cluberti

We've already got tools and threads for this all over the forums. Also, you seem to be looking for help on this in multiple other topics - it might be wise to, instead of spamming about the forum, be more precise in your postings, and search before posting. These questions have been asked before - if you need something more specific, feel free to ask. However, up until now all of your questions are a little to vague (or have already been answered / discussed here), so please be a little more industrious before asking for help in the future. Thank you.

We've already got tools and threads for this all over the forums. Also, you seem to be looking for help on this in multiple other topics - it might be wise to, instead of spamming about the forum, be more precise in your postings, and search before posting. These questions have been asked before - if you need something more specific, feel free to ask. However, up until now all of your questions are a little to vague (or have already been answered / discussed here), so please be a little more industrious before asking for help in the future. Thank you.

Unfortunately, no. The problem is likely the PnP identification phase failing (either due to Windows or BDD, but my money's on BDD here given the drivers install fine in Windows). Do the wireless or protect drivers require functional chipset drivers to be installed before they'll work? I can't imagine anything else other than BDD is screwing up the detection, or there's something specific about the driver order.

Good luck .

Yes, a broadcast flag setting DRM could stop this, but this isn't necessarily what I'm talking about. CCI keeps you from being able to watch a show on any device other than the one receiving the content (unless you have DRM that meets the streaming criteria, which MCE does), and there are even bits in CCI that can keep you from time-shifting (aka, recording it on the device you're watching it on). It's for DLNA media from Media Player, not Media Center. To play recorded content from TV on an MCE, you need an approved MCE extender (not just any DLNA device, it has to be *an MCE extender* (like the Xbox 360). You'll find the official ones will say "Extender for Windows Media Center" - the Xbox 360 (as mentioned) is an official extender (obviously), as are units from DLink and Linksys. Note the Linksys D2100 is no longer being made, so the D-Link DSM-750 and the Xbox 360 are the only ones you can buy new. Given that the D-Link has gotten some bad reviews (and it's still ~$400 USD new), I'd say the Xbox 360 is still the best extender out there (an Xbox 360 Elite can be had for about half that, and it does more).

Well, my first and strongest suggestion would be to avoid using Hiren's, as that's technically a warez distribution of software (and thus, talking about it here is frowned on as per forum rules) - further discussion of Hiren's will result in what it always results in for it's users here - a ban. Moving on, if you're looking at distribution of Windows 7, it would be best to use the (free and legal) tools that come with it - WinPE and the WAIK (wsim, dsim, and imagex). Since you've stated you had some issues with it, I would then suggest that you look into another (free and legal) tool, MDT 2010 (and USB key deployment of Windows with it).

Yes, you can copy the contents of the DVD to a HDD and run setup.exe from there. I would recommend using a USB key or the DVD if you can, but if you need to install from another partition (as long as the partition holding the extracted Win7 media isn't the destination partition you're attempting to install to), yes, you can do this.

Is this a flat-file install of a clean OS, or is this a sysprep image? I've had issues with creating sysprep images from (specifically) HP laptops due to odd PNP detection issues afterwards, but work fine from a clean OS deployment.

Shameless plug. If you would have searched, you would have found this (and a few thousand other hits), btw.

Not a problem - it's one of those things where the TiVo design (whilst great back in March of 1999 when the first TiVo was made) is starting to show it's age (just think about it - it's basically an 11-year-old design that only now, with the Premiere units, are getting a much different version of the software and front-end). They'd have to redo quite a bit of their software to make this work like MCE does, and I don't know if they can or will be desirous to do so. Hard to say, but yes, you need to keep abreast of the broadcast flag and it's components - having a system that isn't designed to handle it (if your cableco implements it now, or in the future) is something you need to be aware of because I doubt either TiVo or the cableco are going to tell you anything reliable on this subject as it's likely touchy for all involved - the cableco has to do what content providers push, and if TiVo (or any other PVR maker) wants to be able to release a product into the market, they need to implement the DRM to allow things like the broadcast flag. This means that the TiVo design of transferring shows (rather than streaming them) is not designed to work in the "new" age of the broadcast flag, specifically the CCI bit (technically it's been around for almost 10 years itself, but it's only starting to see more broad implementations over the last two years or so).

Unfortunately, on XP you do not have the Vista+ option on the processes tab where you can right click the .exe and choose "open file location". You can, however, use Process Explorer and right-click a running process and select "Properties". It will show you the path and the startomg command-line of the binary in question.

Honestly, that question's been asked for the last few years, and they're still here. It's a valid question, but given TiVo holds the patent to time shifting in DVRs, I'd expect them to stay afloat long after competitors have failed. Yes, Microsoft isn't going anywhere (and they seem committed to MCE, putting it's feature-extensions into the Xbox 360 and Windows Home Server, but I would suggest for your wife and you probably the TiVo route. TiVo really is easy to use, and you can remove programming to a Windows box for archival (as long as you have your TiVo media key). It's not portable like MCE programming copied off (once a TiVo program is copied to a machine, it has to stay there unless you remove the encryption). Also, TiVo specifically has gotten bit with the CCI bit in the broadcast flag that some cable providers are now shipping with lots of programs and sometimes whole channels - watch out for this. The CCI bit will keep you from copying the files off of the TiVo, watching shows on other DVRs, and sometimes even from recording the program itself and watching later on the *same* TiVo. MCE is not technically immune to this (you can't burn a CCI-flagged show and watch it on another MCE PC, for example), but the way TiVo works causes it to handle the CCI bit differently than MCE. For example, a show with CCI on MCE can still be seen in other extender units registered to MCE somewhere else in the house as long as the DRM keeps the remote unit in contact with (and validating the licensing of) the orignal MCE where the show was recorded, because it's never physically moved from the original box. In contrast, TiVo locks the file down entirely because it has to copy the show to play it on another TiVo - it doesn't "stream" the file, it actually has to copy it and replay it on the other unit (which is of course in violation of the CCI bit). There's no workaround for this that I am aware of due to the aforementioned way TiVo "shares" programming, so if you live in an area where the CCI bit is being sent with programming, this could be a deal-breaker. This seems to happen on channels periodically on Time Warner, Comcast, CableVision, etc. Just keep it in mind - might want to do your homework on it before plunking down cash for multiple units which may or may not be fully functional. However, if you find you won't run into this (yet), TiVo is an easier choice for the wife, I would think. Like I mentioned before, there are reasons I chose the MCE over TiVo, and this was one of them. The broadcast flag *is* coming, whether we like it or not - TiVo is *not* ready for this in prime-time, but the Microsoft solution is (the DRM platform actually doing something good for a change).

Yes, this will confirm if it's the AOL software or not - assuming you disable the IR device in device manager, and when connected to the internet you still see the IRDA8-1 errors, you can be sure it's the AOL software causing the problems. The only fix I can think of is to ditch AOL, but that's her choice.

ATI drivers are easy, because once you extract the package the drivers are in flat-format in a WDM subfolder - add this folder to the workbench, and things work (you don't get the Control Panel, but I argue that's a good thing). Nvidia drivers are harder because they require not only the .INF files, but that the PhysX MSI file is installed (and potentially the NvCplSetupEng.exe file run as well). I find it best to use WMI in WinPE to determine the video card installed (Win32_VideoController class, PnPDeviceID and VideoProcessor properties should be sufficient to tell you what's in the box), and script installation of the Nvidia drivers after Windows is installed as part of the task sequence. It's the only way I've gotten it to work 100%.

It depends, but yes, a "Repair install" is really only meant to repair *Windows*, and not "the system". People (rightly) think of their Windows installations as Windows+Apps+Settings, which can cause problems when people do Repair installations - the Windows installer only knows about *Windows*, and while it can sometimes do a repair and keep your apps and settings working, it's not a guarantee by any means (and depending on the damage it needs to repair, it can break pretty much everything else - making a clean install more effective, but of course that takes far longer). I always try to fix machines with issues before doing a repair install, unless the damage is too obvious or the machine was infected with something malicious - in those (and only those) two scenarios, I always revert to a reinstall rather than fix. Honestly, I've generally found Repair installs to be too much of a crapshoot, so I don't ever recommend them unless you've already decided you'll be OK with doing a clean install if the Repair fails, and your time is worth nothing (because when the Repair fails, you have to reinstall everything anyway). You may actually be having an issue stopping services because of the COM+ problems, and this is ok. It's why my step#1 said "you need to stop any service that is running that the system will let you stop" rather than just "you need to stop any service that is running". Do what you can, and miss what you can't. Still keep trying, as technically this step is only a precaution, rather than a requirement. If you really get stuck and services do cause msdtc -install to fail, you can try in safe mode. However, it *should* work from regular mode, even with most services running. Give it a try, see what happens .

The only suggestion I'd make would be to boot into audit mode, apply said updates, and then sysprep and capture that to a new WIM to install. If you're doing this a lot, and you have .exe and .msu packages to apply, this is probably the most reliable (not the fastest, but it works) way.

This is indeed true, which is why you're seeing it even on a VM, OP. It's probably best to determine hardware (in a WinPE environment) before attempting to restore an image, and then inject the proper drivers for the hardware at that time. You could consider using MDT 2010 for this, but you would have to use flat-file or sysprep installs (not WIM image captures) to install XP from MDT-created media.

Always sad to see a project die, but that usually means the authors have moved onto other projects they like more (or get paid for, or both), enjoying life outdoors, etc. It was a pretty good project, and while I am sad to see it dead, there are other ways to skin that cat. Hopefully Tommy and Tomcat are happier now, because that's the only really important thing.

No problem, although I think you misunderstood - everything is most definitely NOT as it should be. Specifically, you probably have a busted image (which you used to build those 10 machines on), so you've replicated the fact that the catroot is broken, and updates are probably not installing 100% properly. The files are updated, yes, but catroot is still broken. Given there isn't going to be an SP4 for Windows XP, you *probably* won't run into any errors leaving things as-is, but I wouldn't be comfortable with it in a corporate environment. I'd be recreating a new image and reloading it on those PCs (once I'm sure it's working) as soon as possible. You just never know when an update *will* actually fail to install (service packs are going to fail if catroot is broken, although individual updates are probably not going to fail). Also, your logs indicate your machines have no clue whether they're supposed to be installing QFE or GDR bits, which is probably the more pressing problem (if you run into an update that requires you to install the QFE bits, for example, to fix a problem, but the machine installs GDR... then what?). Again, I'd be fixing this ASAP, honestly.

If you would have taken the time to look at the links I posted, you would have found them right here.

The problem is, the problem was never really gone. MSDTC is a demand-start service, so you will only see errors from it when something in COM requires it - which likely explains why it was "gone" for awhile, and then started showing up again later. What allen2 had you do just masked the logfile problem (although it did cause MSDTC to spit out more useful errors, so it was a good effort to do nonetheless). However, at this point MSDTC is still broken, so the errors (and any problems using MSDTC) are going to come back as soon as the logs are rebuilt the next time MSDTC is started. What I suggest is not removing the symptoms by sweeping the errors under the rug, but actually doing the cleaning necessary to *fix* the problem. Otherwise you still have dirt on the floor, you just won't see it for awhile - that's not fixing anything . To that end, and to explain what is wrong: What you have are two different, but related, event errors - the first and third error in the event log are actually the same, specifically it is logging that your machine is failing to start the MSDTC service because something in it's init is failing. The second event is specifically why the MSDTC service won't start - 0x8004d027 == XACT_E_UNABLE_TO_READ_DTC_CONFIG. What you're likely to see if you open dcomcnfg at this point is that the My Computer icon under Component Services will have a red downward pointing arrow icon indicating a problem with both the COM+ catalog on the machine, as well as the MSDTC configuration. You are going to need to remove and re-add the MSDTC components at this point, and also rebuild the COM+ catalog to get back to a working, clean state (it's likely some COM object was installed that broke this at the root of the problem, although tracking it down now is not possible). 1. In services.msc, you need to stop any service that is running that the system will let you stop (just don't try to stop the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) service, or you'll reboot the box) - doing this is important, as MSDTC removal/reinstall can fail if services are running and locking files. 2. Open a command prompt logged on as an Administrator, and execute the following command: msdtc -uninstall 3. Open the registry, and delete any of the following KEYS if they exist: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CID HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSDTC HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\MSDTC HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Services\MSDTC HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\MSDTC 4. Again, from the command prompt, execute the following command: msdtc -install - You should see event 4104 logged in the event viewer stating that the MSDTC service was installed successfully. If so, REBOOT now. 5. Once the box is rebooted, open a command prompt logged on as an Administrator, and execute the following command: msdtc -resetlog - REBOOT AGAIN, but this time you need to reboot into SAFE MODE for the next few steps: 6. Open a command prompt, change to the %WINDIR%\system32 directory, and execute the following command: rename clbcatq.dll ~clbcatq.dll 7. Open Windows Explorer, and browse to the %SYSTEMROOT% directory. Make a backup copy of the Registration folder (if it exists - make sure you are not hiding hidden and system files in the Windows Explorer folder options), then delete it. Any errors in deleting files is OK, just try to delete the entire folder and get rid of whatever Windows will let you delete at this point (if it deletes without an error, that's actually pretty indicative that this was really broken ). You can clean up the folder itself later on in step 9 if necessary, but it likely won't be. 8. Open the registry, and browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\COM3. First, make a backup of the COM3 key by exporting it, and then delete the COM3 key itself (please be careful here to only delete the COM3 key and it's components). - Once you've done steps 6 - 8, REBOOT again, back into a regular Windows XP boot as you normally would when booting the system. 9. As previously mentioned at the end of step 7, if you had any trouble deleting the Registration folder from %SYSTEMROOT% in step 7, go back and finish the job now. The folder should be able to be deleted without any further errors at this point. 10. Last, but not least, open the Control Panel, and then open up the Add/Remove Programs applet. JUST CLICK NEXT - DO NOTHING ELSE. The ARP binaries will notice that COM+ is "broken" (we broke it here), and will reinstall COM+ and repair it's catalog. It is worth noting that this can break things installed that had COM components loaded, like some activex controls and applications like IIS. If you have anything that behaves... oddly... after this, you'll need to repair or reinstall those applications. However, this repair shouldn't take more than 10 minutes or so, and you won't have to rebuild your entire box to fix this.

Patriot sticks generally are the best, especially as you move up the capacity ladder. They will rarely be the fastest writers, but read speeds are pretty darned good. I use a 64GB Patriot to hold all of my installs, and it's just unbeatable to actually run a whole install (apps and all).

If you're monitoring anything more than one or two devices, getting a switch with an admin port is a must. To the OP, if you want to MONITOR your network (rather than troubleshoot it or watch every packet), consider any of the packages previously mentioned, but add another: OpManager. If you manage 10 devices or less, it's free.

Usually the range of an IrDA device is about 10 feet on most laptop machines, so if it is an IrDA connection the device is within ~10ft of the user when they're seeing the warnings, for what it's worth. It is worth noting that IRDA8-1 is an actual device name, and I've seen people with AOL software installed get these things logged in their event viewer over and over, even when no IrDA ports were in use (disabled in device manager). If she's got AOL (you did say it's dial-up, so the likelihood is good), it's a bug with the AOL software calling the *modem* itself "IRDA8-1", so the problem is coming in over the dial-up connection. My bet is that she's using AOL, honestly, and AOL has locked up the modem (requiring a reboot) when the problem occurs, as this is one of those "known-buggy" areas of the AOL codebase for dial-up.

TiVo's lifetime subscription is usually $399 for the unit, but $12.95 monthly. If you plan on keeping it more than 30 months, then it starts being "free" in month 31. Otherwise, monthly is cheaper (a lifetime subscription is for the box only, so you need one for each TiVo, and it's non-transferable). Just FYI (there's always confusion about this, so I figure I'd throw it out there preemptively). MCE Extenders are great, but again, the cost of one very nice MCE computer + a few extenders is probably going to be approximately the same (within a hundred or so dollars) of a few TiVo units and lifetime subscriptions for each, so it is always best to choose the device(s) that will work best for you. The one nice thing about an MCE box is that it's also a Win7 computer, and ties in nicely with a Windows Home Server (if you ever decide to go with a "media server" type environment, WHS+MCE is a much better experience than anything else I've tried - however, if you don't, it means nothing ).