Winmm.dll issues

Went to my computer this morning and when the monitor turned on, my AV Avast Pro) was prompting to me reboot, which I thought was odd. I tried a couple of things prior to rebooting, like open IE, yet nothing was functioning. Rebooted and now all I get is poups telling me that lsass.exe cannot start because I am missing the WINMM.DLL file and then another popup that says Services.exe cannot start because WINMM.DLL is missing. Finally another popup comes up and says this service could not be started because...... And there is no reason or file name on this one.
I have ran chkdsk and have went into the win xp pro startup and tried to repair, yet after it copies all the files and starts to complete the installation process, the lsass.exe pops up again and when I click ok, it reboots. I cannot get into safe mode, etc. I am hoping to fix this issue without formating cause there is some very important files that are on this pc, which is rarely used. I hoping that I can get some assistance on how to get this winmm.dll file back to the correct location(s) and avoid any more cursing, crying, etc.

Thanks in advanced!!

 

Try downloading winmml.ddl and installin it:
http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?winmm

 

I have found several locations where to dl it from, yet I am not able to boot into windows, so that is my whole issue. If I can install it another way, that would be awesome.

 

Have you tried 'last known good configuration'?

To start your computer by using the Last Known Good Configuration feature, follow these steps:
1. Start your computer.
2. When you see the "Please select the operating system to start" message, press the F8 key.
3. When the Windows Advanced Options menu appears, use the ARROW keys to select Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked), and then press ENTER.
4. If you are running other operating systems on your computer, use the ARROW keys to select Microsoft Windows XP, and then press ENTER.

 

Yes, I have tried that too. I am just looking for a way to put the WINMM.DLL file back in the proper locations, without having to format my machine. I am currently forced to pop in an ide hd to install another copy of win xp so I can look at the corrupt hd and then install the files. I was just trying to save a little time with all this stuff.