Vista RC1 Stopped working (Dec 31st)

mich · **31st December 2006, 04:52 PM**

For some reason my vista RC1 has stopped working today. I havent established whether its the vista media centre or a decoder that can be swapped out or what, but it just says "No tuner installed" and "trial period has expired" when i try to watch anything.

Is this just me or has this happened to anyone else too?

I thought RC1 was supposed to last all the way until june 2007. Am very unhappy at the prospect of having to spend time either swapping out codecs or downgrading to XP.

drewhiggins · **31st December 2006, 07:02 PM**

You running PureVideo?

If so this indicates you need a new decoder after 30 days (you installed PureVideo on December 1st, theoretically?) or must register it. To be honest I'd chuck it in the bin and get PowerDVD7...you will not look back.

FrAsErTaG · **31st December 2006, 08:26 PM**

Same thing happend to me to mate, No Purevideo decoder...
My RC2 is still going
but my PC that had RC1 had a timebomb go off today i guess
Installed RTM i figure its going to be out close enough to 30days away anyways

drewhiggins · **31st December 2006, 09:16 PM**

Strange, still wondering why. I know XP does it but not 30 days, more 60.

mattr31 · **1st January 2007, 07:55 AM**

For the guys running RC1 and 2 go to Start/Run and type in winver and you will see when the timebomb goes off.

Vista has its own DVD decoder built in so I don't know why you had that happen to you.

FrAsErTaG · **1st January 2007, 11:35 AM**

It was not just the decoder
windows update failed to work
defender failed to work
and it was fine up untill the 31st of december

mich · **1st January 2007, 01:03 PM**

I have confimed it definately was not the decoder.

I would have been happy enough with just being able to do most things but could have dealt without the guide, if it worked by setting the date back, but that doesnt work either.

Its all about expectations. Its fair for microsoft to have a timebomb in their software, but its not at all fair for them to put one in that makes the MCE functionality stop on dec 31 06 when its clearly stated that the RC1 trial itself expires on june 30th or some tie around then.

Any suggestions until vista RTM becomes available to the masses? My biggest problem is i'm already being accused by my wife of spending *way* too much time on the bloody media centre (which is absolutely true) - and it now not working at all possibly for another month or so will not go down well

(

mattr31 · **1st January 2007, 01:18 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mich

I have confimed it definately was not the decoder.

I would have been happy enough with just being able to do most things but could have dealt without the guide, if it worked by setting the date back, but that doesnt work either.

Its all about expectations. Its fair for microsoft to have a timebomb in their software, but its not at all fair for them to put one in that makes the MCE functionality stop on dec 31 06 when its clearly stated that the RC1 trial itself expires on june 30th or some tie around then.

Any suggestions until vista RTM becomes available to the masses? My biggest problem is i'm already being accused by my wife of spending *way* too much time on the bloody media centre (which is absolutely true) - and it now not working at all possibly for another month or so will not go down well

(

Were you on the technical beta program, if so if I remember rightly on one of the builds we were given MCE had some sort of timebomb in it. MS gave us an extension so it must have run out now. Can't remember the exact build number but what you're going through jogged my memory

FrAsErTaG · **1st January 2007, 02:29 PM**

Mich grab a copy of RC2 i know you cant get it from microsofts site anymore but its still very avaliable and use your RC1 key on it
That should tie you over till the RTM
Personally I upgraded the RC1 box to RTM as its coming out 29th jan i installed it 31st dec so I should hopefully just be able to enter a key when I buy it... if not there was not much setting up on this box its purely media centre...

mich · **1st January 2007, 04:11 PM**

i really knew i should have written down the key rather than typing it straight in off the phone from microsoft but i didnt. is there any way to retreive that key out of the system?

alternatively, is there a way to legally get a new key from microsoft for RC2 still?