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[simonmason]

I recently restarted my Media Center PC and for some reason it would not connect to my domain.  I had to reconnect it to the domain and then it logged in fine. 

After this Media Center would not load.  I get the splash screen and then it dissapears and nothing shows.  I checked in Task Manager and I see the application appear and dissapear. 

Media Server loads in the tray but also dissapears when I click Show Media Center.  I tried reinstalling Media Center, then I tried uninstalling (not removing library) and reinstalling.  No luck.

Is there anything I can check to see what is going on?

How do I backup the library and IR commands, etc. so that I can wipe it clean and reinstall?  Thanks.

[JimH]

Very strange.  Corrupt registry?  You could try renaming registry keys to test.  They're under both Current User and Local_Machine.

[KingSparta]

once i had a pop-up blocker that would kill media center

[JimH]

once i had a pop-up blocker that would kill media center

That's also a possibilty.  What makes me wonder about the problem was this:

for some reason it would not connect to my domain

Cosmic rays?

[KingSparta]

Cosmic rays include:

Galactic Cosmic Rays -- coming from outside the solar system

Anomalous Cosmic Rays -- coming from the interstellar space at the edge of the heliopause

Solar Energetic Particles -- associated with solar flares and other energetic solar events

[simonmason]

I took out the registry keys and it appears to run now after a clean install.  I have a complete backup of the program directory - is it possible to use this to restore my learned IR commands?  Thanks.

[JimH]

If it were mine, and I cared a lot about the data, I might try carefully moving select registry keys.

You can always import your old library from a backup.  MC does automated backups.

But my best guess is that you were struck by something.  What I don't know.  You're going to have to pick up the pieces.

I would run a virus checker.

[simonmason]

Well I got everything running again but I had to wipe out everything and reinstall.  I had backups of the registry, program directory, etc. and I stepped progressively through each area trying to figure out what was wrong but no luck.  This was not the end of the world for me because I just installed Media Center on my whole house media controller and was in the process of setting it up (switching from a Nirvis slink-e).  However, for future reference, I know there is a library backup feature built-in, but what about backing up program settings, learned IR commands, zone settings, etc?  Is there an easy (or difficult) way to do this in case I suffered through a major crash when the system is actually running the whole house audio?  Thanks.

[simonmason]

Well I think I figured out what caused the crash - I was able to duplicate it.  I am using the Music Lobby plugin for Main Lobby.  I somehow killed Media Center again so I went snooping in the directories to see what I could find.  In the Plugins directory I noticed an error.log that was over 4GB created by Music Lobby.  So I deleted it, and voila, Media Center loads again.  So it appears that if Main Lobby crashes or behaves badly it dumps a massive file in the Media Center plugins directory and stops it from loading.  I am going to post on the cinemar board to see if they know about this.