Windows 7 x64 and "d3dx9_36.dll" not found with some third party application
This weekend one of my kids updated a 3rd party application on its PC. After the update completed the application restarted and then when opening it was raising an error message box stating that d3dx9_36.dll “could not be found/located”. After closing twice the same error message popping up on the screen the application started but then some features appeared to be broken. A search showed that this is a Microsoft DirectX Dll stack. So before I give the resolution I would like explain what happen. Obviously the new update relied on this new component to be present but the installer/update tool did not check for its presence on the hard drive. In short the developers took a dependency on a new dll but their setup colleges didn’t learn about it, the great news is that the application at least handled correctly the issue by raising a comprehensive error message. So despite that there is a x64 setup for this application the user mode part is still 32 bit and requires now requires d3dx9_36.dll to be present to work correctly.
Of course many sites offers to download it but I strongly advise you get it from the Microsoft download website only to make sure your PC gets genuine bits. This dll is part of the DirectX Software Development Kit that can be downloaded here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=24a541d6-0486-4453-8641-1eee9e21b282&displaylang=en&Hash=X0S3ihCVrnfSupc9khH6DmSo0HbeR7b1cum4e7k0rckNBYBhb%2f80zewa3%2bUlgCG42nfC2A7g6YCE%2bZtm0L5uGw%3d%3d . While there might be a smaller package installing the SDK resolves the error message and correctly installs the right dll. The application now works as expected.
HTH,
Julien
