LoadImage Error

Hey, ok hes whats going down, this dll of mine has the following function:

Code:

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int __stdcall SystemLoadBitmap(IDirectDraw7 * dd, char *szFilename, IDirectDrawSurface7 * ddsSurface, int x, int y, int width, int height)
{
        HDC hdcImage;
    HDC hdc;
    BITMAP bm;
        DDSURFACEDESC2 ddsd;
    HRESULT hr;
        HBITMAP hbm;

        MessageBox(NULL, szFilename, "System.dll", MB_OK);
        hbm = (HBITMAP) LoadImage( NULL, szFilename, IMAGE_BITMAP, 0, 0, LR_LOADFROMFILE);
        if (hbm)
        {
                ddsSurface->Restore();

                hdcImage = CreateCompatibleDC(NULL);

                if (!hdcImage)
                        return -1;

                SelectObject(hdcImage, hbm);

                GetObject(hbm, sizeof(bm), &bm);
                width = width == 0 ? bm.bmWidth : width;
                height = height == 0 ? bm.bmHeight : height;

                ddsd.dwSize = sizeof(ddsd);
                ddsd.dwFlags = DDSD_HEIGHT | DDSD_WIDTH;
                ddsSurface->GetSurfaceDesc(&ddsd);

                if ((hr = ddsSurface->GetDC(&hdc)) == DD_OK)
                {
                        StretchBlt( hdc, 0, 0, ddsd.dwWidth, ddsd.dwHeight, hdcImage, x, y, width, height, SRCCOPY);
                        ddsSurface->ReleaseDC(hdc);
                }

                DeleteDC(hdcImage);
                DeleteObject(hbm);
                return 1;
        }
        else
        {
                return -2;
        }
}

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Now the problem is when this is refernenced from vb the dll works until the LoadImage function (about 10 lines). Can anyone fix this error at all maybe ish, basically i need to load an image from a directory to a HBITMAP structre. The app performs an illgel operation after the MessageBox line

I can mail the vb code i have done if this helps ?