Add/Remove Tool Corrupted

[ggames]

Upon clicking the Add/Remove Tool icon in the control panel, I receive
a pop-up message "run a dll as an App has encountered a problem and
must close".

I am running WinXP Home SP2.

I tried system restore from several points and was unsuccessful in
solving the above issue.

I did a "google" and couldn't find anything on the above.

Also, I have lost all my "themes".

These seem to be the only problems.

I recently did a registry cleanup using" RegDoc" which assured me that
it doesn't do anything to screw things up.
I also restored the "RegDoc" prior to the cleanup.

Nada.

Any advice would be appreciated.

TIA

Grant Ames
New York

[DMR]

Hi ggames, welcome to our site. :)

To begin with, please do the following in order for us to (hopefully) get a more specific idea of the exact cause of the problem:

Open the Event Viewer utility in your Administrative Tools control panel.

In the Event Viewer, look through the System and Application logs for entries flagged as "Warning" or "Error"; double-clicking on any of those entries will open a "details" window with more information about the error/warning. If you find any entries that seem to relate to your problem, post the full and exact contents given in the detail windows.

[ggames]

Good Morning and thanks for your reply.

Here is one of about 25 "error" reports as you requested. All happened within minutes of each other and all on the same day.
There are other errors and warnings that don't seem to address my issue.

Any assistance is appreciated:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Error
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1000
Date: 6/7/2005
Time: 9:23:15 AM
User: N/A
Computer: GGA-N0Q7NTHQG5A
Description:
Faulting application rundll32.exe, version 5.1.2600.2180, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, fault address 0x0073006f.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 46 61 69 6c ion Fail
0010: 75 72 65 20 20 72 75 6e ure run
0018: 64 6c 6c 33 32 2e 65 78 dll32.ex
0020: 65 20 35 2e 31 2e 32 36 e 5.1.26
0028: 30 30 2e 32 31 38 30 20 00.2180
0030: 69 6e 20 75 6e 6b 6e 6f in unkno
0038: 77 6e 20 30 2e 30 2e 30 wn 0.0.0
0040: 2e 30 20 61 74 20 6f 66 .0 at of
0048: 66 73 65 74 20 30 30 37 fset 007
0050: 33 30 30 36 66 0d 0a 3006f..

-end-

TIA,

Grant Ames
New York

[DMR]

Hi Grant,

Have you ever noticed how Deja Vu can come into play when you're out there Googling around for information?
Hint: I believe these are your footprints, yes? :mrgreen:

Unfortunately, in this case the log entries report "faulting module unknown" instead of identifying the actual file (module) that is causing the error. Because rundll32.exe is responsible for managing many Windows processes, "module unknown" doesn't give us as much to go on as I would like. :(

Can you give us more specific information about the problem such as when it started to occur, if you had added/removed/upgraded any software at about that time, or if you've had any recent virus infections? Anything you can think of along those lines could help us pinpoint the exact cause.

[ggames]

Hi,

As I mentioned in my last note, there are about 25 identical "error" reports as the one I posted to you.
And you are right about the footprint!! Is nothing private anymore??? :-)

All of this seemed to happen on 6June right after I did a RegDoc scan and "fixed" the registry "errors". I restored the registry to the prior state, to no avail.
No new/deleted software and AVG reports no viruii. Ad-Aware reports some spyware which looks like the same usual stuff which I deleted.

Somehow I believe it is related to the RegDoc deleting "temp" folders.
Or, at least screwing up the registry to act like it had deleted them.

If all else fails, should I reinstall WinXP?
How important is the Add/Remove tool anyway?
Most software comes with an uninstall feature.

I'll take your advice in any event.

Thanks for your concern.

Regards,

Grant

[navyjax2]

Well, the Add/Remove Programs tool is VERY important if the programs you install don't have an uninstall link.

But I wanted to post this much - I had an issue on a person's computer similar to this one where I would try and try and try to launch "Add/Remove Programs", and it would not, no error, it just didn't do anything. At the same time, the double-left-click would act like I had clicked on the object's properties for anything else (normally a right-click, then a left-click on Properties in the menu that would appear). Right-click worked like normal, so I knew left and right mouse keys weren't switched. Folders were opening in separate windows instead of the same one when opening them (which I was doing by right-clicking, then left-clicking on "Open" in the menu, or just hitting Enter when I got tired of that) - going to Tools -> Folder Options revealed that folders should have been opening in the same window, not multiple. Switching that setting had the desired effect, to open folders in a single window, but stated that I was really supposed to be opening multiple windows as the actual selection.

The way I solved all of this? I went to the Device Manager (right-click My Computer, hit Manage), right-clicked the mouse, hit Uninstall on the Mouse, rebooted as it said to do, went back in, right-clicked the computer at the top of the Device Manager and hit "Scan for hardware changes", rebooted as it asked for, and all was once again well as the drivers re-installed automatically. I don't know if it will amount to mouse drivers here, but I thought I'd give it a shot. If it doesn't work, a data backup and an XP re-install probably would be in order.

[ggames]

Good Morning Navyjax2,

I tried your recommendation re: mouse driver.
Didn't have any effect on my issue but I sincerely thank you for your efforts.

Looks like the dreaded re-install is in order as you suggested.

I'll let the folks know, here, how it works out.

Give me a few days.

Regards and have a great day,

Grant