Member Avatar for scorso

Hi-

Please excuse some of my lacking expertise here.

My daughter got a new laptop roughly 2 months ago, an HP. It has Vista as its OS. It has had absolutely no problems. We went on vacation a week ago, and she shut the computer down while we were away. When we returned, upon rebooting, she had no sound. When we try to go into Control Panel and adjust the volume, it tells us there are no sound devices installed. But when we go to Device manager, it says they ARE installed, working properly and have the latest drivers. When we attempted to adjust sound again, we got the message that no sound was present because Windows sound service was no enabled. We clicked to enable it and got the message that the host program, Rundll32 had "a problem" and was not working. Microsoft had absolutely no fix for this at their site. So, what do we do? Should I use a registry cleaner, should we just backup necessary files and try to reinstall Vista from scratch?? HELP!!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by kaninelupus

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Good suggestions from , and — and a note for : before doing a full reinstall or running a registry cleaner, run a few focused diagnostics to find which DLL or startup item is crashing rundll32 and whether the problem is Windows-only or a hardware fault.

Try quick, non-destructive isolation first: boot Safe Mode and test sound; create a new local Windows account and test under that profile; boot a Linux Live USB (or a different OS/USB sound device) to confirm whether the speakers/headset work outside Windows. Check the BIOS to ensure on‑board audio isn’t disabled. In Device Manager look at the audio device’s Driver Provider/Driver Date to identify whether the driver came from HP or Microsoft — that helps pick the correct vendor package if reinstallation is needed.

To find the culprit DLL, examine Event Viewer for the rundll32 crash (Start -> Run -> type eventvwr.msc -> Windows Logs -> Application/System -> look for Error entries at the time you attempted to enable sound). The Application Error entry usually lists a “Faulting module” name — copy that exact filename. Use Autoruns (Sysinternals) to search for startup entries that call rundll32 with that DLL and disable the suspect entry. Repair Windows system files from an elevated command prompt:

sfc /scannow

If Event Viewer points to a third‑party DLL, uninstall the related utility (Programs and Features) and reinstall the correct driver from HP’s support site rather than using generic packages. Avoid commercial “registry cleaners” — they seldom fix DLL crashes and can make recovery harder. If sound fails even under a Live USB, it’s likely hardware and needs service or a USB sound adapter. Post the exact Event Viewer “faulting module” line if further help is needed.

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Member Avatar for Suspishio

You possibly can't rule out malware. Maybe you should look at her internet history and see if some dodgy sites have been accessed that could have deposited a corrupting trojan.

I would download some antimalware software from Malwarebytes and scan the system. What Anti-Virus protection is on this laptop? And is it fully up to date?

One has to ask what would give RUNDLL32 a hard time. A corrupted DLL file? Trojan?

Member Avatar for scorso

She has Webroot Spysweeper with anti-virus and it's up to date, as far as One can see. I ran two scans last night and, besides about 16 cookies, there was no spyware or malware found.

Member Avatar for Suspishio

When you try to enable Sound, Rundll32.exe uses a DLL program in Windows\system32 (I don't know which one); if there is a problem with this DLL the an execution error can occur. It could have been corrupted at last shut down or something.

You could try and switch off (temporarily) DEP (Data Execution Protection) and see if that cures the sound enabling problem:

- Right click Computer, select properties
- Select Advanced System Settings (in the left pane)
- Advanced tab (you should already be there)
- Click Settings in the Performance section
- Select the Data Execution Prevention tab
- Select "Turn on DEP for all programs and services except..."
- Click Add and browse to \Windows\System32\Rundll32.exe
- You could consider adding \Windows\explorer.exe

If this doesn't help, you could try repairing Vista (I think that's F8 when booting and using the repair console.

Member Avatar for nickguletskii

If it had Realtek HD Sound Manager, try reinstalling it. If you did not, try installing it.

Member Avatar for scorso

Thanks much--I'll give this a go and get back to you.

Member Avatar for kaninelupus

If it had Realtek HD Sound Manager, try reinstalling it. If you did not, try installing it.

This not the first time I've seen you throw this "tit-bit" out there, and again will pull you up on it. Don't you think you should find out if it actually a RealTek card before advising to install drivers/manager for a RealTek card??

First thing to try (as corrupted DLL file was a very possible assessment) would simply be to use System Restore to roll Windows back to just before that eventful shut-down. The other is to use Windows repair option, using your copy of Windows or the supplied recovery disk.

Either option should get your daughter's notebook back on track.

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