RASAPI32.dll error message

Question

I receive this error message at boot up and frequently during regular pc activities. many applications apparently use this file? I cannot figure out how to repair it and I don not have any disks to use.

C:\Windows\system32\RASAPI32.dll is either not designed to run on windows or it contains an error. Try installing the program again using the original installation media or contact your system administrator of the software vendor for support.

Any practical suggestions would be appreciated.

Answer 1

SFC

Check for file corruption by clicking Start - All Programs - Accessories - Right click Command Prompt and choose Run As Administrator. Type (or copy and paste by right clicking in the Command Prompt window and choosing Paste).

sfc /scannow

For SFC Results

Start - All Programs - Accessories - Right click Command Prompt and choose Run As Administrator. Type (or copy and paste by right clicking in the Command Prompt window and choosing Paste).

findstr /c:"[SR] Cannot" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log|more

This will see which files are corrupted.

To see if it did anything

findstr /c:"[SR] Repairing" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log|more

There are frequent false positives for small text files Windows uses such as desktop.ini and settings.ini. Also due to an update .mof files starting with wd may also be flagged. Ignore these.

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If the files have been updated there will be older versions in the winSxS cache.

If you uninstall the update/service pack that put the current file on it will revert to an earlier file.

If desperate you can copy an older version over.

Lets see what you have.

Start - All Programs - Accessories - Right click Command Prompt and choose Run As Administrator. Type (or copy and paste by right clicking in the Command Prompt window and choosing Paste).

dir "%windir%\winsxs\rasapi32.dll" /a /s

The version is the number before _none_ in the containing folder. Here is SP1's (6.0.6001.18000)

Directory of C:\Windows\winsxs\x86_microsoft-windows-rasapi_31bf3856ad364e35_6. 0.6001.18000_none_6d377f6a4f85327c

18/01/2008  11:36 PM           286,720 rasapi32.dll               1 File(s)        286,720 bytes

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Command Prompt Basics

Open Command Prompt As Administrator

Start - All Programs - Accessories - Right click Command Prompt and choose Run As Administrator.

Paste Commands Into a Command Prompt

Paste by right clicking in the Command Prompt window and choosing Paste).

Copy Text From Command Prompt

To copy the text output right click the window - Mark then select the text and press Enter.

Configure Command Prompt

To configure the command prompt. Right click the Command Prompt's titlebar - Properties - Layout tab - and enter 1000 for Screen Buffer Size Height and 43 (or 50) for Window Size Height. Change the Color (Color tab) and Font (Font tab) if you want.

Basic commands

In the command prompt folders are known as directories for historical reasons.

To list the current directory

dir

To list a specified directory

dir "c:\windows"

To list files of a certain type. * means all characters while ? matches a single character.

dir "c:\windows\.exe"*

dir "c:\windows?otepad.*"

Some other commands to look up in Help.

• copy - copy a file
• ren - rename a file
• del - delete a file
• rd - delete a directory
• cd - change the current directory

Help

For a list of commands, in a command prompt type

help

For help on a command type

help commandname

or

commandname /?

eg

cd /?

Keyboard Tips

Press Up or Down Arrow key to cycle between previously typed commands.

Ctrl + D and Ctrl + F complete directory/folder paths and filenames for you.

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