atuccillo
asked on
Windows Media Center TV Tuner
I have had Windows XP Media Center installed and working on my Dell PC for four years. Because of viruses and other things bogging down the computer, I had to reformat it. I reinstalled windows, but now I'm having problems with my media center. There is no audio and when I try to go to Settings -> TV, it says 'The tuner hardware is either malfunctioning or not installed.' It has been working for years so there is no problem with the hardware. Any suggestions on how to get it working?
PUNKY
With Dell computer, you can go Dell support website to download all drivers for system. What is your model and service tag?
ASKER
Ok, I visited Dell and downloaded/installed all of the applicable drivers. The media center seems to be working but I still have no audio on the computer. I installed those drivers so I don't know why they wouldn't be working.
Is audio on the TV tuner card or audio on the motherboard? And the tuner card is addon card or it is with system when you purchased from Dell?
ASKER
I'm not 100% sure about the audio but I think it's on the motherboard. The tuner card came with the system that I purchased from Dell.
What is you Dell model though?
Can you check in device manager to see status of audio / sound there? is there error?
Can you check in device manager to see status of audio / sound there? is there error?
ASKER
It's an XPS 400 (if you need more info I'll have to get it later; I'm at work now). I checked the status of the audio and there weren't any errors.
Here is the download link from Dell:
http://support.dell.com/su
Look at and expand the Video, you should see a bunch of TV Tuner card drivers ... however to save time to search it, you must use the Service Tag outside the box to scan system and you will get correct one in few minutes.
The sound might also from onboard as well as TV tuner. I would also check in Bios (F2 during startup) to make sure sound is enable (this is for onboard sound) ....
http://support.dell.com/su
Look at and expand the Video, you should see a bunch of TV Tuner card drivers ... however to save time to search it, you must use the Service Tag outside the box to scan system and you will get correct one in few minutes.
The sound might also from onboard as well as TV tuner. I would also check in Bios (F2 during startup) to make sure sound is enable (this is for onboard sound) ....
ASKER
Ok, I installed the drivers and still nothing. I also noticed that my Media Center won't play video files. It'll open up and say it's recording a program, but if I try to play it I get this error:
'Decoder Error
This video decoder has either malfunctioned or is not installed.
Please restart Media Center and/or the computer.'
I've restarted both Media Center and the computer and still get this error.
I used to have a problem with Windows SP3 update; it basically crashed the media center. Is it possible that theres another update that could be causing these problems? I didn't install SP3 but I did install almost all of the other updates. I'm going to restart my computer now to check the Bios for the sound.
'Decoder Error
This video decoder has either malfunctioned or is not installed.
Please restart Media Center and/or the computer.'
I've restarted both Media Center and the computer and still get this error.
I used to have a problem with Windows SP3 update; it basically crashed the media center. Is it possible that theres another update that could be causing these problems? I didn't install SP3 but I did install almost all of the other updates. I'm going to restart my computer now to check the Bios for the sound.
ASKER
Ok, I just restarted. The sound wasn't enabled so I enabled it. Still nothing. I installed the audio driver and got this message: "The audio driver files do not support your computer hardware. Note: If you uninstalled audio software without restarting your PC, restart now, then run this setup again."
i just remember that I had gotten this message the first time I tried to install it; I didn't realize it was for the audio driver.
i just remember that I had gotten this message the first time I tried to install it; I didn't realize it was for the audio driver.
If SP3 installed automatically via update, you can uninstall it and see if sound will work? You can either remove it in add/remove program (control panel) or do system restore back to sometime SP installed.
Seems that your system is corrupted .... but check in device manager first to make sure there is yellow mark appear next to audio/sound entries there.
When you formatted and reinstall OS, did the sound ever work?
Seems that your system is corrupted .... but check in device manager first to make sure there is yellow mark appear next to audio/sound entries there.
When you formatted and reinstall OS, did the sound ever work?
ASKER
I didn't install SP3. I just double checked and it's deffinitely not there.
In device manager, theres a yellow question mark next to the PCI device and SM Bus Controller. I did some research online but cannot find the driver for either device. It's not on the dell site either.
After I reformatted/installed the OS, the sound never worked. I only reformatted it yesterday.
In device manager, theres a yellow question mark next to the PCI device and SM Bus Controller. I did some research online but cannot find the driver for either device. It's not on the dell site either.
After I reformatted/installed the OS, the sound never worked. I only reformatted it yesterday.
SM Bus Controller is a part of chipset driver, seems that you did not install chipset driver and other hardware drivers for your system ... iRevisit the download link above, and install all drivers for system, and chipset.
ASKER
I installed all of the drivers and the PCI and SM Bus still have yellow question marks.
Remove it from device manager, and let windows redetects and reinstalls drivers for it.
If did not work, Start > Run > type regedit and hit OK ... then broswer to key below
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
Post screen shot here ... Please.
If did not work, Start > Run > type regedit and hit OK ... then broswer to key below
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
Post screen shot here ... Please.
maybe the PCI device is your turner card which is located in a pci slot?
did you say the tuner card is not integrated with motherboard and a septate card?
after you install chipset driver, install the tuner card drivers again.
delete those yellow exclamation points and then pick option on device manager menu which says "scan for hardware changes" XP Media will attempt to reinstall correct drivers again as punky says.
did you say the tuner card is not integrated with motherboard and a septate card?
after you install chipset driver, install the tuner card drivers again.
delete those yellow exclamation points and then pick option on device manager menu which says "scan for hardware changes" XP Media will attempt to reinstall correct drivers again as punky says.
ASKER
Here's a screenshot. Sorry if it's low quality; I haven't had a chance to install Photoshop yet so all I have is Paint.
Thanks
screenshot.bmp
Thanks
screenshot.bmp
ASKER
Ok, I got the PCI working but the SM Bus Controller still has that yellow question mark. I tried uninstalling it and letting windows redetect it; when it scans for the driver it can't find it.
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It seems some corruption in registry or hardware failure here ... worse case is to reinstall Os from fresh.
ASKER
Ok, I had managed to find a driver for the SM Bus Controller. The audio played but was extremely distorted. When I tried renaming the registry folder, nothing would work so I named it back. Any idea why the sound would now work but be so bad?
ASKER
I don't know what I did but the audio is working now. I did an upgrade on the OS and now it's working. I'm still having problems with Media Center playing video, but I'll repost that. Thanks for your help!
You did an upgrade and it works ... it could be registry corrupted as I suspected and an upgrade to fix that ... When you play video with Media Center ... I bet that you will need codecs update as well in order to make video working properly. There are a bunch of updates for video codecs .... but before do so, use free good tool such as to test video and sound:
http://www.videolan.org/vl
http://www.gustosoft.com/d
http://www.videolan.org/vl
http://www.gustosoft.com/d
ASKER
It worked perfectly last night but when I got up this morning and restarted my computer, the sound was a little distorted. I'll try your suggestions above and maybe I'm going to try an upgrade one more time, but if that doesn't work then I'm just going to do a reinstallation. I think one of the windows updates might have messed up both the video and audio.