All my Media PC's constantly locking up. Recent Updates?

[backwards1]

Within the last 48hrs all 4 of my Media PC's (W7 64bit) have been locking up each time I try to open up Live TV. I get various outcomes from the constant Windows Aero circle spinning and Unable to view channel. One of my systems was reloaded on Saturday and I had a heck of a time getting the guide to update. It finally went through and was working fine. Then I found my main living room system kept locking up each time I went into Live TV. I would Ctrl Alt Dlt and get the program ended and then try again. Later that day I came back from work and still no working system. It would go straight to windows aero circle and lock up. I could alt tab out but WMC was freezing up. I tried a long shot and rolled the system back to the 18th and it actually fixed it. Another system that also was locking up was partially fixed by running the WMC reset. But now I have no guide on that one. My main PC that was reloaded Saturday was bulletproof till just now, now it has all the symptoms and displaying no available tuner,etc. The HDhomerun software shows tuners are available. It appears to be related to TV playback. I have had DVD playback and all other PC functions work including 3D games. Something has gone bad in WMC. Anyone having these lock up issues? Could a bad HDHomeRun Prime cause these hang ups? I didn't see any Windows updates installed last night and now this system is also experience issues. hard to pinpoint.

[backwards1]

One thing I just remember at the start of this. On all of the PC's we experienced a pop up inside WMC that displayed Cable Card detected would you like to setup. THis was out of the blue, working WMC systems and now this was appearing. I did have a power outage about the time this all started so wondering if something got hosed on my cable card or HDhomerun prime.

[ray.carol]

I am having issues as well. It appears to be related to Microsoft KB3087985 or a McAfee update. Those are the only 2 items that happened to my 2 machines before the problems developed.

[Shark007]

I would recommend that you begin troubleshooting by choosing to uninstall MacAfee.

[Crash2009]

If you choose to dig a little deeper.....

The WindowsUpdate.log can sometimes be helpful.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/902093

The article describes how to read the Windowsupdate.log file. To view the log file, follow these steps:

1.Click Start, and then click Run.

2.In the Open box, type windowsupdate.log, and then click OK.

[Crash2009]

I did have a power outage about the time this all started.

Dead motherboard battery can cause "Lost BIOS settings" which can effect proper operation of PlayReady. When this has happened to me in the past, my windows clock informs me that the year is 2080, rather than 2015.

[backwards1]

Thanks guys for reading through the issue. My main system is on a quality APC UPS so no power issues there. The HDHomerun Prime was not(I never got around to buying a replacement battery for that area).

My systems are sometimes working other times they lock up and freeze even trying other features like recorded TV. It feels like an update issue with all my systems acting up. I used to like tinkering with my electronics in the past but now with less time available this becomes a Royal PITR.

[ray.carol]

Thanks for the ideas. I will take a look at the Windows update log. That could be very useful, as it is now my main suspect. I have uninstalled my McAfee antivirus and ran the McAfee removal tool, and the problem still persists. At one point, one of my machines was working (had not installed the Microsoft KB3087985 update yet) and one was not (had installed the update already). The working machine installed the update overnight and did not work the next day.

[billroden]

Norton was an issue for me after it was updated. I executed a bunch of things to try that I got from ceton but they seemed to not work. I was at the point where I was going to clean my system out by reinstalling win7 (since I am kind of due for that) but I wasn't in the mood for that project. I would restart my machine as ceton said everytime I made the changes but nothing! Then my last ditch effort before cleaning the machine, I did a hard reset/start. I shut the machine down, waited a few seconds and hit the power button on the machine. After that, I was back in business as if nothing ever happened. I was very happy.

I don't know if I just did the hard start after uninstalling Norton would have saved me a lot of grief but I would try that from the start. Good luck

Bill

[Scallica]

Stop installing anti-virus/security products on your HTPC; it will only cause problems, not prevent them.

[STC]

You have the 'anti-virus virus'.

Very common. The route cause sits in between the chair and the keyboard.

[ray.carol]

The problem was with the Microsoft KB3087985 security update. I actually have a Ceton tuner card that Windows Media Center uses. Ceton has released a beta driver that fixes this problem.

[backwards1]

Well my systems are far better but I still get some WMC screens at times saying no tuner is available. Each system prompted to update the HDHomerun Prime software. So far I am up and running about 95% of the time compared to 5% of the time last week.

I did have the latest Comcast Security Suite (Norton 360) installed and even with the firewall disabled I still had issues. (any recommended stable small footprint AV programs that I could run?)
I also removed the stated update 7985 I believe.

It's far better at the moment and thanks to the members that took the time to read and post.

[Crash2009]

Well my systems are far better but I still get some WMC screens at times saying no tuner is available. Each system prompted to update the HDHomerun Prime software. So far I am up and running about 95% of the time compared to 5% of the time last week.

I did have the latest Comcast Security Suite (Norton 360) installed and even with the firewall disabled I still had issues. (any recommended stable small footprint AV programs that I could run?)
I also removed the stated update 7985 I believe.

It's far better at the moment and thanks to the members that took the time to read and post.

Try this.....

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 830#p94830

[ray.carol]

I also tried removing the Microsoft security update, using a previous restore point, and completely removing my antivirus and running the McAfee removal tool. Unfortunately, none of these actions worked. It appears the update is not fully removed by any of these actions. If you do not have a system backup image from before the update to restore, I recommend contacting your TV tuner manufacturer for an update.