Texas Chainsaw Massacre Bad Image Error

Luke Lindell 20 Reputation points
2026-07-15T06:20:16.14+00:00

When I try to launch the game Texas Chainsaw Massacre on Steam I receive a Bad Image error that says "C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\X3DAudio1_7.dll is either not designed to run on Windows or it contains an error. Try installing the program using the original installation media or contact your system administrator or the software vendor for support. Error status 0xc000012f."

I have uninstalled/reinstalled various times, verified integrity of files, attempted to redownload the "DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2010)", and redownload Windows 11.

From what I can tell:

  1. SFC says Windows files are good.
  2. DISM says Windows is good.
  3. Other games successfully use the same DLLs.
  4. Process Monitor shows X3DAudio1_7.dll loading successfully from System32.

Despite all of this, TCM is the only game that I can tell is affected by this problem. Including other games such as Dead By Daylight which is another Unreal Engine game and uses Easy Anti-Cheat.

I'm at a loss and quite frustrated by this considering I have spent at least 10 hours trying to troubleshoot and Gun Interactive will not reply to my support request. Safe to say, I would really appreciate any help that could be provided. Thanks for your time.

Screenshot 2026-07-15 010804

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Gaming
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Answer accepted by question author
Ramesh 181.6K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2026-07-15T06:28:26.6966667+00:00

Please open Command Prompt and run this command:

certutil -hashfile C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\X3DAudio1_7.dll

Post the output in text format.

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  1. Luke Lindell 20 Reputation points
    2026-07-15T08:37:17.92+00:00

    Well seemingly I have somehow managed to resolve the X3DAudio1_7.dll error code just for there to be a new one (xapofx1_5.dll).

    "C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\xapofx1_5.dll is either not designed to run on Windows or it contains an error. Try installing the program using the original installation media or contact your system administrator or the software vendor for support. Error status 0xc000012f."

    Seemingly, the two must be related due to the same error code?

    Regardless, I still could use some assistance in figuring out a solution. Thanks again.

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