Indiscriminant shut downs (possibly DLL related)

[Kolja]

Lately, my computer has been shutting down programs that
are running without warning, and has even shut off the
computer completely. I cleared all my histories, cache,
and temporary file areas, defragmented and ran disk
cleanup on all my drives, virus scanned the whole
computer, and activated the chkdsk. My problem still
persisted. Indiscriminant shut downs. Norton AntiVirus did
give me a warning about one files though. Namely...

C:\WINDOWS\msagent\intl\agt041f.dll

When I turned the computer on again, Windows said
something about successfully recovering a lost file, or
some such (I don't remember the message verbatim) but my
indiscriminant shut down problem still existed.

It also started giving me a new warning. Now, whenever I
turn my computer on, I get an "X" warning that
reads: "EM_EXEC.EXE - Bad Image"

Which goes on to say...

"The application or DLL C:\WINDOWS\System32\COMNCTR.dll is
not a valid Windows image. Please check this against your
installation diskette."

I searched the internet
for "C:\WINDOWS\msagent\intl\agt041f.dll" with Google and
got nothing. A side bar on the Google page did mention a
DLL PC Diagnostic tool, so I downloaded it.

It told me I had 256 DLL problem files.

Many of the DLL files listed repeated. But there were only
7 in total.

C:\PROGRA~1\Dragon\NATURA~1\Program\dd10sapi.dll
(2 instances)
C:\Program Files\Ahead\nero\APHandler.dll
(2 instances)
C:\PROGRA~1\Dragon\NATURA~1\Program\vocitaud.dll
(4 instances)
C:\Program Files\SideWinder Game Voice Share\MSHVCHAT.DLL
(2 instances)
C:\PROGRA~1\Dragon\NATURA~1\Program\dd10srvr.dll
(2 instances)
C:\PROGRA~1\Dragon\NATURA~1\Program\dd10edit.dll
(2 instances)
C:\PROGRA~1\Dragon\NATURA~1\Program\dd10midl.dll
(the remaining 242 instances)

The thing is, Dragon Speaking Naturally and SideWinder
Game Voice Share are no longer installed on my computer.
Not for over 6 months at least.

Can anybody help me get to the bottom of this problem and
make these errors go away? Thanks for reading.

 

[Doug]

Did you by chance install a new mouse or drivers?

Program Name: EM_EXEC

Executable Name: EM_EXEC.EXE

Required: User's choice

Comments: Logitech Mouseware driver. Needed to support some additional
functionality of Logitech mice/trackballs such as "SmartMove". If you
disable it and find you don't need it leave it disabled



Cheers BeePaw

: Lately, my computer has been shutting down programs that
: are running without warning, and has even shut off the
: computer completely. I cleared all my histories, cache,
: and temporary file areas, defragmented and ran disk
: cleanup on all my drives, virus scanned the whole
: computer, and activated the chkdsk. My problem still
: persisted. Indiscriminant shut downs. Norton AntiVirus did
: give me a warning about one files though. Namely...
:
: C:\WINDOWS\msagent\intl\agt041f.dll
:
: When I turned the computer on again, Windows said
: something about successfully recovering a lost file, or
: some such (I don't remember the message verbatim) but my
: indiscriminant shut down problem still existed.
:
: It also started giving me a new warning. Now, whenever I
: turn my computer on, I get an "X" warning that
: reads: "EM_EXEC.EXE - Bad Image"
:
: Which goes on to say...
:
: "The application or DLL C:\WINDOWS\System32\COMNCTR.dll is
: not a valid Windows image. Please check this against your
: installation diskette."
:
: I searched the internet
: for "C:\WINDOWS\msagent\intl\agt041f.dll" with Google and
: got nothing. A side bar on the Google page did mention a
: DLL PC Diagnostic tool, so I downloaded it.
:
: It told me I had 256 DLL problem files.
:
: Many of the DLL files listed repeated. But there were only
: 7 in total.
:
: C:\PROGRA~1\Dragon\NATURA~1\Program\dd10sapi.dll
: (2 instances)
: C:\Program Files\Ahead\nero\APHandler.dll
: (2 instances)
: C:\PROGRA~1\Dragon\NATURA~1\Program\vocitaud.dll
: (4 instances)
: C:\Program Files\SideWinder Game Voice Share\MSHVCHAT.DLL
: (2 instances)
: C:\PROGRA~1\Dragon\NATURA~1\Program\dd10srvr.dll
: (2 instances)
: C:\PROGRA~1\Dragon\NATURA~1\Program\dd10edit.dll
: (2 instances)
: C:\PROGRA~1\Dragon\NATURA~1\Program\dd10midl.dll
: (the remaining 242 instances)
:
: The thing is, Dragon Speaking Naturally and SideWinder
: Game Voice Share are no longer installed on my computer.
: Not for over 6 months at least.
:
: Can anybody help me get to the bottom of this problem and
: make these errors go away? Thanks for reading.

 

[Guest]

No, I didn't install any new mouseware drivers, but funny
you should ask. The double click on my middle mouse button
stopped working around the same time this problem started,
and I can't find the program that will let me configure it
again. Should I reinstall the mouseware software?

Kolja

 

[Alex Nichol]

It also started giving me a new warning. Now, whenever I
turn my computer on, I get an "X" warning that
reads: "EM_EXEC.EXE - Bad Image"

EM_EXEC is the control for Logitech Mouse drivers

Which goes on to say...

"The application or DLL C:\WINDOWS\System32\COMNCTR.dll is
not a valid Windows image. Please check this against your
installation diskette."

and that is a central component of the system - which EM_EXEC might
well use.

This all suggests a pretty extensive corruption of the system from some
cause. I think the safest course is to back up your data files if you
can, and then do - initially - a repair reinstall of the system. Set
the BIOS to boot CD before Hard disk, then boot the XP CD, start Setup
(do not take 'Repair' at this stage), then after the license agreement
take 'Repair Installation'. This will retain your existing software
installations and most settings. But Updates will have to be run again,
especially SP1; It is important to activate the basic XP Firewall
before you ever connect to the net to get the patches, so as to be
protected against things like the BLAST worm.

Before going into updates though, make sure things are working, and
If things work make and you were not able to make that backup, do it
now.

And it might be sensible then to do a clean start, all over again -
same method, but ask for New Install instead of repair, then when it
asks where hit ESC, delete the current partition and make a new one.
You will then have to re-install third party software and recover the
data, but things should then be secure - or on the way it will have
shown up say a hard disk in bad state