How to fix component registration failures after installing Update Rollup 2 for Media Center 2005

Artigo
10/18/2005

Since I posted the instructions for gathering setup log files for Update Rollup 2 for Media Center 2005 and asked folks to send the logs to me, I have gotten several sets of logs. I'm still looking through some of the issues to try to figure them out (and I apologize for the slow replies to those of you who have not heard back from me yet). There is one issue that I've now seen on multiple customer machines that I wanted to post a workaround for in case anyone else runs into it in the future.

What are the symptoms of this issue?

For this particular problem, customers have reported the following types of problems while using Media Center after upgrading to Update Rollup 2:

A Component Registration Failure error appears while trying to navigate to My TV. The text of the error message states "Some of the files needed to play radio or video are missing or corrupt. Media Center component registration may have failed."
A Critical Process Failure error appears while trying to configure an internet connection during first run. The text of the error message states "A critical Media Center process has unexpectedly failed. If problems persist, please restart your machine and try again, or contact technical support. Code: 3"
A Tuner Not Found error appears while trying to setup a TV signal during first run
Errors related to the Media Center Guide in the application event log

How do I know if this issue is the one affecting my machine?

The machines I have seen that have had these problems so far have had errors logged in %windir%\medctroc.log. This log is appended to during every Media Center setup action, so you have to find the section that corresponds to the registration that happens at the end of Update Rollup 2 setup. To find this, you can search for the string 5.1.2710.2732. There should be multiple instances of this string in this log file. You will need to find the entry that is followed a few lines later by a line stating Will run in registration mode.

Once you have found the Update Rollup 2 registration section, look for the group of commands labeled Removing existing native assemblies... In each of the cases I have seen so far, there are entries in this section like the following:

Executing line "C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\ngen.exe /nologo /delete ehiwmp"
Warning: Process Return Value is 0xc0000139 --> (null)
Error: Failed to apply command to ehiwmp (return value: 0xc0000139).

Then you should see another entry in the log file during this same registration session that states:

Encountered errors during registration of Windows Media Center. Please see {C:\WINDOWS\medctroc.Log} for details.

How can I workaround this issue?

If you have the above entries in your %windir%\medctroc.log file, you can do the following to repair your computer:

Download and reinstall the .NET Framework 1.1 SP1
Go to the Start menu, choose Run and type cmd.
From the cmd prompt, run %windir%\ehome\medctrro.exe /o /p RunOnce to re-run Update Rollup 2 registration code. This command will not display any UI, so you will have to keep track of the process in Task Manager to know for sure when it completes.
After the process in step 3 completes, restart your computer to complete the Media Center registration process.

What is the root cause of this issue?

There are a couple of problems that cause this issue. The first is a logic problem with the setup registration program (%windir%\ehome\medctrro.exe). When it encounters an error like the NGEN error listed above, it continues until it is done processing managed assemblies but then it stops without performing the rest of the registration steps. This means that the machine is left in the state where new assemblies from Update Rollup 2 are added to the GAC, but the ehSched and ehRecvr services and the ehRec and ehMsas executables are unregistered. These services and COM servers are used for a lot of functionality inside of Media Center, particularly TV. Therefore if they are left in an unregistered state, MCE fails in many places.

The second issue is that the command to run NGEN is failing with an unexpected error code 0xc0000139 in some cases. This error code means "entry point not found" but I have not been able to reproduce this on one of my test machines so I don't understand exactly why this error is appearing. I have asked a couple of folks who hit this problem to try running the NGEN commands directly to see if they give more descriptive error messages. I will update this blog post when I know more about the root cause of NGEN failing in these scenarios.

<update date="10/20/2005"> We have found one root cause of this type of error, and I have posted a description and a simpler workaround for this error in this blog post </update>

<update date="10/30/2005"> It appears that the link to the simpler workaround isn't being found in the update text, so I've updated the workaround to contain the steps from my newer blog post to avoid confusion </update>

<update date="1/12/2010"> Added a note about rebooting at the end of the registration process. </update>

Comments

Anonymous
October 18, 2005
I have had the exact problem, I will try your idea tonight and let you know.

I will also point people here on this weeks Media Center Show if they are having any problems
Anonymous
October 19, 2005
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
October 19, 2005
Aaron,

Thanks !!! Just when I was getting desperate, this did the trick for me.

Wouter
Anonymous
October 19, 2005
Any idea if maybe this is caused by doing updates over Remote Desktop? I have this same issue, and that's what i did... wondering if maybe there is a way to get to the root of the problem and that's the only thing I did.

I also use DVI output and when I got home after the updates/reboot over RDP, it was using the wrong monitor all of a sudden.
Anonymous
October 19, 2005
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
October 19, 2005
I am having the exact same problem and no one from tech support for my computer was able to help me. I will definitely follow your instructions to see if I can fix the problem.
Thanks!
Anonymous
October 19, 2005
Yes! That fixed the problem. You are the man Andrew!

Anytime you have a problem with Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) email me - I owe you one.

-from a fellow 'softie.
Anonymous
October 20, 2005
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
October 21, 2005
Thanks for the fix! You are absolutely the best. I had this problem after installing the MS rollup update. You saved me from going through the entire troubleshooting procedure.

Hooah!

Chris
Anonymous
October 21, 2005
Dude, you rock !!! Many thanks for your efforts. As others before me, I followed your instructions to the letter, copy and paste to the command prompt. MCE is now working like a champ. AWESOME !
Anonymous
October 22, 2005
Thank you for your solution. I tried it and it solved the problem.
Anonymous
October 23, 2005
I have an HP Pavillion Media Center PC and had this problem. After running through the steps above it seems to be working fine. Thanks!
Anonymous
October 26, 2005
Yet another happy customer. Your fix worked great. THANK YOU - THANK YOU - THANK YOU!!!

One idea about why this happens on some machines and not others - I upgraded on two different MCE machines and the problem occurred on one machine, but not on the other.

1) MCE 2004 machine that I upgraded via the OEM provided MCE 2005 upgrade - this problem occurred.
2) MCE 2005 machine - this problem did not occur
Both machines had MCE rollup 1 installed via update
Anonymous
November 02, 2005
Exact problem. Exact fix. Many thanks. ~Jayman
Anonymous
November 03, 2005
Just thought I’d add my name to list of thanks for this fix, I was starting to pull my hair out. How MS expect MCE to go main stream when people have to jump through hoops just to get an update to work properly is beyond me. Hopefully MCE Vista will be better, thanks again. Mark
Anonymous
November 05, 2005
Another greatful reader. Microsoft - shame on you for not fixing this on your own.
Anonymous
November 07, 2005
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
November 08, 2005
Hey thanks for the valuable information. Fixed my computer fast by myself and did not have to hastle with tech suppport.
Anonymous
November 09, 2005
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Anonymous
November 10, 2005
Hi Ken - before you try to uninstall again can you please use the steps at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2005/10/16/481689.aspx to gather log files and send them to me at aaronste@microsoft.com so we can take a look?
Anonymous
November 14, 2005
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU... That's the last time i try to keep up to date with windows updates.... if it ain't broke, don't fix it.... GRRR.
Anonymous
November 14, 2005
Perfect! Easy to follow instructions (though I didn't understand it all) that worked the first time! THANKS!!
Anonymous
December 09, 2005
"No tuner fault" appeared also to me. I ran the Rollup 2 over again, received the same DRM Migration error, but it all worked after this. No need to run NET 1.1 SP1..... Thanx
Anonymous
December 12, 2005
THANK YOU! You saved my MCE PC! THANK YOU!
Anonymous
January 16, 2006
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Anonymous
March 10, 2006
I'll try it too!

My hp m376n had the same problem. I've had to call MS a couple times because everytime I install it re-activates.

And they want to know why?!?! lol
Anonymous
April 04, 2006
worked for me- home built, nvidia and hauppauge tuners.

Boy was my girlfriend going to be unhappy if we had 2 days without tv...
Anonymous
April 06, 2006
None of these fixes have worked for me. I have a HP zd8000 with HP Dual TV Tuner made by Adaptec - AVC-3610, 256mb ATI Mobility Radeon x600 graphics card, all updated, and I constantly lose my tuner for absolutely no reason. I've done 2 reformats and sent the whole notebook back to HP (with another reformat!) and they still have no idea why this happens. Is there any hope? Would it help if I bought a new tuner?
Anonymous
April 06, 2006
Let me qualify the new tuner purchase option: I have already received a replacement HP tuner, and the same problem happens, so I would consider a different make tuner if it would help.
Anonymous
April 26, 2006
I was having this error. I searched for it on the Microsoft Support page and there was nothing there. I finally found this and it fixed it!!! THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!

Also this seemed to happen after I ran and installed the most recent windows updates.
(4/26/06)
Anonymous
May 04, 2006
Hi Aaron,

I wrote a couple of months ago about problems with RU2. You kindly looked at my logs and could not find the problem. For your information, since that I updated my MCE with every updates available, and for some I get the message "DRM Migrate.exe error...".
Anonymous
May 05, 2006
Hi Guyhel - I am not sure when you installed all available updates, but there is a fairly recent hotfix that fixes some DRM issues that you might want to try to install if you haven't already. You can find more info about it at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/913800/en-us. Hopefully this will help.
Anonymous
May 11, 2006
Hey ..Really worked . Was looking at hours of reinstalling the OS. Done in just a few minutes. Thx a lot :)
Anonymous
May 16, 2006
Well done!
http://xktobqrs.com/npdx/lues.html | http://fgmctmwy.com/cjoj/grxc.html
Anonymous
May 24, 2006
Hi EnEm - If your tuner cards are correctly installed and visible in Device Manager, and you have updated drivers, then there might be some other application or service that is taking control of the tuners and thereby preventing Media Center from using them.

You might also want to use the Media Center Diagnostics kit to validate that the tuners are Media Center-compatible. You can install the diagnostics kit from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ce06d6a7-de56-4d82-bf5f-6f6e1296a934&DisplayLang=en.
Anonymous
May 26, 2006
Hi Aaron.
Thanks a lot for the follow up. Unfortunalety, I've already installed this new hotfix, but I still have the message "DRM migrate.exe error..." during installation, and at boot, the same message about ehrecvr.exe.
I will continue to use WinDVD recorder, but I miss a lot the MCE interface and capabilities.

Guylain
Anonymous
May 26, 2006
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
June 04, 2006
Hi Guyhel - I am not sure about the cause of the error that you're seeing. You might want to try the workarounds for DRM errors listed at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/articles/513660.aspx and see if they help in this scenario.
Anonymous
June 09, 2006
Thanks for the fix, it worked perfectly.
Anonymous
June 12, 2006
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
June 12, 2006
Hi WillDeed - That is strange that you are getting a file not found error even though encdec.dll is in %windir%system32 on your computer. Is the file regsvr32.exe present on your system also? If so, what happens if you click on the Start menu, choose Run, type cmd, and then type %windir%system32regsvr32 /s %windir%system32encdec.dll and try to register it manually?
Anonymous
June 13, 2006
yea.. that didn't do anything, and i'm in the same situation
Anonymous
June 13, 2006
Hi Blee - Can you please try the steps listed at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2006/02/17/534559.aspx and see if they help solve this issue? If not, can you please gather and send me the log files listed at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2005/10/16/481689.aspx so I can try to take a look and see if I can figure anything out?
Anonymous
June 29, 2006
PingBack from http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/articles/487537.aspx
Anonymous
August 26, 2006
I got the same problem. This doesn't solve my problem, however :(

I tried to manually register, and the error I found in the log is:

GACAssembliesAddRemove: Failed to uninstall assembly (Microsoft.MediaCenter)

Error removing existing DLLs from the GAC...

Any ideas? Thanks.
Anonymous
August 27, 2006
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
September 21, 2006
PingBack from http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/community/open-discussion/13422-cautionary-tale-those-who-tinker.html#post97024
Anonymous
November 04, 2006
This article serves as a central location for all links to troubleshooting documentation that has been
Anonymous
January 20, 2007
Worked like a charm, thanks for your help!!
Anonymous
January 29, 2007
Dude! This has been plaguine me for months and your fix worked like a charm! BUT... I've run into another problem. Now when I try to exit MCE, it hangs the computer and I have a great deal of difficulty getting out of it. It never did that before, so i'm not sure where to go next. I actually had to unplug the computer to get out of it the second time I tried it. Any suggestions?
Anonymous
January 29, 2007
Hi Syxxnet - I haven't heard of this kind of performance issue with Media Center before, so I'm not really sure what to suggest. Does the system hang completely, or does exiting Media Center just take a long time on this system? Do you see any entries in your application event log around the time that you attempt to close Media Center that might explain the delay? Also, does it happen only in certain cases (such as when you try to close while live TV is playing or something like that), or does it happen no matter what you were previously doing within Media Center?
Anonymous
February 02, 2007
Was working fine with latest patches as of Sept '06. Moved and was in storage for 3 1/2 months. Fired up and stupidly applied patches. Tuners no longer found/recognized messing when starting TV in Settings. WinTV2000 Hauppague application happily finds the card. FOund this site. Ran "medctrro.exe" fix listed above. Tuner error is gone. Now I get a "A critical media center ... Code 3" error. Any thoughts on were to look next? It did appear to fix the tuner failuer; one of the services now starts and the tuner error is now gone. It only takes one bad thing to make you hate a product. Thanks in advance for any thoughts or info.
Anonymous
February 02, 2007
Hi Mkmcgregor - Can you please use the instructions listed at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2005/10/16/481689.aspx to gather, zip and send me a list of log files from your system so I can take a look and see if I can figure out how to resolve this issue on your system?
Anonymous
March 16, 2007
PingBack from http://forum.generation-nt.com/windows-xp/correctif-cumulatif-2-xp-mce-168695/#post1221347
Anonymous
March 16, 2007
Since the Windows Vista public launch in January 2007, I have been receiving questions more frequently
Anonymous
May 14, 2007
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
May 15, 2007
Hi Computerflyer - Thank you for sending me your log files via email. I don’t see any errors at the end of the medctroc.log that you sent me, but I see the following in the ehshell.crash file: System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80070424): The specified service does not exist as an installed service. That means that one or more of the Media Center services isn’t registered correctly, which will definitely cause problems when trying to launch Media Center. Can you please try the steps listed at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2006/02/17/534559.aspx and see if they help at all in this scenario?
Anonymous
May 15, 2007
Thank you so much. That worked :-) Best Regards, CF
Anonymous
May 14, 2008
I'm totally computer illiterate and this worked for me. I can't thank you enough. You are a life saver!
Anonymous
May 25, 2008
PingBack from http://mikemacd.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/windows-upate-broke-my-media-center-now-fixed/
Anonymous
August 25, 2008
Thanks for your help. :-) Amy
Anonymous
September 09, 2008
Ok...I am going to sound like an idiot..how do you run the %windir%ehomemedctrro.exe /o /p RunOnce from the command prompt? I have tried what I know but can't get it to run. No laughing please. Thank you ahead of time!
Anonymous
September 09, 2008
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
September 11, 2008
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
September 28, 2008
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Anonymous
September 28, 2008
Hi Ringwraith - I'm sorry for the hassles that this issue is causing for you. I'd suggest trying the steps listed at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2008/03/07/8108332.aspx to remove the .NET Framework 1.1 entirely and then attempt to re-install both the .NET Framework 1.1 and 1.1 SP1. Hopefully this helps.
Anonymous
October 04, 2008
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
October 07, 2008
Hi Ringwraith - I'm not sure why this error would still be happening during .NET 1.1 SP1 setup. There are a couple of things you can try next:

There are several suggestions listed at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2004/11/23/268934.aspx that can help to troubleshoot .NET 1.1 SP1 installation issues
You can try to download, extract and manually run the patch for .NET 1.1 SP1 by doing the following: a) Download .NET Framework 1.1 SP1 from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=a8f5654f-088e-40b2-bbdb-a83353618b38&displaylang=en and save it to your hard drive b) Extract the contents of the service pack by running NDP1.1sp1-KB867460-X86.exe /Xp:%temp%netfxsp.msp c) Go to %temp% and double-click on netfxsp.msp to attempt to apply it directly Hopefully one of these will help.

Anonymous
October 14, 2008
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
October 15, 2008
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
October 16, 2008
Greetings, and thanks for the great blog. Quick question: I reinstalled the .NET Framework 1/1 SP1, but when I type %windir%ehomemedctrro.exe /o /p RunOnce at the command prompt it says the system cannot find the path specified. Do I need to be in a particular folder for this to run?
Anonymous
October 16, 2008
Hi Kcs - No, you should not need to be in a specific folder to run that command because it lists the full path to this file. Does your system have the file medctrro.exe in the folder %windir%ehome? (note - %windir% is an environment variable and it will resolve to a folder like c:windows depending on where you have your OS installed). If that file is missing from your system, then you need to restore it before this command will work. Here are some steps that can be used to restore Windows OS files:

Click on the Start menu, choose Run, type cmd and click OK
Run this command: sfc /scannow
Wait for it to finish - it will take a while and if it finds any missing files, it will likely ask you to insert your original Windows OS installation disc Hopefully this helps.

Anonymous
October 23, 2008
Hello Aaron, My symptoms are very similar, but I am not getting the error on '...delete..ehiwmp'. Also, after the Critical Process Failure message, I get a "Video Error" message when I try to launch TV. I am not seeing the "Tuner Not Found" message. This occurred after installing Service Pack 3 for Windows XP MCE. In my case, after running the four steps you have listed in this thread, there are two suspicious areas in the MedCtrOC.log file. 1: Initialize in Registration mode: 10/23/08 09:21:55

Successfully created configuration mutex "MCEConfigInProgress" Opening inf file 'C:WINDOWSinfmcdftreg.inf' SetupFindFirstLine failed: The section EHome_Self_Registering might be empty: 0xe0000102 2: Under "Adding existing DLLs to the GAC..." ... GACAssembliesAddRemove: Added (C:WINDOWSeHomeMicrosoft.MediaCenter.dll) to the GAC GACAssembliesAddRemove: Failed to install assembly (C:WINDOWSeHomeCreateDiscSonicMCEBurnEngine.dll) (error 0x80131107) Error adding existing DLLs to the GAC... Initially, I found that SonicMCEBurnEngine.dll did NOT exist in %windir%ehomeCreateDisc so I replaced it and tried the four steps you listed again. The results are the same. Do you have any ideas on this one? I would really appreciate it and trying to avoid restoring to pre-SP3. Thank you, Marc

Anonymous
October 24, 2008
Hi MPenteco - The 0x80131107 error that you see in your log is a .NET Framework error that usually means that there is some kind of version mismatch between files within the .NET Framework. I normally suggest trying to re-install the .NET Framework 1.1 and 1.1 SP1 and then trying to re-run Media Center registration - that is what the steps in this blog will end up doing. Since you've already tried those steps, I'd suggest instead trying to use the steps listed at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2008/03/07/8108332.aspx to remove and then re-install the .NET Framework 1.1 and 1.1 SP1. After doing that, you can try to run %windir%ehomemedctrro.exe /o /p RunOnce again to see if that helps resolve this error.
Anonymous
January 18, 2009
PingBack from http://www.keyongtech.com/2821285-media-center-crashing-at-anything
Anonymous
February 19, 2009
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
February 19, 2009
Hi ObxPirate - Can you please gather all of your Update Rollup 2 setup log files, zip them, post them to a file server and then reply back here with the location so I can take a look? You can find a list of the log files at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2005/10/16/481689.aspx.
Anonymous
February 19, 2009
Thx for the reply. Hope this works. I ran your script and sent (what I think are) the files zipped to your email address given at the link you provided. I also zipped and added the original text log from the rollup install just in case. I would not classify myself as an expert user, so pls do not hesitate to point me in the right direction if I'm off a bit.
Anonymous
February 19, 2009
Hi Obxpirate - The file c:windowsmedctroc.log that you sent me shows the following error that will cause Update Rollup 2 registration to fail: GACAssembliesAddRemove: Failed to uninstall assembly (ehRecObj) The most common cause I’ve seen of this type of error is some other program being installed on your system that adds an additional reference count to this assembly, which will cause uninstall to fail because the other program still needs the file. In order to see if that is the problem on your system, can you please run the steps listed at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2005/07/01/434814.aspx, except instead of running msiinv.exe –p, please run msiinv.exe –v so it will generate a verbose log. Then please zip and post your log file from that tool (c:msiinvmsiinv_output.txt) on a file server and reply back here with a link so I can take a look.
Anonymous
February 19, 2009
Thanks for taking the time to help with this. I am away from the computer in question at the moment, but will do as you suggest asap.
Anonymous
February 19, 2009
OK, back at it. msiinv -v results sent to your email.
Anonymous
February 20, 2009
For sake of a complete post list, last night I tried stopping the WebGuide process tree, then reinstalled Rollup 2 and .net framework 1.1 sp1, then re-ran the registration code from the cmd prompt. Unfortunately, it was unsuccessful and I rolled mce 2005 back to pre-install.
Anonymous
August 19, 2009
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
August 20, 2009
Hi Pavilonzd8000 - I'd suggest searching on the HP web site for updated drivers for you TV tuner card. After installing updated drivers, I'd suggest trying to use the steps listed at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2006/02/17/534559.aspx to re-register the Media Center services on your system. If these steps don't help, then I'd suggest posting a question on one of the following forums, and hopefully someone else will have some additional suggestions that they can pass on 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
Anonymous
September 29, 2010
Folks, I've had lots of problems with Media Center on XP. Managed to get it running fine a few weeks ago following various steps above....now I can only run it in full screen mode or minimized to the toolbar. There is no option for running a small window whilst doing other work. Not particularly computer literate, any help appreciated.
Anonymous
September 30, 2010
Hi Nicholas - It might help to try to update your video card drivers in this scenario. If that doesn't help, then I'd suggest posting a question on one of the following forums, and hopefully someone else will have some additional suggestions that they can pass on for you to try: www.microsoft.com/.../reader.mspx thegreenbutton.com/.../ShowForum.aspx
Anonymous
December 27, 2010
The comment has been removed

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How to fix component registration failures after installing Update Rollup 2 for Media Center 2005

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