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How to synchronize your system clock to attempt to resolve Media Center guide download errors

Many folks who have run into trouble downloading guide data within Media Center have tracked the issue down to a problem with the system clock getting out of sync with the official internet time.  You must have a correctly synchronized system clock in order for Media Center guide download to succeed.

To attempt to synchronize your system clock, you can use the following steps:

  1. Click on the Start menu, choose Run and type timedate.cpl
  2. Click on the Internet Time tab
  3. Check the box labeled Automatically synchronize with an Internet time server
  4. Select the time server of your choice and click Update Now

If you are having trouble synchronizing your system clock, you can use the following steps to repair the Win32 time service and hopefully this will help resolve the issue:

  1. Click on the Start menu, choose Run and type cmd
  2. Type net stop w32time and wait for the service to stop
  3. Type w32tm.exe /unregister
  4. Type w32tm.exe /register
  5. Type net start w32time and wait for the service to start
  6. Try again to synchronize your system clock

There are also a couple of useful links with additional instructions and troubleshooting steps for system clock synchronization issues if the above steps do not help:

For other suggestions regarding Media Center guide download errors, please refer to the links in the Guide download errors section of the Media Center Update Rollup 2 troubleshooting guide.

<update date="4/11/2006"> Added links to additional resources for system clock synchronization issues </update>

 

Published Friday, April 07, 2006 6:20 PM by astebner

Comments

Tuesday, April 11, 2006 3:52 AM by Jason Tsang [MVP]

# re: How to synchronize your system clock to attempt to resolve Media Center guide download errors

It'd also be important to note that the UTC offset needs to be correct, for the EPG data to be correct relative to the time.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006 8:12 AM by Eric Baines

# re: How to synchronize your system clock to attempt to resolve Media Center guide download errors

Very useful comment, but by default the clock is only synched once a week. For home PCs, some of which aren't connected to the Internet when it tries to synch, this is really not enough. After all, this clock determines when recordings start and stop. I wondered if you were going to add how change the synch frequency from weekly to at least daily?

Cheers

Eric
Tuesday, April 11, 2006 11:36 AM by Eli Allen

# re: How to synchronize your system clock to attempt to resolve Media Center guide download errors

Saturday, April 29, 2006 8:12 PM by Jason Tsang [MVP]

# re: How to synchronize your system clock to attempt to resolve Media Center guide download errors

You can use this program to alter the interval in which time syncs occur.


http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_inet_time.htm

# Aaron Stebner's WebLog : Update Rollup 2 for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 troubleshooting guide

# Aaron Stebner's WebLog : Update Rollup 2 for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 troubleshooting guide

Saturday, November 04, 2006 9:07 PM by Aaron Stebner's WebLog

# Update Rollup 2 for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 troubleshooting guide

This article serves as a central location for all links to troubleshooting documentation that has been

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