Media Center hangs with spinning circle

[MikeMen]

I have two machines with this problem. Both are running 8.1 with Media Center and are updated regularly. One machine has been recently clean installed and the other has been stable for over 6 months. The second machine is used as a media player and has Windows, Chrome, Adobe Reader and Norton installed. The other has several other apps and programs installed

The problem is that I start MC and within 15-30 seconds it hangs with the spinning circle. Once it hangs, the mouse, keyboard and remote have no control over the app. It doesn't seem to matter whether I start a recorded program, try to do some setup or just leave it running on the start screen. If I can start to play a recorded program before it hangs, the playing continues. In any case, the only way to get control is to kill the app in Task Manager.

I found a fix that involves turning Media Center feature off, rebooting, then turning it back on. This restores operation for about 2 weeks after which the problem reappears. One machine has had this problem show up 3 times and the other twice. The machines seem to alternate on a weekly basis.

I would like to find a permanent solution, any ideas?

[Scallica]

I would uninstall Norton; it usually creates nothing but problems.

[MikeMen]

When I did the clean install I hit the problem when I tried to setup media center before I installed Norton or other programs

[Scallica]

What tuner are you using? Try temporarily removing the tuner and see if the freezing still occurs.

[MikeMen]

HDHomeRun Prime (cablecard)

It hung during the clean install before I even got to setting up the tuner.

[Scallica]

Did you install all the latest drivers from the motherboard's website?

[Sharks]

This may sound like a stupid question after you stated you did a clean install but how much drive space is left? I've had a similar issue when my OS drive which is a magnetic drive got to full of recordings. Some people have reported certain windows updates didn't play nice with media center for some reason. *cough*Windows 10 Ads*cough*

Would you mind posting your computers complete specs, processor, motherboard, ect.? It would help us help you troubleshoot your computer's problem. : D

[MikeMen]

Regarding drive space on the main computer, the C drive has over 100gb remaining and the E drive that is used for Recorded TV has almost a terabyte unused. The other computer has less, but I don't record on that machine, only view content. All drives are magnetic (not SSD).

The main computer has a Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 MB with an I3-2120 cpu. The video card is Radion 5450 based. This computer has been running Media Center for several years and has been running 8.1 with media center for over 6 months before the problem showed up. The clean install was motivated as an attempt to fix this problem.

[toshfive]

I had this problem few months back, was solved by updating HDHR prime firmware than updating WMC computers.