Possible Infection Or Corrupt File? OR BOTH?

Mars_Blackmon · Jan 11, 2010

I woke up this morning, went to do my exam, and come home to a potentially nasty surprise.

I go on my computer and check my Thunderbird as I usually do. However, much to my dismay, it could not be launched because OLE32.dll is faulting. I thought to myself, I'll just go uninstall it.

So, I go to my control panel and launch add or remove programs but it cannot be launched. OLE32.dll.

Now, I start to get worried. I fire up avast! to set up a scan but it fails. OLE32.dll.

Then, I get really worried. I launch MalwareBytes but it too falls short - OLE32.dll.

Resorting to desperation, I decide to open up SuperAntiSpyware. This is the only application that seems to work, but don't get too excited. I've opened it three times and it freezes up. The first time I had to kill the process, I was alerted that "The program cannot be closed because it has been locked by the system." or something similar to that. I've opened it up another two times and it still freezes.

So... what's a dude gotta do to check the health of his computer? I'm afraid to reboot this thing.

Hoping someone here can offer a helping hand. Thank you in advance

chaslang · Jan 12, 2010

Welcome to Major Geeks!

Since you did not give us the exact word for word error message, I'm not sure if you mean the OLE32.dll file is missing or you mean you are getting a BSOD. BSODs or Missing Windows System files are not necessarily a malware problem. You need to check to see if the C:\WINDOWS\system32\ole32.dll file exists. And if it does, you need to veryify it is the correct version for your version of Windows (which you did not even tell us). If it does not exist or is corrupted or the wrong version, you need to copy it from another location back into the system32 folder. You may be able to find a copy at one of the below locations or another location from other updates:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache
C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386
C:\WINDOWS\$NtServicePackUninstall$

If the file is not missing and not corrupted, then you should post what version of Windows you are running along with the exact word for word error message you are receiving. Also you should check out the Event Log for additional information. Depending on what you post back, this thread may be moved to the Software Forum.

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Possible Infection Or Corrupt File? OR BOTH?

Mars_Blackmon Private E-2

chaslang MajorGeeks Admin - Master Malware Expert Staff Member