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Troubleshooting steps I use for Media Center component registration failure errors

  • Artigo

I heard from a customer this week who indicated they were seeing all of the following errors that I have described in previous blog posts:

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

I wanted to outline the exact steps I took to investigate this user's computer because they are very often useful in resolving this type of error. Hopefully, if other folks run into this type of error within Media Center, they will be able to find this blog post and be able to more easily fix the error themselves.

The errors listed above are normally caused by a Media Center service not being correctly registered on the system. Service registration happens at the end of Media Center update rollup or hotfix setup, and most cases I have seen of this error can be traced back to something failing during the installation of the most recent Media Center hotfix.

The most useful log file for Media Center hotfixes is named %windir%\medctroc.log. In this type of scenario, I always start my investigation by opening up that log file, scrolling to the bottom and looking for any errors or warnings, especially errors related to service installation.

In general, the sessions in that log file come in pairs - an un-registration mode that is denoted by the log string Will run in unregister mode and a registration mode that is denoted by the log string Will run in registration mode. The service un-registration and re-registration command lines appear under the heading Registering services and COM objects... in the log file.

In most cases one or more of the following warnings or errors will appear:

  • Warning: Process wait timed out
  • Error: couldn't stop the ehSched service: 0x00000424. --> "The specified service does not exist as an installed service.

In cases where I see any of the above error messages in %windir%\medctroc.log, I use the following set of steps in the order listed below to manually un-register and re-register Media Center services:

  1. Close Media Center
  2. Click on the Start menu, choose run and type cmd
  3. Execute the command regsvr32.exe atl.dll
  4. Execute the command C:\WINDOWS\eHome\ehSched /unregServer
  5. Execute the command C:\WINDOWS\eHome\ehSched /service
  6. Execute the command C:\WINDOWS\eHome\ehRecvr /unregServer
  7. Execute the command C:\WINDOWS\eHome\ehRecvr /service
  8. Execute the command C:\WINDOWS\eHome\ehRec.exe /unregServer
  9. Execute the command C:\WINDOWS\eHome\ehRec.exe /regserver
  10. Execute the command C:\WINDOWS\eHome\ehmsas.exe /unregServer
  11. Execute the command C:\WINDOWS\eHome\ehmsas.exe /regserver
  12. Restart Media Center

The command lines above are case-sensitive, so make sure to capitalize the S in unregServer exactly as listed above. Also, it is not sufficient to simply re-register the services because these services have logic in the code that treats the /service switch as a toggle (meaning that if it is un-registered, it will re-register it, but if it is already registered, it will un-register it).

In a few cases, running the above steps will result in the same error messages when launching Media Center and will show the same log messages in %windir%\medctroc.log. I have seen the following steps help resolve these errors in this scenario if the above commands did not help:

  1. Go to Add/Remove Programs
  2. Check the box labeled Show updates at the top
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the list of installed programs
  4. Remove the most recently installed Media Center update rollup package
  5. Re-download and re-install the update rollup package that you uninstalled in the previous step

<update date="2/19/2006"> Added additional steps to uninstall and reinstall the most recent Media Center update rollup because I have heard from a couple of customers who tried all of the above command lines and none of them helped, but uninstalling and reinstalling did end up solving the issue for them </update>

Comments

  • Anonymous
    February 18, 2006
    I've been up all night and morning trying to fix these annoying problems but it just won't work. The mayor problem seems to be that the ehRecvr.exe won't start (or at least doesn't stay on) If I try to watch live tv or even setting up the tv-signal it (ehRecvr) crashes and takes it all down. then a pop-up keeps showing ehRecvr had to shut down...asking me to report the problem...
    drivers are up to date
    I really don't know what to do :(

  • Anonymous
    February 18, 2006
    This is why once I had MCE working the way I liked, I ghosted the C drive.

    I also made my C drive only 20gb and my M drive is the other 380gb.  I can quickly ghost and "start fresh"

  • Anonymous
    February 18, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 18, 2006
    Hi Clochard69 - Have you tried running ehrecvr.exe /unregServer and ehrecvr.exe /service to see if that will resolve the crash that you're seeing?  You may also want to try installing the latest Media Center hotfix from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=72a3a3e7-ebba-4aa8-8f98-6d89ed5a42a8&DisplayLang=en.

    Hi Stewart - I would like to see your log files if possible.  Can you please email me the logs listed at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2005/10/16/481689.aspx?

  • Anonymous
    February 18, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2006
    Hi Clochard69 - The only updates that you have not installed yet that are specifically for Media Center (as opposed to general Windows XP hotfixes) are KB908250 and KB912067.  KB908250 is superceded by KB912067 (meaning that all fixes in 908250 are also in 912067, but 912067 also has some more fixes).  I would suggest trying to re-install KB912067.  If you start seeing crashes again, you can revert back to the most recent system restore point, and if you do see issues can you please send me the file %windir%medctroc.log so I can try to take a look and see if I can figure anything out?  You can contact me via http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/contact.aspx.

  • Anonymous
    February 19, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2006
    Hi again. I'm glad to report that everything is working perfect over here.
    Sadly it was a stupid mistake from me. I had installed a codec pack that worked before the rollup, but after it would result in a crash.
    Anyway tnx for all your time and effort.
    Keep up the good job!

  • Anonymous
    February 21, 2006
    Hi Msghockey - The error message 0x00000426 means "the service cannot be stopped because it has not been started", which is usually OK to ignore.  I will email you and follow up and try to look but I'm afraid I won't be too much help because I am not sure I know enough about AIM.

  • Anonymous
    February 24, 2006
    This helped me.  You should really make a batch file of this.

  • Anonymous
    February 26, 2006
    Hi there.  Must say I appreciate all your suggestions, time & effort to help all us out.  I've got MCE 2002 Service Pack 2 installed, and something nearly identical happened before: Upon starting MCE, the error msg appeared "some of the files needed to play radio or video are missing or corrupt."  I can't see any TV, recorded or live, but I can start Sonic & view the recorded shows, so it doesn't seem to be a hardware problem.  Radio says no tuner could be found.  Although I didn't see the above error msgs in MedCtrOC, I did the above commands (changed to WINNT in MCE 2002), but to no avail.  Uninstalling & reinstalling the TV tuner (AVerMedia AVer TV Tuner) didn't do anything, either.  Uninstalling & reinstalling the updates after the last successful TV watching/recording didn't help.  The last time this happened, I used system restore to go back a week or two.  Now, system restore won't even work.  The only thing I can give you are the warning messages in MedCtrOC, which are slightly different than what you mentioned, & could shed some light on the issue.  If there is anything else I can tell you bt my system, let me know.  Thanks, Peter

  • Anonymous
    February 28, 2006
    Hi Peter - please let me know what warnings/errors you are seeing in %windir%medctroc.log and I will try to see if there is anything I can figure out from that...

  • Anonymous
    March 06, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    March 07, 2006
    Hi Peter - The first 2 warnings are from very old versions of Media Center.  I cannot tell which version of Media Center the 3rd warning is from, you would have to look at the beginning of the logging session that it is associated with and look at the file version reported there.

    However, I'm not sure what to suggest for your scenario beyond the command lines listed at the top of this post.  It might help for you to try running the mcerepair tool from http://blogs.msdn.com/peterrosser/archive/2005/10/20/482974.aspx.

    I'm sorry I'm not able to be more helpful here.

  • Anonymous
    March 20, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    March 20, 2006
    Hi BigDog1 - It sounds like you are re-installing Media Center but not reformatting your system.  If reformatting during the re-install is not an option, you will need to try to remove the .NET Framework 2.0 using some other means.  I think the simplest route would be to use the steps listed at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2005/10/30/487096.aspx to manually remove the .NET Framework 2.0, then use the steps listed at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2005/10/11/479928.aspx to remove and re-install the .NET Framework 1.1.  Hopefully this will clear up that .NET Framework initialization error that you are seeing.

  • Anonymous
    March 24, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    March 26, 2006
    hi,
    i have a toshiba qosmio G20 with MCE 05. the other night i decided it was time to watch some TV on it... anyway everytime i click on MY TV i get

    szAppName : ehRecvr.exe szAppVer : 5.1.2710.2732 szModName : unknown
    szModVer : 0.0.0.0 offset : 51000000

    when i first boot into windows that error pops up. but if i try to use my tv in mce i pops up every 5 seconds.

    i just installed the new MCE 05 rollup and uninstalled reinstall my tuner cards drivers. i tryed you commands above and no luck..

  • Anonymous
    March 26, 2006
    Hi Section - You might want to try the repair tool located at http://blogs.msdn.com/peterrosser/archive/2005/10/20/482974.aspx and see if that helps resolve this issue on your system.  Hopefully this will help.

  • Anonymous
    March 27, 2006
    Tried that no love... it refuses to run on my computer saying its an unsupported language.

  • Anonymous
    March 28, 2006
    Hi Section - What language operating system do you have?  I am not sure what to suggest here if the above commands didn't help and you cannot run that tool.  It might help to fully uninstall Update Rollup 2 and any hotfixes installed after Update Rollup 2 (such as KB908250 or KB912067).  Then you can try to re-install Update Rollup 2 and the latest hotfix (KB912067).  There might also be some information in your application event log that helps narrow down why this crash is happening.  I'm sorry I'm not able to be more helpful here.

  • Anonymous
    March 28, 2006
    i guess my operating system is using english(Australian)...

  • Anonymous
    March 28, 2006
    I had the basic problems with media center as stated in the previous logs. Everything is working fine now. I think the problem began after updating media center from windows update. I fixed it by uninstalling .net framework 1.1 and 2.0 and other updates for .net framework and then I reinstalled .net framework 1.1 and the updates for .net framework 1.1. I then installed the media center update. I checked the media center program and it was operating perfectly and then I installed .net framework 2.0 and what other updates that were suggessted and everything is working better than ever. I think the problem may have been installing the update with .net framework 2.0 installed beforehand. I suspect that if someone is having the same problem that they may be able to get away with just making sure .net framework 2.0 is not installed and then reinstalling the update for .net framework 1.1 and then reinstalling the media center update.

  • Anonymous
    March 29, 2006
    I had a problem with my AverTV E506 card not being found within media centre. It worked OK with AverTV application. I followed the steps Aaron gave above. The first steps (un-reg and re-reg services) did not work.

    However un-installing and re-installing RollUp 2 update did the job. Immediately media centre found the TV card and everything is OK.

    A big thanks to Aaron. Great help

    Harry

  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2006
    so far i've tried everything suggested and no love:(.

    i've uninstalled both mce updates and .net updates and reinstalled them in varying orders and nothing has changed still at the same place... this thing just hates me.

  • Anonymous
    April 05, 2006
    Aaron,  Thanks very much indeed, worked a treat. Paul

  • Anonymous
    April 29, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2006
    The ehrecvr.exe error message is gone and my tv tuner is working!  I just installed Microsoft's update KB912945 and the ehrecvr.exe message disappeared.  I installed the update to correct some time of active X error in internet explorer which coincidentally started to appear the same time the enrecvr.exe error message started.  I think both were associated with the rollup 2 for MCE 2005 which I installed in March.  The script error message did disappear immediately.  I then checked "services" and it said ehrecr.exe was started so I went to media center and was able to watch tv on the PC monitor.

  • Anonymous
    May 16, 2006
    As for one member stating the possibility that .net framework 2.0 may be a cause to the persisting "no tuner" problems, my computer is one case that had problems even without ever having .net framework 2.0 installed.  I've tried different combinations as well.  Installing .net frame 2.0 last didn't help MCE detect my tuner cards as well.

  • Anonymous
    May 22, 2006
    yeah! the unreg/reg sequence fixed the annoying crashes!!!

  • Anonymous
    July 07, 2006
    When I start Windows MCE 2005, I get an exception from ehRec.exe.  I have tried using the re-registration steps mentioned in this post as well as the MceRepair tools from Peter's blog (16.7s).  Also tried installing .net 1.1 and the last rollup for MCE again.  I think this all started for me when I installed Visual Studio 2005 Standard.  What other steps can I try to get Media Center working again?

  • Anonymous
    July 16, 2006
    Hi JohnThomasCraig - I don't know of any issues in Windows Media Center that are caused by installing Visual Studio 2005.  Do you see any errors in your application event log when this exception occurs?  Also, is there any exception information in %windir%ehomeehshell.crash that might narrow this down?

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 08, 2006
    Hi RareButSeriousSideEffects - I don't know of any specific test for success, but generally the tuner not found issues that I've seen have been caused by registration issues with ehRecvr, ehRec and/or ehSched and not ehMsas, so it may be possible to just ignore that issue that you're seeing.

  • Anonymous
    November 29, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    March 16, 2007
    Since the Windows Vista public launch in January 2007, I have been receiving questions more frequently

  • Anonymous
    July 21, 2008
    This article serves as a central location for all links to troubleshooting documentation that has been

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2008
    Thanks so much for this guide.  I was very frustrated trying to correct this problem and almost went so far as reinstalling the entire system(a very long prceess) on my computer.

  • Anonymous
    September 07, 2008
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    September 12, 2008
    PingBack from http://www.cobraclub.com/forum/feedback-membership-help/29183-help-corrupt-misssing-files.html#post264035

  • Anonymous
    November 03, 2008
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 03, 2008
    Hi Rotaryfiend - If you are getting an error about the event log being full, then I'd suggest running eventvwr and right-clicking on each of the event logs and choosing to clear them, then try the Media Center registration steps again.  Hopefully this helps.

  • Anonymous
    March 05, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    March 05, 2009
    Hi Mattrane - I'm sorry for the hassles that this issue is causing for you.  I'm not sure why you would see this error sometimes but not others.  One thing that could cause this is if you have some other program or process running on your system that accesses your TV tuner card.  Media Center is not able to access a TV tuner if another program is already using it, and in that scenario it will give an error that the tuner cannot be found. If that isn't the case on your system, then I'd suggest posting this question on one of the following forums to see if anyone there can help suggest any 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

  • Anonymous
    March 06, 2009
    Thanks Aaron. How do I identify whether another process is accessing the tuner (I did the thing where you disable all non-MS services). Could it be the xbox?

  • Anonymous
    March 06, 2009
    Hi Mattrane - No, the Xbox does not use the TV tuner on the Media Center PC.  The most common causes I've seen are Media Center add-ins or other programs that are used to remotely schedule TV recordings.  If you don't have any programs like that installed, you can try to use one of the Sysinternals process monitor tools (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/cb56073f-62a3-4ed8-9dd6-40c84cb9e2f5.aspx) to see if you can find any processes running behind the scenes. If that doesn't help, I'd suggest posting this scenario on one of the forums I listed in my last reply.

  • Anonymous
    March 13, 2009
    PingBack from http://forums.techarena.in/operating-systems/1139882.htm#post4297927

  • Anonymous
    June 16, 2010
    You are incredible!  Thanks so much for these instructions -- my Media Center was working great, and then one of the infamous Microsoft updates caused it to have issues.  Your well written step by step directions saved my sanity (and probably my computer...)!  Thanks again!!

  • Anonymous
    September 17, 2012
    Hi.  I have just carried out the above fix as my XL-100 tuner suddenly stopped working and IT WORKED.  Fabulous.  So just wanted to say thank you and say this fix is still relevant as at September 2012.  Thank you so much for posting.  

  • Anonymous
    March 10, 2013
    would love to do this and have my problem fixed, about 12 forums couldn't figure this out. I keep getting Dcom error 10005 DCOM got error "%1058" attempting to start the service ehSched with arguments "-Service" in order to run the server 4B635ECB-0887-4015-8CA6-D621362F98D1 in my eventlog. Pleassssssssssssssssse let me know that this page will help.

  • Anonymous
    March 11, 2013
    Hi Jackson - I don't recognize this error message, so I'm not sure if the steps in this blog post will help you in this scenario.  These steps won't do any harm though, so it is probably worth trying them if you haven't yet.

  • Anonymous
    January 31, 2014
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 01, 2014
    Hi KPatchery - I'm sorry, but I don't know what else to suggest for this type of issue beyond what is already listed in this blog post.  If those steps don't help, then I'd recommend posting a question on the Windows XP Media Center forums at experts.windows.com/.../14.aspx and hopefully someone there will have some additional suggestions for you to try. I'm sorry that I haven't been able to be more helpful in this scenario.

  • Anonymous
    February 04, 2014
    No problem, Aaron. This was a long shot, as you haven't looked at the XP MCE code in many moons.