Debugging "The ordinal N could not be located in the dynamic link library" Error

Context

When running some executable or loading some DLL, the error occurs with the following error message:

The ordinal N could not be located in the dynamic link library

Where N here is an integer.

Solution

Update the related executable or the related DLLs so that the library information is consistent across the entire program.

Analysis

The "Ordinal N" here refers to a function in the DLL. It is considered as an alternative name of the function used internally in the DLL. The reported error message basically means that a specific function cannot be found in the DLL.

To find out more information about the function in question, such as the actual name of the missing function, use dumpbin.exe with the following syntax to export the mapping between the ordinal number and the actual function name.

dumpbin.exe /exports <PathToDll>

For example, following is part of the results of running dumpbin.exe /exports C:\Windows\System32\AudioEng.dll:

Dump of file c:\windows\system32\AudioEng.dll

File Type: DLL

  Section contains the following exports for audioeng.dll

    00000000 characteristics
    988907DD time date stamp
        0.00 version
           1 ordinal base
           6 number of functions
           6 number of names

ordinal hint RVA      name

      1    0 00024090 AERT_Allocate
      2    1 000240E0 AERT_Free
      3    2 00004490 DllCanUnloadNow
      4    3 00005440 DllGetClassObject
      5    4 0003C360 DllRegisterServer
      6    5 0003C370 DllUnregisterServer

If the error message reads "The ordinal 3 could not be located in the dynamic link library", it means the DllCanUnloadNow function is missing for some reason.

Note:

• dumpbin.exe is not a built-in Windows function. It comes with some Windows Tooling programs such as Visual Studio 2017.