media center has stopped working

[axlrose]

i just received my brand new win tv - hvr - 2250 from hauppauge today and i have been unable to get media center to open for a week or two now. when i ask it to open, it says media center has stopped working and gives me the option to debug or close. i debug, which does nothing and am then left only with the option to close.

i've gone through multiple e-mails from vista tech support asking me to do all kinds of things with cmd and reg and all kinds of other dll and stuff. nothing has gotten it to open again and although i was hoping that i could repair it with the vista install disk, it doesn't appear that works for anything but startup problems when booting windows or brings you back to a previous save. correct me if that's wrong, but i don't think either of those options will do the trick for me.

please help so i can watch tv tonight!

thanks.

 

[badge]

If you have run any registry repair software recently some programs can corrupt your registry and cause media player/center to fail. Try a system restore to a point where media center was still working properly. If that does not work, you will have to reinstall your OS.

 

[axlrose]

i'm afraid this is probably my only solution.

can i clear up a few things before i do this? do i lose everything? it's a gaming machine as well, so am i going to lose all of my saves? haven't gotten office yet so no other documents yet. and i'll have to reinstall drivers one as a time as windows starts back up and finds them all? how about bios? i've spent six weeks getting my machine half stable in bios.

give me the low down if you have the time.

thanks.

 

[axlrose]

oh, and i haven't run anything like that that i know of. how do i minimalize the chances that i reinstall everything and the same thing doesn't happen all over again? i mean it's a new build so there's not a lot on it other than the components that are in it.

thanks.

 

[badge]

You might run check disk and see if that repairs your files to have a working media cemter. Unless there is a stand alone media center download/reinstall I am unaware of, you can not reinstall media center without reinstalling the entire OS. So, if you can not do a 'repair' of the media center files in some fashion to get the software working, a reinstall of the OS would be the answer. A reinstall would be a new installation of the OS. So, you would have to back up all your important files to disk and reinstall those as well as all the software you are using.

Sometimes it pays to buy a software like Acronis True Image. After I installed my OS and got all my software installed and had a 'fresh' install just the way I like it at peak performance, I clicked one button 'clone' my HD and kept it. If I ever want to do a fresh install with all my software and have my OS 'fresh' and ready to go brand new...I just install that 'clone' copy. I haven't had to, so I hope it works that easy. 8)

 

[axlrose]

have done the disk repair too with no results. a couple of times. i think the first time i saw the report some sort of window in vista that i've never seen again came up and told me how to do it and it fixed things for a week or two now that you mention it. hasn't worked to fix it since though, and man does it take some time to go through a 500gb hard drive...

 

[axlrose]

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/175130.aspx

i did find this conversation and it seems promising, but i can't seem to log into the site and when i find the c:\ file mentioned i have quite a bit of information there and i'm nervous to delete it all as there are four or five folders along with other files at that point.

i'm hoping to get logged in some time soon...and maybe i can get some more questions asked there.

 

[badge]

Does you 'Media Player' work? Not media center, Media Player alone?

 

[badge]

I have started using the 'Regisry Fix' on this free software recently. I have used it on my two Vista 64 and also Two Vista 32 machines as well as many XP machines and have had no problems arise after running it. It has a Registry Repair. Perhaps it may help in your situation, perhaps not. You decide, maybe you want to give it a try. I did not use it specifically to repair media center.

http://www.download.com/Advanced-WindowsCare-Personal/3000-2086_4-10407614.html?cdlPid=10858847

 

[badge]

Do you have any spyware or Virus software running like Avast or AVG?

 

[axlrose]

i tried avira and had all kinds of problems. now that you mention it, i wonder if that was the culprit??? not that it helps me, but that is likely now that you ask.

 

[axlrose]

media player is fine.

 

[badge]

Do you have Real Player installed? If so uninstall it and see if that fixes the problem. This worked for me, I just can not remember if it worked for media player or media center. I think it was media center. I'm pretty sure. Also, if uninstalling Real Player doesn't work, try uninstalling all 'other' media players you have exept Windows Media Player.

 

[axlrose]

i don't think i have anything else, but i'll try to search around for something.

how do i remove on this os? i thought on xp there was an add/remove tab on the control panel. in vista there appears to be only an add.

 

[badge]

Well, if Real Player is installed, try uninstalling it. You can always reinstall Real Player. same for any other Media Players.

You do not uninstall the OS from add/Remove. You would want to save all your important data before reformatting the HD and reinstalling the OS. Reinstalling the OS requires your HD to be wiped clean and new installation of the OS which erases EVERYTHING on your HD before you reinstall fresh.

Your problem is a corrupted media player file or a registry corruption.

 

[badge]

Try this.

Go to Start - > Run > type regsvr32 wmp.dll

Copy and paste the command exactly like I have it typed.

 

[badge]

You might try installing this.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/thankyou.aspx?familyId=50dff28b-8e0e-4b15-99a1-0d7b9ff3b795&displayLang=en

 

[axlrose]

dll succeeded.

 

[axlrose]

tried installing the download. 'does not apply to my system'.

 

[badge]

Well, I'm about out of ideas. You might try this.

Go to C:\Windows\System32\ and find the cmd.exe right click on it and run as Administrator and type in the window this command sfc /scannow

 

[axlrose]

i'll try this as soon as i post this, but what is this last step mentioned doing?

thanks for hanging with me.

 

[axlrose]

windows resource protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.

details are included in the cbs.log windir\logs\cbs\cbs.log. for example
C:\windows\logs\cbs\cbs.log

 

[badge]

Well, looks like you have corrupt program files related to your Windows Media Player. I remember Real Player caused my WMP to fail. I uninstalled Real Player and that was the fix. That was Vista 32 though. You micght try Microsoft.com and do a search for WMP fix.

 

[axlrose]

not to doubt you, you just obviously have a skill i dont', but how can you tell that from what i provided you with?

i'll see if i can tell them what you told me.

 

[axlrose]

i'm i'm running vista 32 hp as well. not sure i made that clear.