"Media Center has stopped working"

[Greg Kittridge]

I have a brand new computer, Dell XPS 410, which came with Vista Ultimate
32-bit preinstalled. For the first couple days, Media Center worked fine and
as intended. It should be noted that I am not using Media Center with any
TV-tuner cards, i am just trying play music and, hopefully, set it up with my
xbox-360.

The problem started about a week after receiving my computer. When I start
up Media Center, after about 20 seconds, whether I try to do anything within
the application or just let it sit, it shuts down and I receive an error
message that Media Center has stopped working. After searching for a solution
online, which it doesn't find, it forces me to close it.

I have searched all over the internet for a solution and cannot find
anything. Has anyone been experiencing this problem and/or have you found a
solution? Hopefully I do not have to reinstall Windows as I have put a lot of
hours into installing various software applications. Is there a way to
uninstall Media Center and reinstall it and/or repair Media Center? Any help
with this problem would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance for your time.

[Geoffrey McGrath]

same problem.

no solution yet. I'll let you know if I come up with something.

EggHeadCafe.com - .NET Developer Portal of Choice
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[Doubled]

Same issue as well with new Dell Dimension 9200 and Vista Home Premium. Have
been looking for a solution for two weeks. Help.

[davideos]

I've got the same problem too. It worked for a while and it just stopped
working. However, I get nothing. It goes right to the "Windows Has Stopped
Working" screen. Everything else seems to work ok. Good thing when I
installed Vista I installed on a different partition and use XP when Vista
won't work for what I want to do. Media Center works fine when I boot XP, so
it isn't the hardware.

[Spinstorm]

I have a very similar problem. although I am not using an XBOX 360 or any
functions on Media Center as I can't even get that far!

Media Center on my copy of Vista Ultimate has gone through phases - at first
it would load but then I would immediately get the stopped working message
and it would shut down, and then it would get to the setup screen and THEN
shutdown and now I can't get anything to load at all - if I click on Media
Center it just comes up with the Stop Responding message and thats it!

And to make it even wierder if I add another user account and log into that
Media Center is fine on the second account!?

Someone please sort it out!

[Darren Johnson]

I've been having this same problem. I just installed a TV Tuner card and set
up my TV in Media Center and now whenever I try and open it it just says
"...has stopped working" and nothing else. I can't find how to re-install,
troubleshoot, etc. anywhere! I've tried disabling everythin else that may be
conflicting, but nothing is working.

[Dworakd]

Same problem on a brand new, fully loaded HP!

[carlos3030]

the same here Im running dell xps m1710 it fustrating.

[Kit]

I got the same problem, only used the Vista Media Center twice then I got the
same message. Tried reverting back to a restore point where it was working
but still the same. Does anyone know if its possible to reinstall the Vista
Media Player ? Thanks.

[Sachin Jain]

Try contacting DELL. I contact them for similar problem with media Center,
and they advised me to update BIOS which is available on DELL's website.

Updating BIOS resolved my problem so you may try the same.

[John Tupper]

EXACT same issue with a newly built PC I put together, clean install of Vista
Home Premium on a clean HD, all drivers and BIOS up to date, no errors
reported by Windows or the BIOS otherwise. I got the error the first time I
brought up Media Center and it hasn't worked at all. It takes maybe 15-20
seconds left to itself or if I click on anything that appears to speed up the
problem. It says it stopped working, quits, and you're done. I'm trying to
hook up my 360 with it, and this is a real pain for me. When does MS
actually step up to the plate a answer this problem??

[Mez]

I am having problems too after upgrading to Vista Home premium it opened up a
couple of times, now just a blue screen with errors and shuts everything down

[lauerium]

I had this problem until 10 minutes ago when I called my computer manufacturer, ABS computers. I am running vista home premium. After I had spent months looking online for a solution they quickly figured it out and this is what solved the problem for me:

1. Go to my computer
2. Click on your Drive (C)
3. On the top of the window it will say computer>Vista (C) or similar.
4. Click in that window and paste C:\ProgramData\Microsoft
5. Open the eHome folder
6. Select all files
7. Right click and delete them all (apparently they are temp personal settings and not critical)
8. The corrupted files will be sent to the trash and media center has not quit on me yet. (knock on wood)

Hopefully this works for you and thanks to abs computers (abs.com) for their great tech support.

[pain in brain]

Hi there.... well i did what you said and i will now cross my fingers... and
hope for the best... i wonder sometimes... why do they make a computer system
with soooooo many screw ups... i would pay more money and not have the
issues..but than again i already paid way too much.. thanks ahead of time...

"lauerium" wrote:

>
> I had this problem until 10 minutes ago when I called my computer
> manufacturer, ABS computers. I am running vista home premium. After I
> had spent months looking online for a solution they quickly figured it
> out and this is what solved the problem for me:
>
> 1. Go to my computer
> 2. Click on your Drive (C)
> 3. On the top of the window it will say computer>Vista (C) or
> similar.
> 4. Click in that window and paste C:\ProgramData\Microsoft
> 5. Open the eHome folder
> 6. Select all files
> 7. Right click and delete them all (apparently they are temp personal
> settings and not critical)
> 8. The corrupted files will be sent to the trash and media center has
> not quit on me yet. (knock on wood)
>
> Hopefully this works for you and thanks to abs computers (abs.com) for
> their great tech support.
>
>
> --
> lauerium
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> lauerium's Profile: http://forums.techarena.in/member.php?userid=32227
> View this thread: http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=687157
>
> http://forums.techarena.in
>
>

[starexplorer]

I have Vista ultimate and a couple of weeks ago I started to get the message and my TV tuner would not work. I also started having problems running other programs. I found that it was being shut down by DEP (Data Execution Prevention) which is a feature of Vista. If you go to control panel - system - advanced settings (on the left of the screen). Then under performance click "settings". The third tab will be Data Execution Prevention. I found a way to turn off this feature. Once I did everything is now working fine.

To turn off this feature go to Accessories and left click on the command prompt. Choose run as administrator. You will get a black DOS screen. Type in the following command exactly as below and press enter.

bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOff

You should get a line that says that it ran successfully.
Close the window and then reboot your computer. Then go back to the DEP window. It should all be greyed out.