Windows XP Media Center Reinstall Issues

Andrea B. Williams The Pragmatic Optimist

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Well, this has been an interesting adventure. I've known for a couple of months that my Windows XP Media Center install on my home computer was going downhill. The symptoms included the title bar of windows suddenly disappearing with the X (close) and min/max buttons reappearing once you hovered over approximately where they should have been displaying. Soon after that occurring, I would see strange and cryptic error messages when working in Internet Explorer. This would all start happening after the computer had been running for a couple of days. So I finally decided to bite the bullet and order the XP Reinstallation CD from Dell. I have a Dell Dimension E310, by the way. So I chose the Upgrade install option from the CD's menu.

FIRST INSTALL PROBLEM: STARPORTLITE.SYS File

After the computer rebooted the first time during the install, I received the following error:

"The file starportlite.sys could not be found".

Then the setup fails. At this point, you are now stuck with an in-progress XP installation that cannot finish. So you have to choose to reboot to regular XP since it defaults to continuing the setup each time you reboot.

First, a kind person on CNET forums told me that he resolved his problem by removing the StarBurn free download of the week. (Detailed Post Here) I removed this program as well. I also removed the starportlite.sys file from the leftover in-progress windows install directory just in case. So once I had removed all occurrences of starportlite.sys from my computer, I started over from scratch with the Upgrade Install of Windows XP. This time the install did not encounter the error with the starportlite file. Cool.

However, the install did encounter some issues. I got repeated occurrences of the error "The procedure entry point GetRequestedRuntimeVersion could not be locatedd in the dynamic link library mscoree.dll" This was an ngen error. This was followed by at least one occurrence of a .NET runtime error that I missed capturing the details of initially. In any case, the installation did complete this time, but I was confident this wasn't going to be the last time those error messages reared their ugly heads.

SECOND INSTALL PROBLEM: WINDOWS UPDATES DOWNLOAD BUT FAIL TO INSTALL

After rebooting, the Windows Updates downloaded but failed to install. So I uninstalled and reinstalled the Windows Installer 3.1 version per a very helpful article you can read here. Once I followed the instructions about getting a clean install of the Windows Installer 3.1 version, then the windows updates started working.

THIRD INSTALL PROBLEM: WINDOWS UPDATE for .NET FRAMEWORK 1.0 SP3 FAILS TO INSTALL

However, the update associated with the .NET Framework Version 1.0 SP3 failed. Ultimately this turned out to be a problem with the 2.0 version of the framework. I discovered this by running the command that was failing per the Windows Update log from the command line. This resulted in the following errors:

"The procedure entry point GetRequestsedRuntimeInfo could not be located in the dynamic link library mscoree.dll"

and

"C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\mscorwks.dll could not be loaded."

The second error indicated to me that the 2.0 framework was corrupted somehow.

I ran a .NET Framework cleanup tool provided by Aaron Stebner's blog. You can find info about this at: http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2006/05/30/611355.aspx . Thanks to Aaron!

So at least we now know how to get past three issues:

The starportlite.sys reinstall problem.
The Windows Updates download but fail to install after XP Media Center reinstall.
And what to do when the .NET Framework install is corrupt on Windows XP Media Center.

Whew. That took quite a few hours and quite a few shouts of frustration. Fingers-crossed that my PC works happily for another year without incident. Hope springs eternal!

Technorati Tags: http://technorati.com/search/XP/

Posted on Monday, January 14, 2008 9:18 AM Windows XP | Back to top

Comments on this post: Windows XP Media Center Reinstall Issues

# re: Windows XP Media Center Reinstall Issues

I am having this same problem but with XP Pro. It is very frustrating. However I removed the software and keep getting the same message. Guess it's time for pro help.

Left by Todd on Jan 14, 2008 4:58 PM

# re: Windows XP Media Center Reinstall Issues

If it's the problem with the starportlite.sys file, just removing the StarBurn software alone wasn't enough. After removing it, I tried to restart the same in-progress Windows XP install by choosing the Windows Setup instance from the boot menu, but the setup still failed with the same error about the starportlite.sys file. So I next removed any occurrences of starportlite.sys from my C: drive (in this case, I only found it in what I believe was the temporary directory created by the initial XP Upgrade installation attempt). Then I started a completely new Windows XP Upgrade install by choosing it from the CD. This time I did not get the error.

Left by Andrea B. Williams on Jan 14, 2008 5:31 PM

# re: Windows XP Media Center Reinstall Issues

OK, maybe I'm a little slow here, but how did you find and remove occurences of starportlite.sys from your drive?

Thanks!

Left by Todd on Jan 14, 2008 5:56 PM

# re: Windows XP Media Center Reinstall Issues

When the Windows Setup failed and I rebooted, I was presented with two options during boot up - essentially a boot menu. I could choose to resume the Windows Setup, or I could choose to boot to normal Windows XP. I chose the latter. Once booted to normal XP, I was able to do things like search and delete/move files. Are you able to boot to normal XP? In my case, my original XP installation was still moderately functional.
If you are not able to boot to regular XP, then yes, you may need more help (like booting from CD with access to your hard drive).

If you are able to boot to regular XP, then read on...
Before I learned about removing the StarBurn software, I had just used the Windows Search companion (right-click on Start and click Search) and found that the file initially existed in two places:
C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT
C:\Windows\system32\drivers

After I uninstalled Starburn, I searched again and found it was still sitting in the C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT directory.

I am assuming that C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT is the temporary directory that the XP Upgrade installation process had created on my C: drive in Phase 1 of the Upgrade Install. Since restarting that same in-progress install still kept failing even after uninstalling StarBurn, I decided to simply move that starportlite.sys file from the C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT location to a backup directory on another external drive, which effectively deleted it from the C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT directory. Then while booted up under normal XP, I started a brand new XP install from the XP Reinstallation CD that Dell provided. This time it worked.

Hope that helps!

Left by Andrea B. Williams on Jan 14, 2008 6:13 PM

# re: Windows XP Media Center Reinstall Issues

Well, that helped some but the other links you gave me and one other thing I found on my own helped me resolve this problem.

I managed to remove the starportlite.sys from the system but I was still trapped in re-install hell because I couldn't get the machine to quit recognizing it's earlier attempt to do the re-install. So I found this page that shows you how to repair XP (http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/How-to-repair-Windows-XP-t138.html) and was able to get XP operating properly with those instructions. Then thankfully, because of the link to the other article you posted above, I was able to get my updates configured and working properly. All is well! Thank you so much for pointing me in the right direction. I think you and I are the only people online to experience this problem.

Thanks again! :)

Left by Todd on Jan 14, 2008 10:15 PM

# re: Windows XP Media Center Reinstall Issues

Todd,

That's great news! I'm glad some of my post was helpful. And thanks for adding the post you found. I do believe we were in a unique and "bad" place with our XP installations. Thank goodness we made it out of there!

Best,
Andrea

Left by Andrea B. Williams on Jan 15, 2008 8:58 AM

# Reply from Rocket Division Software authorized agent

Indeed. We would like to confirm that there was a problem with the installation and deinstallation of the 'starportlite.sys' driver. The issue has now been fixed and you can download the updated version of the product that has the fix included at:
http://www.rocketdivision.com/downloads/StarBurnSetup.exe

Left by Max on Feb 04, 2008 11:45 AM

# re: Windows XP Media Center Reinstall Issues

Life Saving Article.
Followed this and resolved my issue.

Many Thanks,

Jon

Left by Jon on May 07, 2008 3:55 PM

# re: Windows XP Media Center Reinstall Issues

I have reloaded all of my original software at least 3 times in the past 6 weeks. I keep ending up with the same problems revolving around Net Framework 2.0. If this works you will hear shouts of joy around the world.

Left by Lisa on Sep 11, 2008 1:24 AM

# re: Windows XP Media Center Reinstall Issues

How can I reinstall Windows Xp MCE from my re-install CD? I tried to install without success. It kept asking me for disk 2, but there's no disk 2. I purchased a brand new Dell in 2006 with Windows XP MCE pre-installed. All that was supplied was a reinstall disk and 2 other disks containing drivers and utilities. My problem is that after several attempts to reinstall without any success, I finally decided to reformat the hard drive. I borrowed an XP PRO disk and installed that, just to get my computer running again. However, I would like to re-install my Windows MCE OS again. How can I reinstall from my reinstall CD, keeping in mind that the original installation was wiped out during the re-formatting?

I contacted Dell, and all they did was send me an exact copy of the reinstall CD, this doesn't help. would be very grateful if you have an answer for me.

Thank You,
OR

Left by Orlando on Mar 18, 2009 10:04 AM

# re: Windows XP Media Center Reinstall Issues

É isto mesmo? Espero q sim pq ai vc tera bastante TRABALHO a frente! Jé é o 2 babauuuuu q mando.
Boa Sorte!

Left by Inês on May 06, 2009 7:53 PM

# re: Windows XP Media Center Reinstall Issues

I'm have very similiar issues with my 2006 Dell XP Media edition. Several of the problems were resolved, but now the repair just stalls out. I've had all sorts of errors including the systemruntime and ngen.exe not found! I've re-formatted and reinstalled everything several times but after about a month, I start getting the same issues again. I had the extended warrently, but the Dell support was total crap.

Left by jenifer on Jan 20, 2010 1:46 PM

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