well, the end Rundll32.exe error is pretty common, but under 98. When it have a problem I usually don't wait for it. I close it (end now) all my PC goes into a big crisis, I restart the PC by anyt means and next time I restart it is OK. If it is not OK, I undo the last chang ebefore it went renegade (in your case was the java) and then it is working fine.
I can't give you much more explanation because I never truly understood why this happens, I just know it happens, and you can fix it someway (restarting or uninstalling the faulty program)
Maybe BB is able to tell you for what is used the rundll32. I think it is part of the memory manager, but then, I am guessing