acurila, Thank you for your help. Since updating to 1.37 per the previous posting, I have not had the problem. I am especially relieved that it was not a virus problem after all as my next step ...

Has anyone had any further problems with the rundll32 exe after doing the battery maximiser update?

FYI, I found this posting on bullguard from several months ago. They linked this problem to an IBM Thinkpad battery mgt program. I will try it out. http://www.bullguard.com/forum/10/Symptoms-- ...

I did the latest service pack for office 2003 and the problem occured again. Before I delete folder C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386, any comments about what the risks are?

Just to be sure, I checked MSTORDB.EX at Virus Total as suggested and it was clean. I do require the lastest service pack for office 2003. Should I delete the folder: C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i3 ...