Clean Win7 install - PlayReady update was incomplete loop

[td4west2]

Rebuilding a WMC7 PC after a power outage.
The last clean install on the machine was in late 2019 so Win7 and PlayReady installed without any major issues.
Using the 'Guide_WMC7_on_ESXi_VM.pdf' document as a basis for this rebuild so have all the garyan/DRM 32 bit software downloaded (thanks Gary!) plus the required HDHomeRun, EPG123, etc software.

As of now WMC is up and running with all the OTA channels using the Hauppage WinTV tuner and all non-DRM 'cable' channels using the HDHomerun Prime tuner.

Does anyone know how to actually get past the 'Update PlayReady - ..update was incomplete' issue?
That appears to be the only remaining problem to be solved to get WMC back online.

FWIW, I've tried all the suggestions I can find on TGB: (been working on the rebuild for several weeks)
1) running CleanDRM,
2) running the 6 steps to rename mspr.hds to .old
3) running the 6 additional commands to delete all .hdr and caches
4) installing PlayReady 1.3.0 (X86) at different times in the process, although have never had the option to Install PlayReady appear under General --> Windows Media Center Setup so haven't been able to try that.
5) logging in directly to the adminstrator user to try the install
6) turning off and then back on the WMC 'feature' with all required reboots, etc
7) running with 'Internet Connection' 'always on' set to 'Yes' and 'No'.
etc...

Based on various TGB posts some of the suggestions have been tried at different times in the install process. That said please note that every attempt has been made to only make one change at a time during the many, many full rebuilds of the machine over the last couple of weeks in hopes of identifying a repeatable way to successfully rebuild the machine in the future.

Unfortunately in all cases during the WMC setup, if the Install PlayReady dialog runs during WMC Setup, it always ends with the 'Update PlayReady ...cannot connect to the Internet ...Do you want to try again' screen. 'No' is the only response that makes sense if one wants to finish WMC Setup given that the PlayReady servers are no longer online as I understand it. At that point it would seem like the 'PlayReady update incomplete loop' is inevitable unless someone knows a way to 'convince' WMC that PlayReady is ready to go since it's already been installed with the garyan PlayReady standalone installers.

Thanks.

HP Pavilion 6620 (circa 2008-9)
Windows 7 - SP1
Asus IPIBL-LB MB
Pentium Dual Core E5200 2.5G (32 bit)
4G RAM
2TB HDD
EN210 Asus graphics card
Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1800
HDHomerun Prime
Spectrum CableCARD
Cisco STA1520
(Lost the 2nd HDD in 2019 hence the rebuild then. Its old but has been working well).