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Troubleshooting steps I use for Media Center component registration failure errors

MSDN Blogs > Aaron Stebner's WebLog > Troubleshooting steps I use for Media Center component registration failure errors

Troubleshooting steps I use for Media Center component registration failure errors

17 Feb 2006 9:15 PM
  • Comments 51

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
    • Clochard69
      18 Feb 2006 9:23 AM
      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 :(
    • 18 Feb 2006 11:01 AM
      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"
    • Stewart Tansley
      18 Feb 2006 8:43 PM
      Thanks for your efforts Aaron, but I am still seeing a beep and then "Component Registration Failure" on switching to Live TV on MC startup. MC is also reporting that I have no saved recordings (! -- I have a lot).

      If I hit My TV rather than Live TV at MC startup, I get Component Registration Failure and then immmediately also the Critical Process Failure message, then another Component Registration Failure msg. I've not seen the Tuner error that you mention. Going to the Guide also gives Critical Process Failure. Despite these messages, I am able to see Live TV, but I can't get to my recordings from within MC.

      I'm seeing this problem since I installed "Update Rollup for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (KB912067)" today, 2/18. I have had previous similar problems with such Update Rollups and now fear every time one comes out. :-/

      Please let me know if you want to see my logs.
    • 18 Feb 2006 11:00 PM
      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?
    • Clochard69
      19 Feb 2006 6:06 AM
      hey aaron tnx for your time allready,
      ehrecvr.exe /unregServer and ehrecvr.exe /service does stop the crash but the ehrecvr.exe service stops a few seconds later and I can't get it working again.
      Not even after I install KB912067 (jan. update)
      So I tried a system restore right after the installation of rollup 2 (KB900325) then I installed all the high priority updates 1 by 1 and rebooting after each install, just to make sure (updates KB911565, KB887998, KB904706, KB910393) and for now everything seems to be working (*fingers crossed*)
      Optional updates remaining uninstalled:
      KB912067, KB829019, KB909520, KB909993, KB900930, KB896344, KB887797
      Now the strange part is that when I turn on automatic updating, KB908250 starts asking to be installed...
      What would you suggest, installing KB908250 or
      leaving everything like I've done so far or installing some of the remaining updates (if so in which order excactly pls)
      thank you
    • 19 Feb 2006 12:35 PM
      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.
    • 20 Feb 2006 1:36 AM
      Aaron, I am still having my problem with AIM conflicting with WMC 2005 I get the tv tuner is not avalible mesg. I seen my log and ctrl-f'ed my errors and here is what i got:
      "SetupInstallServicesFromInfSection [freestyle] successful. (Error status: 0x00000000)."  and

      "Error: couldn't stop the ehRecvr service: 0x00000426."

      I tried all of your steps and still cant get this to work. PLEASE HELP ME

      MY SN on AIM is : MSGHOCKEY
      My email: msghockey@gmail.com

      If somebody could contact me personally I would be very grateful

      -Lawrence
    • Clochard69
      20 Feb 2006 9:26 PM
      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!
    • 21 Feb 2006 8:26 PM
      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.
    • Fendando
      24 Feb 2006 10:07 PM
      This helped me.  You should really make a batch file of this.
    • Peter
      26 Feb 2006 11:22 PM
      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
    • 28 Feb 2006 7:35 PM
      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...
    • Peter
      6 Mar 2006 11:30 PM
      Thanks!  Here's three warning messages:

      1)
      SOFTWARE\Microsoft\StrongName\Verification\ehRecObj,31bf3856ad364e35
      Executing line "C:\WINNT\ehome\snchk.exe C:\WINNT\ehome\ehRecObj.dll"
      Assembly ehRecObj.dll is delay-signed
      Warning: Failed to delete regkey

      2)
      Executing line "C:\WINNT\ehome\snchk.exe C:\WINNT\ehome\ehshell.exe"
      Ver 'C:\WINNT\ehome\ehshell.exe' == 5.1.2600.1217
      Process Return Value: 0x00000000  -->  The operation completed successfully.
      .
      Assembly ehshell.exe is not delay-signed
      Warning: Failed to delete regKey SOFTWARE\Microsoft\StrongName\Verification\ehcommon,31bf3856ad364e35

      3)
      Registering services and COM objects...
      -------------------------------
      Executing line "C:\WINNT\ehome\ehSched.exe /unregServer"
      Warning: Process Return Value is 0x800736b7 --> The requested lookup key was not found in any active activation context.

      Error: Failed to call ehSched.exe with parameter(return value: 0x800736b7).

      There are more, but they're mostly the same.  I can send you the whole file if you want.  Thanks for checking them out.

      -Peter
    • 7 Mar 2006 5:59 PM
      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.
    • 20 Mar 2006 3:54 PM
      Mr. stebner can you please help me? I had a very good working and configured MCE system untill I decided to upgrade my tuner card. When I encountered problems with the upgrade my recearch led me to your site. Here I found out that the problem was with .net framework 2.0. However I am unable to remove it from my system. To get my system back in working order I need to re-install MCE, but I always get an error message close to the end of the install ater CD2 has been inserted: ".net framework initialization error. MCE components cannot be registered." If I choose OK the error seem to go away but returns when CD1 is re-inserted. Click OK again and the install neem to go fine but at the end you find that the install is no good. If I do a complete clean install this problem does not show. However I a tryinh to preserve my configuration from previous. What can I do?
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