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Troubleshooting suggestions for guide download errors in Media Center

  • Artículo

I have heard from several customers so far who have encountered television guide download errors after installing Update Rollup 2 for Media Center 2005. One of the customers sent me a link to a lengthy newsgroup thread that has several suggestions to fix or workaround guide download issues. I wanted to consolidate some of the suggestions listed there and also include some other suggestions I have heard from other sources to try to unblock anyone who currently cannot get guide download working correctly.

  1. Make sure that your system clock is set to the correct time and time zone for the region you are located in. Note also that daylight savings time ended this past weekend in the United States and also earlier in October in Europe so if you do not have the box checked to automatically adjust the time for daylight savings time changes, you may have to manually adjust your clock to account for this
  2. Eliminate possible XML parsing problems caused by previously downloaded guide data by renaming the directory %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Ehome\EPG (I suggest renaming rather than deleting in case you want to revert back to the previous data later on). Then open Media Center, go to Settings, then TV, then Guide, then Set up Guide Listings and configure guide download one more time to regenerate this folder and (hopefully) the contents
  3. Launch Media Center, choose Settings, then General, then Media Center Setup and choose to not use the guide. Then restart the machine, relaunch Media Center and run Media Center setup again and choose to use the guide again
  4. Re-register the Media Center guide DLL by clicking on the Start menu, choosing Run, typing cmd and then running the command line %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\regasm.exe %windir%\ehome\ehepgdat.dll
  5. Temporarily disable any anti-virus, anti-spyware or firewall software that you have installed on your system, then launch Media Center and try to download guide data again
  6. Uninstall McAfee Privacy Service if you have it installed

If none of the above suggestions work, you can do the following to look for more detailed error information:

  1. Click on the Start menu, choose Run and type eventvwr.exe
  2. Right-click on the Application event log and choose Save Log File As
  3. Save the log file as appevent.evt
  4. Locate the Media Center guide download log files. They should be located in the directory named something like C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\ehome\EPG\TraceHelper

Our development team is also working on debugging a couple of guide download issues that we have been able to get access to repro machines for. I will continue to update my blog as we find out any new information about these issues.

<update date="12/8/2005"> Added additional suggested workaround of running regasm.exe for ehepgdat.dll </update>

<update date="12/14/2005"> Added additional suggested workaround of disabling anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall software on the system </update>

<update date="1/9/2006"> Added additional log information that can be useful in tracking down guide download issues </update>

Comments

  • Anonymous
    November 01, 2005
    I have a strange problem with Vista on my Dell D800 Laptop with MCE 2005. When I start Media Center it says "Your video card or drivers are not compatible with Media Center" and it does not play any video files even though I can play the same from Media Plyer. Surpringly the video card NVidia GeForce FX Go5200 is listed as supported card from Media Center technical notes; and I have the latest driver.

    Shall we know what is the problem here...searching web revealed no clue

    We really appreciate it
    Thanks

  • Anonymous
    November 01, 2005
    oops..its not Vista OS, its MCE 2005 in my previous comment

  • Anonymous
    November 02, 2005
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 02, 2005
    Hi Jerome

    re: your issue, here is news from Chris Hill [MSFT] (via the newsgroups)

    Hi Folks,

    I have good news and (kind of) Bad news about this.

    Bad News: The cause of this has a larger impact than just the accented characters being changed. Testing and Quality assurance has not signed off on the solution. We will not be rolling out the solution until a full test
    pass is done and all parties involved have signed off on it.

    Good News: We know the cause and have a solution that is not only under development but has the fix already done and checked in for testing. What this means is that the issue is server side, not client so you will not need to download any patches.

  • Anonymous
    November 03, 2005
    Thanks for the answer.

  • Anonymous
    November 17, 2005
    I have an issue in zipcode 32221 that will get the correct cable company, with 2 options. The first is for the standard cable and the second is for the digital cable. It will give me an error 23 if I try to use the standard cable for the guide, which is what I wanted, but it will without fail load the guide for the digital cable, all 800+ cannels. An thoughts.

    John Campanale
    johncampanale@comcast.net

  • Anonymous
    November 26, 2005
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    December 05, 2005
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    December 05, 2005
    Hi Eric - I'm very sorry that you're running into this guide download issue. Do you have any entries in your application event log related to guide download (there is a description for how to find them at the end of this blog post just before the start of the comments section)?

  • Anonymous
    December 09, 2005
    trying to download provider listings but keeps saying unknown connection failure. Internet working fine though. (wireless connection via router). Any ideas?

  • Anonymous
    December 13, 2005
    Hi Glyn - can you please use the steps listed above in this blog post to locate and export the application event log and send it to me at aaronste@microsoft.com so I can try to take a look?

  • Anonymous
    January 24, 2006
    Any ideas what would be causing an error code 13 (failure to download guide data)?

    My internet connection is fine. When entering my zip code in mce, it returns the local cable providers. But when it tries to download the guide data it dies everytime. Brand new machine. Thanks :)

  • Anonymous
    January 25, 2006
    Hi Craven - can you please try to browse to an HTTPS web page in your internet browser (and not just an HTTP web page) and see if that works? Also, can you please try the workarounds listed at the top of this blog post if you haven't already (since you didn't mention in your commment whether or not you have).

  • Anonymous
    January 30, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 01, 2006
    Aaron, thanks for the reply. Sorry I left out details.

    Yes, can browse to https. Yes, tried workarounds above with no luck.

    I will send you the zip file as noted above.

    The error 13 states "Failure attempting to download new Guide data. Please ensure that you are connected to the Internet. If you connect through a LAN, ensure that your proxy or firewall has been properly configured." But nowhere can I find what the proper configuration should be.

    Thaks for your help!

  • Anonymous
    February 01, 2006
    The guide I am downloading is off by 6 hours. I am located in Mexico City, I have set my time zone to Mexico, when I download the guide (Cablevision Mexico-Digital) it show programs that start at 3:00PM as starting at 9:00AM. I suspect that it is not compensating for the time zone change from GMT time zone.

    Any Ideas?

  • Anonymous
    February 02, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 09, 2006
    Aaron

    I sent you the email with attached zip file, having error 23 issues with the guide

    Thanks

  • Anonymous
    February 10, 2006
    Aaron,
    Dell has contacted me on a follow up of this guide dowload issue.  They say I should re-load the OS.  Do you concur?

    Thanks

  • Anonymous
    February 12, 2006
    Hi Buck - I usually only recommend reinstalling the OS is usually a last resort when all other troubleshooting steps have failed.  So, it depends on what error code you are getting for guide downloads and what other troubleshooting steps have been tried already.  Can you please provide some more details about your scenario?

  • Anonymous
    February 12, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 12, 2006
    Hi Buck - If you haven't already, can you please try the workarounds listed at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/articles/526231.aspx and see if they help.  That is the full list of workarounds that I know of to try for error code 13.  Hopefully one of them will help...

  • Anonymous
    February 13, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 14, 2006
    Aaron,
    I've got my system hooked up here at work and the guide downloaded in under 2 minutes.  It appears that my connection through Direcway is the problem.  Is there a fix?  Is it possible to download updates to a thumb drive at work and install on my home machine?  Direcway does mention that VPN connections will not work through their system - is this part of the issue?
    Is there anything else I can do to help nail this problem down?  Is it possible that updates will work now that I've gotten my first guide download?
    Regards, Buck

  • Anonymous
    February 15, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 23, 2006
    Having same problem downloading guide for DirecTV using WinMCE and DirecWay Satellite Internet connection.  Hope someone figures it out!  I was able to download the guide the first few times I ran it, but had trouble with Internet until DirecWay had me change proxy information and now I can't get guide to download anymore.

  • Anonymous
    March 11, 2006
    Hi Aaron,
    In a post above, you said:
    "Hi Craven - can you please try to browse to an HTTPS web page in your internet browser (and not just an HTTP web page) and see if that works?"

    I'm having the same problems as everyone else (error code 13, can't download guide data), except I CAN'T browse to an HTTPS web site on the media center computer.

    I can from other computers on the network, but not the media center.

    Could this be causing my guide problems?  If so, how do I fix it?

    Thanks for your help.

  • Anonymous
    March 11, 2006
    Hi Kyle - Yes, it is possible that this is the cause of your guide download issue.  Media Center needs to be able to access HTTPS web sites in order to communicate with the server that hosts guide data.  In most cases, failure to access HTTPS web sites is a proxy server configuration or firewall configuration issue.  You may want to try to change your proxy settings and see if that will resolve this issue.

  • Anonymous
    March 11, 2006
    Aaron,
    Thanks for such a quick reply (especially on a Saturday!).  I'm tinkering with it now, I'll let you know how it goes.

    Thanks again, I really appreciate it.

  • Anonymous
    March 11, 2006
    Well, I can get the mc pc onto https sites now (changed firewall settings), but it still refuses to download the guide.

    If I get it working I'll post what I did.  Thanks for trying.

  • Anonymous
    March 11, 2006
    Hi Kyle - You may need to go through the guide configuration steps for Media Center again now that you've fixed the firewall issue.  You might also want to try the additional steps described at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/articles/526231.aspx and http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2006/03/10/549199.aspx and see if they help here.

  • Anonymous
    March 19, 2006
    I wanted to let everyone know I got it working.

    I was using an old network card, and I think it was part of the problem.  I could get online just fine, but things like windows update and the guide download had problems.  
    A new network card and a fresh install of MCE did the trick.

    I doubt that this will work for everyone else, but it's definately worth a shot.  If it doesnt work you could always just return the card.

    Now I just need to get MCE to recognize my second tuner.

    Thanks again for your help.

  • Anonymous
    March 19, 2006
    Hi Kyle - I'm glad to hear that you got guide download working on your system, but I'm sorry for the hassles you had to go through.

    For the tuner issue - can you confirm that your tuner is installed and visible from Device Manager on your system?  If so, you should be able to re-run TV setup from the Media Center Settings | TV menu.

  • Anonymous
    March 22, 2006
    I was having sporadic guide download problems for as long as I've had Media Center (several months), but it's worked well enough to maintain at least 10 days worth of listings.  Today, though, the guide just quit outright.  I'm out of guide data and it won't connect to get any more.

    I was following the suggestions at the top of this blog and got to #3 - re-ran setup no guide, rebooted, re-ran setup and enabled guide.  Now, instead of Code 13, I have Code 14.  It doesn't even try to download the guide data; as soon as it connects to the Internet, out comes Code 14.  I've checked (at least 10 times over) the system date and time (#1 above).  I tried renaming the EPG directory (#2 above).  Now #3 stopped me dead in my tracks.  I feel like I got dumped from the frying pan straight into the fire.

    I am able to to connect to both HTTP (port 80) and HTTPS (port 443) web sites and I've checked the system date and time more times than I can remember.  

    It was working OK for months.  Then last week, I started getting messages about being low on guide data, so I guess this problem actually started about a week ago and has been headed downhill since.  I am sure that I made absolutely NO CHANGES to software, hardware, home network settings, etc. AT ALL.  It was working, then it decided to quit.

    Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated.

  • Anonymous
    March 27, 2006
    Like a lot of others here I am having trouble downloading the MC Guide...dreaded Code 13 Error.  I moved recently, and my ISP is now DirectWay Satelite.  My previous ISP was Comcast Cable and I had no problems downloading the MC Guide with Cable.

    I have tried every troubleshoot listed in these blogs with no success.  I am convinced that this error is somehow related to DirectWay.  Anyone have any info?  Thanks.

  • Anonymous
    March 28, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    March 28, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    March 28, 2006
    Thanks Aaron.

    I've already tried everything here:

    http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/articles/526231.aspx

    Should I Re-register the DLL with all versions of  Microsoft.NET Framework?  I only did 2.0

  • Anonymous
    July 29, 2006
    PingBack from http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/articles/487537.aspx

  • Anonymous
    November 04, 2006
    This article serves as a central location for all links to troubleshooting documentation that has been

  • Anonymous
    November 08, 2006
    HALLELUJAH! OK I THOUGHT THAT I WAS PART OF THE CROWD THAT STILL HAD A CODE 14 PROBLEM WITH THE TIME SET CORRECTLY... HOWEVER, THE MONTH WAS ALL MESSED UP! AFTER HOURS OF TECH SUPPORT AND FORUM SEARCHING! YEEEEEAAAAHAAAAH!

  • Anonymous
    January 03, 2007
    I used Windows Update to download/install the Update Rollup 2.  Now I get Guide Download Error - Internet connection failure (Code: 4).  I am running ZoneAlarm 6.5.  When I disable ZA, I can download the program guide without a problem.

  • Anonymous
    April 27, 2007
    I'm having the cannot connect problem with updating the guide - as far as I can tell my media center version is 2002. I've tried fixes at the blog and HP cust serv's fixes - they told me reload the OS. I looked at the tracehelper file; <event level="Error" source="Media Center Guide" time="2007:04:27 05:28:28:000000" eventid="9" category="4">Connection not working.</event>  <event level="Info" source="Media Center Guide" time="2007:04:27 05:28:27:984375" eventid="0" category="0">unable to connect to well known server System.Net.WebException: The underlying connection was closed: Unable to connect to the remote server. at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.CheckFinalStatus() at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.EndGetResponse(IAsyncResult asyncResult) at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetResponse() at Microsoft.Ehome.Epg.Ehepgdat.AttemptConnectionImp(Object state)</event> and found this in the first two entries. After reading the blog can I assume that the problem lies with Microsoft and not my notebook?

  • Anonymous
    May 02, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 28, 2007
    I recently bought and installed Windows Vista Home Premium and at first the guide downloaded OK.  But now it has stopped and once again I'm getting the same download eror 13 I got with Windows XP. I have read thru all the old blog suggestions and tried those which I felt competent to try.  However, none of them seemed to work.  It seems pretty remarkable to me that this problem, which seems to have been around ever since 2005, is still not fixed by Microsoft.    Since I bought MS Vista and installed it on my Dell computer, will I be able to call Microsoft to get help on this issue?  Or will I sitll be passed off to Dell?  I agree with one of the past posters on the blog that this is an issue which should have been fixed long ago by Microsoft and can't tell you how many hours I have spent trying to make this KEY feature of Windows Media Center work properly. Charles Franklin

  • Anonymous
    May 30, 2007
    Hi Cmfranklin - I'm very sorry for the hassle you're encountering while trying to download guide data. Unfortunately, there are a lot of possible causes for this kind of guide download error.  Some of them are things that Microsoft and Media Center can control, but some are caused by things like incorrect LAN settings or firewall settings, etc and there is not a lot that Microsoft can do to fix that type of issue other than try to help with diagnostics. I've posted a list of the workarounds I know of for error code 13 at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/articles/526231.aspx.  I'd suggest making sure that you've tried all of those if you haven't yet just to be sure you didn't miss anything. You should be able to contact either Microsoft or Dell technical support for this type of issue.  However, I would start with Microsoft since you bought a separate copy of Windows Vista and it did not come pre-installed on your system.

  • Anonymous
    May 26, 2009
    I'm getting error code 34, but the only solution I can find relates to Norton firewall and I don't have Norton installed on my computer.  Do you have any other solutions?   (I had this problem once before and came across an article that suggested changing one fo the services from Network to Local.  I can't find that article now.  Does that sound familiar?)

  • Anonymous
    May 26, 2009
    Hi DEM4 - I'm sorry, but I don't have any better information to pass along to you about that error.  The only workaround that is listed in the blog post at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/articles/490466.aspx is to try again later, but I'm guessing you've already tried that. I'd suggest posting a question at one of the following locations and hopefully someone there might be able to suggest some other workarounds for you to try: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/newsgroups/reader.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/83/ShowForum.aspx I'm sorry I'm not able to be more helpful in this scenario.

  • Anonymous
    May 26, 2009
    Hi DEM4 - Also, the service logon change that you mentioned might be similar to this blog post - http://robmensching.com/blog/posts/2007/12/1/Fixing-quotNo-Services-Foundquot-for-FM-Radio-in-Windows-Media.  It is possible that this setting change could affect guide download and not just the radio feature mentioned in that blog post, so if you're running Windows Vista, that workaround might be worth a try.