Unknown Error Message

[gyron1]

It seems that I only post to this Forum when I am in trouble, my apologies for this.
My wife has a Vaio VGN-FE31H which she uses for general computing but also for playing games.
Recently she has been getting an error message upon start-up, shut down and also sometimes when starting various games up.
The error message is;

'The procedure entry point ismbcspace could not be located in the dynamic link library MSVCR71.dll'

Does anyone know whatthis is and, more to the point, how I can correct this problem please.
Most appreciative of any answers of help.
Thank you.
Gyron

[Blencogo]

Hi Gyron,

Many programs and games install their own version of msvcr71.dll and it sounds to me like an old version has got itself installed into the prime system path of C:\Windows\System32. Do a search of your system and see exactly how many copies of this file you have.

If the version in C:\Windows\System32 is not the newest of all the files, transfer the newest one to C:\Windows\System32 and rename the older one mavcr71.old. Then reboot. You may want to rename all older versions of the file.

You could also Google for a newer version and download it from somewhere like

http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?msvc71

You may find you have to register the new version: -

Start -> Run -> type.....regsvr32 msvcr71.dll -> Enter

[gyron1]

Hello Blencogo,

Thank you for your reply. Apologies for not getting back to you sooner.

I did a search for 'msvcr71.dll' on the Laptop in question and found 64 files having this item. Most of the files were Drivers, Programs etc - is it normal to have so many entries?

However there were two entries were for 'system 32' as follows;

c:\Windows\system 32 dated 26/4/2009
c:\Windows\system 32\URTTEMP dated 21/02/2003

Most of the other entries are at various dates going back to 2003.

One clue amongst all of this is that my wife says she updated 'RealPlayer' after much annoying prompting, and as far as she can remember this was on the same date as the latest system 32 entry ie 26/4/2009 above.

With this new data are you able to offer any more advice please??

A final thought, I could invoke a 'System Restore' point before the RealPlayer update which, presumably, would not only go back before the RealPlayer update but also the latest 'Sytem32' entry. What do you thinl?

Thank you,

Gyron

[Blencogo]

Hi Gyron,

Yes, everything you install will come with it's own version!

Probably best to try a system restore because it is reversible. Try it and see if it fixes the problem.

If it does, make a copy of the .dll version that works OK and keep it somewhere safe where you can reinstall it into System32 if you get a problem again after an update.

The problem may be that some games may need an older version with a procedure entry point they can use. So if you find the one that works best - keep a copy as a backup.

[gyron1]

Hi Blencogo,

OK, thank you.

It would 'appear' from what we have been saying, that it is the c:\Windows\system 32\URTTEMP dated 21/02/2003 version that works (though we don't know this yet). Is there any significance to the \URTTEMP bit at the end of the older version?

Kind regards,

Gyron