proc entry pt "GetDataFormEX" not found in the DLL "KERNEL32

[Doc.AElstein]

Edit: January/February 2019/January2020: Check the last post for updates on the updates that kill XP :-)

The procedure entry point "GetDataFormEX" was not found in the DLL "KERNEL32.dll"

Hi,
I am posting this here as some of the sparse info I found suggested it might be a operating system issue..
My wife is away for a couple of weeks and has one of our old trusty LG X120 Notebooks with her. ( It has the original XP operating system ). It has always proved reliable at home and abroad. ( Typically she fills in an Excel file with it over the day and then that is sent automatically at the end of the day to me).
Last week she powered it up in a hotel room, and all seemed fine: It logged itself in almost automatically in the Hotel’s WLAN and she sent me Emails as usual.
But if she attempts to do many other things, such as Word, Excel, or even trying to open old pictures , then the error comes up as shown below.

The most common error is, translated to English , like
Entry point not found
The procedure entry point "GetDataFormEX" was not found in the DLL "KERNEL32.dll".
( The other error she sometimes gets is, translated to English, is something like
The operating system is not currently configured to run this application )

She has since moved and is in another WLAN since a few days. The internet is working fine. In fact internet and Email is more reliable than her smart phone, but many other things fail with those error messages.

I spent some time last week in the internet but found nothing much I could understand . Some other people had the problem and had asked in a few places for help, but no one seemed to have an answer relevant to me, or which I could understand.
Can anyone here shed any light in the problem and/ or solution
( By the way, I don’t have any hard copies of the operating system -those sort of things have mostly not been supplied with new computers here since over 20 years )

I am just looking for any ideas or directions to look at or research in at this point. When she gets back in a few days I will make some attempt to do something with it…..


Thanks
Alan

P.S. The Operating system is German. The problem first cropped up in a Hotel in Nuremberg. The Notebook is now in Mallorca , typically in the WLAN in a small rented flat. It makes no difference to the problem if she disconnects from the internet and restarts. The Notebook has been switched off, on, restarted , connected, disconnected from internet etc… many times over the last few days, and there is no effect on the problem, it has also been attempted to open things like Excel through the programs way or by the double clicking on a file way . That has no effect on the problem


Das Betriebs system ist momentan nicht zum Ausführen dieser Anwendung konfiguriert.JPG
GetDateFormatExOnPictureOpenAttempt.JPG
GetDateFormatExOnWordOpenAttempt.JPG :
https://imgur.com/gDZ7jwg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://imgur.com/3IuizTH" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://imgur.com/PYrarFX" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[HansV]

See Microsoft Office 2010 on an XP OS.

[Doc.AElstein]

Thanks Hans, I hadn't seen that.
Alan

[Doc.AElstein]

Removing that update , as explained in that link has solved the problem , thanks again :-)
NotebookExcelBackUpJPG : https://imgur.com/xbzkXMI" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
( Maybe I am paranoid, but I wonder if sometimes these things might be partially deliberate to encourage people to update/ or rather buy a new computer and thereby also the latest software, / operating system etc.- Not everybody would find the information about the update and / or know what to do to remove it.
It was also reported in that link that ....A MS technician ... contacted on "chat" tried to fix the problem, but gave up........
I expect some computer handlers would be reluctant to assist either, as they might prefer to say ..... “…your computer is broke, best buy this new one from me ;) :-) … “
Alan
P.s. @ Hans , von meiner Frau: „Danke, schön Gruß aus Malla“ https://imgur.com/XfBAuP3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

_.______________________________________________________________
Edit just for future referrence
This was the culprit
KB4461522

[stuck]

...these things might be partially deliberate to encourage people to update/ or rather buy a new computer...

No, it's just 'progress'.

New security threats are discovered all the time so updates that plug the holes come along all the time. XP is ancient in OS terms. It hasn't had any security updated for years and years while updates to Office 2010 have continued. Consequently it was inevitable that an update to Office 2010 would make it incompatible with XP.

There is a similar sort of incompatibilty between Office 97 and XP. XP didn't exist when Office 97 arrived so it stopped geting updates long before XP did ao again it was only a matter of time before you couldn't run Office 97 on XP without knowing what to tweak to work around the problem.

As this thread shows though, while you had no idea how to solve your problem, a suitably worded question to the wisdom of the Internet led you to the solution. That's exactly how I learnt how to work around the Office 97 / XP issue. It is also how I learnt how to get a dedicated film scanner that Nikon stopped making in 2007 to work on Win 10.

Ken

[Jay Freedman]

Just to put to rest the conspiracy theory that Microsoft may be trying to force people off of Windows XP, here are the technical details of the problem that were left out of the posted solution.

The Windows XP version of kernel32.dll contains entry points named GetDateFormatA and GetDateFormatW (for ASCII and wide-character inputs respectively). In Windows 7, a third entry point was added, GetDateFormatEx, which has extra parameters. The initial release of Office 2010 called the first two entry points, so it continued to work on Windows XP as well as later Windows versions.

Whoever wrote the patch in the KB changed the Office programs to call GetDateFormatEx. That person probably didn't know that this entry point didn't exist in Windows XP. Further, since XP has been out of support for so long, whatever testing was done on the patch used only Windows 7 or later, so no one at Microsoft saw the error message.

"Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity."

[Doc.AElstein]

@ Ken

No, it's just 'progress'.

Thanks ken for the reply. I expect your right. I guess that probably is the case also to some extent. You will understand these things a lot better than me. I expect I have never really understood the update thingy really or appreciated what it is really about. I had a 25 year break in computers. Back then you got it right first time or lost your job. I guess it’s not possible nowadays with all the viruses etc. to have a solution that will always work. – You have to keep changing / updating things for the reasons you explain.
Maybe progress is not quite the right word. Probably something similar , but I am too illiterate to know what the word is. It is like the snow canons we use here to keep the snow park going. They are getting better and more efficient. But they have to be used more because we messed up the climate, and its getting out of control... I don’t think that is progress. – But Possibly updates have other stuff sometimes , not just security stuff? , so then they are not so bad sometimes.. maybe..

a suitably worded question to the wisdom of the Internet led you to the solution.

I am not sure if that is so much the case these days. The internet is getting so flooded with information that you often need to know the answer in order to get close enough with your search criteria in order to find the info you want. I spent a week on and off searching and never hit that link. I think it was more a case of the wisdom of Eileen’s lounge / Hans: The forum seems to have an unusually diverse/ wide computer expertise.
I possibly also should note that forum , https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; , for the future, but I find it difficult to navigate around a lot of places like that. Once again the internet is getting a bit too big maybe, it can be difficult to find stuff even with a good search engine.
_.________
@ Jay Freedman
Thanks for the extra info, I personally find it very interesting to know a bit more about how these things come about, even if I don’t always fully understand the technical details, I still like to get a bit more info , so thanks a lot for that extra insight. That is one of the best things about forums I find. Getting odd snippets of “behind the scenes” info that you would otherwise never get anywhere near.
_.___________________-
I think , if I may, I will keep, to a certain extent at least, with my conspiracy theory, partly at least..:- What I mean is…
If I was being paid by Microsoft to be something close to a computer professional and had the job of doing this update thing, then it is inconceivable to me that I would not get to notice the effect on XP within a short period of time. I simply would be aware enough in general of the “computer world”, if I had such a job. I would make it my job to be so aware of things. So I would inevitably soon get to hear of the problem. We are not talking about hundreds of operating systems over a hundred years. Even if I was a newbie, an experienced colleague would have tapped me on the shoulder.
A manager who knows his workers ability/ experience can choose which people make these changes,.. or work on the chat lines. ( Or maybe it is just stupidity: Apparently MS just bought Google Earth because they made a typo on the contract when trying to buy Google sheets http://www.eileenslounge.com/viewtopic. ... 99#p242991" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; )

The end effect, I expect, is that a lot of people wont get to hear of this fairly simple fix. Some of those will invest in new “things” that will be a benefit to Microsoft one way or another. Don’t get me wrong, I am not being as critical as I might sound. I worked in design and development. I got a fat pay check every month, and the money had to come from somewhere….

_.______________
Anyway I am very grateful for the help. ( I don’t have the fat pay check since I opted out to go and live in the hut in the hills.. , so I buy less new computers.. :-) ) I have some other useful info from the Lounges on searching for updates ( http://www.eileenslounge.com/viewtopic. ... 82#p222044" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ) . So I think I may take a look at my updates on my old Notebooks next week . I assumed I was getting no updates at all on my older machines.
A few professionals have mentioned that Excel 2010 is / was one of the most stable versions. I have about a dozen licensed versions of Office 2010 on older machines, some of which I have not used for a while. The notebook in question had not been used for several months and the problem cropped up just after it was connected to a WLAN in a Hotel. So maybe then it caught the virus, (sorry I mean update, ;) ). I think I may take a look and possibly delete a few more recent updates if I find them. Possibly I may get back then to the stablist version….
Thanks again everyone for the help and info.
Its all interesting and helpful stuff.
Alan

[stuck]

..it is inconceivable to me that I would not get to notice the effect on XP within a short period of time. I simply would be aware enough in general of the “computer world”, if I had such a job...

Perhaps but that doesn't alter the fact that by the time this issue occurred, XP was past 'end-of-life' so even if I was an MS employee, MS would NOT release a fix the issue because beyond 'end-of-life- means just that, no more support / no more updates to XP.

Ken

[Doc.AElstein]

“No more support” is fair enough…. But if I break something that works , then maybe it might be considered the right thing to do to fix it or at least drop a note off about it to my chat team and support team, even though I am not obliged to.
But obvious there will be the “hidden interests” coming into play: I may have been told specifically not to do that sort of thing for out of date products...
But as I mentioned, I don’t have a major issue with it. Like cars, they have to wear out / get out of date so that money can be generated from the profit of new sales to finance the genuine progress/ development advances/improvements in efficiency/ reduction of harm to the environment etc..etc.. .
I am sure there is some genuine progress going on with newer versions of software. I am not personally in a position to know how much is genuine progress and how much is just a way to generate money/ profits etc.
Thanks again for the reply
Alan

[stuck]

“No more support” is fair enough…. But if I break something that works , then maybe it might be considered the right thing to do to fix it or at least drop a note off about it to my chat team and support team, even though I am not obliged to...

Agreed, it may be the right thing to do but even if I was the person that wrote the patch that broke XP and even if I did report it to the managers at MS nothing would happen because the 'no' in 'no more support' means, err... umm... no, because to act would take time and time is money and there is no more money for XP, it is history.

It's not a conspiracy, it is just the way business works these days.

Ken

[Doc.AElstein]

Hello….
Another of my XP Notebooks kept getting the pop up error message
The procedure entry point "GetDataFormEX" was not found in the DLL "KERNEL32.dll" ….etc…

This time it occurred when trying to open Excel 2010.
Typically I got that error message twice, followed by the message
The operating system is not currently configured to run this application

So same sort of story as before

So I had a little play.
I sorted the problem out by deleting updates. My Notebook is OK now. :-)

Strangely, the reported problem update so far ( KB4461522 ) was not on the Note Book ( It never was – before today I had not done anything to this particular Notebook in terms of playing with Updates ( What I mean is: I have never taken any updates off this particular Notebook until today) ).

This is definitely a culprit:
Security Update for Microsoft Office KB 4461614
Currently if I re install that then the problem is back. Delete it again and the problem goes away. If I re install that then the problem is back. Delete it again and the problem goes away. If I re install that then the problem is back. Delete it again and the problem goes away If I re install that then the problem is back. Delete it again and the problem goes away If I re install that then the problem is back. Delete it again and the problem goes away If I re install that then the problem is back. Delete it again and the problem goes away If I re ……..

These may or not be a problem:
Security Update for Microsoft Outlook 2010 KB 4461623
Security Update for Microsoft Office KB 4011610
I took these off, but don’t have a year free to sit down and put them back on as you need to reinstall a lot of files… ( Bad Luck Lots 2_2.jpg : https://imgur.com/gxRbomU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ) , I will edit this post if I ever get around to putting them all back on and report back what happens …

This one I am not sure about either:
Security Update for Microsoft Office KB 4461537
I took that off, but it wouldn’t let me put it back on..

_.___________
During the experimenting I took quite a few other updates off , but then put them back on ( using the Microsoft Update Catalog wot Joe said about here : http://www.eileenslounge.com/viewtopic. ... 00#p244537" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ) .
So the only ones I have taken off ( for this particular Notebook***) finally are
KB 4461614
KB 4461623
KB 4011610
KB 4461537
The first one definitely causes the problem. The others I am not sure yet.
( *** This is not the original Notebook which prompted this Thread )
_.______________

I expect this problem will come up again from time to time. I probably won’t reply here again. Instead if I get the problem again and solve it by removing updates again, then I will Edit this post and add any other Update numbers that I need to delete to get XP working again …..
Alan
_.___________________________________________________
Edit ( Dates are when I became aware of them, ..as I am not constantly using all computers then they are mostly later than when first set out on us )
26th Jan 2019: KB4462157
15th Feb 2019: KB4462174
April 2019 : KB4462223 ( http://www.eileenslounge.com/viewtopic. ... 46#p249846" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; )
Full current list: KB4461614 , KB4461522 , KB4462157 , KB4462174 , KB4462223

[hayzeustexican]

The procedure entry point EnumCalendarInfoExEx could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNAL32.dll

In case anyone else running WinXP and has Office 2010 issues with this:
You may not find the referenced updates because they stack in order and remove some of the previous updates. So look for any of the following updates:
KB4462157, KB4461522 , KB4461614, KB4462174

I forgot which order they were in but basically I looked at multiple forums to find the references to these updates. I checked through the Microsoft update website using the Internet Explorer browser which allows you to see your update history and sure enough the KB4462157 most people were referring to was listed as a successful update yet it didn't appear in my Add and Remove Programs list.

What I had to do was find one of the above 4 files that DID show up; remove it, then reboot. After one was removed, then another became visible in the list. So I removed that and tried to launch Word again with a fail each time, until all four of those were removed. It finally works again. So I'm writing to add my part here since this forum had a reference to one of the updates that helped resolve this for me.

[HansV]

Welcome to Eileen's Lounge, and thanks for the information - I hope it will help others struggling with the same problem.

[Doc.AElstein]

Thanks for the info, hayzeustexican
I have not had an experience yet like yours yet, so that is useful extra info to know about, thanks
I have experienced other updates vanishing after de installing one, but not yet experienced any becoming visible as a result of de installing one
Alan

P.s.
Just in case you have not caught any of these, .. these are the other Thread / Posts that I know about where the “Updates killing office 2010 in XP” issue has been discussed
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mso ... e=1&auth=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mso ... 739&page=4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Fo ... roprevious" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.excelfox.com/forum/showthrea ... #post10923




EdIt Jan 2020 : see http://www.eileenslounge.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=33872" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; for info of the katest Killer,
KB4464566 ,
and note that some "killers" may be "hidden " , and not initially showing in your update list...

[Doc.AElstein]

Update April 2019:
Here is a new recent “killer” update : KB4462223

Here a summary of the situation as far as I know…

Office 2010 in XP” killers”:
KB4461522 ( no longer available )
KB4461614 ( available , but not been offered for some time )
KB4462157 ( available , but not been offered for some time. ( Originally this was introduced to solve the problem. It never did. Quite the opposite: If you have the problem, then installing this update has no effect; but if you do not have the problem , and you instal this update, it causes the problem, just as all the other “killers do !!. ) )
KB4462174 ( available, and until recently, was still offered )
KB4462223 : The latest, available, and being currently offered

Alan
( https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mso ... 58c6327f48" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mso ... 0c3?page=5" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; )

EdIt Jan 2020 : see http://www.eileenslounge.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=33872" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; for info of the katest Killer,
KB4464566 ,
and note that some "killers" may be "hidden " , and not initially showing in your update list...