Forum - DLL-files.com

Hi- I recently purchased a new computer (4 months ago) Gateway Mod SX2803 W/dual core processor running Win7 Home edition Premium. Every time I try to use a USB flash drive or MP3 player w/USB plugin I get error messages that say " unable to open sqmapi.dll . This file is ither corrupt or is not designed to run with windows" . Then it goes on to tell me to contact vendor (Microsoft?) if problem continues. I have tried the automatic troubleshooters which confirm there is a problem then the system hangs or just doe's not fix anything. I tried troubleshooting on the Microsoft site but no luck.
Question- I found a replacement sqmapi.dll file but there are two directories that have it. One under C:\program files\windows portable devices\sqmapi.dll (properties shows this file to be ZERO bytes?), The other path is C:\program files (x86)\windows portable devices\sqmapi.dll (properties shows this file size is 188KB. Which do I replace if any?
also the replacement file is sqmapi.dll with NO CAPS? Is this a problem and how dangerous is it to attempt to replace this type of file? I tried to update Win 7 with SP1 also, hoping to fix this but after D/l the update , it always fails and the troubleshooting does no good.Sorry about the long post but any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You Mike

Hello Mike,

Try to replace the Zero byte file with the new file you have got. That should fix the problem, because since the file is 0 bytes size that means that the file is corrupted. If that does not work, you should replace the second file (188KB) as well. But make sure you make a backup for the files before you copy and paste the new version.

Replacing DLL files is not dangerous since you can always find a version of that file on the net or by contacting the vendor of the software requiring the dll file. There are two scenarios that dll file erros appear. The first is when you dont have the dll file at all (what you should do is download that file from dll-files.com and install it on the folder C:/Windows/system32/ ) If that file is not available from dll-files.com you should contact the software vendors for the correct file.
And the second scenario is when you have the dll file but an error says that some functionality was not found on that file. Then what you do is, download a new copy for that dll file, go to the directory containing that specific file, rename it to filename-old.dll and paste the new version (downloaded).

Well Isen, I tried the method that you outlined...renaming the original file 'old' and then copying and pasting the new file and then I shut down, rebooted, plugged in my Flash first, then my MP3 player and.... IT WORKS BEAUTIFULLY!! NO errors or aggravating message screens that wont go away without restarting the explorer! It ALL works fine now!
My hat's off to you Mr Isen and to this website that solved a problem that I have been troubleshooting for MONTHS in only one common-sense reply. Kudos to the DLL.COM guys and if ever I have another issue I will return here FIRST!
M'soft and Gateway are relying much too much on 'automatic error detection and repair' programs instead of just keeping it simple. Thanks again for the help!

Hi again Mike,

Now you can get rid of 'old' (renamed) file. So you can delete it completely. The reason why you renamed it to 'sqmapi-old.dll' is just in case something goes wrong. Its always a good idea to keep the original file so you can restore to the starting position.

Anyways, we are glad we could help.