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I read some posts regarding that and no one seem to be having the same problem I have.

First, everything was working fine last week. I was using version 1.2.1.3.

I installed version 1.2.1.4 but also installed a tool to grab HDTV via firewire (firestb). I did some testing with firestb and decided to install it.

It's only later I discovered that the mce addin was not working.

Here is what I found so far:

1. The file watcher is working, XML files are written.
2. I enabled the log events option and the only thing written was

User: Marc Initialize Registry Settings, CommercialSkip Version 1.2.1.4 CurrentAtscZoom = One CurrentTvZoom = Three IsRegistered = True NumberOfProcessors = 2 AutoReloadSettings = True WriteOnMceStateChangeEvents = True SkipBoxMinMinutes = 0 SkipDisplayType = SkipBar SkipMaxMinutes = 65535 AutoSkip = True WriteEvents = True PromptScan = Prompt KeyHandleDisableTime = 30 DisableAutoSkipOnBack = True DisableKey = D1 ForwardKey = Right BackKey = Left SkipOnKey = Down SkipOffKey = Down CCToggle = D2 KeepDisplayActive = False SuppressNotFound = True Debug = False TerminateAddin = D3 HandleKeys = True SkipCommericals = True TrackDvds = True TrackDvdPerUser = False BookmarkPath = C:\Users\Public\DvrmsToolbox\VideoBookmark ReuseInterval = 30 DebugFilePath = AllowedVariance = 10 WolMac = System.String[ WakeExperience = System.String[ ReprocessShow = D4 BookmarkResponseTimeout = 60 ToggleZoom = D5 ATSC169 = One ATSC43 = Four TV169 = One TV43 = Four AutoZoom = False ProcessProfile = nativecommdetect TreatAsTv = False UseGraphForDetection = True ForwardOnly = False ProppageNag = True

Nothing else.

While I watch a recording, there is no auto skip and the arrow keys are non-functionnal.

I tried the debug option and saw no file written in public\dvrms....except the one from the filewatcherservice.

Anything I can try to debug this further?

Thanks, I'm really missing the auto-skip :)

Marc

it sounds like the MSAS sink isn't registered.

open an escalated cmd prompt and run

installutil "c:\program files\dvrmstoolbox\mcestate.dll" /u
installutil "c:\program files\dvrmstoolbox\mcestate.dll"

 installutil is located in C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727

 It worked. Thanks a lot.

striker69:

First, everything was working fine last week. I was using version 1.2.1.3.

I installed version 1.2.1.4 but also installed a tool to grab HDTV via firewire (firestb). I did some testing with firestb and decided to install it.

It's only later I discovered that the mce addin was not working.

Here is what I found so far:

1. The file watcher is working, XML files are written.
2. I enabled the log events option and the only thing written was

I'm having exactly the same problem and I too am using FireSTB for our HD channels.  FireSTB is no longer recording anything also.  FireSTB is running and seems to be OK, but it doesn't seem to detect when a recording has started.

In my case I did not touch anything at all on our system, but there was a Vista Media Center patch that auto-installed last week (and the problems seem to start right after the update was installed).

I wonder if this latest Media Cente patch broke both the commercial skip addin as well as FireSTB?

I'll try re-registering MSAS and see if everything starts to work.  If not I guess I'll have to remove the latest Media Center patch.

I tried re-registering MCEState and it didn't fix anything.  Still the commercial skip addin and FireSTB are acting as if they completely do not exist (even though they are both installed and running).

I turned on "write events" for the addin and all I see are these two entries after starting Media Center, watching a show, attempting to skip a commercial, attempting to turn off and on auto-skip, and exiting Media Center.  The addin is simply not responding at all; not to key presses, nor is it skipping commercials.

FIRST EVENT:

Log Name:      Application
Source:        CommercialSkipAddIn
Date:          24/10/2008 8:40:12 PM
Event ID:      0
Task Category: None
Level:         Information
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      HTPC
Description:
User: Family
Initialize Registry Settings, CommercialSkip Version 1.2.1.5
CurrentAtscZoom = Three
CurrentTvZoom = Two
IsRegistered = True
NumberOfProcessors = 4
AutoReloadSettings = True
WriteOnMceStateChangeEvents = False
SkipBoxMinMinutes = 0
SkipDisplayType = SkipBar
SkipMaxMinutes = 65535
AutoSkip = True
WriteEvents = True
PromptScan = Auto
KeyHandleDisableTime = 30
DisableAutoSkipOnBack = True
DisableKey = D1
ForwardKey = Right
BackKey = Left
SkipOnKey = D6
SkipOffKey = D6
CCToggle = D2
KeepDisplayActive = True
SuppressNotFound = True
Debug = False
TerminateAddin = Q
HandleKeys = True
SkipCommericals = True
TrackDvds = False
TrackDvdPerUser = False
BookmarkPath = C:\Users\Public\DvrmsToolbox\VideoBookmark
ReuseInterval = 30
DebugFilePath =
AllowedVariance = 10
WolMac = System.String[
WakeExperience = System.String[
ReprocessShow = D7
BookmarkResponseTimeout = 60
ToggleZoom = None
ATSC169 = One
ATSC43 = Four
TV169 = One
TV43 = Four
AutoZoom = True
ProcessProfile = nativecommdetect
TreatAsTv = True
UseGraphForDetection = True
ForwardOnly = True
ProppageNag = True
SupressSkipDialog = False

Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="CommercialSkipAddIn" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="0">0</EventID>
    <Level>4</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2008-10-25T00:40:12.000Z" />
    <EventRecordID>58754</EventRecordID>
    <Channel>Application</Channel>
    <Computer>HTPC</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data>User: Family
Initialize Registry Settings, CommercialSkip Version 1.2.1.5
CurrentAtscZoom = Three
CurrentTvZoom = Two
IsRegistered = True
NumberOfProcessors = 4
AutoReloadSettings = True
WriteOnMceStateChangeEvents = False
SkipBoxMinMinutes = 0
SkipDisplayType = SkipBar
SkipMaxMinutes = 65535
AutoSkip = True
WriteEvents = True
PromptScan = Auto
KeyHandleDisableTime = 30
DisableAutoSkipOnBack = True
DisableKey = D1
ForwardKey = Right
BackKey = Left
SkipOnKey = D6
SkipOffKey = D6
CCToggle = D2
KeepDisplayActive = True
SuppressNotFound = True
Debug = False
TerminateAddin = Q
HandleKeys = True
SkipCommericals = True
TrackDvds = False
TrackDvdPerUser = False
BookmarkPath = C:\Users\Public\DvrmsToolbox\VideoBookmark
ReuseInterval = 30
DebugFilePath =
AllowedVariance = 10
WolMac = System.String[
WakeExperience = System.String[
ReprocessShow = D7
BookmarkResponseTimeout = 60
ToggleZoom = None
ATSC169 = One
ATSC43 = Four
TV169 = One
TV43 = Four
AutoZoom = True
ProcessProfile = nativecommdetect
TreatAsTv = True
UseGraphForDetection = True
ForwardOnly = True
ProppageNag = True
SupressSkipDialog = False
</Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>

 SECOND EVENT:

 Log Name:      Application
Source:        CommercialSkipAddIn
Date:          24/10/2008 8:40:25 PM
Event ID:      0
Task Category: None
Level:         Information
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      HTPC
Description:
User: Family
Uninitialize.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="CommercialSkipAddIn" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="0">0</EventID>
    <Level>4</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2008-10-25T00:40:25.000Z" />
    <EventRecordID>58756</EventRecordID>
    <Channel>Application</Channel>
    <Computer>HTPC</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data>User: Family
Uninitialize.</Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>

I now turned on both "write events" and "Log MSAS Events" and did the same test (start MC, watch a show, try to skip, try to turn autoskip on and off, exit).

There are zero MSAS events being logged by the addin.  All I see are the same two entries I mentioned in my last post.

Note I did also try rebooting after reregistering MCEState and this didn't help either.

Is the problem I am seeing indicating that MSAS is not working on my system?

What can cause this to happen and how do I fix it (since re-registering MCEStage didn't work).

I now changed the debug registry entry for the addin to "1" and re-ran my same test.

Here are the contents of the ehexthost_6020.log file:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
24/10/2008 8:58:15 PM : Initialize Registry Settings, CommercialSkip Version 1.2.1.5
CurrentAtscZoom = Three
CurrentTvZoom = Two
IsRegistered = True
NumberOfProcessors = 4
AutoReloadSettings = True
WriteOnMceStateChangeEvents = True
SkipBoxMinMinutes = 0
SkipDisplayType = SkipBar
SkipMaxMinutes = 65535
AutoSkip = True
WriteEvents = True
PromptScan = Auto
KeyHandleDisableTime = 30
DisableAutoSkipOnBack = True
DisableKey = D1
ForwardKey = Right
BackKey = Left
SkipOnKey = D6
SkipOffKey = D6
CCToggle = D2
KeepDisplayActive = True
SuppressNotFound = True
Debug = True
TerminateAddin = Q
HandleKeys = True
SkipCommericals = True
TrackDvds = False
TrackDvdPerUser = False
BookmarkPath = C:\Users\Public\DvrmsToolbox\VideoBookmark
ReuseInterval = 30
DebugFilePath =
AllowedVariance = 10
WolMac = System.String[
WakeExperience = System.String[
ReprocessShow = D7
BookmarkResponseTimeout = 60
ToggleZoom = None
ATSC169 = One
ATSC43 = Four
TV169 = One
TV43 = Four
AutoZoom = True
ProcessProfile = nativecommdetect
TreatAsTv = True
UseGraphForDetection = True
ForwardOnly = True
ProppageNag = True
SupressSkipDialog = False

24/10/2008 8:58:15 PM : Microsoft.MediaCenter.Hosting.AddInHost
24/10/2008 8:58:15 PM : MRE created
24/10/2008 8:58:15 PM : ProcessId: 6556
24/10/2008 8:58:15 PM : Watching: C:\Users\Public\DvrmsToolbox\CommercialsXml
24/10/2008 8:58:15 PM : MCEState
24/10/2008 8:58:15 PM : Xml watching enabled
24/10/2008 8:58:15 PM : Start Collecting
24/10/2008 8:58:15 PM : Set WOL experiences
24/10/2008 8:58:52 PM : Uninitialize.
24/10/2008 8:58:52 PM : Keyboard hooked

From what I can tell, the addin does load correctly, but for some reason it is not able to interact with Media Center in any way.

sounds like MSAS broke.  you can try unregistering/registering atl.dll.

when I had this problem, i usually did a system restore to get back to the "last known good"

Is regsvr32 used to register atl.dll?

If I use system restore, won't the problem show up again once the same updates are installed? (this is typically what happens to me anyway).

Is MSAS running by default with a fresh Vista install or does it only get loaded and run once an addin is registered that needs it?

Based on my Google searches (and reading here) it seems MSAS is very flaky and breaks on a fairly regular basis.  If this is a core component of MC, why doesn't MS fix these problems?

- yes
- maybe
- no, it loads once MC is setup.  if it's not running when MC loads it will.
- yes, it is very unstable; even more so in Vista.  dunno, it's not being supported or enhanced in anyway.  on the plus side the sideshow gadget uses it (or at least it did in the beta) so maybe the position will change.

Where would I find adl.dll.

I've searched my entire hard drive and I'm quite sure it is not on it.

Oops atl.dll.... found it.

reregistering atl.dll didn't work.

In the other thread (http://babgvant.com/forums/p/827/10996.aspx#10996) I noticed you provided some tools to try to figure out what might be the problem.

Are any of these worth trying?

If all it takes is any addin to mess up, I'd like to figure out a way to figure out which one might be doing it.

FIXED!!

Using Vista's system restore I slowly went back in time until I found a state where MSAS was working.

I've never successfully used this utility before (largely because I had a dual boot to MCE2005 configured that would immediately delete the Vista restore points every time I booted to it - an annoying "feature" of XP if it notices the system restore files are from a newer version).

Interestingly I did not need to back up all the way to when KB955519 installed (I had previously guessed that this caused MSAS to fail).  It turns out that the date when the system screwed up was the same day I (accidentally) ran "sfc /scannow".  I had read on-line that /scannow would only scan the files and not "repair" them, so I ran it for interest.  Unfortunately the /scannow setting causes sfc to "repair" all of the OS files.

Looking through the sfc log file (cbs.log) it seemed to "repair" a rather large number of cdf-ms files, but I couldn't find anything that points to it breaking MSAS.

The only other thing I can think of is possibly MSAS was somehow broken by me fiddling around with setting up Away Mode and S3.

My system is fully updated and everything seems to be working.