Speech Engine problem

When I click on the “Speech” Control Panel applet I get this:

“The requested task cannot be carried out because the necessary engine could not be created. Please select a different engine and/or a different audio device.”

Once in speech properties nothing works. Then when I hit Cancel to close Speech properties I get this:

“RUNDLL
An exception occurred while trying to run “C:\WINDOWS\system32\shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Speech\sapi.cpl”,Speech”.

And speech recognition does not work.

Anyone?

Thanks,
John