Rundll32.exe File Please Help!

[Heresy]

As of today i have this issue with rundll32.exe files using 100% of my CPU.

I can manually terminate this file and everything goes back to normal. When i try to launch any game inside or outside of Steam this file automatically reboots itself and starts eating 100% CPU.

This means my games fail to launch 2-3 times and i have to manually find them in task manager, terminate the program and try to relaunch. Once the game launches i can then go to task manager and manually terminate rundll32.exe Which brings my game and performance back to normal.


This all started today and its after i installed a very popular mod for Medieval 2 Total War named Stainless Steel. It required me to rename the executable file of that game.

I look online and see people with this exact same issue but for other games who have come up with the same solution i have:



https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/lync/en-US/d9aaef3d-d294-4a27-847f-0dc1422e3930/starting-games-rundll32exe-goes-to-max-cpu-usage-loading-stops?forum=w7itprogeneral


https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/rundll32-issue-when-opening-games-help.18158143/

There seems to be no solution for this and people call it a Mystery. The few other fixes in these forums i have tried and they do not work.


Please can someone help me i am almost 90% sure its because i edited only the 1 executable file for Medieval 2 but why would this cause such a huge problem?


I have deleted medieval 2 and the mod and it changed nothing.

If i want to launch any game off steam or even outside of steam it will start this rundll32.exe file and i dont know why.


THis is all i did within this guide and ever since i have had this issue explained above. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=859017394


Windows 7 OS

[ReBoot]

Is it limited to one game in particular?

[Heresy]

no seems to be all games in Game Explorer tab causing it.

[ReBoot]

Open the task manager and have it tell you the full command line of the offending process.

[Brujeira]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

What's a "game explorer tab"?

Had to Google that myself as I never used it either. It’s the panel that contains all the free MS games. It also seems to keep track of info for any game that it finds on the machine - stuff like publishers, recommended system specs, etc.

I’m guessing that whatever change the OP made has put that panel out of sync with the system and it’s trying to put things right. Windows being Windoze it’s probably also double checking the rest of the panel’s contents... by scanning the whole drive.

Deactivate that panel completely if there’s a way to do it. Ultimately though, the only permanent solution may be to upgrade to Win 10 - preferably before Win 7 reaches end of life next January.

[MagicMight]

Originally posted by Heresy:

no seems to be all games in Game Explorer tab causing it.

Hello, did you figure out a solution for this? I just noticed that this happens to me too on my windows 7 machine when I try to launch an older game: the first time I try to open it, rundll32.exe runs (using Process Explorer I can see that this exe is launched via gameux.dll which is part of the games explorer), along with the game's exe. However the game does not launch as it seems that rundll32 is blocking it. If I launch a second instance of the game, it runs. I can afterwards just close rundll32 and the first exe of the game that did not launch and everything will work fine.

I tried some solutions posted around but it seems that nothing works so far:

1. Launching in compatibility mode makes no difference.

2.Messing with the registry key named 'Games' at HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\GameUX\ServiceLocation makes no difference as upon restart and launching the game, the key is overwritten.

3.The option to not check for updates or art for games from within the games explorer made no difference.

4.Temporarily disabling the firewall so that the game explorer can update the game's info when it launches made no difference either. Rundll kept running away and consuming cpu power.

5. I don't think it is possible to completely shut down the game explorer unfortunately.

The funny thing is that I am pretty sure (not 100% though) that this did not happen with this game in the past (it used to always lauch normally on the first go and I am almost positive that the cpu did not go haywire) and I have not installed anything else on that pc other than steam and some games so I cannot see what could have changed.

In the end this is not such a big issue as it seems to happen with some old games only, and you can just kill the process each time you launch the game. However if you have tried something else and made it work please let me know.

EDIT: And of course after typing this I solve it within a couple of minutes. Go figure.

I unwittingly implied the solution above actually... Since gameux.dll is launching rundll32, you just need to get rid of that. I went in system32 and syswow64, found both dlls in there and renamed them. No more issues now.

[Heresy]

Originally posted by MagicMight:

Originally posted by Heresy:

no seems to be all games in Game Explorer tab causing it.

Hello, did you figure out a solution for this? I just noticed that this happens to me too on my windows 7 machine when I try to launch an older game: the first time I try to open it, rundll32.exe runs (using Process Explorer I can see that this exe is launched via gameux.dll which is part of the games explorer), along with the game's exe. However the game does not launch as it seems that rundll32 is blocking it. If I launch a second instance of the game, it runs. I can afterwards just close rundll32 and the first exe of the game that did not launch and everything will work fine.

I tried some solutions posted around but it seems that nothing works so far:

1. Launching in compatibility mode makes no difference.

2.Messing with the registry key named 'Games' at HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\GameUX\ServiceLocation makes no difference as upon restart and launching the game, the key is overwritten.

3.The option to not check for updates or art for games from within the games explorer made no difference.

4.Temporarily disabling the firewall so that the game explorer can update the game's info when it launches made no difference either. Rundll kept running away and consuming cpu power.

5. I don't think it is possible to completely shut down the game explorer unfortunately.

The funny thing is that I am pretty sure (not 100% though) that this did not happen with this game in the past (it used to always lauch normally on the first go and I am almost positive that the cpu did not go haywire) and I have not installed anything else on that pc other than steam and some games so I cannot see what could have changed.

In the end this is not such a big issue as it seems to happen with some old games only, and you can just kill the process each time you launch the game. However if you have tried something else and made it work please let me know.

EDIT: And of course after typing this I solve it within a couple of minutes. Go figure.

I unwittingly implied the solution above actually... Since gameux.dll is launching rundll32, you just need to get rid of that. I went in system32 and syswow64, found both dlls in there and renamed them. No more issues now.

yes 1-5 didnt work for me either and i have the exact same issue. What did you rename these files? i cant find either of them.

[Heresy]

I Deleted gameux.dll in sysWOW64 and it fixed my problem. I had to change permissions from "Trusted Installer" to admin in order to do this.

Following this guide fixed it.

https://miasma.org/index.php?topic=1032.0



I got all these warning pop ups when i changed permission to alter that syswow file. Never done anything like that before hope its all safe.


Games immediately launch now and i get no rundll32.exe XD

I only deleted the one in syswow64 and it fixed. I guess it depends what your OS is


Thanks for the feedback MagicMight you gave me the solution i just had to look up how to change permissions in order to delete that file.

[MagicMight]

I am glad that you fixed it too! If you decide to delete a system file in the future may I suggest that you keep a backup of it at least? You never know when it will be needed (that is the reason I renamed instead of deleting).

Just one last thing: if you changed a system folder's ownership from trustedinstaller to yourself, make sure you change it back after you're done.