I have been getting several comments in blog posts and emails from customers who have been running into error code 13 while trying to download television guide data in Media Center.  Unfortunately, there appear to be a lot of cases of this error and we have not been able to identify fixes or workarounds for all of them.  I wanted to create one single post where I list all of the suggested workarounds we currently have.

What is error code 13?

First, a brief description of error code 13.  According to the list of possible guide download error codes I previously posted, this error means "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."

What can I try to do if I receive error code 13 during Media Center guide download?

Based on the cases we have seen so far, this error is generally a proxy server configuration issue that is preventing Media Center or the computer from communicating on the internet.  The following suggestions may help resolve this issue:

1. Media Center guide download will only work if your computer's system clock is correctly synchronized to the current internet time.  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 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. Sometimes, there are XML parsing problems caused by previously downloaded guide data.  You can attempt to workaround this type of problem 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. Media Center guide download functionality is located in the binary file %windir%\ehome\ehSched.exe.  If you have firewall hardware or software on your system, you need to make sure that this executable has outgoing internet privileges.
4. Media Center guide download uses SSL and the HTTPS protocol.  This protocol requires the ability to access the internet on port 443.  In addition, the guide download communicates in some instances via the standard HTTP port - 80.  You may need to configure your firewall to allow internet communication on ports 80 and 443 if you have them locked down otherwise.
5. 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
6. 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
7. 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
8. Uninstall McAfee Privacy Service if you have it installed
9. If you are using a SonicWALL hardware firewall, you may have to manually configure it to allow HTTP byte range requests.  See this blog post for instructions to do this.
10. If you are using a download manager application that overrides default system download functionality (such as BitComet or FlashGet), they may interfere with Media Center guide data download functionality.  In some cases, it helps to close or disable this type of software, then launch Media Center and try to download guide data again

What if none of the above work?

Unfortunately, this list of suggestions is all that I currently know of to try to troubleshoot this type of failure.  If you have tried all of the above and are still not able to download guide data, then I suggest posting a question at one of the following locations and hopefully someone there can help suggest some additional ideas:

• Microsoft.Public.Windows.MediaCenter public newsgroup
• Green Button Ask a Media Center Team Member forum

<update date="1/7/2008"> Added information about download manager software and added links to the public newsgroup and forums </update>