What does this mean? "LoadLibrary failed"

[UTUSN]

**************ERROR:

LoadLibrary failed with error 1114: A dynamic link library (DLL) initialization routine failed.

********END ERROR MESSAGE******


Oh, so *that's* what "DLL" stands for!1 After all these years when "DLL" meant to me something mysterious that must be important!1

Anyway, this is an old laptop, going on five or more years, the only big problem has been replacing the battery, which is never used(?) since I plug the machine in for all using (don't take it anywhere).

Anyway, what is this error, how serious is it, is the machine on its last legs? Tia.

[Egnever]

1. Does it only happen when you are trying to run certain software?

Or does it pop up randomly ?

Typically you will see something like that linked to specific software. If it only happens when you run certain software I would look to the manufacturer to see if it is a known issue.

If it is happening all the time randomly then you likely have some registry issues.

The hardware on your​ machine is more than likely fine it is either bad software that might be fixed by a reinstall of that software or some other setting change required by that software or if it happens all the time would indicate that the operating system itself has issues. In the later case a repair of Windows would likely fix it.

I don't know what version of Windows you are running but if it is win 10 you can repair it pretty painlessly depending on how much software you use if it is anything before win 8 it gets a little more difficult yet still completely fixable.

[UTUSN]

2. It popped up in powering up. Did a Restart & it popped up again. All is running normally

as far as I can tell. I don't know what software I run in just using Live Mail and Edge browser for Windows 10. The only program I use is Microsoft Works/Publisher.

The only new thing has been that RealPlayer, which I used for a couple of months two years ago, which I thought was uninstalled, yesterday asked to Upgrade!1 I'm not even installed, and it wanted Upgrading. To stop the couple of those requests, I went ahead and let it do that.

How does a "repair of Windows" work? Thanks.

[Egnever]

3. In that case

It is most likely software running on start up. If you right click on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen and choose task manager a window will open that has tabs at the top.

Look for the tab that says startup and then disable everything in there and restart the computer. If the message goes away you can go through and re enable things one at a time until the message returns . Or just leave everything off it won't actually hurt anything to disable everything in there.

To reset the machine I believe you can type recovery in the search box on the task bar then choose reset on the screen that pops up. I am not near a machine to check for sure but that should get you to the right place.

I would not reset the machine unless you have to and if you do make sure it keeps your files ,it will ask.