Trying to reformat... Shell32.dll Control_RunDLL Exception

[Guest]

Hi, I've seen similar posts all over the internet but have found no solution
to this problem. When I open my AC 97 Audio Sound Effect Manager from control
panel, then click 'OK' to close it, I get the following error:

An exception occurred while trying to run
"C:\windows\system32\shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL
"C:\windows\system32\ALSNDMGR.cpl",Sound Effect Manager"

It was working fine last night and today it did this. I've tried a system
restore, RegSrv32 shell32.dll, spyware scan with spybot and virus scan w/
mcafee. No luck. I just reformatted and finished installing the basics so I
could create a disk image but now I don't want to cause I've got this error.
What's the deal?

 

[Guest]

Here's what it seems is happening...when I open the Sound Effect Manager,
Windows uses RunDLL32.exe to run Shell32.dll. Shell32.dll is used to open
control panel applets (the .cpl files) in this case ALSNDMGR.cpl. It seems
that it opens fine and I can use it, but when I close the file it reaches a
corrupt point in the ALSNDMGR.cpl file causing the process to blow up and
give me the message?

If this is the case, it could only mean a couple things:
1. My installation CD is scratched or defective because I have re-installed
the sound card driver several times.
2. When I re-install the sound card driver, the corrupted file is not being
replaced by the version on the CD. Less likely because how would it have
become corrupted in the first place?

Right?