I have my mom in-laws Acer AX3910 windows 7.1 desktop.
I discovered the pc hasn’t been able to do MS updates for some time and has a RunDLL error at start up that says uihet.dll can’t be found. That dll problem surfaced in 2013 (she never mentioned it to me).
I worked with MS on the updating problem with MS concluding that I would need to reinstall W7 due to, most likely, the missing dll file being the reason they couldn’t repair the updating problem.
They said if we have the re-install disc from Acer that MS would walk me through a reinstall. However no disc came with the purchase and Acer no longer has the discs available.
My mom in-law is 84 and would prefer to fix this pc rather than investing in a new one.
I ended up looking on Ebay and found a W7 Home premium 64 bit install/Boot/Recovery/Restore DVD Disc
Thank you very much for the link. This is great to see as the MS agent had told me he couldn't re-install from MS for me. I don't recall the exact conversation but it went along the line of; due to missing or corrupted files a download from MS wasn't available or wouldn't work due. The disc would have the missing files, he said.
Before I download to a disc and re-install I am concerned about the possibility of malware of or viruses on the PC now. Should I have that checked out first or will the reinstall wipe them out if they do exist?
Now days, when I do a clean install of Vista, 7, 8 or 10, I boot the install media, delete all partitions on the boot drive so it is a raw, unallocated drive then click next and let the installer create the partitions it wants or needs. Never a problem that way.
Make sure you backup your data before doing this. The best way would be to do an image backup to an external USB attached hard drive using a program like Macrium Reflect Free.
If the computer will boot to a working Desktop then you can try a Repair Install first. This leaves your data intact, just replaces the operating system.
I've been reading through the instructions and both ways sound scary. I have never done anything like this but am willing to try. I think I am going to try the repair install first. I'll be checking the system requirements and backing up her files first.
I have a couple more questions on the prep work.
The instructions on sevenforums referencing using DVD R/W. I only have the DVD R version, can that be used to download the W7 from MS?
I'm to back up the device drivers before reinstalling. I found one site that said to copy the 3 folders system 32 Drivers, DriverStore and DRVSTORE. There are 6815 items, do I need all folders?
I went to MS site via the link provided to download the W7 and received the following:
The product key you entered appears to be for software pre-installed by the device manufacturer. Please contact the device manufacturer for software recovery options.
I went to the ACER store site submitting the SNID & serial # for discs and was advised the media is no longer available for the SNID/serial#.
Is it possible to purchase the needed disc? If so, would I run into the same problem with the W7 being pre-installed?
You can do a torrent download from here for some of the versions: Download Windows 7 ISOs, Legally and for Free
You need to install a torrent client. I looked at the ones suggested and didn't like any except for qTorrent which doesn't try to install a bunch of scamware. I used it to download Windows 7 Pro X86 and X64 and compared the md5 checksums with what they posted and they matched.
I recommend using ImgBurn at 4X speed (or the slowest available) to create the DVD from the downloaded .iso file. Just be careful during the install not to accidentally install some of the bundled junk that comes with it. Always take The Custom Install option.
You can do this on any Windows computer capable of burning a DVD.
I'm sorry this is pretty new to me and I am confused about a couple of things.
I downloaded uTorrent direct from their site and have that open.
I just downloaded the W7 from your link above. That is in my download folder. There isn't anything in the uTorrent, should there be?
Do I copy the W7 to my DVD using the 'burn' selection PC or am I suppose to use the ImgBurn for a DVD?
I picked up a 16 gb thumb drive today not knowing if my DVD-R would work or not. Can I just send the W7 file from the download folder to the thumb drive?
All you downloaded was the torrent file. Double click on it to download the Windows 7 Home X64 ISO file. That will take a lot longer as it's 3.4GB in size.
Note that you can't just copy the ISO you download to a DVD or flash drive, you need to create the DVD using a program like Roxio or ImgBurn or create a Flash drive usign a program like Rufus or similar. See this tutoprial:
I recommend using ImgBurn at 4X speed (or the slowest available) to create the DVD from the downloaded .iso file. Just be careful during the install or ImgBurn not to accidentally install some of the bundled junk that comes with it. Always take The Custom Install option.
You can do this on any Windows computer capable of burning a DVD.
You can also create a bootable USB Flash drive (4GB or larger) to install Windows 7 from.
Download and run Universal USB Installer Easy as 1 2 3
Select Windows 7 from the first drop down list, all the way to the bottom
Select the downloaded Windows 7 iso file
Select your USB flash drive
Click Create
Once you have the DVD or Flash drive, insert it while booted to Windows 7.
