rundll32.exe problems

[puff-m-d]

Hello all,

I need a little help. All of a sudden I am getting rundll32.exe errors on just about everything that I try to open on my control panel. I reinstalled my OS but still have the problem. Does or has anyone out there had this problem or know how to fix it?

Regards,
Kent

[Technodrome]

Hi
1.Check your Event Viewer to see what sort of errors are being logged.
2. Check your system for viruses
http://www.command2.co.uk/cod_ev/ by Command AV
http://www.rav.ro/scan/ by RAV Antivirus

3. Unistall Kazza (if you got one)

Technodrome

[snowy]

PUFF...is it possible that you deleted the .dll ?

by re-installed.....you re-formatted ??

whats your os ? there are some difference with win 95 to others in respect to this .dll...........what I can't understand is...if you completely reformatted why you would still have this problem. un-installed any programs recently.........virus control up to date.....haven't been hit by a sub-seven.....

[puff-m-d]

HI snowy,

I can find the file in both my C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ and C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\dllcache folders. Properties show 31KB and a creation date of 8/32/2001 @ 8 am on both files.

My system spec are listed in my signature. Let me know if you need to know something else.

I had neither installed or uninstalled anything recently and was just in Control Panel > System checking out a driver version yesterday. Today I proceed to go and uninstall some unneccessary software and cannot access Control Panel > Add / Remove without getting the error. Upon investigation, I discover I cannot access about 2/3 of the items under Control Panel without getting the error.

Very, very strange to say the least.........

Regards,
Kent

[puff-m-d]

Hello all,

I did a complete reinstall of my system but problem persists.

I do not have Kazaa installed but just in case I did a search and found nothing (sometome no telling what a son might do).

I did another online virus scan (besides NOD32) with Command but come up clean.

My event viewer shows nothing but my DisKeeper starting and stopping.

Regards,
Kent

[snowy]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=/support/windows/topics/errormsg/emresctr.asp


I sure hope the link works....its very long!


TECNO....could this possibly be a DOS Boot virus ??


Puff I know you must be going through real heck right now.......but hang tight my friend.

[snowy]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=/support/windows/topics/errormsg/kbkern.asp

[snowy]

The following conditions can cause Kernel32.dll error messages:

Damaged swap file
File allocation damage
Damaged password list
Damaged or incorrect version of the Kernel32.dll file
Damaged registry
Hardware, hot CPU, over clocking, broken power supply, RF noise, ground bounce, or bad hard disk controller
BIOS settings for Wait states, RAM timing, or other BIOS settings
Third-party software that is damaged or incorrectly installed
.dll files that are saved to the desktop
Non-existent or broken Temp folder
A control panel (.cpl) file is damaged
Incorrect or damaged hardware driver
Incorrectly installed printer drivers or HP Jetadmin drivers
Damaged Java Machine
Damaged .log files
Damaged entries in the History folder
Incompatible or damaged dynamic link library files
Viruses
Damaged or incorrect Msinfo32.exe file
Low disk space
Other problems that depend on the Kernel file
For additional information about Invalid Page Fault error messages, view the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

Q286180 Invalid Page Fault Errors Occur in Windows


***copy & paste from M$ support site

[snowy]

unfortunately the links wont take you to the listed site...

[YODA]

here are the links that snowy had put...

1. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=/support/windows/topics/errormsg/emresctr.asp

2. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=/support/windows/topics/errormsg/kbkern.asp

[snowy]

YODA....its my friend Yoda to the rescue.....thank you!!



TECHNO...in your expert opinion would replacing the dll actually be a considered option...? my guess is that its not the valid dll causing the problem....perhaps another program is or a worm...guess only......the w32/leave.worm would alter the run32.dll this way I believe.......how about TDS....?
these are questions of course....right now Puff may be having a real time trying to get here to the BB an questions are about all I have...

[snowy]

TECHNO

OOPS...sorry, I just now noticed your post on the virus scanners.....

[YODA]

heh hey nice to see u snowman.....

hey puff-m-d,

I'm sorry i myself cannot help u, its out of my league..... maybe this Windows Support Center provide by Prince_Serendip in a recent post can help u:

http://www.aumha.org/

YODA

[snowy]

PUFF

noticed the software you have installed on you pc...as listed in your sig.......man you really are carrieing a load there.....all very good programs.
I know zip about XP.......an if system mechanic didn't help you....I can't think of anything else that possibly would.
if its not a virus......an the dll wasn't deleted....an you already tryed un-installing all those programs and reformating "clean" then I am at a complete lost....
you mention "re-installing" but did not actually say you "re-formatted" not being picky here but there is difference.....a "restore" is not a reformat.....whats baffling me is that if you "re-formated" then your computer should be in the same condition as the day you purchase it..or nearly as possible.....an the problem with the run32.dll could not possibly exist???/

snowman

[puff-m-d]

Hello all,

Just a quick progress report.

When I go to Start>Control Panel> and then to one of the items there (about 2/3 of them will not work), I get the error as shown in my first post.

However, if I doubleclick on one of the .cpl files, it works perfectly bringing up a control panel window. I checked all of my .cpl files this way and they all work.

So now I think maybe my control.ini file might be corrupt. I rename it then reboot thus creating a new one. Well, sad to say this did not help either. So this is not the problem unless somehow another corrupt file is being made, which I consider to be highly unlikely.

I have ran full scans with NOD32, TDS, RAV Online, and both WormGuard and RegRun did not pick up on anything. This was in addition to doing a complete reinstall of the OS.

I do not want to do a total reformat and clean install as I will lose alot of files and it will take a long time to get back to where I am ( ??? as I do not have any back-ups ::) ).

So it looks like I am back to square one so to speak but I would like to thank everyone for all the help so far, especially you snowman. I have chased a few good leads even tho the problem still persists.

Regards,
Kent

[MickeyTheMan]

Did you try SFC (system file checker )

[puff-m-d]

MTM,

I had never heard of SFC before you mentioned it. I assumed it was a windows exe so I searched for it, found it, and proceeded to try to run it. I discovered it ran under DOS so I opened a command prompt and ran the program.

You have earned yourself a karma cookie as it fixed my problem!!!!!!!!

Thanks for making my morning!!!!!!!

Regards,
Kent

[MickeyTheMan]

Running SFC regularly is part of good maintenace practices as it regularly checks the integrity of your system files.
When a file is found to be corrupt, it prompts to restore the original file.
Not sure where it is located on XP but under 98SE you find it by going to:
Program/accessories/system tools/system information/tools
Glad i was of help ! :D

[Technodrome]

Windows XP
Start---->Run--------> type this sfc /scannow.


Technodrome

[puff-m-d]

Well....SFC worked until I did a reboot.........

The same old problem came back, except for, now get this, running SFC will not fix the problem now. Hmmm..... very, very strange....

For now as a fix, I have made shortcuts to the .cpl files of the control panel components I need to access. Doubleclicking on these shortcuts works just fine, but not doubleclicking on the components under Start>Control Panel. Weird, huh?

Hopefully someone else may have an idea or two in the meantime, before I decide to do a complete reformat and clean install ;D . I really do not want to do this except as a last resort ??? .

Regards,
Kent

[Technodrome]

-{ Quote: " quoting: snowy link=board=9;threadid=2696;start=0#18330 date=1028004235]
TECNO....could this possibly be a DOS Boot virus ??
" }-


Memory virus cause this type of errors!


Technodrome

[puff-m-d]

Posted by: Technodrome
Posted on: Today at 09:13:58am

Quote from: snowy on Today at 12:43:55am

TECNO....could this possibly be a DOS Boot virus ??

Memory virus cause this type of errors! Technodrome


I have done a full system scan with NOD32 including memory. What else can I do to check for a memory virus?

Regards,
Kent

[spy1]

Kent - Did you also scan with WormGuard? TDS?

Won't a system restore work?

Anything you can do with RegRun? Pete

[Vietnam Vet]

Hello puff-m-d, this may be way off base, but I had some similar problems with control panel applets and they were caused by Wormguard. Wayne advised me to wait for the upcoming new version as the problem was out of his control. Sorry, I can't be more specific, this was a while back. I am on Win98SE with IE6.0. Might be worth a try to uninstall Wormguard and see if this has any effect on your problem. Program obviously doesn't effect everyone this way, maybe you are as unlucky as I was.

[Marianna]

Only a "thought" - did you run ad-aware and\ or Spybot S&D??

Spyware can do "strange things" :(

[Technodrome]

-{ Quote: " quoting: puff-m-d link=board=9;threadid=2696;start=15#18377 date=1028035365]
Posted by: Technodrome
Posted on: Today at 09:13:58am

Quote from: snowy on Today at 12:43:55am

TECNO....could this possibly be a DOS Boot virus ??

Memory virus cause this type of errors! Technodrome


I have done a full system scan with NOD32 including memory. What else can I do to check for a memory virus?

Regards,
Kent
" }-

Try another Antivirus scanner! On-line av scanners don't check for memory resident viruses. Viruses like WNT/Infis.4608 and similar...These types of virus cold corrupt your files and you would not be able to repair them.


Technodrome

[puff-m-d]

Hello all,

I have now also ran Wormguard, TDS, done a system restore, and done a registry restore and profile restore with RegRun. The problem now is intermittent. Sometimes all works fine and then it doesn't. I will look for a trial version of another AV and do a scan. Also am going to do a SFC again and see what happens. Oh, I also ran adaware and spybot, they both came up with nothing. Thanks for all the help so far.

Regards,
Kent

[Marianna]

Kent,

another "thought" - how about running F-Prot??

have a look here: http://www.claymania.com/f-prot.html

[snowy]

http://mitglied.lycos.de/rose_swe/main.htm

1) MemScan freeware

2) VirScan shareware...



Puff

ok...so you didn't actually do a re-format.....an while I can understand your desire not to lose files you have not backed-up.....the way your os is right now is nearly useless..........plus do you really want to contune using an un-stable system even if you correct the present problem....the system went bad for a reason...you may succeed it briefly correcting the problem......notice the word "briefly"
perhaps there is a conflict with the programs installed...to locate the conflict you will need to un-install every program an add each program back one at a time...even that may not work cause the problem may not be immediate.......you could be playing around with this until the first Monday in December....an still not locate the problem.........or perhaps call the computer some nasty names..insult its ego and self-esteem.....an it may decide in a moment of humility to fix inself....but I really would not depend on that......since most computers have no self-esteem to begin with.....
noticed you have a cd-rw....lets say you use it to make back-up cd's......an lets say that there just might be a virus involded here......guess you would just be making a back up of the virus also....possibly ?? if its embedded in one of the programs you back up.......
Restore is not going to do it.....imho. perhaps your concern should be for having a stable system for future use (respectfully said) otherwise....you got nothing.
the time it takes to reformat will be much less....consider this as a learning experience.....ok I know thats not what you want to hear....you are already upset....an don't need the snowman giving you advice.....but the snowman just wants to see you around the BB....enjoying yourself....an when my ye ole puter takes a dive..you can advised me to REFORMAT!!!!!!!

snowman

[MickeyTheMan]

Well if SFC cured the problem and problem showed up again at reboot, then you must likely have a nasty little worm playing with your registry.
If you can't find it ,and you say SFC is no longer able to repair, then you will as snowy says most likely have no choice but do a reformat.
Too bad you don't have an image of your sys you could have gone back to.

[puff-m-d]

Hello all,

I think I have solved my problem.

I decided to a search for all instances of rundll32.exe on my machine. The search came up with 3 hits:
1.) C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32
2.) C:\Documents and Settings\puff-m-d
3.) C:\Program Files\Diamond Computer Systems\TDS-3

After checking the properties on these 3 files:
1.) had a size of 31.0 KB (31,744 bytes) and a creation date of Thursday, April 11, 2002, 7:12:06 P.M.
2.) and 3.) had a size of zero bytes and no dates at all listed.

I went to the cab files on my WinXP disk and extracted the original rundll32.exe file to the above three locations. All 3 now have a size and date as in 1.).

I just done this but so far my system is stable and I can access all of my control panel files (*.cpl).

I will know with more certainty after a few days pass if the problem is solved for good and will let the forum know.

Now comes the BIG question :o , can either a virus, worm, or trojan do this and if so, why after running so many different scans was nothing detected. It would be interesting to know what changed those 2 instances of rundll32.exe.

Regards,
Kent

[FanJ]

Hi Kent,

Here is what I have found on my W98SE:

Rundll32.exe 24.576 5-5-99 22:22 a C:\WINDOWS\
rundll32.exe 0 28-6-02 21:25 a < my TDS-3 dir>

With respect to finding it in your TDS-3 directory:
In general you will find from time to time some more zero-size files in that directory (for example I have now also wordpad.exe and some others there).
As Gavin has stated in the past in the private TDS-forum:
it is safe to delete them.

[puff-m-d]

Hi FanJ,

Thanks for that info. So far it seems the culprit was the file in the documents and settings. Restoring it is what has made my system work again. Evidently I need rundll32.exe both in documents and settings and system32. Sometimes it is amazing what a little patience and help from guys like you can accomplish. Probably would have done a complete "clean" install of my OS but by hanging in there was able to avoid it. Just another example of not doing things to your system too hastily until you have researched the problem thoroughly.

Thanks one and all for your help (especially Wayne over at DCS ;D ).

Regards,
Kent

[FanJ]

Hi Kent,

I'm glad your system is now OK again. ;D

I didn't know about that "documents and settings", but I don't have XP....

Cheers, Jan.

[snapdragin]

hi Kent,

sorry to hear of the trouble you've been having.

i just checked for that file too, to see where it shows up, since i am also using XP-Home.

i have the rundll32.exe in the Windows System32 folder (31KB) and also in the TDS-3 folder (0KB), but i do not have one listed in the Documents & Settings.....i do though, have about 9 listed as prefetch files (pf)

i am not that familiar yet myself with XP so i'll just post what M$ says about them...not sure if it will help or just be informative. :)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/appendix/hh/appendix/enhancements5_3oc3.asp

if you want a system to compare with, please let me know, or IM me, and i'll help any way i can.

Goodluck!

[puff-m-d]

Hello all,

What I think happens in Win XP Home is if you have more than one user set up, for some reason, WinXP puts a copy of rundll32.exe in your folder under documents and settings. I have several other *.exe files there also. Although I am probably wrong, this is the only reason I can think of for it being there. Snapdragin, I assume you have yours set up as a single user machine? If I am wrong, hopefully someone else with a Win XP machine set up for multiple users will correct me. All I know for sure is that restoring the file in that location seems to, so far at least, have fixed my problems.

Regards,
Kent

[snapdragin]

Kent - yes i am set up as a single user, i haven't set up any other user acc'ts on this pc (not that i haven't offered to set up another user, but no one's brave enough to come near my pc) ~LOL~ .....so i think you might be right about rundll32.exe needing to also be in the documents & settings folder if there are other user acc'ts set up (?)

i am not really sure though, since i do have a documents & settings folder under my user's name, but nothing ever goes there (yup, the whole additional user thing baffles me, even though i know it is safer to log on as a user with Admin rights and not as just the Admin user only)

is your system still stable since you put the rundll32.exe into the documents & settings folder?

------
babbles?? LOL (note to self...never post when she's tired) :P

[puff-m-d]

Hello all,

It has been quite a while since my last post or update here, so now that all is OK here, I thought I needed to bring everyone up to date.

After all of the suggestions in this thread, and even at times thinking I had fixed my problems, they still kept reappearing.

I finally decided to do a complete reformat of my hard drive and reinstall everything on a "clean" machine. Well, even after this, the problems were still there.

I also had been having major problems with Reg Run Suite and had been working with Dmitry trying to figure out the problem. I had sent him numerous files for him to analyze but he could not find anything wrong. We basically came to a dead end.

In a totally unrelated issue, I decided to check the the required system files and versions for TDS-3 even tho I was not having any problems with TDS-3 (guess I am just curious and want to stay updated ;D ) . See this thread for info on these required system files and their version numbers: http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=2906

After checking this out, I found 3 files with older version numbers, so I downloaded and updated them.

So to move on, the updating of these system files solved all my problems (rundll32.exe, control panel, and RegRun Suite). I got back with Dmitry @ Greatis (RegRun) and he confirmed that RegRun also relies on these system files.

It seems that some program I use installs an old version of some of these system files on setup thus causing the problems.

I would advise anyone having software problems to check these required system files for TDS-3 as it may also just solve your problem too.

Also, Dmitry had me place these files in backup and anti-replacement in RegRun so I hopefully will not have this problem again.

I think it is a good idea to place these files under watch for changes if you have a program to do so. If you do not have a program like this, I would strongly suggest you check out javacool's File Checker. You con find info and the download here: http://www.wilderssecurity.com/filechecker.html

I hope this info may help someone to avoid all the grief I went thru solving this problem. My system is working better than ever and even tho I had no problems with TDS-3, even it is running faster and smoother than before.

Regards,
Kent

[FanJ]

Hi Kent,

Thanks for the heads-up.

I am really sorry that we didn't think about the required system files for TDS-3.

[puff-m-d]

Jan,

The weird thing was TDS-3 was working fine.... ???

And I just by chance decided to check out those files.... ::)

I reason that many programs use those files and all it takes is one install of something that changes them to an older version to cause so many problems..... ;D

Regards,
Kent

[FanJ]

Yes: DLL-Hell .......
(well, and other extensions).

[snapdragin]

OOooh! ~yikes~....i just checked those version Jan has listed there with the files i have on my XP and i have 3 that are not the most current version.....hummm...even after that install of XP's SP1, dangit! LOL!

thank you puff-m-d!! guess it's time to try out javacool's File-Checker----i've been putting it off, cause i didn't really understand it.

thank you too Jan for the thread above...i don't know how i missed that one?

snap

[puff-m-d]

snap,

Just knowing that all the mess that I went thru might help someone else is thanks enough.....

;)

Regards,
Kent

[FanJ]

Hi,

As far as I remember those files are also by default in the file crcfiles.txt in TDS-3.
What does this file crcfiles.txt do?
It contains the list of files that TDS-3 checks, using the CRC32-checksum-HASH, for changes.
You can go to this list this way:
In TDS-3:
TDS > Edit Config Text Files > crcfiles.txt
Then that file will be opened in Notepad.
Have a look yourself whether those files are indeed in that list. If not, just add them with their full path; when you're ready: hit save.
This CRC-checksum checking works like FileChecker from Javacool, but there is one big difference:
FileChecker from Javacool works more or less in real-time, while the CRC-checking in TDS-3 does not do that.
If you made your TDS-3 basic configuration like I described in that thread in the TDS-forum-section, the CRC-checking will be done every time you start TDS-3 and every time you do a full system scan.
You can also do that CRC-checking yourself this way:
when TDS-3 is running:
System Testing > System Files CRC32 Test
In the console of TDS-3 you will see an alert in case a file contained in the crcfiles.txt is changed.
You can add files yourself to that list too. For example: at the moment I have about 116 files contained in it for checking.
To give an example: it might be a good idea to add AdAware and its reference-file in it:
ad-aware.exe and reffile.awr (both with their full path).
In case you have bought Ontrack Powerdesk Pro, it is very easy to copy/paste the full path of a file, but of course you can also do that yourself without Powerdesk Pro.

I hope this helps.

(BTW: if you think it would be a good idea, I could also post about the CRC32-feature of TDS-3 in the TDS-forum-section).

[puff-m-d]

FanJ,

I had forgotten all about TDS-3's CRC32 Test........

Thanks for bringing back to my attention.

You have already brought PowerDesk to my attention and I love it !! And the advice of using it to copy paths worked great. I added 53 more files to my TDS-3 crcfiles.txt file in no time at all. That was sure easier than all that typing especially when I am not that good of a typer..... I know you have the Pro version but I am using the free version and like it a lot.

I think it would be good to post this on the TDS forum since it kind of goes hand in hand with watching those important system files that TDS and many other programs need. I checked the default crcfiles.txt file and those files are not included.

And yes you did help..... Have a Karma Cookie on me....

Regards,
Kent

[Prince_Serendip]

:) Hi puff-m-d!

Here's your thanks! This post has helped me understand more about my Rundll problems. I have Win98se and I have two Rundll's, both in the Windows folder. They both have the same date. The Rundll.exe is a 16-bit app left over from Win95 of 5KB. It appears to be required for desktop operations. The second one is a Rundll32.exe of 24KB that runs this system's power usage.

I learned by trial and error that if both apps are running at shutdown my system would invariably hang/crash. My remedy is before shutdown I press Ctrl+ALT+Delete, highlight the Rundll (16-bit) and press End Task. The Rundll32 runs hidden in the background. I then shutdown normally and no more hangs/crashes (very rarely anyway).

The only problem now is I seem to get the odd blue screen hang at shutdown after playing Half-Life. I have to shut off a lot of apps in order to play it. I only have 128 Mb of RAM. (This may/may not be related to this. I put this here because it happened yesterday.)

Since Rundll32 manages your systems power needs I would suggest that you update it if that is possible. This is an extremely inportant app since it is a Power Process Driver. You could check with MS.

When I get help I like to share what help I have. I sure hope this helps you too. We both benefit.

Best regards from Larry! :)

[MyNethingyman]

I too have one Laptop with the exact same rundll's and OS as Larry. My Harddrive is setup for Drive converted to (FAT32)..therefore in most case the Rundll32.exe will be used when needed.

But I do have some older software on it that is 16 and I think there are some games out there which you also need this rundll.exe (without the 32)

98 always did have a hard time with all of that on shutdown

Some of the old third party software I have replaced...but that trick he posted came in very handy when I only had 64 MEG of RAM installed. and many other Apps running.