What does ERROR_DLL_INIT_FAILED mean?

Question

I'm seeing the following exception in my managed (C#) app calling an unmanaged assembly:

Caught:System.IO.FileLoadException 'A dynamic link library (DLL) initialization routine failed. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007045A)'

What does this HRESULT mean, and where should I start in diagnosing this?

Answer 1

alternatively the DLL you try to load is trying to load a missing DLL, check with DEPENDS.EXE on the DLL.