Error loading windows powershell PSSnapIn

Ok, I found the answer. I have been using the following lines of code that I have seen in many PS examples:

$checkSnapIn = Get-PSSnapIn iControlSnapIn -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue;  
If ($checkSnapIn -notlike "iControlSnapIn) {Add-PSSnapIn iControlSnapIn}; 

What I found was the the if statement, the first time through failed to perform the Add-PSSSnapIn, even though the $Get-PSSnapIn command failed to populate the variable. It appears that the first time through, the $checkSnapIn variable is actually not defined, and when the Get-PSSnapIn command fails, the $checkSnapIn variable remains not defined.

To get around this (i believe new feature....) I changed the if statement as follows:

If ($checkSnapIn.length  -eq 0) {Add-PSSnapIn iControlSnapIn}; 

So, when the Get-PSSnapIn fails, it will correctly evaluate the variable as having a "0" length.