OS versions, but check to be safe.)

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