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PlayReady Update failure

Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 1:02 am
by mghess
I keep getting a pop-up screen that says my PlayReady needs to be updated but every attempt to do this says that my update was incomplete. Retrying ends with the same error message and another prompt to try again or quit. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling using the msi downloaded from Microsoft and even tried uninstalling and updating from Tasks - Settings - TV - TV Signal - Update PlayReady. Naturally, I rebooted after each step and then rebooted a couple more times, just for good measure. Netflix still plays fine but everytime I try to watch the live TV feed I get the pop-up warning within a couple of minutes. This is Windows 7 Enterprise with SP1 and all the latest patches. Resetdrm.exe didn't help and I don't seem to have an ".hds" file to delete so any other ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks

Re: PlayReady Update failure

Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 3:33 am
by Scallica
Did you make any changes to the system (such as adding new hardware or updating the video driver) that would trigger this message?

Try logging into Windows as a different user and see if the update is successful.

Re: PlayReady Update failure

Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2011 6:46 pm
by erich
This error occurs for almost any hardware change. I got the error for just adding RAM. The only change I haven't had trouble with is adding a hard drive. The problem is that Window's DRM scheme (PlayReady) sees any change in hardware as a sign of foul play. The only fix (that I know of anyway) is to reset Window's DRM information, which will unfortunately make any protect recordings unplayable.

As for resetting the DRM, Microsoft released this tool which allegedly fixes the problem:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976590. I, however, have not tested it. If you have SP1 installed, take special note of instruction 2(b).

Re: PlayReady Update failure

Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 11:44 am
by lunapark
I think I soon tried everything possible to get rid of this message, but I can't solve this problem.

I tried updateing with a differnt Windows7 account, I tried deletring DRM folder, I tried uninstalling PlayReady....

But everytime the PlayReady update fails when I try to setup a tv-signal in my Mediacenter.

Unfortunately I can't use erich's help below coz I get a message that this DRM-reset only can run on Vista and XP.

So im desperate, heeeeelp :-)

Re: PlayReady Update failure

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 2:47 am
by newfiend
You could try this and see if it works for you, has worked for some others. Pulled this info form WEC for you..

DISCLAIMER: This fix involves deleting files from system areas that could affect other parts of the system. My Win7 MC machine is dedicated to just that, so I don't know if this had any detrimental effects I haven't noticed, but it fixed the PlayReady problem for me when nothing else would. If this fix breaks your media, kicks your dog, or anything else, sorry... This will most likely make any protected recorded shows you have unplayable, since it's regenerating the keys, but if PlayReady's busted, they're probably already hosed. You may also have to reassociate extenders and redo the Media Center setup.

- Make sure you have the final Windows product key you're going to use in place and activated.

- From Control Panel->Programs and Features, uninstall "PlayReady PC Runtime" if present (x86 or x64 as appropriate)

- Click "Turn Windows features on or off" on the taskpane of the Programs and Features window

- Uncheck "Media Features" and hit OK. This will uninstall Media Center and Media Player.

- Ensure that you're logged in with admin rights, and that under Control Panel->Folder Options->View, you have "Show Hidden Files, Folders and drives" selected and "Hide protected operating system files" unchecked.

- Go to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\ and delete the eHome and PlayReady folders

- Go to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\DRM and delete all files and folders underneath (don't delete the DRM directory itself)

- Run Regedit with admin privileges and go to HKLM\Software\Microsoft and delete the DRM key.

- Reboot

- Go back to Control Panel->Programs and Features->Turn Windows Features on or off, and re-select "Media Features" to reinstall WMC and WMP. This should also regenerate the DRM keys for your machine.


- Re-do your Media Center TV signal setup (CableCard, etc). The CableCard pairing stayed the same for me (eg, I didn't have to contact the cable co).


- Run the PlayReady install from inside Media Center. It should succeed.

Let us know how you get on..
newfiend~

Re: PlayReady Update failure

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 9:23 am
by lunapark
Ok Im trying...
But in regedit when enter
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> Software -> Microsoft -> DRM

Im not allowed to remove the DRM key :-(
I tried to delete all the files inside it, but one is left "(Standard).REG_SZ"

But Im rebooting... now..

Re: PlayReady Update failure

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 9:34 am
by lunapark
Nope it did'nt work...
But I dont know if its caused, that I not was succuessful by deleting the DRM in regedit...

Why does Microsoft include errors like theese in their software.. No wonder that Apple is geting more and more customers...

New ideas of what I can do??

RE: PlayReady Update failure

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 2:14 pm
by newfiend
If you were unable to delete the key in the registry it probably won't work. Are you logged in as administrator? If you are and still can't delete the key, try creating a new administrator user account and then log into that account and try the whole process again, this time hopefully deleting the key. W/O bring able to complete all the steps it most likely will not work. Worst case you may have to reinstall windows.

Sent from my SGH-i937 using Board Express

Re: RE: PlayReady Update failure

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 2:18 pm
by Ack
newfiend wrote:If you were unable to delete the key in the registry it probably won't work. Are you logged in as administrator? If you are and still can't delete the key, try creating a new administrator user account and then log into that account and try the whole process again, this time hopefully deleting the key. W/O bring able to complete all ye steps it most likely will not work. Worst case you may have to reinstall windows.

Sent from my SGH-i937 using Board Express
Thought I might be able to offer a suggestion on this regarding the registry. Not related to the registry editing, but we have some things our clients need to do to their computers to run our proprietary software. They can't accomplish these tasks logged in as the built-in administrator account (have no idea why). They have to create a new local machine user and give it admin rights then run the tasks with that account.

Just throwing that out there in case that's similar to what's going on here - please disregard if it doesn't apply.

RE: PlayReady Update failure

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 2:31 pm
by newfiend
When I had this problem I was able to fix it by following these instructions..i didn't have to make any special user account. I know sometimes windows can be picky. I would try rebooting the machine and then trying the procedure again.. If I couldn't do it, create a new admin user, reboot, login as the new admin and try the procedure again. See if that gets you anywhere.
newfiend

Sent from my SGH-i937 using Board Express

Re: PlayReady Update failure

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 2:41 pm
by lunapark
Unfortunately still no luck, its great to have you helping, and I hope you have other suggestions.

I tried creating a new account with admin-right, restrated several times, but Im still not able to delte the DRM in regedit.

The message is:
"DRM can not be deleted. There was an error while deleting the key" (translated from danish)


I should mention that I by a mistake deleted the DRM folder in
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\DRM
But I created a folder again can this be the problem to everything ?

Hope to hear from you again.

RE: PlayReady Update failure

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 2:47 pm
by newfiend
Two things you could try, turn off UAC, reboot try again, if it still won't delete, try booting into windows in safe mode and try deleting it that way??.. At this point I'm just throwing out guesses. Hope one of them works.

Sent from my SGH-i937 using Board Express

Re: PlayReady Update failure

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 5:24 pm
by blueiedgod
The only way I was able to fix PlayReady is by reformat and reinstalling Windows.

Re: PlayReady Update failure

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 11:38 pm
by newfiend
blueiedgod wrote:The only way I was able to fix PlayReady is by reformat and reinstalling Windows.
Found a couple more options for you to try..
Try the ResetDRM.exe tool found in the Resolution section of this Microsoft Support Article. http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... -US;976590
see if going through all the steps resets things so it works again.

After trying the above if that doesn't work try the stand alone playready download here for your specific OS.

for x86: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/d ... 1003a3b369

for x64: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/d ... 9897b923d1

newfiend

Re: PlayReady Update failure

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2012 4:18 pm
by cnewsgrp
mghess wrote:I keep getting a pop-up screen that says my PlayReady needs to be updated but every attempt to do this says that my update was incomplete. Retrying ends with the same error message and another prompt to try again or quit. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling using the msi downloaded from Microsoft and even tried uninstalling and updating from Tasks - Settings - TV - TV Signal - Update PlayReady. Naturally, I rebooted after each step and then rebooted a couple more times, just for good measure. Netflix still plays fine but everytime I try to watch the live TV feed I get the pop-up warning within a couple of minutes. This is Windows 7 Enterprise with SP1 and all the latest patches. Resetdrm.exe didn't help and I don't seem to have an ".hds" file to delete so any other ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks
There is an easy fix. Disable/Stop Windows Media Receiver service and then update. You can start the service immediately after. It appears that update is failing because the process tries to stop the service and fails.

Re: PlayReady Update failure

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 8:07 pm
by dnr
Stopping and restarting the service did not work. Same message. Downloading, uninstalling and installing from MS directly also apparently did not work. It seemed to install correctly, but then WMC gives me the same message.

Re: PlayReady Update failure

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 8:52 am
by rasheedb
this worked for me:

1) Quit Windows Media Center if running.

2) Open a cmd prompt - run as administrator.

3) Run the following commands one at a time:

Code: Select all

net stop ehrecvr
cd %programdata%\Microsoft\PlayReady
del *.hds
rmdir /s Cache
cd %programdata%\Microsoft\ehome
del *.hds
rmdir /s Cache
net start ehrecvr
4) Run Windows Media Center. Update PlayReady by going through Tasks, Settings, TV, TV Signal, Update PlayReady.

Re: PlayReady Update failure

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 12:23 am
by opsguy
I had the same issue, your CMD instructions solved it!

Thanks.

Re: PlayReady Update failure

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 2:28 pm
by jagrime2
Just used the above command lines to fix DRM issues which resulted from adding 2 new sticks of RAM!!!!!! What a lifesaver after multiple attempts to correct my PlayReady problem from other threads.

Only wish I knew that adding the RAM would cause me to lose the entire season of Boardwalk Empire -- argh! (luckily I can stream HBOgo on Xbox)

Re: PlayReady Update failure

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 6:54 pm
by MattM1121
I joined just to share about this topic.

I upgraded my computer with a new CPU, MB and RAM. After which the PlayReady problem started.

Man I tried everything. What fixed it was the "Windows Media Receiver Service". Stopping that resulted in fixing my issue. There was one problem people should be aware of. Even though you stop the service - and it's set to manual - it can start before you run the PlayReady in WMC again. Once I figured that out it worked out just fine.

Just another PlayReady FYI.

Thanks,

-Matt

Edit: Well, this didn't actually work. It let the PlayReady finish, but it didn't make the necessary changes. I ended up having to reinstall Windows. Meh...