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[Richard Martin]

I have been using Media Center for a few years now and have rarely had problems. That has changed today.
I am using the latest version of Media Centre on Windows 10.  When I started it today it appeared to be OK but as soon as I click on anything it hangs.
This results in a Windows "application not responding" message.  I have tried waiting but it hasn't recovered.
I have to use Task Manager to end the task to close it.
I have tried uninstalling and re-installing but that didn't make any difference
I have tried rebooting the PC, that didn't make any difference
I can't click anywhere in Media Center without this happening, so I can't enable logging or check/change any settings.
If I just open Media Center and don't touch it I still get the application not responding message after a couple of minutes.
I can't see anything in the Windows Event Viewer that gives any clues.

Has anyone got any ideas on how to resolve this?
Richard

[JimH]

It could be an antivirus program problem.

[Richard Martin]

Disabling my AV made no difference.
I 've just downloaded and installed 20.0.132.  That is working fine.
Any more ideas?

[JimH]

Firewall?

If it is the AV, disabling it may not be enough. Uninstaller it to test.

[Richard Martin]

It's Windows Defender can you uninstall that or is it part of Windows now?
It has been working fine, no settings changed so I don't see how it would be a firewall or AV problem.
But I'll see if I can uninstall Windows Defender.

[BradATIMA]

You may not need to uninstall Windows Defender. First, try reading over this article and seeing if that resolves the problem.

http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Taming_Windows_Defender

[Richard Martin]

OK, I tried that...no difference.
There is one thing, that may be a clue or may be a red herring.
Sometimes when I kill Media Center in Task Manager there is a message behind it that says something like "A long running script is stopping your browser, do you want to continue running it".  I don't think it's a problem with any web browser I happen to have running at the time.

This message isn't there every time (and now I want it to appear so I can check the exact wording it's not appearing!)

Anymore ideas gratefully received

Richard

Edit, it happened again, this is the message
Web Browser
Stop running this script?
A script on this page is causing your web browser to run slowly.
If it continues to run, your computer might become unresponsive.
Yes No

[Richard Martin]

Bump
Any more ideas anyone?

[JimH]

This is probably caused by something else on your machine.  Try simplifying. 

Check the Windows Task Manager next time you see the browser message and see what is running.

[Richard Martin]

I've tried starting Windows in Safe Mode with networking and then just running Media Center.  I get the same results, 21 hangs straight away, 20 works fine.
21 used to work, it suddenly stopped a few days back so I downloaded 20 and have been using it since.
I have tried uninstalling 21 and re-installing it.
I am not aware of any changes I have made to the pc around the time the problems started, but there may well have been Windows updates.
Are there any cached files or similar that 21 uses but 20 doesn't that may have become corrupt and aren't being removed when I uninstall 21?

Richard

[JimH]

I'm sorry, but I don't know why it isn't working for you.  It's an odd problem.  It's not likely to be an MC problem or it would be reported often.  Antivirus programs can do very bad things, but it could certainly be something else.

What else changed around the time when it stopped working?

[ssands]

Is there any webpage/podcast/something similar that you are connecting to on open? (Just guessing here).
What if you turn off network connectivity? (Sorry if you already tried that).
Since MC has a web component maybe something is going on in the background.

[RoderickGI]

Disabling the network, or disconnecting the Ethernet cable, and/or turning off Wi-Fi is a good idea, but a script may still be run by the browser and cause the problem, regardless of internet connectivity.

I would have thought that the name of the script would be in the error message that pops up, somewhere. If you see it again, see if you can work out which script is running.

You haven't set Edge, the new Microsoft browser, as your default browser have you? That could definitely cause issues, since from what I have heard it lacks a lot of features just yet, such as running scripts. You should be using either Internet Explorer or Chrome as your default browser, and the Browser Engine in MC. (Options/Tree& View/Web Browser/Engine)

Try disabling ALL add-ins in the browser, rebooting, and then try MC again.

If that works, then re-enable add-ins one at a time until MC stops working again. Maybe you will even be able to see an add-in that you don't think should be there, which could have been added recently without you being aware.

If none of that works, try starting up the Windows Resource Monitor before starting MC, with the CPU usage page open, sorted by % use, then open MC and watch what is using the CPU, particularly as MC fails.

Let us know how you go.

[Richard Martin]

Thanks RoderickGI
I have managed to get it sorted with your help.
I'm still not really sure what the problem was though!
I managed to establish that if my network connection was disabled then Media Center does not become unresponsive as soon as it starts.  I could also see that it wasn't trying to connect to the library on my server and that wasn't listed in the Playing Now options.
To fix it, with the network connection disabled I started the process of adding the library on the server in Playing Now>Playing from...Just before clicking OK I renabled the network connection and quickly clicked OK and everything worked.
That was five minutes ago.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything will be OK now

Richard