Ouchies @ ATI, MS .NET Framework, & WinXP MCE

[Alexa [Bot]]

I've been having some serious computer issues this past week, and it's all starting to fall together. Just kind of pointing out here in case any nerd-minded cool folk might have some extra suggestions. I'm not the geek I used to be with this stuff.

I have WinXP Media Center Edition 2005. It has always worked like a charm, until very recently a pretty fatal flaw has been discovered.

On the most recent automatic update for Windows, it tries to install the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1. The install failed. I attempted to repair the existing 2.0 install, and it failed. I attempted to uninstall it, failed. I attempted to MANUALLY repair & uninstall it through windows config, fail & fail again. Errors always reading to the effect of "original install package cannot be opened" every time.

I downloaded other versions of .NET framework, and none of them would install, constant invalid-install-package failures, always very vague in the error logs.

It wasn't effecting the performance of my machine, so I let it be. Then I tried to install the latest ATI catalyst center & drivers (for my Radeon X1300). I was at v.6.8, attempting to install the latest 8.x set.

My machine began crashing every 10 minutes, blue-screening and locking up. Uninstalls and reinstalls galore, including catalyst 7.x series drivers and current version of the Omega drivers, all the installs would work but nothing would stabilize my system and the catalyst/omega control panels would simply crash at bootup every time.

Eventually a complete driver wipe and a fresh install of v.6.8 (where I started) and everything's back to stable again.

Did a little reading. Come to find out that apparently there is a bad flaw with the factory install of WinXP MCE 2005 that makes .NET Framework 2.0 virtually unusable, plus kills any hope of ever fixing or getting rid of the barely-working version it has (save for manually deleting files and delving into the windows registry, which is the one realm I haven't gone to yet, primarily because it appears that this might not make a new install of 2.0 work any better, in this build of WinXP).

So it's not an utter disaster. So long as I stay at 6.8 Catalyst drivers (that apparently use .NET 1.1, hence no 2.0 instability), and manually stop Windows Update from ever touching .NET Framework, my PC will be stable. It just kind of sucks that I apparently can't ever upgrade my video drivers (unless someone has/creates a fix for this issue), but oh well.

[Kyrros]

http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/ ... 36296.aspx

[Tarryk]

That's one of the things I found, and I've already followed all instructions. Hasn't changed the problem (or anything else at all that I can tell, for that matter).

[Kyrros]

What version of 2.0 were you installing?

[Tarryk]

I can't seem to locate anywhere that lists what my current version is, but it's definitely out of beta. The latest release that I've used to attempt to fix/uninstall the current, which is 2.0.50727.42, does not work. The only older release I could find was 2.0.50215.45, which is the Beta, and that simply installs itself as a whole new set (which shows in Add/Remove that I have both 2.0 AND 2.0 Beta, right next to each other).

EDIT: This does not give me the ability to uninstall the non-Beta drivers, and the Service Pack upgrade certainly won't be attempting to upgrade the Beta drivers. My assumption at this point is that I'm in deep doodoo, having two versions installed now. If I uninstall the Beta, I have a feeling it's going to wipe out essential files for the broken one. Without the ability to repair it, that's REALLY going to kill my system.

[Tarryk]

I checked out a couple games, and my system still appears to be stable, although I've certainly put myself into a rough spot with the Beta drivers installed, I think.

As it stands, I'm quite certain the latest ATI drivers still won't work, and I don't think I want to try them, because I'm pretty sure they're dependent on the non-Beta version being updated, and won't fall back to that new install of the Beta set (and probably wouldn't work with it even if they did).

I'm going to leave my system right where it's at, for now, until I can find a true fix for this.

[Innari]

threadjack

Oh my god I love Fizzgig. I can't help it.

/threadjack

[Chaimera]

What about switching from media edition to a full on XP Pro install? or is that totally not gonna do it?

[Tarryk]

Oh my god I love Fizzgig. I can't help it.

LOL agreed, and I think Fizzgig is the closest thing there is to a "real" AO leet.

What about switching from media edition to a full on XP Pro install? or is that totally not gonna do it?

Yeah, that would exactly do it, but I don't have that kind of money (and I definitely want to keep it legit). Plus it's not rendering my system unusable (anymore), just mildly annoying, so not really worth reslamming the OS over just yet.

[Stiofain]

/shudders at media center edition

Seems like that whole release was almost as big of a mistake as ME

[Tarryk]

/shudders at media center edition

Seems like that whole release was almost as big of a mistake as ME

I've heard that from a few people in the past couple weeks. Honestly, until this issue, MCE has been running like a charm for me, and has recovered from (non-MCE-related) crashes really well for the past couple years. But it may just be because this is a brand system (HP), more or less designed around MCE. Either way, I'm not ready to give up on it just yet.

[Kyrros]

If you're not against a clean install, I have a XP key I haven't used for the last few months and don't plan to. I'll have to check if it's a Home or Pro version, but it's one of those two not some weird MElinda Gates version of Windows. ;D