Windows Media Center Store Update Manager Constantly Crashing

How to fix crashing of Windows Media Center Store Update Manager. IT is not working fine at all. I am using Windows Vista Ultimate. When I launch the Store Update Manager it works fine for start few minutes but then crash suddenly. It freezes my entire computer making it much slower to respond well. I am not able to find any kind of information on th same. I had sent a email to Microsoft customer support to get a fix on that, but still nothing worked out. Does anyone got fix for this. My pc performance is affected to great extent here.

Are you getting any kind of error. The error is mentioned on the screen. Can you note down that and tell me. Because that will be more helpful for you to fix the issue. The error reporting feature of Windows allow you to collect active updates related to that problem. So that would be a bit easier way to get fix, but for that you need a patience. The same issue appear to me on my laptop. The error report stated that mcupdate.EXE had crashed and the faulty module behind that was KERNEL32.dll. For instance if you had installed Google Toolbar on your system remove it. You can get that back again. There is some associated dll file that cause the issue.

The same application mcupdate.EXE is mentioned in my error report also. So it looks that the problem related to this is common in every system. I had contacted the person who sold me the laptop. He said he can do nothing. I had disable Google Toolbar but that did not helped. And the condition is same after system restore. I had tried to find solution on the same on microsoft forums. The issue is related to installation of Windows. Many of us has upgraded our system from XP. So there is a windows.old folder inside the windows directory which is the cause of issue. It is always recommended to perform a clean installation always by wiping out all old files. This issue lies in Windows XP MCE. And the same then carried to Vista after upgrade. After having a word with Microsoft Tech Guy I had performed a clean software installation and it worked. Another thing that you have to check properly is your drivers. Like the lan driver. This should be updated. If you have any other devices like TV tuner card update their drivers also.

My system is Vista. It was not having Windows XP on that. Then also I am getting the same issue. The seller told me to format my computer and re-install Vista back again. I had noticed one difference. The issue does not appear before Windows Update. In morning when I turned on my computer I found that Windows has downloaded some updates. It were installed and then issue started appearing. I am going to format my computer completely and then re-install Vista back again. Hope it will be fixed.

I also was having this problem, and this is what fixed it for me..........Hope this helps

Go to: Start/Programs/Windows Media Center
After opening the media center, scroll down to Tasks. Open the Settings. Click on General then Automatic Download Options. From there uncheck the option "Retrieve cd album art, media information for dvd's and movies, and internet services from the internet." Next select manual download from the list below, and save & close. Or set up your internet connection to work with Windows Media Center.

Test it to make sure by simply going back and rechecking the auto retrieve option. After saving and closing, within seconds you should get that annoying error message.......

FYI:
My Problem Reports and Solutions Center information, matched the post from Miriwich on 29-04-2007

If you're encountering this, can you zip up

- the *.crash files in %programdata%\microsoft\ehome directory
- the *.log files in %programdata%\microsoft\ehome\log directory
- the %programdata%\microsoft\ehome\mediacenterdatastore.db file
- the registry keys for for the EPG section.For the last one, you can run the command

regedit /e c:\epg.reg
\"hkey_local_machine\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\media
center\service\epg\"

to dump the keys into the C:\epg.reg file

Can you zip this up and send it as a private message to me please?
(You can do this by clicking on my name at the left)

Can you look in your %programdata%\microsoft\ehome\ directory for
*.crash files and *.log files

Even I have the same kind of system. It is not a upgrade. I am having Vista by default installed at the time of purchase. I really want to know why this issue normally appears. I had looked for the solution a number of time, but nothing really worked out. There are ample of threads based on the Microsoft forums, but no one has a intact solution. The last thread that I saw was some informative. It showed up a issue with EPG database corruption. And to fix that you have to delete the file. There is a database file called as mediacenterdatastore.db stored in C:\program files\microsoft\ehome. If you cannot locate that then just search in Windows drive. I deleted that it was working. But that was only for few days. Again the problem appeared. This time the application reported was ehRec.exe.

Can't be positive at this point but so far I seemed to solved this problem for myself.

I went to Task Scheduler and disabled the auto update feature. I don't use the Media Center(yet) so didn't think I needed to have it always trying to update.

Let me know if it works for anyone here.

Hope this helps!

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935685

Here are the most current details.
Description
Stopped working

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: CLR20r3
Problem Signature 01: ehshell.exe
Problem Signature 02: 6.0.6000.16386
Problem Signature 03: 4549b55e
Problem Signature 04: mcstoredb
Problem Signature 05: 6.0.6000.0
Problem Signature 06: 4549bcf9
Problem Signature 07: 114
Problem Signature 08: 222
Problem Signature 09: System.InvalidOperationException
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.768.3
Locale ID: 4105

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: 11717426

I'm running Vista Pro and it's a new install. Would love to find the answer, esp since the reinstall didn't work.

Vista Pro is the Professional version that they are considering forcing on us at work. HOWEVER, with the problems I have had and the more I hear about it, I may be able to stall it until I retire

In hopes that this may be helpful to others with the same issue that I now have with Windows Vista Ultimate.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935685

no cd's to reinstall windows. i guess i could look online 4 new windows media center store update manager.

I went to windows automatic updates and updated anything I could find concerning windows media center. I was able to find one that was in the optional list and it did the trick for me. Hope this helps.

This worked for me to so far anyway...more detail of what I did....

Completely Disable Windows Media Center Store Update Manager (i.e., mcupdate).
Solution Details:
To disable the updates do the following:

Click Start
Select Control Panel
Click System Maintenance, then Administrative Tools
In the right-pane, double-click Task Scheduler
In the new window's left-pane, navigate to Microsoft > Windows > Media Center (see screenshot below)
In the center-pane, right-click on mcupdate and click Disable from the popup menu.


hope this helps

Hi, I was having a similar problem with Windows Media Center Program crashing on my Win7 install. I found this post because I had tried to run the mcupdate.exe (I thought that the update might fix my problem) and it crashed over and over.

The solution however seems to have fixed both programs from crashing and was very simple. There is no need to do a clean install of windows, no crazy registry editing or anything.

If your Windows Media Center Program crashes at start every time without opening:

Step 1. Close Windows Media Center and all related processes.

Step 2. Navigate to the "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft" folder. (careful in here!!)

Step 3. Rename the "ehome" folder to "(backup)ehome"

Step 4. Navigate to the "C:\Windows" folder. (careful in here!!)

Step 5. Rename the "ehome" folder to "(backup)ehome"

Step 6. Run Windows Media Center

I hope this helps the mcupdate.exe crashing as well!

Oh.. I also had tried the solution provided in another forum for disabling the Windows Media Center Feature from the Control Panel > Programs and Features > "Turn Windows Features On And Off" panel in the Media dropdown box. I then rebooted and re-enabled the program from the same menu and it re-installed but did NOT fix the problem, this is when I tried my own fix and renamed the folder forcing it to clear all files out. I am not sure if this is relevant but I think that renaming the folder is all you need to do, I don't think you need to disable and re-endable WMC but if renaming alone doesn't work I thought I'd mention that I had done that as well.

-Stig