how do i get the build chain on win32 working for an extension?

I'm probably being redundant here but, I've got questions.

I've written an extension for mozilla/firefox. Now, for the past 2
weeks I've tried Make (mingw compiler) and SCons (mingw and msvc++
compilers) with zero success and I think this is some type of build
problem.

I've followed all the recommended tutorials from the internet. I've
even used sample 'helloworld' components with zero success. By
success, I mean the helloworld component works the way it's supposed
to in the tutorial (the http://www.iosart.com/firefox/xpcom/ tutorial
is one i've read the most throughly).

i've tested my extension out with just the javascript portions with success.

But when I include my xpt and my .dll's suddenly, firefox gets angry
with me and crashes during start up.

so, I removed the dll's and left the xpt in there. and to my suprise,
firefox worked ok.

so here's my theory. my build chain is horribly broken for this component.

right now i use msvc++ to compile my extension. i have noticed that
the linker ('link.exe') only accepts .a files (aka 'implib' files)
when it tries to bind all the object code into a dll.

well here's my problem. geck-sdk-mscv++ only comes with .lib's which,
to my knowledge, aren't linkable by the msvc++ linker. I've tried the
dllwrap utilties from mingw to generate .a files but, again, when
xpcom tries to load the appropriate dll for my component. it crashes.

any tips/help with this issue would be appreciated. i'm shift my
code/build to the linux platform for the next week or so to follow up
on this estimate of the situation.

ct