Solved sfc and DISM find unfixable errors, problems with graphics card driver

[bwerfer]

Dear All,

in recent efforts of updating my secondary graphics card's software and drivers (NVidia GeForce GT 740M) on my laptop (Lenovo E540), I repeatedly ran into errors caused by a corrupted SPInf.dll in system32. The same error popped up when trying to execute the DirectX Web Setup. Efforts with sfc (executed several times, with restarts in between) and DISM/SUR (fixed one incorrectly installed update, but two not easily identifiable errors persist) apparently fixed some things, but not this particular error. I tried replacing SPInf.dll in system32 with a version from another computer (another Lenovo Win 7 Professional x64 machine where sfc doesn't find any errors) and from the install.wim of an appropriate Windows 7 setup DVD, all without luck.


A clean reinstall is only a last resort for me. A repair install is sadly not an option, since this model has been downgraded in-factory from Windows 8 and thus has no valid Windows 7 Key attached. My warranty long since expired. There sadly are no recent backups.


The error message is

"C:\Windows\system32\SPINF.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 or the software vender for support"


My System runs a Lenovo-specific Version of Win7 Professional x64.




If anybody has a hunch what it could be, I'd be glad if you could let me know. I attached the CheckSUR and CBS log files. I had to split the CBS one into two parts, since the file's size was too big to upload. If someone wants the file as a single file, I can proviede a zipped version.

Thanks a lot!

 

[bwerfer]

After spending a lot of time with this, I managed to find a solution. While the error message specifies system32, the SPInf.dll in system32 was actually fine. The corrupted file was the SPInf.dll in C:\Windows\SysWOW64. I replaced it, now the programs that up until now didn't run correctly seem to run fine. Hopefully this will help other people in the future.

 

[Paul Black]

Hi bwerfer,

Welcome to SevenForums!

After spending a lot of time with this, I managed to find a solution. While the error message specifies system32, the SPInf.dll in system32 was actually fine. The corrupted file was the SPInf.dll in C:\Windows\SysWOW64. I replaced it, now the programs that up until now didn't run correctly seems to run fine. Hopefully this will help other people in the future.

Thanks for sharing the solution with us!