Computers been playing up and doing funny things mainly with the wireless end of things. It connects but says it hasn't. Think its because we changed routers and the remains of old program interfering with new one.

So thought i would do a factory restart and get rid of a lot of other crap on it. But get an error message saying file winload.exe is missing or corrupt.

Any of you smart comp folk out there know how to sort it?

Try unplug->throw in bin->buy a mac. Worked for me.

Would love to but thinkin of walkin out of my job tomorrow so don't wanna throw out a comp not even a year old :p

I have a work-provided lappie at home. Tried to set it up for wireless working, but got fed up with Vista changing its settings every time I turned it on.

I unplugged the wireless router and now the lappie is on real wire... works 100% of the time, without sulking.

Ahh Vista wireless fun, you got to love it

Try here for solutions
http://www.wifimvp.com/vistawireless.htm

Cheers

Alex

the actual wireless works grand connects automatically and will work all day long. it just says it can't connect and can't detect the network.

Everything was grand till the mrs dropped the router onto a tiled floor and we had to change it and of course couldnt get 1 the same as we had!!

So figured just reset windows to factory and get rid of alot of crap left over from things that have been uninstalled in the past and everything else thats no longer of use.. except it won't let me now, if it was supplied with a disc a'la old school stick it in boot it up everything would be grand..

Although it can connect to the router - it doesn't mean it can access the internet.

Reset the router - unplug and give 15 seconds before rebooting. Set up the wireless connection all over again. If your using WEP - reconfigure the MAC Code. It sounds very much like a router firewall thing... Wireless networks are great when they work, on the flipside - when then dont they are a PITA...

Hope you get sorted...

Steve

Going onto the internet isn't a problem.

Routers on internet, computer connects to router BUT

The icon bottom right of screen says its not connected and if you into network and sharing centre it says no network to connect to and it takes forever to open.

When i uninstalled original router software it didn't get rid of every thing so think when i installed new stuff the 2 are conflicting!

Plus theses also a lot of other crap that uninstalling stuff hasn't got rid of so thought i'd do a factory re store and have a spring clean as it were.

BUT it won't let me as winload.exe is missing or corrupt!

Alot of use customer support is. Told them couldn't do a factory restore because when i try it says that file is missing.

Whats their advice, do a factory restore!

In my case, Vista would tell me that it didn't have a connection - other computers on my home network could see it and read files, the wired router could see it, and the wireless router could see it, but it decided that it couldn't see them!

And if you follow the links to 'help you make a connection', you go round it a loop of 3 or 4 tasks - none of which either fix the problem, or sometimes even relate to it!

A wired connection is soooo much easier - I plug it in, turn on the laptop, and I'm on the network.

I think wireless is over-rated anyway - why pay extra money for a slower, unreliable and potentially insecure connection?

In no way am I an expert but ... do you have the correct password in (that is of course if you had one on your dead router)?

The router stuff isn't the actual problem as such it connects it works passwords are fine. Its just not working right.

Which i think is down to the fact the first router software didn't uninstall everything .

So to try and cure that problem plus get rid of a lot of other crap that has gathered up i thought i'd do a factory restore start from scratch as such .

Now this is the problem when you go through the restore option by pressing F8 and following the options it brings up an error message that it can't be done because winload.exe is missing or corrupt.

Now i thought you should be able to restore vista without disks etc etc which is all i wanna do

When you are talking about doing a system restore are you trying this from boot time (pressing f8?) or within windows?
Vista can restore to a previous point in time, but it does this from the system restore menu, or backup and restore centre (start, programs) it sounds awful like you are trying a reinstall rather than a system restore (sorry if I'm reading this wrong though)

Cheers

Alex

Thats exactly it .

What was wrong with the old fashioned way of throwing in a disk and hitting restart :p

Apparently it is a common Vista problem...

Resolution:

f you can get to a command prompt/DOS screen, go to d:windowssystem32

"d" is the drive where vista is installed.

Once there, type: "bcdedit.exe" or you can just type "bcdedit". Do not include the quotation marks " ".

It will generate a screen like this:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=C:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {default}
resumeobject {fe04aef5-e49c-11db-9f2f-cdf57e93812b}
displayorder {ntldr}
{default}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 10

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {ntldr}
device partition=C:
path ntldr
description Windows 2003 Server Enterprise

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {default}
device partition=D:
path Windowssystem32winload.exe
description Microsoft Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
osdevice partition=D:
systemroot Windows
resumeobject {fe04aef5-e49c-11db-9f2f-cdf57e93812b}
nx OptIn

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



now check your result against the above, make sure that all the parameters above are the same (except for your drive letter, which might be different from mine).

Now look at the "windows bootloader" section and note what you see in your report/DOS screen:

You may notice that instead of displaying "osdevice partition=D:" it may display "osdevice unknown". The same applies with "device". I have highlighted what I am referring to as bold in the report above.

If these settings are not showing the drive on which your vista is installed, you must change it. Since mine is drive "D" for vista, this is the command you must type:



D:WindowsSystem32>bcdedit /set {default} osdevice "partition=D:



Also, if the "device" is showing as unknown, type this command:



D:WindowsSystem32>bcdedit /set {default} device "partition=D:



If the path is Windowssystem32winload.exe, then that's fine. Remember "D" above is the name of the drive on which your vista is installed. If your vista in on "F", use "F", etc. "default" in the blue text command above is the identifier for the os boot-up that you are trying to fix, in this case, vista. Sometimes, for the identifier you might have some long random numbers (GUID), just copy it and use it if is not the "default" that is shown.



Exit the DOS screen, restart your system, and you should be ok.

Steve

[Edited on 1-8-08 by Hellfire]

[Edited on 1-8-08 by Hellfire]

[Edited on 1-8-08 by Hellfire]

Now my main hard drive is C:
and the recovery is D: am i right in saying that vista should be C:??