Help error message when removing external hard drive

[Hank]

I am running Windowsxp Home Edition SP3 with all current patches.
Recently I started getting an error message when I try to remove my
external hard drive backup unit. I right click on the symbol in the
sys tray to get the "safely remove drive", I then left click on that
to open the window showing the USB drive. I select stopping the Maxtor
drive. I get the "you can safely remove the drive" message BUT when I
do I get an error message

An exception occurred while trying to run "shell32.dll, control_run
DLL hotplug.dll".

Then I get a window saying:

"run a DLL as an App has encountered a problem and needs to close"

when I click on added information it says "the app's name is
rundll32.exe"

operation works fine but this error message keeps coming. What if
anything is work? This procedure use to work fine.

email response not expected but to respond remove .uk at end
TIA
Hank

 

[Rich Barry]

Hank, try this MS fix

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925196

 

[Hank]

Thanks for the response. I checked out your support page but it is
for:

"You attach a USB-based device to a computer that is running Windows
XP. Then, you try to scan for hardware devices. However, the computer
does not detect the attached device, and you do not see the device in
the My Computer folder."

My error is not "can not detect" but rather when I try to "safely
remove" the device my PC has seen and used.

Hank, try this MS fix

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925196

email response not expected but to respond remove .uk at end
TIA
Hank

 

[Rich Barry]

Hank, try going to C:\Windows\System32 Folder. Scroll down to
rundll32.exe. Rename to rundll32.bak. XP will create a
new rundll32.exe. It takes about a minute. WinFile Protection will warn
you but ignore the warning. I tried this myself before
passing it on.

 

[Hank]

Thanks Barry that seemed to do the trick. Must have somehow damaged
the DLL

Hank, try going to C:\Windows\System32 Folder. Scroll down to
rundll32.exe. Rename to rundll32.bak. XP will create a
new rundll32.exe. It takes about a minute. WinFile Protection will warn
you but ignore the warning. I tried this myself before
passing it on.

email response not expected but to respond remove .uk at end
TIA
Hank