Maybe Not Voodoo

Tech-Archive recommends: Fix windows errors by optimizing your registry

From: Dave Neff (anonymous_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 08/30/04 

Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 07:58:23 -0700

Michel,

Looks like these 4 steps you did may be the key.

These are the steps that cleared it up on my computer:

- Removed WMP from Add/REmove components
- Installed WMP9 again
- Apply HP patch again
- Install SP2 again

2 data points gives more confidence, but I am still not
ready to rule out the Voodoo hypothesis. Could be other
similar steps that also work though.

Dave

>-----Original Message-----
>If there's one thing I have learned answering questions
in this newsgroup
>(and others) it's that you can NEVER generalize one
users experience to all
>others... heck, I once set up 8 IDENTICAL machines (they
were Compaqs, about
>6 years ago), the hardware was identical, the software
was identical, all
>installed from the same sources and two of them behaved
differently at the
>end. It turned out that the motherboards on these 2
came from a different
>lot and lo and behold! Something somewhere saw things
differently and
>things installed differently. You can NEVER tell what
the final experience
>will be.
>
>Doesn't help you of course. :)
>
>I have no idea if this makes a difference, but I didn't
uninstall SP2 after
>the initial install. I installed SP2, found the
problems... applied the HP
>fix thing, found the problem was still there and applied
SP2 again.
>
>Of course, I did some troubleshooting in between steps,
like running WMP9 a
>few times. Installing, removing, re-installing it
(including the Add/Remove
>Windows Components... I removed WMP from there at one
point, before
>re-installing WMP9 from the web download). Any of these
things could have
>triggered a reg key change or file change somewhere that
did the trick.
>
>>From memory (test WMP and My Music at each point)...
>
>- I installed WMP9 from web (since it didn't show in the
Add/remove, I
>couldn't do a repair)
>- Install the HP patch
>- Installed WMP9 again
>- Removed WMP from Add/REmove components
>- Installed WMP9 again
>- Apply HP patch again
>- Install SP2 again
> Worked! :)
>
>Another thing I learned... doing the same stupid thing
20 times eventually
>works. :)
>
>--
>
>Michel Bordeleau
>MS-MVP - Windows XP Media Center Edition
>
>"Dave Neff" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote
in message
>news:1da401c48d19$94034e80$a601280a@phx.gbl...
>> OK, I went through all the same hoops to fix
>>
>> "To play music in Media Center,
>> install Windows Media Player 9 or repair the current
>> installation"
>>
>> Uninstalled SP2, applied all the same HP provided
>> patches, reinstall SP2 (fortunately it did not have to
re-
>> download it, whew).
>>
>> No difference. I still can't play music from Media
>> Center. The HP registry repair utility did run
>> successfully before I updated.
>>
>> There just has to be some registry tweak to fix this.
>> Michel's experienced obviously cannot be generalized to
>> all of us :-).
>>
>> Dave
>>
>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>Hi all,
>>>
>>> I have finally found the time to apply SP2 to my HP
>> 873n machine running
>>>MCE2004. I know that several people have had issues
>> with SP2 on MCE
>>>machines and I wanted to run through a real life
>> experience and see how it
>>>would go for me.
>>>
>>> Good news! I had problems! :)
>>>
>>> Even better news... the problems are similar, if not
>> the same, as some
>>>other people have already posted about here.
>>>
>>> Excellent news... I found fixes for all of my issues.
>>>
>>>So, here's the run down...
>>>
>>> Starting with an HP 873n machine running MCE2004
>> (installed from scratch
>>>using upgrade CDs provided by HP when 2004 came out).
>>>
>>> All updates available on WindowsUpdate have been
>> applied as they became
>>>available.
>>>
>>> Some HP updates were applied, but the last time I
>> visited the HP site for
>>>updates was probably in May 2004 or so.
>>>
>>> I used the SP2 CD that was sent to me as part of my
>> MSDN subscription.
>>>This is not the MSDN CD/DVD but rather the "Windows XP
>> Service Pack 2 with
>>>Advanced Security Technologies" CD that is presumably
>> the same you would get
>>>if you ordered the CD online.
>>>
>>>My goal was to install SP2... but my hope was that I
>> would run into the
>>>problems seen here recently. Knowing that you only get
>> problems if you are
>>>not prepared, I didn't do a backup of my system (that's
>> the only time things
>>>go wrong of course). I put in the SP2 and proceeded to
>> install. Reboot the
>>>machine at the end.
>>>
>>> Well, first hurdle passed... the machine reboots okay.
>>>
>>>LiveTV
>>>-------
>>> Now launch MCE. It launches okay. Good. Go to
>> LiveTV... hmm, "Some files
>>>are needed blah blah blah"... TV doesn't play. Well,
>> that's a start. I
>>>closed MCE and relaunched it... LiveTV started playing
>> TV... no audio... not
>>>a big surprise, the 873n often has this problem.
Reboot
>> the computer.
>>>Launch LiveTV. All is well. Cool. Play previously
>> recorded TV... all's
>>>well here too.
>>>
>>>My Music
>>>----------
>>> Next step. Go to My Music. "Audio Error. To play
>> music in Media Center,
>>>install Windows Media Player 9 or repair the current
>> installation"... ah AH!
>>>This is what I was hoping for. :)
>>>
>>> Okay... go to add/remove problems to repair WMP9
>> install... hmm, not there.
>>>Fine, download from the MS site and run setup... WMP9
>> installs without a
>>>complaint... configure, discover music, play some
>> tunes. WMP is working
>>>fine.
>>>
>>> Launch "My Music". Same error. Hmmm... well, try
>> running WMP9 setup again
>>>just in case... no go.
>>>
>>> Hmm... well, now what?
>>>
>>> During a reboot I used an another computer to visit
the
>> HP support site and
>>>see if there are some new patches or some info on
SP2...
>> lookadat! Some
>>>patches for SP2, including a badly named "Microsoft
>> Windows XP Media Center
>>>Edition Registry Utility" which, if you read the
>> description says:
>>>
>>>"This utility updates Microsoft Windows XP Media Center
>> Edition registry
>>>keys to support Windows XP Service Pack 2."
>>>
>>>Further on...
>>>
>>>"Purpose: Recommended
>>>Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Media Center
>> Edition
>>>Fixes
>>>- Enables auto-disconnect feature for dial-up
>> connections.
>>>- Allows sharing of individual music files within
>> Windows Media Player.
>>>- Resolves issue preventing you from receiving a fax
>> message through Fax
>>>Console.
>>>"
>>>
>>>Hmmm, well it mentions WMP, although not in the exact
>> same context as my
>>>problem. Well, let's apply it. There is also a patch
>> for eMuzed and SP2,
>>>but when I tried to install it, it said I had a newer
>> version of the
>>>driver... okay, never mind. (BTW, the URL for the SP2
>> patch is
>>>http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadInde
x?
>>
product=90829&os=228&cc=ca&lc=en&dest_page=product&dlc=en&
>> docname=bph07907&softwareitem=pv-23488-2)
>>>
>>>Reboot computer, go to My Music. Same problem.
>>>
>>>Look further into the HP patch for SP2... "... must be
>> applied before
>>>installing SP2"... oops.
>>>
>>>Okay, well, what if I reinstall SP2? Proceed with the
>> re-install and
>>>reboot.
>>>
>>>Lo and behold! My Music works just fine!
>>>
>>>phwew... so the trick then is to apply all available HP
>> patches BEFORE
>>>applying SP2 and all seems good (at least for me).
>>>
>>>I did not some issues with WinDVD as well but since I
>> don't recall the last
>>>time I actually used it I can't say it worked fine
>> before SP2 or not. I did
>>>an HP application recovery on it and it still won't
>> load... but the codecs
>>>are there and I can play DVDs in WMP and MCE and TV
>> works... that's all I
>>>care about. :)
>>>
>>>So... long rambling post... but I wanted to make sure I
>> put down everything
>>>I did to give as much info as possible to folks having
>> problems post SP2.
>>>
>>>The bottom line is this: BEFORE applying SP2, please
>> visit your OEMs web
>>>site and make sure you applying all patches they
provide
>> and READ all
>>>documentation they have regarding SP2.
>>>
>>>I'll keep playing with my machine to see if there are
>> other issues, but so
>>>far so good.
>>>
>>>I hope this information helps others.
>>>
>>>--
>>>
>>>Michel Bordeleau
>>>MS-MVP - Windows XP Media Center Edition
>>>
>>>
>>>.
>>>
>
>
>.
>

Relevant Pages

  • SP2 on MCE - An MVPs real life experience (some solutions)
    ... "To play music in Media Center, ... Uninstalled SP2, applied all the same HP provided ... >My goal was to install SP2... ... >install Windows Media Player 9 or repair the current ...
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