Folks, I really made a mistake today. I used a program called XPlite because I was soooo tired of waiting 3 minutes for my machine to boot up. It cleans out all the parts of XP that you don't need. BUT it went too far, and deleted a file called DINPUT8.dll - Now I can't open Vegas.

Has anybody ever done anything like this? I spent close to 5 hrs today trying to undo the damage and had no luck. I even spent 3 hrs talking to a Microsoft tech support guy - from India which made it really hard to follow.

Still no luck. Any thoughts on this. I did a system restore - then I did another system restore to 2 weeks earlier, but still it wouldn't put that file back in.

Even when the file appeared to be back where it belonged, Vegas still couldn't see it.

I appreciate any help you might have,
Milt Lee

Have you tried to reinstall Vegas?

Yep, I did it all. Even took out all the DLL's and reinstalled them. It just doesn't see it. Can't figure it out.

Unfortunately, I downloaded Vegas 6, and then updated to 6.0b so now I can't find Vegas 6, which I figured would maybe let me reload, but no such luck.

Ah, such is life. Any other ideas?

Milt

Vegas 6.0b is a full install so you don't need the original 6.0. At this time it sounds like you really need to do a reinstall of XP.

did u have ur system configured to do system restores??
Sometimes XP will set a restore point before an install of an application.. despite what people think, the system restore tool has been a godsend for me..

http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?dinput8

download and extract to windows\system32 folder.

i hope it helps

The problem is that just plopping the dll file in the right directory often isn't enough. It often has to be properly registered in the windows registry for Vegas to see it. If you're familiar with the registry, sometimes you can poke around with REGEDIT and figure it out how a program is using it. Other times not. For instance, searching the registry for that filename or related ones might give you a clue.

Manually adding an erroneous registry key for a particular program is usually harmless, but no guarantees. If your not familiar with the registry, it's best left alone, because deleting the wrong file could crash the operation system altogether.

dinput8.dll does not exist in the registery except for the files names which have been searched so i still think that it is possible to solve the problem by adding the file to windows\system32 folder.
i did this for other dll files and it worked.

The apparent relationship of my post to yours was coincidental, Ahmet. I apologize for not being more careful. It looks like I was criticizing your post but I wasn't. Your suggestion may indeed work.

no problem. I was not offended. in fact i would not even if you criticized my post. we just share what we know. dont we.:)

Ok Folks, I'll give it a try. I'm going to do download and put it in. We'll see....

I've considered doing a duel boot, but frankly, haven't done that for a few years so I don't remember all the ins and outs.

Anybody ever setup a duel boot - one for video editing, and the other for everything else?

Thanks for all the suggestions,
Milt

So here's my report. It worked!! I went to the dll place and got the file - followed the instructions - unziped it, and now Vegas sees it,

BUT - it now needs another dll - d3d9.dll I am going to do the same thing with this file. THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP. It's really good to come to a place that has answers - and from all over the world.

Here's a cautionary note for all of you following this thread. I got into trouble by using XPLite - without really knowing what I should buzz away, and it landed me in a world of hurt. I think the program works, but I also think it doesn't really know what to remove and what would be potentially harmful if it weren't there.

Thanks again,
Milt Lee

d3d9.dll is part of DirectX 9. I would recommend a full install of DirectX 9.0c (you can download from Sony's site).

You may even need to reinstall the .NET framework and the .NET SP1 update (also available from links on Sony's site).

...It's really good to come to a place that has answers - and from all over the world...Ain't it great? Chris Hurd and his crew run a tight ship. The mutual respect and quality of information make this one of the best forum sites of any kind on the net.

Would there be a good order to reinstall these software packs? I did in fact reinstall directx 9c yesterday, but there were a lot of possible packages and I might have not done the right one, as it didn't correct the problem when I did it.

I will go to the sony site and see if they have direct links to the files I want. I just got back from a shoot so I'm anxious to resolve this issue.

Thanks again,
Milt

This page has links to DirectX and .NET.

http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/download/step1.asp?CatID=3

OK here's the latest. I did the original fix of DINPUT8.dll - the dll-files.com did the job and it's back and running, but as soon as I tried to open vegas 6.0b it told me that I was missing d3d9.dll. Now at least I can open Vegas 5.0 so that's at least a step in the right direction.

But when I did the dll-files.com trick again, it didn't work on d3d9.dll.

So I downloaded PCmightymax - a software package that dll-files.com advertised for $ 29.95. It found 560 some problems, and fixed all but 26 - which 26 - the registery of course, says that the computer can't access some folder in the registery. I have no idea why or what.

Any ideas on a good registery fixer?

Thanks,
Milt

did you try to download directx and net framework from the microsoft web site?

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0a9b6820-bfbb-4799-9908-d418cdeac197&displaylang=en

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=262d25e3-f589-4842-8157-034d1e7cf3a3&displaylang=en

also if you have not done it already you may check for windows updates

an i forgot to add about registery fixers. I doubt their effectiveness but I sometimes use "registry mechanic" which is regarded as the best.

you can download its trial version from

http://www.pctools.com/registry-mechanic/

I would avoid registry "fixers".

From my experience with protonic.com (free tech support site), there are a few users who experience problems with registry fixers totally messing the registry (and the computer). I've never heard of them fixing any problems.

2- Milt: What's XPLite?

3- Milt: dual booting

To dual boot, you need 2 or more partitions on your hard drive. Chances are all your partitions have data on them, which means you can't install a OS on top of it. You can repartition using partition magic (you'll have to defrag, resize the in-use partition down in size, then create a new partition in the empty space). Or just be lazy, and treat yourself to a 80-400GB hard drive (because you can never have enough space). Look for those rebate deals.

So suppose you have a new blank partition (or un-partitioned space on your hard drive).

Throw in the winXP CD, and boot off that. You may need to change the BIOS boot sequence (read the motherboard's manual) if you can't boot off your winXP CD. If you don't have a winXP CD, you'll possibly need to bitch to your OEM (HP/Dell/Sony) and pay a few bucks for them to send you one (the shipping may be a little high for a 50 cent CD though).

Once you've booted off the CD, format the blank partition NTFS (quick). The winXP install CD can also create partitions of any size, if you're working with a new hard drive. I'd make like a 10GB partition for the OS (20GB if you want to put program files on there and have lots of programs like I do). The rest of the drive will store data.

Install Windows onto the partition. Reboot.

On log-on, you should see options for dual boot. If not, you'll have to edit the boot.ini file on the C:\ (easy, but ask or google for instructions)

Question: What's XPlite - go to http://www.litepc.com/ and check it out. Here's what they say:" XPlite and 2000lite are powerful configuration utilities for Windows creating a modular Windows operating system where YOU are in control. The new version 1.5 gives you more than 150 ways to reduce the size, improve the security, and customize YOUR Windows XP or 2000 installation to suit YOU"

It actually does clean up your computer BUT and this is a big BUT - if you don't know what you are doing, as I don't, you can get into big trouble with this. I basically deleted DirectX 9. I didn't really know that was what I was doing but it is what I did. When I did that, Vegas wouldn't work. Now after working with the wonderful people at http://dll-files.com I got everything working again.

I can't say enough good about these guys. They are in Sweden, and seem to really know what's happening. It took them about 30 minutes doing an on-line chat combined with software that is like PC-anywhere. It takes control of your computer and you can move your stuff around, or they can move your stuff around. I suppose this was scary, but frankly nobody would want my stuff on my computer anyway, so I wasn't worried. It was amazing. They reinstalled some DLL's and then figured out that they way to resolve the entire issue was to un-install Win Service Pack 2, which includes DirectX9. Then reinstall it, and voila, it all worked!!!! So good.

Only caveat I have is that in order to get this service you have to sign up for 2 months worth of service at $ 14.95 a month. But I really recommend this guys.

so Thanks for all the good information! You guys really saved my bacon.