XP Media Center Boondoggle

Okay, here's the latest issue with a neighborhood PC...

The thing would not boot in normal or safe mode. A little sticker on the PC only indicated that it was Windows XP - no mention of the edition. Since 'most' people that have XP are running the Home Edition I booted with one of those disks and attempted repairs.

After the usual chkdsk and fixboot and fixmbr failed to make a dent, I did a bootcfg rebuild, and entered Windows Home Edition as the OS identifier.

Lo and behold, it worked. But on the startup I noticed that not only was the Windows XP Home Edition listed.... but also Windows Media Center. I chose the Home and it booted beautifully. I downloaded and ran Malwarebytes, cleaned up the errors, cleaned up msconfig, updated avast and returned the unit.

However, this guy has a game called Card Player Poker that he desperately loves, but can no longer play due to a Card Player Poker has encountered a problem and needs to close error box. I talked him through the uninstall, and reinstall to no avail. I even had him download CCleaner, and run the registry clean up. Did not help.

Yesterday I went over there and did a disk cleanup, deleted everything from his Windows Temp file but the folder, lowered the graphics hardware accelerator, checked for newer graphics drivers. No change.

I then went to the command screen and ran chkdsk /r again, returning several hours later to see that it'd made no difference.

I then ran sfc /scannow which after a few minutes asked me to insert my XP Professional CD into the tray. Professional!! Now I had already checked the system screen and it said XP Media Center edition. And of course the boot OS was XP Home. And now it was asking for an XP Pro disk???

Nonetheless I inserted an XP Pro CD, and after about 5 minutes it asked me to insert disk 2

I don't have any disk 2 for XP Pro. I skipped all the files, but of course he still cannot play the game.

He is getting the same msg on some of the other executable game files he has on the PC, but not all. And of course he was able to run the CCleaner executable, Malwarebytes .exe, etc....

Ideas???? This guy is disabled and doesn't use his PC for a heck of a lot other than emailing, some searches, and games.

I'm stumped. And I'm very leary of an OS reinstall because of a possible fubar on the product code/activation issue.

 

Okay, so since I've made it to page 4 with 55 'reads' & zero replies, I'm not sure whether the lack of response is because the problem is baffling, or just a lack of interest...

Anyhow, here is the latest development:
I loaded an updated copy of .Net Framework onto a flash drive and went over to his house today. It wouldn't run. Just gave me a msg box saying Run Error. No codes. No details. Thanks MS.

I ran a Windows update, which completed successfully (69 updates) save for one Security Update. Still get the Poker has encountered a problem and needs to close, etc.. msg. I then tried to run the .Net update from the flash drive. Same error as before.

I then booted from an XP Pro CD w/SP3, and was able to choose Repair Install. It went through without a hitch. Said that a restart was required to finish repairs.

On the reboot, it went into Windows Setup screen, where it was about 2/3 finished and wanted me to insert the XP Pro CD into the tray (I'd removed it after the repair finished).

I wasn't sure if this Setup was going to impact his documents and programs, so I stopped it.

Now I cannot start in safe mode (I get a msg saying that setup cannot continue in safe mode, and every time I try to start normally it wants to continue the set with the XP Pro CD.

I really don't know if I should back all his stuff up and continue with the setup, or just continue and assume his files will be intact. And will it ask me for a product code? I don't know.

Does anybody reading this have any insights? Ideas?

 

Hi

First of all, if MCE and Home were listed when you had the Home CD in, then the original OS was MCE. MCE is based on the Professional Edition, which is why it asked for the Professional CD.

Secondly, I'd suggest reinstalling the OS (Windows XP Media Center Edition) after backing up all files.

Good luck!

 

Been working with PCs for a number of years & I have never, ever seen any copies of Windows XP Media Center Edition. My friend with the 'broken' Compaq certainly never was given any when he purchased the unit.

He doesn't really care about the extra features that distinguish MC from Pro - he just wants his Poker game to work again.

 

I've seen one standalone MCE install disk in my lifetime, though they seem to be pretty rare. I've also owned and worked on machines running MCE. I liked the gloss theme it had. You could always call MSFT to ask if the MCE key will work to activate Pro, as I've never tried to activate a copy of Pro on a MCE machine. Otherwise, the only other options I can think of are: A) ordering recovery media from the machine's manufacturer, B) purchasing a copy of Windows for the machine, or C) installing a freeware OS, i.e. Linux distro. I'm fairly sure the poker game isn't going to work on Linux, and the user won't want to learn how to navigate a Linux machine. I'd just hope you can still purchase the recovery media for it... shouldn't cost that much.

 

Not gonna work...

Gateway no longer has recovery CDs available for this 825GM model, and they suggest I contact Microsoft, who will sell me a Retail version for big bucks.

I despise Microsoft.

Now I used a Winternals ERD, accessed System Restore and restored to this past Saturday - to a time before I'd done the Repair install with the XP Pro CD.

It wants to activate. And of course, I can't. I selected by telephone and read the 60 or 90 character product installation ID into the automated idiot, and was finally told it was invalid.

I despise Microsoft.