EPG Setup results in HUNG WMC Install !!

[McGary]

You could also get a 250GB drive for a few $$ less … and if you have Amazon Prime you'll have it in 1-2 days …
https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX500-NA ... r=8-3&th=1

[McGary]

Update on my friend's system => There's a problem !!

I just logged in remotely to do something else for him, and noticed that his guide hasn't updated since we finally got it all working last weekend (22 Dec).
The status bug icon is yellow, with a date of 22 Dec.

He did update his Schedules Direct account for a year, and it shows an expiration of 28 Dec 2020. His icon also didn't have a "+" sign, so it wasn't recognizing that an update was available either.

I didn't have much time -- we're leaving in a few minutes and won't be home until very late tonight, so I can't do anything else with my friend until tomorrow. But I did run the installer for the latest version (1.3.3.0), and Deleted the scheduled task and then created a new one, just in case for some reason it wasn't running overnight.

I'll check tomorrow and see if the guide updates and the icon changes to green -- but just in case is there anything else I can look at to see what's going on?

Is there a way to manually do the update that the scheduled task is supposed to do?

[garyan2]

If the status logo didn't change, then the task never ran. Need to troubleshoot that.

Opening EPG123 and then clicking the [Save & Execute] will update the MXF file and should import into WMC if the option to 'Automatically import...' is enabled.

[Space]

Thanks for the advice. The boot partition on the secondary device is only for use if the primary drive becomes unbootable for some reason. I would never go back and forth, as I am well aware of the licenses file and would not want to split the licenses for different recordings between two different files (although I have booted off the secondary drive just to test that I could still play back DRM recordings and that everything else worked). The main recordings that are DRM protected are from HBO and Cinemax, and I only record from those when there are free previews because I don't subscribe to them. The others are the Fox networks, and I don't record much from them. I was in the habit of making an image backup after these free preview weekends (when I made DRM recordings) so that the latest license file would be on the backup image.

It's unlikely that I will bother with an SSD. I have swapped out a few different drives over the years, and adding another drive may just be the thing that caused DRM to reset. You can only swap out so many pieces of hardware before this happens.

I was going to start working on this today, but unfortunately life took over and said "nope", I will have to try tomorrow.

[McGary]

Swapping drives will NOT cause any issue with activation and/or PlayReady. And you'd be FAR better off if you isolated the system partition to its own drive -- as is, you've got both the system and a bunch of content on the same drive.

But your biggest issue that you REALLY need to resolve is that you can't image your system … i.e.

The main problem I have right now is that trying to image the Windows partition on drive 1 is failing. This drive has been wonky for a while and I am sure it is only a matter of time before it goes completely. My last image backup of the drive is now from a year ago.

I would NOT procrastinate getting that resolved. You're inviting real disaster -- and the fact you've got a lot of content saved on the same drive just aggravates the situation.

There is absolutely no issue with adding an SSD -- drives are very low in the activation hash computation, and indeed adding a hard drive has NO impact on the HWID computation. Changing (as opposed to adding) a hard drive has a very minor impact on the HWID, but still doesn't cause any issues. By far the most significant impact on the computation is changing the network adapter … and you're clearly not going to be doing that. FWIW I was a Microsoft MVP for Windows for over a decade (haven't been nearly as active the last few years so no longer maintain that status) and am VERY familiar with activation issues.

Whether or not you elect to add a dedicated system drive (doesn't have to be an SSD, but I'd definitely suggest it, not only for the speed, but even more importantly for the very high reliability), you should absolutely resolve two major issues ASAP: (1) the issue of not being able to image the OS drive; and (2) getting Windows up-to-date.

[McGary]

If the status logo didn't change, then the task never ran. Need to troubleshoot that.

Opening EPG123 and then clicking the [Save & Execute] will update the MXF file and should import into WMC if the option to 'Automatically import...' is enabled.

I got home earlier than anticipated, so I called my friend and did the "Save & Execute" button. This indeed updated the guide with no issue, but now his icon is RED

Not at all sure why this would be the case … the guide seems to be fine, and he's now on the latest version of EPG. Is it perhaps because the update wasn't done via the scheduled task, but was forced? Since I reset the scheduled task earlier today, I'm hopeful it will indeed work okay tonight (at 3:10). If that's the case, I presume the icon will be green & the date will update tomorrow -- he'll call me tomorrow and let me know if that's the case.

If it's likely something else, hopefully that's identified in his log file, which I copied to my system and have attached just in case it's useful.

BillysLog.zip

Log File

(22.3 KiB) Downloaded 30 times

[garyan2]

He got a lot of errors when trying to kick of the indexing tasks after import the guide data. Let's see what happens tomorrow. This could be a permission issue, but he didn't have a problem on the 22nd when you first set it up.

[Space]

...
Whether or not you elect to add a dedicated system drive (doesn't have to be an SSD, but I'd definitely suggest it, not only for the speed, but even more importantly for the very high reliability), you should absolutely resolve two major issues ASAP: (1) the issue of not being able to image the OS drive; and (2) getting Windows up-to-date.

Yes, I am aware of this. I've already saved a copy of the mspr.hds file and the backup files for the WMC database, which are the most important things.

Worst case scenario, if the drive completely dies, I can switch over to the alternate drive with the year old image, copy over the mspr.hds file (to get all my DRM recordings working) and then use the WMC backup files with EPG123's migration tool to set up all the Series again. I'm going to have to setup all the Series again anyway, since I will be moving to EPG123 and that requires the WMC database to be wiped out, so losing the WMC database is no big deal.

My only real concern is if I made any changes in other areas on the system, such as the comskip stuff and my scripts. I usually made an image backup after I made any kind of major changes to the system, but I may have been lazy and not done it, so I would like to at least spot check certain folders to make sure they are in sync. So, yes, I should do this ASAP, but I am hoping the drive will last at least another week.

The drive has been acting strangely for a very long time. I never have any problems with recording (which are being written to the non-wonky drive) but the system seems to hang up at times with the HD light on the system being solid. After 30 to 60 seconds it is back and everything is fine. This only seems to affect video playback (of videos on the non-wonky disk), recordings never get affected. The playback will freeze while the system is in this state, but then continue afterwards (video needs to catch up to the audio for a while afterwards).

I have yet to see signs of any corruption on the wonky disk, the only symptoms are that the system freezes up a bit (probably due to drive reading issues) and the fact that Macrium Reflect is unable to make a disk image backup using Shadow Copy. I'm going to try booting from a Macrium Rescue flash drive and see if I can make a copy that way (not using Shadow Copy), if that fails I'll just use the year-old image backup and copy over any of the above files I need from the wonky image.

[McGary]

He got a lot of errors when trying to kick of the indexing tasks after import the guide data. Let's see what happens tomorrow. This could be a permission issue, but he didn't have a problem on the 22nd when you first set it up.

Well … Now I have a glitch !! => my status bug is Yellow. The guide updated okay (at least the date shows today's date and the "About" in WMC shows data through the 10th and doesn't indicate any errors). Is this because there's an update I haven't applied? I just did the update to the newest version a couple minutes ago, so I assume if that's the case it should turn green tomorrow -- if that's all it means that's good. But if not, is there some place that the REASON for the other color is shown? Or is there a link on this site that gives more details on what things can happen that result in Yellow or Red status?

In case it helps, I've just sent you a copy of my log, renamed Garytrace.log just to differentiate it from all the "trace.log" files you likely have

If this isn't just because I haven't done the update, I'd appreciate it if you'd take a look at the log and let me know why it's not green.


As for my friend's system -- his icon is still RED ... but it did update the guide data -- the date now shows today's date. I'll send you a copy of his current log file ... hopefully that will give you some clue as to what's going on. One thing I thought of that may/may not have any bearing -- we did not update the # of tuners in his system (friend isn't even sure he wants to bother). Any chance updating the version of EPG re-applied the tuner limit patch and EPG is recognizing there are 2 unconfigured tuners & displaying a Red status because of that?

Edit: FYI I sent both log files (mine and my friends) to your support e-mail address.

[garyan2]

From your trace.log file, if you scroll up, you will find the following [WARNG] entries:

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[12/28/2019 3:20:09 AM] [WARNG] Time discontinuity detected. Service 10161 (CSPAN) SH012857740000 (entry 20) ends at 2019-12-29 02:00:00Z, SH014425100000 (entry 21) starts at 2019-12-29 00:00:00Z. No further discontinuities on CSPAN will be reported for the date 2019-12-29.
[12/28/2019 3:20:09 AM] [WARNG] Time discontinuity detected. Service 10161 (CSPAN) SH012857740000 (entry 31) ends at 2019-12-30 01:27:00Z, SH014425100000 (entry 32) starts at 2019-12-30 00:33:00Z. No further discontinuities on CSPAN will be reported for the date 2019-12-30.

So on CSPAN, the data EPG123 got back from Schedules Direct has a program ending after the next program starts. Because it was within 3 days, I flagged it as a warning saying "Hey, a station's guide may not be totally correct." This happens sometimes and appears to be related to the timing of when Schedules Direct does its downloads from Gracenote and when Gracenote updates its listings. Next update, the problem is typically gone. [ You will notice that your friend has the exact same discontinuity errors in his trace.log file. ]

For your friends machine. The below is what is causing the red status:

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[12/28/2019 3:12:10 AM] Entering runWmcTask(ReindexSearchRoot)
[12/28/2019 3:12:10 AM] [ERROR] ERROR: Element not found.
[12/28/2019 3:12:10 AM] [WARNG] Error using schtasks.exe to start ReindexSearchRoot task. Exit code: 1
[12/28/2019 3:12:10 AM] [ INFO] Attempting ehPrivJob.exe /DoReindexSearchRoot to index data.
[12/28/2019 3:12:10 AM] [ERROR] Error using ehPrivJob.exe to start ReindexSearchRoot task. Exit code: -2147023838
[12/28/2019 3:12:10 AM] [ERROR] Exiting runWmcTask(ReindexSearchRoot). FAILURE
[12/28/2019 3:12:10 AM] Entering runWmcTask(PvrScheduleTask)
[12/28/2019 3:12:10 AM] [ERROR] ERROR: Element not found.
[12/28/2019 3:12:10 AM] [WARNG] Error using schtasks.exe to start PvrScheduleTask task. Exit code: 1
[12/28/2019 3:12:10 AM] [ INFO] Attempting mcupdate.exe -PvrSchedule to index data.
[12/28/2019 3:12:13 AM] [ INFO] Successfully completed the PvrScheduleTask task. Exit code: 0
[12/28/2019 3:12:13 AM] Exiting runWmcTask(PvrScheduleTask). SUCCESS

These errors are occurring when the scheduled task is run, but not when you manually perform a [Save & Execute]. My guess would be the task doesn't have access/privilege to run schtasks.exe or ehPrivJob.exe. Could you open Task Scheduler and verify that the option to 'Run with highest privileges' is checked?

[McGary]

So on CSPAN, the data EPG123 got back from Schedules Direct has a program ending after the next program starts. Because it was within 3 days, I flagged it as a warning saying "Hey, a station's guide may not be totally correct." This happens sometimes and appears to be related to the timing of when Schedules Direct does its downloads from Gracenote and when Gracenote updates its listings. Next update, the problem is typically gone. [ You will notice that your friend has the exact same discontinuity errors in his trace.log file. ]

Thanks ==> So on my system the status bug should simply turn Green in a day or two when that guide error is corrected

For your friends machine. The below is what is causing the red status:

Code: Select all

[12/28/2019 3:12:10 AM] Entering runWmcTask(ReindexSearchRoot)
[12/28/2019 3:12:10 AM] [ERROR] ERROR: Element not found.
[12/28/2019 3:12:10 AM] [WARNG] Error using schtasks.exe to start ReindexSearchRoot task. Exit code: 1
[12/28/2019 3:12:10 AM] [ INFO] Attempting ehPrivJob.exe /DoReindexSearchRoot to index data.
[12/28/2019 3:12:10 AM] [ERROR] Error using ehPrivJob.exe to start ReindexSearchRoot task. Exit code: -2147023838
[12/28/2019 3:12:10 AM] [ERROR] Exiting runWmcTask(ReindexSearchRoot). FAILURE
[12/28/2019 3:12:10 AM] Entering runWmcTask(PvrScheduleTask)
[12/28/2019 3:12:10 AM] [ERROR] ERROR: Element not found.
[12/28/2019 3:12:10 AM] [WARNG] Error using schtasks.exe to start PvrScheduleTask task. Exit code: 1
[12/28/2019 3:12:10 AM] [ INFO] Attempting mcupdate.exe -PvrSchedule to index data.
[12/28/2019 3:12:13 AM] [ INFO] Successfully completed the PvrScheduleTask task. Exit code: 0
[12/28/2019 3:12:13 AM] Exiting runWmcTask(PvrScheduleTask). SUCCESS

These errors are occurring when the scheduled task is run, but not when you manually perform a [Save & Execute]. My guess would be the task doesn't have access/privilege to run schtasks.exe or ehPrivJob.exe. Could you open Task Scheduler and verify that the option to 'Run with highest privileges' is checked?

Hmmm => Turns out your last comment isn't correct. I ran a manual "Save & Execute" with EPG run as an administrator and the icon is still Red ... and the log still has the same errors:

[12/28/2019 3:09:42 PM] [ERROR] ERROR: Element not found.
[12/28/2019 3:09:42 PM] [WARNG] Error using schtasks.exe to start ReindexSearchRoot task. Exit code: 1
[12/28/2019 3:09:42 PM] [ INFO] Attempting ehPrivJob.exe /DoReindexSearchRoot to index data.
[12/28/2019 3:09:42 PM] [ERROR] Error using ehPrivJob.exe to start ReindexSearchRoot task. Exit code: -2147023838
[12/28/2019 3:09:42 PM] [ERROR] Exiting runWmcTask(ReindexSearchRoot). FAILURE
[12/28/2019 3:09:42 PM] Entering runWmcTask(PvrScheduleTask)
[12/28/2019 3:09:42 PM] [ERROR] ERROR: Element not found.
[12/28/2019 3:09:42 PM] [WARNG] Error using schtasks.exe to start PvrScheduleTask task. Exit code: 1
[12/28/2019 3:09:42 PM] [ INFO] Attempting mcupdate.exe -PvrSchedule to index data.
[12/28/2019 3:09:45 PM] [ INFO] Successfully completed the PvrScheduleTask task. Exit code: 0
[12/28/2019 3:09:45 PM] Exiting runWmcTask(PvrScheduleTask). SUCCESS


The entry for the scheduled EPG123 update has the "Run with highest privileges box checked, as you can see from this screen shot:

Task Schedule showing EPG123 Update item

Hopefully there's something else I can try to resolve this for Billy (my friend).

One other question: Since the guide seems to be updating okay, does that mean WMC is working okay despite the Red icon?? Just curious what the failed tasks are supposed to do -- and what impact that has on the overall functionality of WMC and EPG. I presume in my case (the Yellow icon due to the guide inconsistency) it's completely irrelevant that the icon is Yellow -- but I wonder if the Red icon represents a more serious issue.

[garyan2]

Hmmm => Turns out your last comment isn't correct. I ran a manual "Save & Execute" with EPG run as an administrator and the icon is still Red ... and the log still has the same errors:

Interesting. Here is a manual run from 12/22 with no errors.

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[12/22/2019 3:14:34 PM] Entering runWmcTask(ReindexSearchRoot)
[12/22/2019 3:14:34 PM] [ INFO] SUCCESS: Attempted to run the scheduled task "Microsoft\Windows\Media Center\ReindexSearchRoot".
[12/22/2019 3:14:34 PM] [ INFO] Successfully started the ReindexSearchRoot task. Exit code: 0
[12/22/2019 3:14:34 PM] Exiting runWmcTask(ReindexSearchRoot). SUCCESS.
[12/22/2019 3:14:34 PM] Entering runWmcTask(PvrScheduleTask)
[12/22/2019 3:14:34 PM] [ INFO] SUCCESS: Attempted to run the scheduled task "Microsoft\Windows\Media Center\PvrScheduleTask".
[12/22/2019 3:14:34 PM] [ INFO] Successfully started the PvrScheduleTask task. Exit code: 0
[12/22/2019 3:14:34 PM] Exiting runWmcTask(PvrScheduleTask). SUCCESS.

He had the same errors before this and after this during scheduled task runs. So we know a [Save & Execute] worked without errors on that day. Anything change after that?

One other question: Since the guide seems to be updating okay, does that mean WMC is working okay despite the Red icon?? Just curious what the failed tasks are supposed to do -- and what impact that has on the overall functionality of WMC and EPG. I presume in my case (the Yellow icon due to the guide inconsistency) it's completely irrelevant that the icon is Yellow -- but I wonder if the Red icon represents a more serious issue.

The guide is updating, and the alternate method of indexing his scheduled recordings is working, but the guide indexing is not. I believe it will be okay, but category searches might have a problem.

Speaking of: If you open Control Panel->Indexing Options, is Windows Media Center there? It probably won't make a difference, but if you click the [Advanced] button and then the [Rebuild] button, it might help. All the errors are around being able to start the indexing tasks, though.

[McGary]

He had the same errors before this and after this during scheduled task runs. So we know a [Save & Execute] worked without errors on that day. Anything change after that?

No changes at all. What we do know is that his scheduled task wasn't working -- until I redid it yesterday when I noticed the date was still the 22nd. It did work last night -- as confirmed by the log and also by the fact that the guide updated. Except, of course, the indexing tasks had the issue you noted.

I took a look at his indexing options in Control Panel -- and indexing was NOT running !! I enabled the service and then did an "Advanced - Reset" … it indicated this could take a long time, so I disconnected from his PC and just told him to let me know tomorrow whether or not the icon is still Red. I'll also connect to his PC and look at the log to see if it's any different and also confirm that indexing is still running okay. I have NO idea why the service would have stopped.

I did confirm that Media Center is listed in the indexing window after it was re-enabled.

[garyan2]

If I have time, I'll disable indexing in one of my VMs and try to duplicate the error. It would be good information to know.

[McGary]

Several "weird" results -- but Billy's system still isn't working right. Since last night, here's what I've tried …

(a) As I noted last night, when I checked the indexing status, indexing was not enabled (no idea how that happened). I enabled it, and did an "Advanced - Reset" as you suggested. The indexing completed last night … and as you can see Media Center is included on the list of indexed locations …

Indexing Status

(b) After I turned on indexing last evening, I did a "Save & Execute" to see if that would work with indexing enabled. It did not -- same errors we've been getting. I didn't bother to mention that because I thought perhaps the re-indexing needed to finish and the scheduled task at 3:10 would run okay.

(c) HOWEVER … the scheduled task did NOT run. The date on my friend's (Billy) system still showed 28 Dec and the icon is still Red. The History in Task Scheduler shows it ran on the 28th, but did not run last night. The EPG client shows the same thing -- i.e. "last run" 12/28 Task Scheduler clearly shows it's supposed to run every day at 3:10.

Task Scheduler showing EPG task

EPG Client showing the scheduled task

(d) Since the task didn't run last night, I ran it manually a few minutes ago (I'm still logged in to Billy's computer) … and although it still had some issues running the indexing utilities, if I understand it correctly it seems to have worked for both tasks with the alternative methods of running them. Here's the relevant snippet from the log …

[12/29/2019 1:13:48 PM] Entering runWmcTask(ReindexSearchRoot)
[12/29/2019 1:13:48 PM] [ERROR] ERROR: Element not found.
[12/29/2019 1:13:48 PM] [WARNG] Error using schtasks.exe to start ReindexSearchRoot task. Exit code: 1
[12/29/2019 1:13:48 PM] [ INFO] Attempting ehPrivJob.exe /DoReindexSearchRoot to index data.
[12/29/2019 1:16:35 PM] [ INFO] Successfully completed the ReindexSearchRoot task. Exit code: 0
[12/29/2019 1:16:35 PM] Exiting runWmcTask(ReindexSearchRoot). SUCCESS
[12/29/2019 1:16:35 PM] Entering runWmcTask(PvrScheduleTask)
[12/29/2019 1:16:35 PM] [ERROR] ERROR: Element not found.
[12/29/2019 1:16:35 PM] [WARNG] Error using schtasks.exe to start PvrScheduleTask task. Exit code: 1
[12/29/2019 1:16:35 PM] [ INFO] Attempting mcupdate.exe -PvrSchedule to index data.
[12/29/2019 1:16:38 PM] [ INFO] Successfully completed the PvrScheduleTask task. Exit code: 0
[12/29/2019 1:16:38 PM] Exiting runWmcTask(PvrScheduleTask). SUCCESS
[12/29/2019 1:16:38 PM] [ INFO] Completed EPG123 client execution.
[12/29/2019 1:16:38 PM] [ INFO] EPG123 client execution time was 00:04:10.0533023.


(e) However, although the icon now shows 29 Dec, it is still RED. I shut down and restarted WMC to see if that changed anything, but it did not. Just for grins, I just started another "Save & Execute" -- being sure I ran EPG as an administrator (I'm pretty sure I've done that every time, but just in case …) I'll check the results now …

… took a few minutes to finish, but the results look exactly like above => the indexing tasks both seem to have completed okay. But if I start WMC the icon is still RED.


I'm at a loss as to what to try next. Are there specific file types that need to be checked in the list of indexable file types?
{Advanced - File Types]

If I open an elevated command prompt and run the same two command lines show in Task Scheduler, does that do the same thing as a "Save & Execute" ?? [i.e. "epg123.exe -update" and "epg123Client.exe -I "C:\ProgramData\GaRyan2\epg123\output\epg123.mxf" -match

… and is it worth trying that?

I have NO idea why his schedule task isn't running. Looking at the history of it (in Task Scheduler), it apparently ran one time on the 22nd (when we installed EPG) and then again one time on the 28th (after I had deleted & re-created the task because it wasn't working).

I can manually create the task, if you think that might help -- but I assume it's created properly by the client as long as it's run with elevated privileges.

And I definitely don't understand why the icon is still RED after (apparently) the two indexing tasks successfully completed today.

Ideas ????

By the way, r.e. my system -- as I anticipated, the icon changed back to Green after last night's update (apparently the schedule issue was resolved in the latest schedule)

[garyan2]

I'll see if I can change the behavior, but once an [ERROR] occurs in the log, it stays there... even though the alternate method succeeded, it doesn't erase the error.

So as long as Billy's machine has problems running the schtasks.exe program, it will be red even though everything was successful (eventually).

[McGary]

I suspected that might be the case once I realized both indexing tasks had succeeded okay.

I'm perplexed by his scheduled task not running … I wonder if that's related to why the schtasks.exe program isn't working with the updates as well. I'm going to do a bit of research on that and see if I can get that resolved for him.

So other than the fact his system's not running the scheduled task, it's "perfect" in terms of everything being up-to-date -- is that right? It'd be nice if the icon in that case was Yellow (indicating some issue, but not one that hasn't been corrected with the alternative method) … but that may be more of a coding hassle than it's worth.

So for the near term, all I need to do is have him run EPG and do a Save & Execute every day … and ignore the Red icon -- right?

[garyan2]

Yah, it looks like everything is okay except for the ERROR in the history in the red status logo. I'll release a new version soon that should take care of that, so no need to do anything other than wait for that.

I'm wondering if running a "sfc /scannow" from an elevated command prompt would help. The problem seems to be around the task scheduler, so maybe it can find/fix something.

[McGary]

Already plan to do that -- my friend is out shopping this afternoon, so I can't get on his PC until he gets home.

I plan to (a) do an SFC check; and (b) create a simple scheduled task to open a "Hi There" file in Notepad just to confirm his scheduled tasks are working (although I know they worked ONCE … the issue is why that's all)

I'm hopeful that SFC will find a corrupted DLL associated with scheduled tasks and correct it.

Am I correct that all Billy needs to do in the meantime is just run a "Save & Execute" to update his guide? I've got his EPG icons set so they always run with admin privileges … not sure if that's really necessary, but it eliminates any privilege issue.

[garyan2]

As long as the option to 'Automatically import guide data into WMC' is enabled, then a [Save & Execute] is all that is needed to manually update the guide listings.