Everything Missing & XP PC Not Working......Themed32.DLL Message

Associate

Hi all,

My Brother has got a PC with XP Professional on it.

The security suite on his PC is McAfee, the one SKY provide with their broadband.

A few weeks ago his PC got infected, and after running scans with Malwarebytes, SuperAntispyware, Spybot Seach & Destroy, Eset and McAfee several times, they all returned a clean bill of health. His PC was working fine after that.

A few days ago he turned his PC On and after going through the XP welcome page and the PC actually loading with the Desktop showing, he realised that everything had disappeared. All icons on desktop were missing, everything including the "Start" tab on the bottom left hand corner of the Desktop was missing as well. The only thing that could be seen was the background wallpaper he had previously saved on his Desktop. Impossible to check what files are still on the PC as
none of the functions that will enable this are working/visible.

Even when the mouse is right clicked nothing happens.


The following message automatically appears without you doing anything:

"This application has failed to start because themed32.dll was not found. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem"


On the left hand corner of the same message box it says:

"userinit.exe - Unable to Locate component"


He has left his PC at my house and after hooking it up, I can confirm all the above.



I was wondering if anyone knows what's wrong and can provide a solution, or is it best to do a full re-installation of XP?



(I hope any suggestions that require me to hook up his PC again and turn it ON are comprehensive and solve the problem........it's an absolute nightmare doing it due to the lack of space and clutter where my PC is!)



Thank you.

Jay

jessc_2001

Hi,

1st option would be to try booting the PC and seein if it will go into safe mode (basically start it up and keep pressing the F8 key and you should get a menu with the safe mode option)

If you can get it to boot into safe mode WITH all the icons you can try a System Restore to a point before the trouble started :

Click-->Start Button-->Programmes-->Accesories-->System tools-->System Restore

If the above does not work it would appear that the system is in a very sorry state and that they primary option left would be to get the recovery disc that the PC came with and do a clean install/repair.. This is much more involved...

Hopefully there is a back up of the documents etc from the Hard Drive..

gonzo127

if you want to back up all his files you can use the ubuntu LiveCD mode which will allow you to access his hard drive without making any lasting changes to the system, this will then allow you to copy all of his files onto another hard drive/memory stick before you start doing any repair/reinstall work on it.

otherwise you could always take out his hard drive and connect it up to your system and copy the files to your system

Associate

Just to add, his PC is actually a used one. So he doesn't have a Recovery Disc etc.

closed

ctrl alt del, new task, explorer

If that doesn't work, new task,

control - and try a system restore. - be careful to choose a restore point before infection

failing that, try these new tasks, and report back, your winlogon registry entry may be pointing to the infection, rather than explorer.

cmd
in the black box type c:\windows\system32\restore\rstrui.exe
regedit
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell = "Explorer.exe"

If you get it working, install malwarebytes and do a scan

tequilastew

This happens when "explorer" fails to start and is usually due to corrupt files rather then a virus. It may be that the themed32.dll file is corrupt and is stopping explorer from loading properly. The trick is to try and find out what the themed32 file is...? it could be part of some desktop/wallpaper theme that has become corrupt...? you would have to try to load safemode and see if you can set it all back to default.

Personally I would get an XP disk a run "repair a windows installation" it will reload all the windows files back on and should fix the problem. It is usually quicker to do this, than to try and track down and replace one corrupt file.

Associate

An update from me.....

I booted the system in Safe Mode, but it was in exactly the same state, with no icons on Desktop and Startup tab at the bottom left missing.

I pressed ctrl alt del, new task (I don't know if I was supposed to type anything at this point such as explorer.....nothing happened anyway when I typed)

I then clicked on the Browse button, in the same open window, then clicked on Start folder, Programmes, Accessories,System Tools - System Restore was missing. The only file inside System Tools was Internet Explorer which had the following written beside it: (No Add-Ons)

System Restore nowhere to be seen and I have absolutely no idea how else to look for it through Windows Task Manager or through Command prompt (if possible),

I went into Command prompt and as advised by "closed" typed the following:

c:\windows\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

I then pressed Enter, don't know if I was supposed to, but nothing happened.

Continuing in Command Prompt I typed regedit and pressed Enter (I presume that was correct)

Registry window opened and I clicked on all the following in the order I was given by "closed":

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell = "Explorer.exe"

At the end when I clicked on the Shell file that has Explorer.exe written alongside it in this open window, a small window opened that had Edit String written at the top. It had Shell under Value Name, and Explorer.exe under Value Data. I clicked OK, the window just disappeared nothing else happened.



I may run out of characters soon so will continue on another post.........

Associate

Update continued......


Still in Windows Task Manager, I was able to Browse into Program Files and the PC already had Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware installed.

I ran full scan on Malwarebytes....it took 55 mins and returned no infections.

I also ran full scan with SuperAntiSpyware.....after 1hr 9 mins, it identified 1 infection - System.BrokenFileAssociation. It was found in Registry Keys; HKCR\.exe

The above was quarantined by SAS and I restarted the PC again booting up in Safe Mode. No change......everything still missing. I went into SAS qurantine and totally deleted above.

When I tried to run Ccleaner after all that by Browsing in New Task, then Program Files (don't know why I chose to run Ccleaner after the scans) it wouldn't open or run. I got the following message:

"A critical error has occured in Ccleaner, the application must now close."

I didn't do anything after that.

I am now on the same PC posting this after Restarting PC and booting up in "Safe Mode With Networking"!

I Browsed into Mozilla Firefox via Program Files in New Task.

Don't know if it's a bad idea.....but a real pain unplugging and hooking other PC again.

I also noticed some of my Brother's saved Document Files on the PC via Windows Task Manager.....hopefully good news.

The fact that I can see some files on the PC and connect to the internet must mean that it's not a totally lost cause and can be resolved in quite a simple manner......provided of course I haven't caused any more harm by posting here!

I shall go out later today (didn't realise time) and buy a USB Stick to see if I can save some of his files on it.

By the way, my Brother also has McAfee security suite (Sky Broadband's version) and Spy Bot Search and Destroy installed on his PC, but I haven't scanned the PC with them.

I will not run any more Virus scans or do anything else until I read responses to my posts, in case I do more harm.

I will also be plugged into my PC next time I view this thread.

I know lot of info.....but I thought the more knowledgeable might find it useful before advising me further and also bear in mind how ignorant I am!


Thanks.

Jay

abbirose

I too have exactly same problem on my hubbys compaq mini 702ea I have tried everything but cannot get anything !!! Is there a way of connecting it to my desktop then running virus removal thru desk to notebk ? Or running recovery disc thru it as notebook hasn't got disc drive.Please help its driving me mad

closed

in the dos prompt

type

cd \

dir rstrui*.* /s

hopefully you will find it somewhere on the hard disk

other things you could try are

chkdsk c: /F

then reboot

to check this disk

also type control, and setup a new user, then login as them

when you say nothing happened, did it say not found?

also did you update malwarebytes before doing a scan?

the fact that the exe file association is broken, suggests a virus infection at some point.

Associate

in the dos prompt

type

cd \

dir rstrui*.* /s


hopefully you will find it somewhere on the hard disk


When I did the above, it said: The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect

other things you could try are

chkdsk c: /F

then reboot

to check this disk

I did above and Restarted PC....blue screen appeared and a scan was run.....nothing much else happened. After that it booted up the PC and it was in the same state as I intially described with the following message appearing again:

"This application has failed to start because themed32.dll was not found. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem"

The above message keeps on constantly appearing any way.



also type control, and setup a new user, then login as them

Not sure when I am or was supposed to do this.....sorry don't know HOW to do this!


when you say nothing happened, did it say not found?

When I type Explorer in New Task a little icon appears, I think an image for an executable file, entitled explorer.exe and right next to it it says: "Unable to locate component" under Status it says "running", and then disappears. The whole thing appears simultaneously and disappears after two seconds.

also did you update malwarebytes before doing a scan?

When I first did this as stated, I did not update Malwarebytes.

I have since updated it and ran another full scan before I did the other things you instructed in your latest post......no infections were detected.

I've since done an Online Scan with ESET which found and deleted the following infection:

Win32\Spy.zbot.QT.Gen trojan

I updated and again did full scan with SuperAntiSpyware and it found the following infection:

Trojan.Dropper\SVCHOST-Fake

When I successfully updated, and tried to scan with Spybot Search & Destroy, it wouldn't run, with the PC returning this same message in a box:

"This application has failed to start because themed32.dll was not found. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem"

And on top of the box it said: "Spybot Search & Destroy - Unable to Locate Component"


I still haven't been able to go out and buy a USB drive to save files on or buy a blank CD, so unless there is anything else for me to try I think I will try and burn a Bootable copy of Windows XP pro someone was kind enough to PM a link to, when I buy a CD.

Thanks.