Help me help a mate

gcaster · 27 Apr 2011 at 17:05

My mate has just changed his cpu cooler, and now he says his pc wont open up programs.

He has performed a fresh install of windows, but the problem persists- control panel, my computer and other windows based programs will open (including internet explorer) but other programs will not open e.g. chrome, itunes, steam. He says that the .exe files show in task manager, sit at using 100k of memory but do not show up.

He is using an amd phenom 555BE on an asus m4a88t mobo. CPU is unlocked to four cores, but he still has the problem when it is reverted back to the 'normal' 2 cores.

The only thing that he thinks may have caused it, is he got a bit of paste on a couple of the pins, but he says it cleaned off fine, and obviously the computer still boots up properly etc etc.

Im thinking it must be a software issue, due to the problems with the programs, but am really stumped after the fresh install didnt work.

Any ideas on what I can tell him to try?

G

Tallywhacker · 27 Apr 2011 at 17:27

system restore...oops just realised new install...my bad

Buchanan0204 · 27 Apr 2011 at 18:11

Is it a legit version of windows? Some of the downloaded copies are dodgy, people tend to modify them.

gcaster · 27 Apr 2011 at 23:25

Yeah he's got legit Windows 7, was a key from an old copy that I don't use any more so that shouldn't be a problem.

Startup repair seems to have fixed most of the problems but now he's getting an error by which Steam won't load due to not being able to load a configurations file, something to do with not having registered the account on that computer before (I've tried my login too and still no joy). Seems a bit of a mystery to be honest and I think he might be better doing another clean install - definitely seems not to be a hardware error.

Reaper 392 · 27 Apr 2011 at 23:29

gcaster said:
Yeah he's got legit Windows 7, was a key from an old copy that I don't use any more so that shouldn't be a problem.

Startup repair seems to have fixed most of the problems but now he's getting an error by which Steam won't load due to not being able to load a configurations file, something to do with not having registered the account on that computer before (I've tried my login too and still no joy). Seems a bit of a mystery to be honest and I think he might be better doing another clean install - definitely seems not to be a hardware error.

isnt that just steamguard? if it is, he just needs to confirm that he wants to log onto steam on that computer by following the instructions in the email he will have been sent. and he will be granted access on that PC.

other than that, ive got no idea