HDCP Support Required after change

[Space]

Well, I think I messed up...

My system has been fine for years except recently I started having a problem when trying to view live TV, it would give a message about "display driver error". If I would minimize and then maximize WMC it would work again.

I did some research and found out that it can happen when you have more than one display adapter (real or fake) and one of them does not support HDCP. Since I had VNC installed it had added an extra "fake" display adapter, so I uninstalled VNC and it seemed to be working again for a while, but then just a few days ago I started getting the message again.

I did more research and saw in Device manager that my "Generic PnP Monitor" had an error of "Code 38 - Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware because a previous instance of the device driver is still in memory.".

I found some info about showing hidden devices that were once installed but no longer attached (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/mag ... 84583.aspx) and saw that there were several copies of the "Generic PnP Monitor" that were hidden under "Monitors", so I uninstalled all but the one that was "active" (and also had the driver error mentioned above).

Apparently this was a big mistake.

After a reboot, I now have 1 "Generic PnP Monitor" with no errors, but if I try to watch any channel live, or try to view any of my copy protected recordings I get an error about "HDCP Support Required".

I thought to try "System Restore" but for some reason it was disabled (I think when I had my C: hard drive crash months ago and had cloned to another drive, "System Restore" was for some reason not enabled by default).

I re-installed my video drivers (AMD) but that did not work either (although I just installed them over the existing drivers without uninstalling the existing one first).

So I am hoping that someone here can tell me what my next step should be. I was going to uninstall the video drivers (maybe use some extra software to make sure they are completely uninstalled) and then install them again, but I don't want to get myself in to bigger trouble then I am in already. I would also hate to loose the ability to playback my hundreds of videos that are copy protected.

Thanks for any help anyone can provide!

[DavidinCT]

Maybe start with a SFC /SCANNOW ?

This would get Windows files back to their default drivers and reset changed files.

[DanH]

A few things to try...

1. Download and run Malwarebytes (free edition is fine). It will look for and remove any spyware. If it finds anything, reboot and scan with it again...if it finds more, repeat the reboot and re-scan

2. SFC /SCANNOW is a great idea as well, but it is not going to fix display driver problems.

3. Get the latest drivers for your display adapter, directly from the OEM of the chipset (typically Nvidia or AMD) and DO NOT install it yet. Remove any existing drivers via Control Panel/Programs. Remove the current display driver in Device Manager (including the current one) and reboot. Windows will discover the display adapter and install a generic driver...this is ok. Now install the latest driver that you earlier downloaded. After completing the install and any required reboots Device Manager should show the OEM driver installed.

Good Luck!

[Space]

Thanks for the replies!

I doubt I have any malware on this machine since I only use it as a DVR and don't use it for anything else like web browsing. I am pretty sure System restore was disabled due to me swapping boot drives (it still was "on" on a separate C: drive that it said no longer existed (I assume the old crashed drive), but the new C: drive that it was actually booting from had it turned off).

I ran SFC /SCANNOW and it said it found some problems but was unable to fix them. Looking at the log I see this:

2016-03-06 10:15:19, Info CSI 00000356 [SR] Cannot repair member file [l:16{8}]"img1.jpg" of Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Wallpaper-Nature, Version = 6.1.7600.16385, pA = PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE_AMD64 (9), Culture neutral, VersionScope = 1 nonSxS, PublicKeyToken = {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}, Type neutral, TypeName neutral, PublicKey neutral in the store, file is missing


It looks like a minor problem of not finding a .jpg file for wallpaper, so I don't think it is a real issue. I searched the (large) log and did not find any other entry with the word "Cannot" in it, so I assume that was the only problem that could not be fixed (but it looks like it may have fixed a few things, but it's hard to tell from the log). In any case, I rebooted afterwards and it did not fix my problem.

As I indicated, my next step was to fully uninstall the driver and then re-install. I don't know if I want the latest drivers though, I use AMD Catalyst 13.1 (old) with my old HD 6570 graphics card and I don't know if I'll have any additional problems if I try to use a whole new set of drivers. I'd like to keep the variables to a minimum.


If anyone has any other ideas or tips, I would be very grateful. I have an old image backup that I can use as a last resort, but unfortunately it is 2 or 3 months old and I have made a few changes to my system since then (I know I should have made another image after making the changes, and I was going to do so, but it just slipped my mind). They were just software changes, so I could probably re-do them (if I can remember everything), but I am not looking forward to that and would rather avoid it if I can.

Maybe there are some files/registry entries I can extract from the old image to "bring back" the "Generic PnP Monitor" devices I deleted?

Thanks again!

[Space]

I just uninstalled the AMD Catalyst drivers, uninstalled the display driver from the device manager and rebooted. Then I reinstalled the 13.1 AMD Catalyst driver and, other than removing all the setting I had set for my graphics card, it did not fix the problem, still get the "HDCP Support Required" message when trying to play back copy protected content and live TV (even unprotected channels).

This really sucks...

EDIT: I just booted off of my secondary HD which has an old image of my system (so it should not have any of the changes I did to mess things up) however even when booted from this drive, I still get the same HDCP error message!! How can this be??? It should be booted from an image that didn't have the problem! How can this problem persist when I am booted off a completely different disk?

[Space]

Well, I feel like I'm in a death spiral now...

I tried installing the latest Catalyst drivers for my card, 15.7.1 and now I cant play back ANY video, I get "Decoder Error" when I try to play a non-protected video. Also sound through the HDMI does not work at all (no startup sound, etc). If I try to "test" the sound device it says "the device is in use by another application".

So now my system is completely screwed. At least before I could play non-protected videos, now I can't play any video.

I guess I'll try to go back to the previous driver (13.1) hopefully that will get me at least to be able to play videos.



EDIT: OK, I reverted back to 13.1 and at least now I can play non-protected videos again. Still can't play protect ones or view live TV.

Anyone have any other suggestions? Maybe uninstall WMC and reinstall? Will doing that definitely make it so I won't be able to view my copy protected shows, or does that only happen if I do something with PlayReady or add/remove hardware?

I'm grasping at straws at this point. I guess I am OK for a little while, as I am on FiOS and there are not many protected channels (just HBO, Cinemax, and Fox cable networks) and I almost never watch live anyway. Recordings (as far as I can tell) seem to be working (even for protected channels) so hopefully that will continue to work.

[Space]

WOW! Just Wow!

I fixed the problem!

I couldn't understand why I still have the problem even after reverting to an image that didn't have the changes that (supposedly) caused the issue, I kept thinking about it and something came to me... When I reverted to my old boot drive, what things DIDN'T change? Well, the hardware (video card), the TV, and the... HDMI cable.

I don't know why the problem would kick in right after I made those changes, but I figured, why not try it since I had an extra HDMI cable...

Yep, it worked! Replaced the HDMI cable and all is working again.

I still don't have an explanation as to why replacing the cable worked (it is unlikely that the cable just happened to go bad when I made those changes) but I guess as long as it continues to work, I have no complaints...

Thanks to everyone that helped!

[Space]

After thinking that the new HDMI cable fixed the issue, I had another instance of "Display driver error – the video playback device does not support playback of protected content." when trying to playback a copy-protected video.

I looked in the Device Manager again and saw that my "Generic PnP Monitor" had a little yellow icon on it, and viewing the detail I saw an error of "Code 38 - Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware because a previous instance of the device driver is still in memory."

This is the same as I saw before.

This time, the first thing I did was go to the HDMI cable and check the connection, and it appears that the HDMI port on my TV may be a little "loose". This, combined with the way the weight of the cable pulls on the port appears to make the connection less than reliable.

I jiggled things around in the connector and tried to make it as stable as possible and then rebooted the PC.

After the reboot, the yellow icon was gone in Device Manager and I could play protected content once again.

So it looks like my real problem is a flaky HDMI connector on my TV.

Another thing I had noticed earlier was when I brought my PC out of standby, I heard the "disconnect" sound, like what you hear when you disconnect a USB device. So I assume that while my PC was in standby, something jostled the HDMI cable and caused the problem. When the PC came back up, it detected a problem and marked my display as having an issue. Perhaps it only checks for this problem when coming out of standby or booting up, I am not sure.

I had heard the sound a few times before recently (when bringing the PC out of standby) and did not know why, I guess now I know. But I don't think I ever heard it at any other time, indicating that maybe it only detects that condition at startup/exiting standby. I will be more aware of hearing that sound now and note when it occurs.

Anyway, I will leave it this way for now, maybe I'll try to stabilize the connector in some way if it continues, or perhaps just move it to another HDMI port on the TV.

[DrSmith]

Space, your HDMI saga makes me glad that I still use (primitive) component cables for most of my screens. When I have a cable problem my display just turns red or green and since it's uni-directional my compute unit can't use all of its "brains" to try and help me with the diagnosis.