winxp tab ed sp3

I tried to open device manager today via rclicking my computer and got "run a DLL as an App has encountered a problem etc", rapidly followed by "DrWatson Postmortem Debugger has encountered a problem etc." Both [rundll32 and drwatson] remained running as processes in taskmanager. I also tried opening device manager via the System applet in CP , via run > "devmgmt.msc" and doubleclicking devmgmt.msc in windows/system32. Somewhere in there I got an error message stating "An exception occurred while trying to run "C/windows/system32/shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL "C:\Windows\system32\sysdm.cpl,System"

System event viewer has faulting modules irprops.cpl [if that's infrared I have that disabled since I don't use it] & devmgr.dll for rundll32.exe and hang module hungapp. For drwtsn32.exe there's faulting module dbghelp.dll.

I can open some .msc's ok - certificates and diskdefrag and event viewer - by doublclicking on their .msc file. Computer management gets me an error message that "MMC has detected an error in a snap-in" and recommends shutting down and restarting mmc. That didn't work. If I choose the option to open keep mmc running and ignore the problem snap-in, computer management opens ok w/ the other snap-ins. I tried the old restart windows, but no go.

Googling for rundll exceptions and searching here for rundll hasn't provided anywhere to start. Any suggestions?

It sounds like something's failing when calling devmgr.dll - this could be a problem with the dll itself, or something that's installed that has it hooked. I would suggest the following:

1. Download and install version 6.11.1.404 of the Debugging Tools for Windows.

2. Create the folder C:\adplus on your computer.

3. Open a command prompt, and browse to the directory that the Debugging Tools was installed to (usually "C:\Program Files\Debugging Tools for Windows (x86)\" if you accept the installation defaults).

4. Execute the following command from the command prompt:

cscript adplus.vbs -crash -quiet -o C:\adplus -sc "rundll32.exe devmgr.dll DeviceManager_Execute"

Device Manager will attempt to spawn, and should crash. It will create a folder in C:\adplus with a bunch of files and folders - zip up the C:\adplus folder at this point and upload it somewhere (or PM me) so we can have a look at the crash itself.