Hello,

I'm having a "restricted content" problem with AMC and I have this update installed, however I think the problem started when I installed Real Rhapsody a few days ago (and it's DRM update to Media Player 11).

Could anyone (Microsoft?) try to install Rhapsody and see if you can watch AMC? I would like to watch the new season of Mad Men, yet now it is impossible.

(Vista 32 bit)

Never mind, I think I fixed it by changing from the Cyberlink decoder back to the Microsoft Video Decoder (that seems to work just fine now, must have been SP1 that fixed that?)

I have no idea why that would cause a restricted content problem, but we'll see...

TimSchreck-MS:

Thanks for the responses back, but need your help to help me narrow this down.  If reports were sent, then maybe an easier place to look to get the info that would be helpful for me is under Control Panel, System and Maintenance, Problem Reports and Solutions, View Problem History.

I don't want to get you doing a wild goose chase on a mostly unrelated problem.  Our Media Center crashes definitely appeared to worsen with 950126 installed, but it has been crashing on and off for something like 10 months and it is still crashing every now and then, now that 950126 has been uninstalled.

On the other hand I would very much appreachiate you taking another look at these crashes.  I haven't got around to reinstalling the entire OS and if Media Center could be fixed, our primary HTPC would be working 100% flawlessly (and set up just the way I want it to be - PowerDVD Ultra, My Movies, DVRMSToolbox, etc).

Here are some crash reports from while 950126 was installed:

Product
Media Center

Problem
Stopped working

Date
20/07/2008 9:43 PM

Status
Report Sent

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: ehshell.exe
Application Version: 6.0.6000.16386
Application Timestamp: 4549b55e
Fault Module Name: StackHash_2b34
Fault Module Version: 6.0.6001.18000
Fault Module Timestamp: 4791a7a6
Exception Code: c0000374
Exception Offset: 000b015d
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 4105
Additional Information 1: 2b34
Additional Information 2: d526755e93fac9596b0882bb79554109
Additional Information 3: 49ea
Additional Information 4: 1342219556cb2ff7bbfc83319e8fa443

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: 666419955

 

Product
Media Center

Problem
APPCRASH

Date
20/07/2008 11:33 PM

Status
Report Sent

Description
Stopped working

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: ehshell.exe
Application Version: 6.0.6000.16386
Application Timestamp: 4549b55e
Fault Module Name: sbe.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.6.6001.18000
Fault Module Timestamp: 4791a74f
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 0001f1e0
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 4105

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: 822848341

 

Product
Media Center

Problem
Stopped working

Date
22/07/2008 10:47 AM

Status
Report Sent

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: EHShell.exe
Application Version: 6.0.6000.16386
Application Timestamp: 4549b55e
Fault Module Name: StackHash_25d6
Fault Module Version: 6.0.6001.18000
Fault Module Timestamp: 4791a7a6
Exception Code: c0000374
Exception Offset: 000b015d
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 4105
Additional Information 1: 25d6
Additional Information 2: b106e99e9204bc0bca4959c2f7423788
Additional Information 3: ad10
Additional Information 4: 05529a2065683d74c18500151959b2b7

Files that help describe the problem (some files may no longer be available)
Version.txt
AppCompat.txt
minidump.mdmp

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: 678593400

Product
Media Center

Problem
APPCRASH

Date
23/07/2008 7:52 AM

Status
Report Sent

Description
Stopped working

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: EHShell.exe
Application Version: 6.0.6000.16386
Application Timestamp: 4549b55e
Fault Module Name: ntdll.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.0.6001.18000
Fault Module Timestamp: 4791a7a6
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 000659c3
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 4105

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: 644260994

After uninstalling 950126 last week it has crashed twice; here is one entry:

Product
Media Center

Problem
APPCRASH

Date
27/07/2008 3:31 PM

Status
Report Sent

Description
Stopped working

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: ehshell.exe
Application Version: 6.0.6000.16386
Application Timestamp: 4549b55e
Fault Module Name: unknown
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 00000000
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 13207fe0
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 4105

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: 861339344

---

STB w/R5000HD USB I/O, Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4, Quad Q6600, 4.0 GB RAM, ATI HD 3870 512MB, Ultra XVS 600W PSU, 3x SATA 500GB, 2x SATA 300GB, LG GGC-H20L, PVR-250, Toshiba 51H83 (51" HDTV), Yamaha RX-V2400 Amp, 5x Energy Speakers, SVS Sub, Harmony 880 Remote

I have similar issues.  I have 6 media centers in house and car.  All of them *sometimes* like 60% of the time go to black screen when hitting the stop button.  Hittine the prev button then brings up the stop screen I'm looking for.  The machine doesn't actually lock up, it just black screens until you hit prev, or the green button.  Will uninstalling the update mentioned in the thread fix this?

"2. Leave auto-update enabled.  WU will install KB950126. You can then just uninstall it and mark it on WU as hidden.  After the uninstall, I would install KB947172."

I uninstalled KB950126 and tried to install KB947172 and it told me that it couldnt install it, "The update does not apply to your system"

-dickm

KB947172 will not install if Windows Vista SP1 is installed.  All of the fixes included in KB947172 are included in Windows Vista SP1.

---

Tim Schreck
Media Center SE

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

gotchya. Thanks

-dickm

Ok, I did record Mad Men last night, and it will play correctly, but I can't watch it on any other Computer because now it's restricted Content? I thought that DRM was supposed to only be with OCUR devices, this is a Hauppage Tv Tuner.

What's the deal with that?

Tim,

I think I'm having similar problems as HT Slider. MCE was working fine, and after KB950126 update, it started crashing. The recommended solution was to install service pack 1, so I did that, but no change. I tried uninstalling KB950126 and crashes were a bit less frequent, and I managed to record a few shows again.However, it still crashes too frequently. For example, if I go to recorded shows and then choose scheduled recordings (mine is in Swedish, so I don't know the exact transalation) and scroll down, it will always crash. I tried uninstalling SP1 as well, but no dice.

The problem reports always look something like below (sorry for the Swedish, but I think you can figure it out... :):

Any help would be immensly appreciated, especially since my wife is on maternity leave and is getting more and more upset with this problem... : |

Beskrivning
Stopped working

Problemsignatur
Händelsenamn:    CLR20r3
Problemsignatur 01:    ehrec.exe
Problemsignatur 02:    6.0.6001.18000
Problemsignatur 03:    4791937d
Problemsignatur 04:    ehepg
Problemsignatur 05:    6.0.6000.0
Problemsignatur 06:    4791a67a
Problemsignatur 07:    3a6
Problemsignatur 08:    0
Problemsignatur 09:    .NullReferenceException.368B278E
OS-version:    6.0.6000.2.0.0.768.3
Språkvariant-ID:    1053

Extra information om problemet
Bucket-ID:    229815441

Cheers,
Viktor

Hi HT Slider -

Thanks for the info.  In my role as Servicing Engineering PM, I look for trends that affect a large number of Media Center customers and work with available information - crash reports, newsgroups trends, call data, etc. - to prioritize investigations and any resulting fixes. 

A quick review of these buckets indicate that these issues are not trends - all register as less than 0.0% of reports.  All of these issues are reported on Vista SP1 and all have reports going back before 30 days which indicates that these issues were not introduced with KB950126.

While I know that this is not helpful for those experiencing these particular crashes, it does indicate that these are fairly localized issues which often are related to driver issues, firmware or BIOS issues, faulty hardware or some type of timing issue.

I had hoped to provide something a bit more concrete, even if it took several days to work these issues into our priority list.  But, based on the number of incidences, it would be some time before I could rank these above current investigations. 

My gut feel is that this is going to be a timing issue exposed by Vista SP1 (based on crash report data that show all incedences were on SP1).  Uninstalling SP1 may help.  I've also seen timing issues affected by changing PCI slot order.  That's not to say there's not an underlying bug, but that it is exposed due to system timing and is not otherwise broadly hit.

 

---

Tim Schreck
Media Center SE

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

All of my media centers affected by this are on SP1

Tim,

I think the difference between Slider's problems and mine are that my MCE was working perfectly before the KB950126 update.

It is a real pain, having paid more than $3000 for my media center and not being able to watch TV on it.

I would be more than happy to provide any additional information that you might need to investigate these issues.

Cheers,
Viktor

Not all crashes are the same.  The info I posted was specifically for the crash buckets HT Slider provided - those were all very low incidence buckets with histories going back to before KB950126 was released.

Viktornordling - your crash bucket - 229815441 - is a bit more interesting from a trend perspective.  The hits on this are higher and started showing up after 07/01, has both RTM and SP1 hits.  What's particularly interesting is that all hits are on Swedish versions of OS.  Overall, I would rank this as a potential trend to keep an eye on.  I'm going to ask dev to take a quick look at the info, especially since this could be related to KB950126.

BTW - when you run through Media Center first run, it asks if you want to join the Customer Improvement program.  It's this program that sends the crash reports to Microsoft and part of what we use to identify issues.  If you haven't joined that program I would encourage it.

 

 

---

Tim Schreck
Media Center SE

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Ok,

That's interesting to know. Is there an easy way to switch to English OS / MCE? A lot of people in Sweden actually prefer English to Swedish for software because the transaltions just sound a bit silly.. : )

Anyway, do you have any idea why uninstalling SP1 and KB950126 does not resolve my issue?

Cheers,
Viktor

TimSchreck-MS:

Hi HT Slider -

Thanks for the info.  In my role as Servicing Engineering PM, I look for trends that affect a large number of Media Center customers and work with available information - crash reports, newsgroups trends, call data, etc. - to prioritize investigations and any resulting fixes. 

A quick review of these buckets indicate that these issues are not trends - all register as less than 0.0% of reports.  All of these issues are reported on Vista SP1 and all have reports going back before 30 days which indicates that these issues were not introduced with KB950126.

While I know that this is not helpful for those experiencing these particular crashes, it does indicate that these are fairly localized issues which often are related to driver issues, firmware or BIOS issues, faulty hardware or some type of timing issue.

I had hoped to provide something a bit more concrete, even if it took several days to work these issues into our priority list.  But, based on the number of incidences, it would be some time before I could rank these above current investigations. 

My gut feel is that this is going to be a timing issue exposed by Vista SP1 (based on crash report data that show all incedences were on SP1).  Uninstalling SP1 may help.  I've also seen timing issues affected by changing PCI slot order.  That's not to say there's not an underlying bug, but that it is exposed due to system timing and is not otherwise broadly hit.

Thanks for looking into the issue.  I did expect you would find this was a low incidence issue.

A few things to consider though:

1. It is only Media Center that ever crashes.  Absolutely all other software, as well as the core OS is rock solid (or I know the reason it crashes - such as a non-supported file format and a PowerDVD codec crash, etc.).
2. While 950126 was installed Media Center would crash on the second attempt to play HD content every single time (or extremely close to this).  Without it installed, Media Center crashes roughly once a day of heavy use (~5+ hours of use or roughly after playing 3 HD recordings).  I'm not sure what this really suggests, other than whatever is screwed up is potentially exacerbated by the 950126 update.
3. A fresh install of Vista produces a rock solid stable Media Center that can play all recorded TV without crashing ever.  I may be wrong, but my interpretation is this points away from hardware.
4. I'm using exactly the same drivers, firmware, hardware, BIOS, etc. on the fresh install.  My interpretation is this points away from drivers, firmware, BIOS, etc.
5. I did already try a complete fresh install ~10 months ago and eventually it started to crash the same way (once I got everything configured and all of the extra software/plug-ins installed).  Unfortunately I don't know at what point the crashes started.  To me this points to some sort of a software conflict, Windows Update glitch, or bug in Media Center that only appears with certain other software installed or a certain setup.
6. I've tried backing up the OS drive and then uninstalling literally everything I could (absolutely all software and all addins; just leaving the drivers installed) and it still crashes (so I restored the entire OS drive again).  To me this suggests whatever gets screwed up, doesn't get repaired by uninstalling the software.
7. Last month I performed the fresh install mentioned in #1 and even with most of the extra software installed, it is still stable (but I do have a few extra things to install, including FireSTB).  I'm hoping that performing a fresh install and then installing SP1 prior to installing the various addins might lead to a stable Media Center.

My plan is to perform yet another fresh install and this time test Media Center's ability to play Recorded TV after each and every Addin, PowerDVD Ultra and any custom setting tweak.  If I can find the source of the problem, one way or another I figure I can probably find a solution.

---

STB w/R5000HD USB I/O, Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4, Quad Q6600, 4.0 GB RAM, ATI HD 3870 512MB, Ultra XVS 600W PSU, 3x SATA 500GB, 2x SATA 300GB, LG GGC-H20L, PVR-250, Toshiba 51H83 (51" HDTV), Yamaha RX-V2400 Amp, 5x Energy Speakers, SVS Sub, Harmony 880 Remote