Windows Server 2008 Standard 32-bit gives Rundll32.exe error and blank screen on bootup

Question

Last week our file server installed automatic updates and then requested a reboot.  After rebooting it repeatedly gave a blue screen and rebooted.  After 5 hours on the phone with Microsoft support we all gave up on it with no solution.  Later
we were able to get the machine to boot using an old mirrored hard drive of the system drive.  We can now access our data drive, however after login we get this error:
Rundll32.exe : Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file.You may not have the appropriate permission to access the
item.
and the console just shows a blank screen.  We are not able to do anything on the server.  I can Ctrl-Alt-Del and bring up Task
Manager and I see that SQL Server is not running, so not all services are running normally.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

Answer 1

Hi,
Based on my research, this issue occurs because the Rundll32.exe file is corrupted. You need to extract a new copy of Rundll32.exe in C:\Windows\System32.
To do this, you can either copy it from another same version of Windows or perform an In-Place Upgrade.
How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows
Server 2008 & Windows Server 2008 R2
Best Regards
Dale
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