Switched hardware, now getting Display Driver Error

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doubledown00

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Switched hardware, now getting Display Driver Error

#1

Post by doubledown00 » Wed Mar 29, 2017 7:35 am

Hey all.

WMC on Win 8.1. Previously working fine, then my hardware died. I moved the HD to another machine. It was initially working fine for a few hours, now I get the "Display Driver Error" when opening WMC.

Some things to note:
1) I don't get the few seconds of content before the error comes up as some do. For me it goes straight to blue screen upon selecting Live TV.
2) If I make *any* change to the display settings, Live TV will play. This includes changing the screen resolution or even just the refresh rate. If I make a change and then change it back, content plays just fine. If I then close WMC and re-open it, I'm back to the error again.
3) Some channels that I know for a fact use content encryption (FX, FXX etc) play fine once I do step 2 above.
4) I have three extenders that work fine.
5) This PC was my original WMC server up until about a year ago. It had Windows 7 on it. The harddrive in there now is a transplant from my unit that died.

Hardware setup:
Graphics - AMD Radeon 8570D running ver 15.301 driver dated 2/26/16 (most recent I could find on the AMD website)
Processor - AMD A8-6600K APU
Monitor - LG4250 television connected via HDMI


What I have tried:
1) Tried wiping and reinstalling play ready;
2) I have tried different monitors / tvs;
3) I have tried different HDMI cables;
4) I have tried re-running the tv wizard.


I did at one time have a problem on the previous PC where it wouldn't initially play on the primary monitor. So what I would do is move the window from my primary to my secondary display and then back again. That was all fine and good there, but I don't have a dual monitor setup now.

Any ideas? Due to the fact there are three extenders, I'm trying to avoid a complete uninstall if at all possible.

Space

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#2

Post by Space » Wed Mar 29, 2017 3:25 pm

The symptoms seem to be those you see when you have a non HDCP compliant display device connected to the computer:

It prevents you from watching protected content or ANY live TV (even if not protected). Minimizing/Maximizing allows you to view live TV, but only temporarily; when you exit live TV and re-enter, you need to minimize/maximize once again.

Note that a "non compliant display" can also be a virtual display such as those created for programs like VNC (uninstalling VNC in this case clears the problem).
Another thing that can cause this is a faulty graphics driver. Also if you have the graphics set to display on multiple monitors it can cause this issue.

I would advise you to search these forums for others that have had this problem.

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 97&t=10193
http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... f=5&t=9766

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Crash2009

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#3

Post by Crash2009 » Thu Mar 30, 2017 1:27 am

^^^I agree. And I have never had much luck removing the boot drive from one machine and transplanting the drive in another. They work for awhile then the O/S falls apart. At least do an in-place upgrade to freshen the O/S. I believe this is just the beginning of your problems.

Ideally, bite the bullet and go fresh. You cant beat a fresh new OS. Go get some Win10 (10586) and some WMCv8.8.1

https://forums.mydigitallife.info/threa ... ost1026727

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Crash2009

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#4

Post by Crash2009 » Thu Mar 30, 2017 3:24 am

Another thing you can do to freshen things up a bit is go into Device Manager, right click the top line, scan for hardware changes. If you really did what your words said you did, your hard drive thinks it is still in the other computer.

Re Display Adapter, uninstall everything related to the display adapter from Programs and features. Go in to device manager right click the adapter and remove. then reboot. after the reboot windows will discover the video adapter, let windows update give you the recommended driver. A lot of times the newest driver is not the best. Think about it, WMC is old, of course she is going to complain about it.

doubledown00

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#5

Post by doubledown00 » Thu Mar 30, 2017 12:27 pm

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

I discovered after writing the post that resizing the WMC window started playback (as someone here already pointed out).

So yesterday I did an experiment: I took a spare PC that is identical to current hardware and installed a fresh install of Windows 8.1 and WMC on it along with the most recent vendor drivers that I could find. For the display I exclusively used a Sony flat panel monitor and known good HDMI cable.
Exact same result.

Given that this setup use to work with Windows 7 without issue, I'm forced to conclude that the problem is some kind of wonky interplay between the video card / driver and Windows 8.1.

doubledown00

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#6

Post by doubledown00 » Thu Mar 30, 2017 12:29 pm

Crash2009 wrote:^^^I agree. And I have never had much luck removing the boot drive from one machine and transplanting the drive in another. They work for awhile then the O/S falls apart. At least do an in-place upgrade to freshen the O/S. I believe this is just the beginning of your problems.

Ideally, bite the bullet and go fresh. You cant beat a fresh new OS. Go get some Win10 (10586) and some WMCv8.8.1

https://forums.mydigitallife.info/threa ... ost1026727

I didn't use to be a fan of transplants either. But these new OSes are much better than they use to be about that. Of course my frame of reference is trying to move Win 95 / 98 / NT installs back in the day. Compared to that headache, moving this one was a downright dream. (Disclaimer: 20+ years in IT before a career change in 2014).

I thought about WMC on Windows 10 last spring, but at that point it didn't support extenders (according to the forums I was reading anyway). Is that still the case? No extenders would be a deal breaker for me.

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Crash2009

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#7

Post by Crash2009 » Thu Mar 30, 2017 1:06 pm

The extender project was completed in February of 2016. Some information is written in the link I gave you. More info can be obtained by skipping to the month of February 2016 in the same thread.

Space

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#8

Post by Space » Thu Mar 30, 2017 1:52 pm

doubledown00 wrote:Thanks for the feedback everyone.

I discovered after writing the post that resizing the WMC window started playback (as someone here already pointed out).

So yesterday I did an experiment: I took a spare PC that is identical to current hardware and installed a fresh install of Windows 8.1 and WMC on it along with the most recent vendor drivers that I could find. For the display I exclusively used a Sony flat panel monitor and known good HDMI cable.
Exact same result.

Given that this setup use to work with Windows 7 without issue, I'm forced to conclude that the problem is some kind of wonky interplay between the video card / driver and Windows 8.1.
I have an old AMD card in my WMC box, and when I had issues (you can read about it in one of the links I posted above) one of the things I tried was to install the latest drivers for my card (or at least they were supposed to work with my card), they completely failed. So in my case, using older drivers was required to get it working again. Maybe you can try using older drivers to see if they handle HDMI/HDCP any better.

Also, WMC HDCP does not work with DisplayPort, so if you are using a DisplayPort to HDMI adapter I don't think that would work.

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Scallica

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#9

Post by Scallica » Thu Mar 30, 2017 3:31 pm

doubledown00 wrote:Any ideas? Due to the fact there are three extenders, I'm trying to avoid a complete uninstall if at all possible.
Do a clean install and save yourself from spending any more time troubleshooting. Re-adding three extenders isn't so bad.
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Crash2009

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#10

Post by Crash2009 » Thu Mar 30, 2017 7:09 pm

Yeah, that too. ^^^

as I recall, on a fresh build, the first time you open WMC, you get a prompt to install extenders that WMC has discovered. Punch in the number on the extender display and your done.

doubledown00

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#11

Post by doubledown00 » Fri Mar 31, 2017 1:31 am

Scallica wrote:
doubledown00 wrote:Any ideas? Due to the fact there are three extenders, I'm trying to avoid a complete uninstall if at all possible.
Do a clean install and save yourself from spending any more time troubleshooting. Re-adding three extenders isn't so bad.

Already tried that on duplicate hardware. Same problem.

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#12

Post by doubledown00 » Fri Mar 31, 2017 1:33 am

Space wrote:
doubledown00 wrote:
I have an old AMD card in my WMC box, and when I had issues (you can read about it in one of the links I posted above) one of the things I tried was to install the latest drivers for my card (or at least they were supposed to work with my card), they completely failed. So in my case, using older drivers was required to get it working again. Maybe you can try using older drivers to see if they handle HDMI/HDCP any better.

Also, WMC HDCP does not work with DisplayPort, so if you are using a DisplayPort to HDMI adapter I don't think that would work.

I thought about that too and tried rolling back to the oldest driver windows had (which was a 2013 version). No change.
I guess it's possible to go farther back, but at this time I'm wondering if it's a difference between Win 7 and Win 8.

Also I'm not using an adapter. It's HDMI straight through end-to-end.

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#13

Post by Crash2009 » Sat Apr 01, 2017 5:58 am

I am running out of guesses.

1) On the TV, How many HDMI inputs do you have? AND Do you have one named HDMI/DVI? On my Samsung, I was told to use the hdmi/dvi. Might be the same on yours. Since you tried many different monitors, displays, etc, this might not change anything.

2) Pull the video card out and inspect all the caps, resistors, etc for damage. check the bottom for burned or melted flux. Might be simpler just to try a different video card.

3) Does your HDMI go directly from the HTPC to the monitor, or is there an amp in the middle?

4) This last suggestion makes the most sense to me. Try this...

Video card Output 1 to monitor. Nothing else connected to video card Output 2. Go into WMC Tasks/Settings/.....Setup Display and use whatever settings WMC discovers. You must be in Full screen, if you are not you will be prompted. I am assuming that you have no errors in Device Manager before you try this. I am also assuming your O/S is activated.

For anything else you can "get away with almost anything" such as... transplants, no activation, iffy hardware, etc. With WMC you have to be as error free as you can get it. Soon as you build a winner, make an image. Also increase the size of your Restore Point. One major Windows Update might delete your best Restore Point. Example lets say you have 5 restore points with #1 being the most recent...Along comes WU who notices that there is no room for its Restore Point, Bye Bye to your #3-#5. Most of the time the Restore Point you really need is #3-#5. Increase the Restore Point Size.

This was my first experience with Display Driver Error http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 636#p25636

Eventually it blew up again. My 2nd experience I finally found the real problem. Bad Ram and Misconfigured Network http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 838#p22838

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