VISTA WMC Stuck on Zap2it

Discuss Vista Media Center & XP Media Center Edition
mtreehugger

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#141

Post by mtreehugger » Tue Sep 08, 2015 2:12 pm

dkrom wrote:mtreehugger - If you have cell service and can share data, try borrowing/buying a wireless USB adapter, connect to your cell and attempt the download. If it downloads, you know it's Norton or you ISP, if not, then your computer has a problem. You could even bring the computer to a friend or family member and connect to their network to see if you can download.

A side note - here is an 11 page thread on complaints about Rovi guide data - http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... f=6&t=9026 and this is a 5 page thread on people attempting to get zap2it back http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 7&start=80 - and their solution even requires payment to Schedules Direct! I just point this out because you may just want to try the method I posted earlier from the XP thread (it's free). I personally haven't had too much of a problem with the data from Rovi, but I don't record many of the shows people are complaining about. We'll see what happens when the new TV season starts.
--dkrom,
thanks for the help! I took a second look at the link in your post at the top of this page, and there are several steps therein that I have no familiarity with. I think it likely that there would essentially be an information gap for me such that I would fail in the attempt. I'm wondering if I need to try a clean install of windows 7 to rectify this situation, but that can involve so many application and drive upgrades, purchases, etc...

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Vistaar

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#142

Post by Vistaar » Tue Sep 08, 2015 3:43 pm

mtreehugger wrote:I'm wondering if I need to try a clean install of windows 7 to rectify this situation
Centurylink subscriber dnsacks "performed a clean install of windows 8.1" (megathread page 78, post #1546), but continued getting "Download Failure" until the other post I pointed out. I will say that clean installs are generally more likely to succeed than in-place upgrades, but all of your programs are wiped.

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#143

Post by mtreehugger » Tue Sep 08, 2015 4:32 pm

Vistaar wrote: Centurylink subscriber dnsacks "performed a clean install of windows 8.1" (megathread page 78, post #1546), but continued getting "Download Failure" until the other post I pointed out. I will say that clean installs are generally more likely to succeed than in-place upgrades, but all of your programs are wiped.
Vistaar, thanks for the hugely important info! However, did you mean Win 8.1 or Win 7? If 8.1 is correct, then his experience may have bearing on mine, even though I'm talking win 7. More and more, it seems that the roadblock to guide data is caused by download failure, which I was asking about in the beginning of this thread (but from what I can tell nobody answered). I'd always thought the download failure was a Vista thing, but this may not be attributable to the win version.

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Vistaar

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#144

Post by Vistaar » Tue Sep 08, 2015 5:17 pm

mtreehugger wrote:I'd always thought the download failure was a Vista thing, but this may not be attributable to the win version.
I have no idea why you always thought that; certainly not because of anything I have written. With TV Pack, Vista is quite capable of downloading exactly the same guide data as Windows 7 and 8.1. That was well-established more than a month ago. Have you ever tried reading the first 2 pages of this thread? I can barely believe you would rather ask me if I have correctly quoted someone else's post in another thread than read it for yourself. I could post links to posts in which Windows 7 users report download failure, but I have no way of knowing if any of them are Centurylink subscribers.

Have you complained to Centurylink yet?

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#145

Post by mtreehugger » Tue Sep 08, 2015 7:04 pm

Vistaar wrote:
mtreehugger wrote:I'd always thought the download failure was a Vista thing, but this may not be attributable to the win version.
I have no idea why you always thought that; certainly not because of anything I have written. With TV Pack, Vista is quite capable of downloading exactly the same guide data as Windows 7 and 8.1. That was well-established more than a month ago. Have you ever tried reading the first 2 pages of this thread? I can barely believe you would rather ask me if I have correctly quoted someone else's post in another thread than read it for yourself. I could post links to posts in which Windows 7 users report download failure, but I have no way of knowing if any of them are Centurylink subscribers.

Have you complained to Centurylink yet?
Vistaar, do you resent my participation in this forum? I sought to verify that win 8.1 was not a typo because I believed it wouldn't be an encumbrance upon you, but might save me who knows how much reading, and my time is quite short. As for the download failure, have you read pages 1 & 2? Because you'd see my posts #13, #27, & #32 where I'm asking about the download failure. Now maybe you, who knows all of this stuff better than I, see something different when you read the threads, but for the uninitiated (and I wouldn't call myself computer illiterate) many of the posts here require a fairly strong IT background to understand. For me there's a lot of research on top of printing out the instructions before I can even begin to grasp what it is that I'm suggested to try.

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#146

Post by dkrom » Tue Sep 08, 2015 8:57 pm

mtreehugger - I thought you were against updating due to cost, if that's not the case I would wholly recommend upgrading to win7 since it is a much better system than Vista ever was. Really 7 is Vista without all the bugs, so you shouldn't have too many issues with drivers and devices. I know the jump to 8 is a bit bigger so you may want to stay away if you are trying to keep older peripherals. Personally I'd try connecting your current computer to a cell (or someone else's network) first to see if the download does work, if so then you know to complain to Centurylink, if not then it's Vista and just upgrade to 7. If after updating you can't download, try a cell or another network again, if that doesn't work.... well I wouldn't know what to say to that...

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#147

Post by mtreehugger » Tue Sep 08, 2015 10:29 pm

dkrom wrote:mtreehugger - I thought you were against updating due to cost, if that's not the case I would wholly recommend upgrading to win7 since it is a much better system than Vista ever was. Really 7 is Vista without all the bugs, so you shouldn't have too many issues with drivers and devices. I know the jump to 8 is a bit bigger so you may want to stay away if you are trying to keep older peripherals. Personally I'd try connecting your current computer to a cell (or someone else's network) first to see if the download does work, if so then you know to complain to Centurylink, if not then it's Vista and just upgrade to 7. If after updating you can't download, try a cell or another network again, if that doesn't work.... well I wouldn't know what to say to that...
Yeah, Vista is SO buggy! I have a 32-bit Quad Pentium (Q6600) that rocks and from a cold boot I get my desktop in seconds. I could do 7 but wouldn't attempt 8.

This issue caused me to discover that one can buy win7 for $50 on ebay. Unless there's some way they can fake the feedback, it seems legit from at least one seller I found. If I'd known this years ago I probably would have updated on the spot, without knowing that I'd lose my Photoshop Elements and my Roxio Creator applications because they don't run on 7. Weighing this against guide data is a toss up for me in terms of value, but it's easier to stay where I'm at. Besides, apparently some folks with 7 are still getting the download failure. I think I'll see if I can e-mail Centurylink (citing myself and other users), because I'd rather not spend an hour waiting in the tech support queue, and take it from there.

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#148

Post by mtreehugger » Sat Sep 12, 2015 6:06 pm

Vistaar wrote: Hello mtreehugger, I was beginning to think you had given up - and who could blame you? It does seem likely that either Centurylink or Norton has caused you to fail where others have succeeded. Unfortunately for you, Centurylink is not my ISP, and the only thing I know about Norton is how to get rid of it. (My PC came with a Norton free trial back in 2008, and when I was forced to do a factory restore some time ago - which BTW is why you really need to learn about imaging software - that old free trial came back to haunt me.) Is it possible to turn off Norton's firewall long enough to attempt setting up TV signal 2 or 3 times? I'm sure Norton has a forum, and probably Centurylink does too. I have posted at my ISP's forum a few times to complain about slow connection speeds. All I can really do is wish you the best of luck! BTW, if you think you might want to restore your system to a point before TV Pack was installed, it might be best to do so before installing Windows Updates for September. Only so much space is alotted for restore points (although there's a way to increase that), and Windows Updates automatically create a new restore point.
Success! Success! Success! Success! Success! Success! Success! Success! Success! Success! Success! Success! Success! Success! Success!


Thanks Vistaar, dkrom, tillerr, steelwill, and all the rest of you helpful folks! I now have Rovi guide data, at long last!!!

I e-mailed centurylink who passed me on to the Norton tech group located somewhere near the Indian Ocean. There they did very little, but told me that I'd need to uninstall Norton before I could contact either Microsoft or Dell because those folks would not troubleshoot my issue with Norton running--even though I was guaranteed that Norton was not the cause. (Yeah, right.) This time, however, I was told not to use the Norton uninstaller that Vistaar had brilliantly suggested to me, and due to that previous installation I now, unlike 2 weeks ago, had the option of uninstalling Norton at control panel/programs and "saving the settings" (which actually means saving the many megabytes of virus updates). So, in the end I still got stuck with downloading 130 MB of Norton, but did not get stuck with downloading several hours of updates.

During the time Norton was uninstalled, I also turned off the Centurylink installer, then ran setup, but it still didn't work. But in case Norton had previously prevented my TV Pack etc. updates from installing correctly, I tried to reinstall them again, but again was told they didn't apply to my system (which actually means I already had the updates because I'd done this earlier and got results). I next re-attempted some instructions I had lying around, which I'd gotten from this link:

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... ing#p92479

This was the key, it would seem. It is unlikely that Norton's uninstallation was a factor here, although it is remotely possible. More likely is that my ability to interpret the above instructions and execute them was better this time around. For one thing, the writer has spaces in his path notations and commands that, if you're using a command prompt (i.e. DOS commands), will result in an error. This probably foiled my earlier attempt. The other thing is the instruction to "delete any folders that start with mc3peg.." I had no such folders, but I suspected that the writer may have made a typo, so I instead renamed my folder that began with "mcepg.." along with the similarly named file. (FYI, renaming is better than deleting because you can go back at any time and return it to its original name--thus restoring it--if there's a problem.) And finally, I think I probably made the changes to the wrong host file the first time out, as there are multiple hosts files in my system that I found. It's the hosts in the "etc" directory that you want to modify, which I did using the DOS "edit" command. Then, still with the elevated command prompt, I typed "ipconfig/flushdns" (with no spaces, at C:\windows\system32--I think).

So now, thanks to this thread, I've got my Norton working properly (Vistaar saved me much time here), I've got Rovi guide data, and thanks to PlayReadyPC I've got a whole bunch of new OTA channels that I didn't have before! :D

(It was an unholy ordeal, however.) ;)

I hope than any user of WMC and 32-bit Vista Home Premium who has been plagued by the download error who subsequently finds this thread can benefit from my experience.

Thanks, and good luck!

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#149

Post by mtreehugger » Sat Sep 12, 2015 6:31 pm

To clarify my above post, below are the steps I took, which are taken from the link I cited above, along with my corrections and clarifying notes. This worked for me, a user of Windows Vista 32-bit home premium:

---------------------------------------------------------------------

If you're getting the Download failure, try the following:

find "command prompt ," right-click it and select "run as administrator"
1) Edit your hosts file (navigate to c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc -- then type "edit hosts")
2) Add the following at the bottom of the file:

65.55.186.113 data.tvdownload.microsoft.com
72.246.56.59 cdn.epg.tvdownload.microsoft.com

3) save the file, then maybe re-open it to check it to make sure it's correct. then close the editor and navigate to c:\windows\system32\--I think! (it may be the windows or the drivers directory, sorry my memory isn't more trustworthy)
type "ipconfig/flushdns" (enter). (DOS will tell you if it's run correctly -- if not, try this from the drivers directory and in the windows directory)
4) Type "exit" to leave the elevated command prompt and return to Windows. Type "MSConfig," then select the option to boot to Safe Mode (2nd tab, usually)
5) Reboot the computer
6) When the login screen appears, login. You should be in Safe Mode
7) Open file explorer & navigate to C:\Program Data\Microsoft\ehome
8) rename any folders that start with mcepg..
9) rename any files that start with mcepg..
10 Open CMD prompt.
11) Type MSCONFIG & press Enter
12) Turn off the Safe Mode option (usually tab 2) , then select either the "normal" or "selective" boot option as appropriate (I personally feel "selective" is the better choice, but the original author recommended "normal").
13) Reboot the computer. You should be back in regular mode
14) Re-Setup Media Center.

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#150

Post by Vistaar » Sun Sep 13, 2015 3:19 pm

mtreehugger wrote:Success! Success! Success!
Congratulations! :clap: The number of Vista users who have installed TV Pack but somehow failed to get Rovi data has finally dropped to Zero!

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#151

Post by Vistaar » Sun Sep 13, 2015 3:25 pm

mtreehugger wrote:Yeah, Vista is SO buggy!
My installation isn't buggy at all. Have you ever run sfc /scannow? Maybe you should reinstall Vista sometime...or maybe Norton is as bad as everyone says?

As for dkrom, I would be willing to bet that he has never used Vista, since he was still running XP as recently as one month ago, hence doesn't know what he's talking about. :thumbdown:

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#152

Post by Vistaar » Sun Sep 13, 2015 4:15 pm

mtreehugger wrote:I typed "ipconfig/flushdns" (with no spaces, at C:\windows\system32--I think).
Well authoritative sources say that there should be a space before the slash in the ipconfig /flushdns command. However I just ran sfc/scannow with no space for the first time ever (having no need for flushdns), and was somewhat surprised to find that it did work; so apparently some commands can be typed either way. Anyway, it was already established on page 6 of this thread that the Microsoft-recommended ipconfig /flushdns solved the download failure issue for tillerr, but apparently not for mtreehugger?

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#153

Post by Vistaar » Sun Sep 13, 2015 4:31 pm

columbia93 wrote:I went back to another thread on this site that has you change the hosts file. It didn't work for me before TV Pack install but decided to try it again - clear, easy instructions can be found here:
http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 327#p94327

Before I actually tried it, I decided to try a different IP someone had recently given. I followed the instructions, brought up the notepad, pasted the 2 IPs into the bottom of the notepad and then replaced the (red part with the green part)

72.246.56.59 cdn.epg.tvdownload.microsoft.com to 23.14.84.178

So, I copied THIS to the bottom of my hosts notepad...

65.55.186.113 data.tvdownload.microsoft.com
23.14.84.178 cdn.epg.tvdownload.microsoft.com


I now have a working guide for Vista 64 SP2!
The above quote is from an August 6 post #34 on page 2 of this thread. Note that the first line is exactly the same as mtreehugger reports. Columbia93 decided to try a different second line, even though he was clearly aware that 72.246.56.59 had also been recommended here at GreenButton. Personally, I was able to get Rovi data without modifying my Hosts file, and I'm not the only one. Probably it's only necessary if your ISP routes you to a server with stale data.

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#154

Post by mtreehugger » Sun Sep 13, 2015 5:41 pm

Vistaar wrote: Well authoritative sources say that there should be a space before the slash in the ipconfig /flushdns command. However I just ran sfc/scannow with no space for the first time ever (having no need for flushdns), and was somewhat surprised to find that it did work; so apparently some commands can be typed either way. Anyway, it was already established on page 6 of this thread that the Microsoft-recommended ipconfig /flushdns solved the download failure issue for tillerr, but apparently not for mtreehugger?
I agree now with you about spaces. I ran your SFC scannow with spaces as you prescribed and it functioned correctly. In my DOS training in 1989 spaces were prohibited, but that stems from the pre-windows era, and much has changed since.

As for why it didn't work for me the first time, it could be that the instruction typo telling me to delete "folders... that start with mc3peg.." was the culprit, and/or that I had modified the wrong hosts file(s) (I think I have 4?), and/or was in the wrong location when I typed the flush command, and/or who knows, maybe we can blame Norton too? (it was uninstalled at the time I finally found success).

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#155

Post by mtreehugger » Sun Sep 13, 2015 5:58 pm

Vistaar wrote: My installation isn't buggy at all. Have you ever run sfc /scannow? Maybe you should reinstall Vista sometime...or maybe Norton is as bad as everyone says?
I just tried sfc and it found some corrupted files that it couldn't fix. Now I'm left to my own devices to find good and proper, uncorrupted files to manually replace them with. Yikes! The ones I'm most concerned with (are they all the same one?) reference "settings.ini" and "PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE_INTEL." Not sure if I need to address this or not--all I do know is that I currently don't know how.

Overall, the bugginess of my Vista was earlier in the product cycle, but some time after 7 came out I began to see fewer issues, then none at all--until the day WMC took a shite on me. So I'd been telling folks that MS had fixed the bugs in Vista via updates and that I liked it now. But after a month of dinking around with dysfunctional Snap2it, I could no longer subscribe to that belief, and all the torture of years gone by flooded back. My blu-ray reader never worked right, nor did cyberlink, nor did my MSI video card (which bit the dust in January).

Who knows, maybe my blue-ray drive works now?

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#156

Post by Vistaar » Sun Sep 13, 2015 8:59 pm

If that was a question, then it clearly exceeds the scope of "VISTA WMC Stuck on Zap2it." There would be a simple solution if only you had a fairly up-to-date image that was created at a time when your sfc /scannow results resembled the screenshot on page 6, post #114. As I have mentioned before, factory restores are a major pain. The only simple course of action now is to take no action and hope for the best.

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#157

Post by jkljkl72 » Sat Oct 10, 2015 8:29 pm

Vistaar wrote:
mtreehugger wrote:Success! Success! Success!
Congratulations! :clap: The number of Vista users who have installed TV Pack but somehow failed to get Rovi data has finally dropped to Zero!
I finally installed TV Pack to my Vista Home Premium 64 and it worked and my WMC switched to Rovi. Wish that I had done it much sooner. I was wary due to the warnings but it seems to be working fine so far.

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#158

Post by mtreehugger » Sun Oct 11, 2015 12:26 pm

jkljkl72 wrote:
I finally installed TV Pack to my Vista Home Premium 64 and it worked and my WMC switched to Rovi. Wish that I had done it much sooner. I was wary due to the warnings but it seems to be working fine so far.
Glad to hear it, jkljkl72! I don't believe I had any issues with TV Pack either (as some have reported), just that it didn't work on my computer until I finally got it debugged or whatever.

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#159

Post by dsmasher » Tue Dec 27, 2016 3:32 am

I realize this is a cold subject, possibly solved years ago, but I am trying to get an old PC working so that I can have TV upstairs using an extender.

I have read the entire list of posts on this subject, but I cannot get past the first step that most claim will restore the TV guide. I cannot install the TV pack it just gives me a dialog box claiming to be 'checking for updates' that has run for days now and does not work probably due to Microsoft dumping support for Vista. I have Service Pack 2. No matter what I do it claims to download the guide data OK but the data ends sometime summer of 2015 an the provider still Zap2it.

Any help would be appreciated. I have tried downloading several of the .MSU files and get the same result as it tries to contact Microsoft or something.

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#160

Post by Vistaar » Tue Jan 03, 2017 3:11 am

dsmasher wrote:I cannot install the TV pack it just gives me a dialog box claiming to be 'checking for updates' that has run for days now and does not work probably due to Microsoft dumping support for Vista...I have tried downloading several of the .MSU files and get the same result as it tries to contact Microsoft or something.
Hello dsmasher. I haven't been active here at Green Button for quite some time, but your post has brought me back because I know what the problem is: Your attempts to install TV Pack are being confounded by the "checking for updates takes forever" problem that affects everyone running Vista SP2 these days (and yes, Microsoft deserves the blame). As for the more general question of how to get all the latest security updates for Vista, this is the most helpful link I know of: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... f6ecd69c32. There might be some advantage to getting fully updated before January 10 (Patch Tuesday) because this issue has been growing progressively worse.

However if you just want to install TV Pack right away without worrying about checking for other Windows updates, then the solution is quite simple: Change your Windows Update setting to "Never check for updates" and then restart the PC (the restart is essential to completely stop Windows Update). You should then be able to install TV Pack (or any other Microsoft standalone installer).

I assume you got TV Pack (KB953272) from the link in post #2. Trust me: you don't need any of the other SP1-era junk from that old link! However I strongly suggest installing at least the final version of Cumulative Update for Media Center TVPack for Windows Vista, which is KB977864, from Microsoft before attempting to use TV Pack. I also received four specific security updates immediately after installing TV Pack in the summer of 2015 (see screenshot), but I can't really say whether they are more or less important than any other security updates you might be lacking as a result of the more general "checking for updates" issue. For premium cable, you will also need PlayReady, which is an installed program rather than a Windows update. Again, Microsoft has a more up-to-date version (1.3) than the TV Pack download link in post #2. I have been quite satisfied with TV Pack, however the Rovi guide data leaves something to be desired (there are entire threads about that here), and I had to add quite a few channels that were missed by the scan for some reason (I've got Clear QAM basic cable). Good luck, and let me know how it goes.
WinUpdateTVP.JPG

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