Vista RC2 Decoder Error (suddenly)

pinballfixer · **4th January 2007, 11:18 PM**

Hi Guys,

First up, I'd like to say that this is a great forum!!

Lots of posts here have helped me along my way.

But now I have a strange problem... I turned on my Vista MCE today to watch the cricket, and I got the BSOD saying Decoder Error. I'ts been running fine for about 3 months, so this took me by surprise.

I decided to do a full re-install (which I was planning on doing soon anyway) and I still get the same message.

I happens during the initial setup of MCE, when you setup the speakers. So I downloaded the new Creative Vista Drivers (which now gives me my surround sound back, as the XP drivers only gave me 2 channel in Vista), and still the same prob. Also, I have tried using the PowerDVD and Nero codecs and still no luck. I'm about to try the PureVideo codec, but I thought I'd post this first as It's getting late, and I'm getting frustrated.

I've installed 3 times today with different programs, and in different orders, but it's still the same. At this stage I will miss the cricket again tomorrow....

intrepid · **5th January 2007, 12:37 AM**

It's the Creative drivers... they bluescreened me too, now I use my onboard.

pinballfixer · **5th January 2007, 10:51 AM**

Unfortunately the the Creative Chip is onboard. So it looks like I need to buy a sound card. Any suggestions?

mich · **5th January 2007, 10:53 AM**

i reckon there are time bombs in RC1 and RC2. have you tried setting the date back to say mid october to see if that does anything - ofcourse the guide wont work once you do that, but at least you can watch and do manual recordings until you get RTM.

my RC1 system (using an xbox360) has been breaking down 1 bit at a time since the end of november, and it was almost perfectly stable before that.

i'm really hanging out for RTM because explaining to my wife why she has contributed to a $2K system ($1400 on the PC and $600 on the xbox) that doesnt work when i could have got a topfield that does the same thing fur under $1K is getting more difficult by the day.

i could go back to MCE 2005, but installing that with my SATA drives is a pain in the butt, and i've already wasted too many weekends stuffing around doing re-installs as it is.

MERAG · **5th January 2007, 11:14 AM**

i am getting the same error.prior to this no dramas.had rc2 running for couple of months now.all was sweet.all of a sudden day before yesterday i get this error.i havent touched the machine since all was working good.so its not me

.anyway did a reinstall of rc2.get the same error.so i had a purevideo oem on cd.installed that.also the xpdecoder check utility.set purevideo as default.all is working fine.

i reckon the default microsoft decoder expired.and since rc2 too is going to by june i am not surprised.hope this helps

MERAG

pinballfixer · **5th January 2007, 12:01 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mich

i reckon there are time bombs in RC1 and RC2. have you tried setting the date back to say mid october to see if that does anything - ofcourse the guide wont work once you do that, but at least you can watch and do manual recordings until you get RTM.

You are dead right mich, setting the date back 3 months fixed the problem. So there must be time bombs in RC1 and RC2. Fair enough from Microsoft's point of view - forcing us all to buy the "real" version when it comes out, but bloody annoying as you can't buy it right now.

pinballfixer · **5th January 2007, 12:07 PM**

I didn't install Purevideo as I only have a trial copy, but does it work with ATI cards?
I have an ATI Radeon X1650 video card, and am using the Dvico DVB-T Dual Digital tuner.

mich · **5th January 2007, 12:21 PM**

its perfectly fair that M$ put timebombs in their software, its completely unfair though that the only documentation states that the expiry date is june 2007, when i reality parts of the s/w expire well before that.

its all about expectations, and M$ are complete b@stards in my opinion for getting people to install and help test their software on the basis that it'll run (stable or not) until june, then having various parts of the OS expire in nov/dec - *AND* whats more providing error messages when things do expire that are out and out lies.

you dont have a decoder error, the decoder or something expired - why cant they just say that. i had problems when things stopped working where everything in WMP11 would say i was out of memory, and to try and close programs and rey again. that was complete rot aswell.

i wouldnt be surprised if when the M$ PABX at their call centre gets full, instead of saying all lines are busy, it says your phone is incompatible, and recommends you buy a new phone before calling back or something completely absurd like that.

MERAG · **5th January 2007, 12:34 PM**

I am not sure turning the clock back is going to be a lasting fix.when you are on the net microsoft will probably talk to you via baloon pop ups and will tell you to fix the date

pinballfixer · **5th January 2007, 12:34 PM**

I suppose I shouldn't call them using my PDA phone as it runs Windows CE - It maybe too old for their system to cope with!