How to improve Windows Media Center Performance

I have a Windows 7 system along with media center. I use it as a default option for my media files. I have attached a widescreen TV to the system so that I can view the same on higher screen. Now the issue is that it had stopped working suddenly. I rebooted the system and when I relaunched it was very laggy. There were certain Windows update in the background which were running. I need some option by which I can improve its performance. Will it be better if I re-install Windows back again. As it came with the operating system, I find no way to re-install it. Now the issue is that when I run some movies it takes quiet long time to show on the screen.

The second monitor simply turns to black. The cpu usage has increased to some extent. It is becoming slow day by day and I am not able to get the right way to make it work. Also when I press alt+tab to switch my existing window the desktop appears up very slowy. I am using a Core 2 Duo system along with 2GB ram. I have a 500GB drive in which almost 450GB is consumed by the video files. I need help to fix this as fast as I can. Thanks.

The issue looks with the media center itself. I will recommend you to re-install the media center backa gain. For that I think you will need to re-install Windows. Check in control panel if you can find any option related to that.

There might be some application in the background which is causing the issue. Before launching media center just check that how your pc works. Use Windows media player to run some video files. Go in task manager and see the cpu usage. If still it is high then I assume that your system has virus issue. Usually high system usage is cause due to virus in your system. It makes your system slower. In task manager also check which application is eating up high ram. Media center works cool on 2Gb ram. Another reason for the poor performance is slow hard drive or bad sector. The hard drive that you have in your system would be overloaded.

Try to wipe out some files and run disk defragmentation. One more easy troubleshooting thing you can do is update your video drivers. I do not know why this happens but some time due to outdated driver s your system performance degrades. You will need to get new one to fix out and media center is involved in playing video files. Why don't you first try to run fresh drivers updates and then check back.

It looks that Windows update has screwed up everything. You can run system restore to get your old settings backup. Just run system restore and choose a older date. I hope this will fix the problem.

Keep re-installation as the last point. For testing purpose reduce your screen resolution and check. If it works then it is driver issue. You can simply re-install Media center from control panel. There is no need to re-install entire windows. You just need to check in program and features and set media center on re-installation. There is a small application called as hijackthis. This application creates a log of each and every service running in your system. Run this and in the log file try to find which all application are not required. You can disable them from msconfig. This will reduce the stress on your system memory. Updates are fine sometime, but sometime updates can cause severe issue if not installed properly. I hope you are not using a pirated operating system. Because this are never stable. I am sure that there are processes in your system which may be infected and because of which you are getting so high cpu usage. System restore will not help you much here.

Switch to a lighter version of any open source media player. Like XMBC. This is the best I found and very light to use. There other also that you can try and the interface is more better than Windows Media Center.

Are you getting the issue only while using Windows Media Player or there are other stuff too. There can be errors in files also. Try to play some other video files. To check the integrity of your drive sectors you can run sfc /scannow command. This will help you to find bad sectors. Some video files can be affected in long time duration. You have to find that what application is causing the issue. Is it media center of something else. It is easy to find that in task manager. There are certain windows hotfix that can help you. You to look for the right update on Microsoft site. To check the integrity of video files you can install media player software like VLC. This application run almost every kind of video file. You just need to drag the file inside it. I will advice you to install some latest codecs pack in your system and then check back.

Just for testing purpose even I will recommend you to use XMBC. This is one of the coolest media center application I had found. It is an hardly 50mb application. It is quiet light to use compared to Windows Media center.

I think re-installing media center will fix the issue. But if that also does not work then is better to switch to other media center software instead of re-installing entire windows. You will loose your all preferences and other information in the same. I am using MediaPortal instead of Windows Media Center. It has similar features. The best part of using this media center is the among of plugins available for it. Also it is possible to customize the same as per your need. The software comes with all required codec which is the important aspect of every media center application. I will recommend you to test this once atleast.

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Originally Posted by Langward

Just for testing purpose even I will recommend you to use XMBC. This is one of the coolest media center application I had found. It is an hardly 50mb application. It is quiet light to use compared to Windows Media center.

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yeah... it is important..!:thumbup1: :thumbup1: :thumbup1: