[SusanC]

I continually have a problem with Vista's Windows Media Center coming up for no reason whatsoever. I can walk away from my PC and when I return, that program has popped up. I can be looking at an email and all of a sudden it pops up. Often, when I boot up, that program will come up first. It's so annoying and I cannot stop it from loading.
This was a serious problem when my PC crashed three times after I bought in mid-April of 2007. Then, I would get tons and tons of little windows popping up with errors, trying to load that program, which I never wanted to bring it up, and I couldn't get out of all those error windows and had to push the power button off. My PC was taken back to Best Buy three times to be fixed. The third time they discovered that the hard drive was damaged right out of the box from the factory. When I got it back the third time with a new hard drive, all was fine for about two weeks and then that program started coming up again almost every day.

HELP - I hope someone has this computer with Vista and the Windows Media Center. Thanks.

[Kman414]

Hi Susan,

I hope someone out there will have the solution to this problem because I am having the same problem.

My problem is in Windows XP. I also have Vista on my laptop but so far so good with that one. This problem started suddenly about 4 days ago.

I tried system restore but this feature never works on my XP computer.

Good Luck,

Steve

[VladTheImpaler1990]

Hey there

Well there might be aa virus on your pc, what anti virus do you have and also when last did you do a scan, you can go to run, type in msconfig and then go to applications and turn off windows media player.

[rgreen4]

Susan - have you had any contact with HP technical support? Your machine is new enough to still be under warranty and therefore still under HP technical support umbrella.

The post on what anti-virus you are running is a good idea, as is the question of when you ran your last scan.

I know your husband also has a new machine, does he also have a touchsmart PC?

[SusanC]

I have Trend Micro Antivirus and also with Earthlink, any harmful or malicious emails that come in, Earthlink immediately deletes the attachment. I have Spy Sweeper which scans my computer every day at 4:00 p.m.

[SusanC]

Each time before I tried to contact HP on the phone, I got someone from another country and could not understand one word and the call took way to long. I've even tried to email, but get no response. I run a scan with Spy Sweeper every day at 4:00 p.m. Both my husband and me have identical HP TouchSmart PC's. I have Trend Micro Antivirus and Earthlink is excellent at catching malicious or harmful attachments and deleting them immediately.

[SusanC]

I hope someone does have the answer to stop this from loading every day or every other day. I'm surprised you're having the same problem with XP. I think Vista needs to have some patches real soon.

[rgreen4]

Susan - you can call HP tech support and ask them for a case number. They may be a little resistant as this kicks the complaint up another step.

Another option is to contact HP tech support via the on-line chat. I have used that a couple of times and it has been successful - but my problem was with a printer, not a PC. They can actually scan your computer for diagnostic purposes, the tech I "chatted" with actually scanned the driver and printer setup. You have to allow it, for your anti-spyware should kick in and if your using IE7, IE7 will kick in, in Vista UAC might even kick in. The last time I did this, it was on my older XP PC last December.

[SusanC]

HHi there. I just did a search for msconfig (there is no 'run' option on Vista) and what came up after that did not have the 'applications' option. Vista is so different from XP or any other Windows that I've ever had.

[rgreen4]

Susan - I appologize for being so tardy in my reply. I saw your post this morning while at work, and since I have a Win2K machine there, I couldn't research my answer. I go home a little while ago, on Tuesday, I generally have dinner with a couple that are very good long term friends, their son, daughter-in-law and grandkids. Last summer after major surgery, they opened their home to me for recuperation until I was released to start driving again.

Actually, Vista does still have the "run" command, it's just well hidden. If you will press down on the Windows key and the R key at the same time and then release, the run command box pops up. Or you can click the Start Button, then All Programs and then Accessories. Down in the middle, right below the Remote Desktop Conntection and right about the Snipping tool selections, is the Run option.

In the box that pops open, simply enter msconfig in the run box, and hit enter. You will probably have to click continue in the UAC warning box. Then under the Services tab, you will find three lines for the Media Center. On my machines, all three lines are check, but state "stopped" in the status column. If like some (but not me) you want to turn off the UAC, that is found under the Tools tab.

I had to cheat to find the "run" box - I looked it up in the book "Windows Vista - The Missing Manual" edited by David Pogue and published by O'Reilly Media. I have found this book a godsend, just as I did the one on XP, which I find myself referring back to for forum answers at times.

[SusanC]

That's okay . . . you don't have apologize for being tardy. . . you have helped me about HP and right now the Windows Media Center is running because I brought that up to listen to music. I will go to HP's website and chat with someone that can type, instead of trying to understand a person that doesn't talk English. I got so mad about that issue.

Sounds like your friends are great and very nice to open their home to you for recuperation. What happened with you?

I have the book of Windows Vista for Dummies but doesn't have the RUN where it is. Just about the search space. Thanks for telling me about where the RUN is. Who knew?!?!

Well, tomorrow is a big day for me - 61 !! I can't believe that I'm at that already because I sure don't feel it. Thanks again.

[SusanC]

Darn, a bug hit the touch smart screen and bumped me out of the message I was typing back to you. I had a chat with HP on Monday and Tuesday to no avail and then emailed HP this evening with a riot act message. The email I received back from my original one to HP was incredible and had absolutely nothing to do with this issue I've been having for months, and now with a new hard drive too! I was told in the chat that HP does not have the abiliity to remotely access my PC. Go figure. Both technical people gave me instructions that did not work. I give up!

[akaelsie]

I found the "run" and entered "msconfig" and found the 3 Media Center lines--two are "stopped" (Receive, Service) and one (Schedule is running). How can I change the stopped to running??? Thanks.

[smax013]

akaelsie said:

I found the "run" and entered "msconfig" and found the 3 Media Center lines--two are "stopped" (Receive, Service) and one (Schedule is running). How can I change the stopped to running??? Thanks.

You can try taking a look in the Services control panel in Control Panels > Administrative Tools (typically). But, do be careful mucking around in there.

[akaelsie]

I did poke around and don't know what to do so didn't do anything. The extender service is set to automatic(delayed start), receiver set to manual, service status stopped. It's a mystery to me what to do but thanks anyhow.

[mphenterprises]

Hi Akaelsie and welcome to PCWorld. :-)




Please do not latch onto someone else's Discussion. Even though your situation may appear to be similar, it is always best to open your own Discussion and allow as many of our member's an opportunity to review your problem. You can click on this hyperlink to start your Discussion.

When creating your Discussion, please be as concise as possible and provide as much information as possible. The more you provide to us, the more effectively we can help you.

[SusanC]

Hi VladThelmpaler - - The program is actually HP Smart Center, but when that comes up there's another button to click on and the Windows Media Center comes up and to me they are the same. I have a very good antivirus on this PC - Trend Micro and also with my email server, Earthlink, they stop malicious attachments from coming into my Inbox and delete them right away. I also have a Spyware Spy Sweeper that scans my PC every day, as does Trend Micro. I know this problem is an HP dilemna and have talked my head off to support people via emails and chats. No one has a fix for this lemon!!!

[SusanC]

Hi RGreen4 - I have contacted HP with emailing them and also chatting with technical people and no one has a clue as to how to stop this program from coming up on it's own. Also, now at times my PC does not shut down at night after I choose to shut down. Sometime in the night it restarts. Then in the morning, I find it on and put in my password and right after that the HP Smart Center comes up. I chatted with one person and asked him to take over my PC and he said that HP is not allowed to do that, which I thought was very strange because on my Dell PC, they would always do that and diagnose my PC. I am at a total loss. I went into Best Buy yesterday and talked to the floor manager about this problem and he brought me over to one of the Geek Squad guys and the three of us talked and they decided the best thing to do is to do a total recovery after backing up important documents, pictures, etc. I have sent a 4-page letter to the President of HP enclosing a 6-page documents with emails with HP and myself for his review. Someone signed for that letter on December 6, 2007, so we'll see if HP Corporate gets back to me or not. I'll give them until the end of this month, probably.

[SusanC]

Hi Rgreen4. . . . well, the time has come ONCE AGAIN and this PC is going back to Best Buy tomorrow. I never got a recovery disc with the new hard drive from them and if this PC crashed, I would be totally out of luck and unable to get to Windows. After the new hard drive was installed, the HP Smart Center kept popping up again and then the PC would not shut down at night. Now we think we have that solved because MS updates were set at 3:00 a.m. and apparently that would awake my computer and I would find it on in the morning. Now it is set for 6:00 p.m. However, the HP Smart Center is still a culprit and keeps coming up all the times. This afternoon, it popped up 3 times within 30 seconds!!! I can't stand this any longer. We will give Best Buy a riot act tomorrow and tell them to call a Manager and have him or her contact HP about this LEMON computer they got from HP. There is a Lemon Law in Florida about computers and this will be the 4th time back to them with problems. I have had it with this computer. Bobby's identical computer has never given him one second of trouble from day one versus mine started giving me problems on day one.

[rgreen4]

I hate the fact that it has come to this, but I think that is the right move. It is so strange that your husband's machine has give no trouble, but your made up for it. It goes to show that identical machines are not identical.

The bad part is the fact that you now have had a very experience with a machine that has colored your outlook on the brand and the OS.

You may have a fight on your hands, but you apparently have the law on your side.

Let us know how it comes out. Best of luck to you.