winsrv.dll missing?

[Sid Knee]

All of a sudden I started getting a bsod when booting with the message:

Stop: c0000135 {Unable to Locate DLL}
The dynamic link library winsrv.dll could not be found in the specified
path Default Load Path

I've checked from another partition and winsrv.dll is, in fact, present
where it should be (...\system32). I rebooted several times and the
problem was repeated.

At that point I tried booting into safe mode and this was accomplished
OK. I then did a normal boot and the system came up properly (no bsod).

What's happening here? Should I just carry on like it didn't happen or
is it indicative of something deeper?

 

[NewScience]

It could be that winsrv.dll was/is not registered. Safe Mode may have
caused it to become registered.

 

[Sid Knee]

This is an installation that was created over 3 years ago and has been
pretty much trouble free. Presumably the dll was registered up till now.
What would have caused it to become unregistered?

 

[NewScience]

You'd be surprised. I've had system DLLS become unregistered at the drop of
a hat.

This seems only to happen AFTER a MS update. Maybe something in Updates
tweaks the register that causes DLLs to become de-registered.

I've seen this happen on brand new systems, after servicepacks, after
patches, installation of new software, ....

Just be happy that it fixed itself. I've seen this happen as well. Normal
Mode continually craps out.
Reboot in Safe Mode, run chkdsk /f (which finds and reports nothing), reboot
in Normal mode and ... POOF! .... everything works.

Sure isn't like my old Unix and Linux days.

 

[Sid Knee]

Just be happy that it fixed itself.

I guess my concern is that it *is* truly fixed there's not still
something deeper that's lurking. Fact is I have a backup from about a
week before. The setup is fairly static on that machine so I wouldn't
lose a whole lot by restoring. Then again that backup might contain the
same incipient problem

Sure isn't like my old Unix and Linux days.