Offensive DLL file..

[rockymtnhigh]

Ok gurus, I need some help.

I just got a program called SPSS Advantage for Excel; an add-in for Excel that provides advanced data entry tools for SPSS statistics. It required Excel 2007, so I did an upgrade to Office 2007; that was easy. Installed the add-in, and when Excel starts, it spits out an error.

"Unable to load spssxd.dll. The specified procedure could not be found (exception from h-result 0x8007007F). "


SPSS' website suggested the following fix:

Resolution Description:
This problem can be caused by having an incompatible version of a third-party module named zlib.dll that SPSS uses on your system.

Do a search on your system for that dll and most likely you will find an older version in your \Windows\System32 directory as well as the one that SPSS installs in its own directory. The connection works from the SPSS side because it's loading zlib.dll from its own directory, but since the third-party module doesn't have its own copy, it's loading it from the \Windows\System32 directory.

As a workaround, you can either update the older version of zlib.dll found outside of SPSS's installation directory or add SPSS's installation path as the first in the list to your system's PATH environment variable.

So.. I go to the System32 directory.... there is NO zlib.dll file in it; I copy the version from the Excel-Add-in's directory to it. That doesn't work.

I add the path of the Excel-Add-in to the Path variable. Reboot. That doesn't work.

There are several versions of the zlib.dll file on the computer; but I am at a loss in terms of what to do next. Already wasted over an hour on this tonight. Pretty frustrating.

Any ideas?

 

[diogen]

There are several versions of the zlib.dll file on the computer...

Where are those located?

As a general note: after copying the DLL to system32 try to register it.
Remember, registering in Vista is more complicated than XP.
The most reliable way to do it, create a .bat file, right-click, Run as Administrator.

Have you by any chance upgraded to Vista from XP?

Diogen.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Where are those located?

As a general note: after copying the DLL to system32 try to register it.
Remember, registering in Vista is more complicated than XP.
The most reliable way to do it, create a .bat file, right-click, Run as Administrator.

Have you by any chance upgraded to Vista from XP?

Diogen.

I am running XP SP2, not vista.

How do I register the DLL?

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Oh, BTW, there are copies of the dll (some newer than others) in several programs; Mindjet Mind Manager; SPSS's main folder; the SPSS add-in folder; some of the Lenobo ThinkPad folders; etc...

 

[diogen]

I am running XP SP2, not vista.

Ups... Don't know why I thought you run Vista...

How do I register the DLL?

regsvr32 name.dll

Diogen.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I googled it, and was able to use regsvr32 but got this

"C:Windows\System32\zlib.dll was loaded, but the DLLRegister Server entry point was not found. The file cannot be registered."

 

[diogen]

That could mean many different things...
Some other components not loaded, probably.

Sorry, have nothing else to add...

Diogen.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Thanks for trying.

THis is definitely infuriating. And there are

13 copies of the zlib.dll file on the machine.

 

[Van]

Shouldnt it only be accessing one from a specific directory or folder?

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Shouldnt it only be accessing one from a specific directory or folder?

You'd think, but I'll be damned if I can figure it out. Kind of annoying, thats for sure.

 

[VinceT3]

regsvr32 only works on com objects.. that dll is just a C dll with reference points within the dll that get call (via the .H file that get compiled into apps) I don't remember the rest of the mumbo jumbo from my work with C/C++, but basically just copying the file in the right directory should accomplisht he goal..

now in execution it should look in the local directory of the EXE for the dll then it'll start moving into the path to find it.. so if it's where the exe is it should work..

aka, put their version in the 3rd party apps directory and that should fix it.. (obviously always backup the dll you're overwriting in case something goes wrong)

 

[rockymtnhigh]

regsvr32 only works on com objects.. that dll is just a C dll with reference points within the dll that get call (via the .H file that get compiled into apps) I don't remember the rest of the mumbo jumbo from my work with C/C++, but basically just copying the file in the right directory should accomplisht he goal..

now in execution it should look in the local directory of the EXE for the dll then it'll start moving into the path to find it.. so if it's where the exe is it should work..

aka, put their version in the 3rd party apps directory and that should fix it.. (obviously always backup the dll you're overwriting in case something goes wrong)

So... put the zlib.dll in the Excel directory? Or the SPSS directory? Its already in the SPSS-directory. Basically I am dealing with a COM add-in to Excel 2007.

 

[VinceT3]

eww, excel addins.. well I'm guessing excel since it should be running in excels memory space..

you could drop it in system32 but overwriting the one in system32 could cause issues else where.. if none exists you could drop their version there and restart excel .. make sure system32 is in your path if you do that..

 

[rockymtnhigh]

eww, excel addins.. well I'm guessing excel since it should be running in excels memory space..

you could drop it in system32 but overwriting the one in system32 could cause issues else where.. if none exists you could drop their version there and restart excel .. make sure system32 is in your path if you do that..

I tried putting it in the office 12 folder; put it and the spssxd.dll (the file it can't find) with it. Restarted. No dice.

Zlib.dll wasn't in system32, which is what SPSS's website thought the problem would be. I put both files there, but no dice.

Infuriating.