There comes a point when searching for what might be wrong would take longer than just reinstalling. Check and make sure drivers are all loaded ok. Have you tried watching tv from the Hauppauge application and not through XP media center? I don't know if there is a way to reinstall just media center part of XP but I don't think there is.
The pitfalls of reinstalling? Time...forgetting to backup something you need later. Forgetting to make sure you have all your drivers before you reinstall and find yourself without an internet connection because you don't have a network driver. If you have a dell or HP or something, those drivers are on the recovery disks. You could also think of this as cleaning house, I reinstall a lot for this reason, sometimes I just like a clean desk. You might find you don't need or use some or a lot of those programs you have installed. You also could use this as a chance to try new programs instead of the old ones. I made an effort over a year ago to find free apps to replace the paid ones I use a lot...like instead of the bloatware mess that is Nero, I use imgburn. Instead of iTunes to listen to music, Foobar or Songbird. I pay for apps like acronis which is a complete backup and recovery package. Once you have your computer the way you want it, and it works, acronis makes an image and when you need to reinstall, you do so from the image and everything is where you had it. This gives me a completely clean/new install with my programs in less then 20 minutes from blank hard drive to booting. Before you do reformat if you do, make sure you have backups of all your data and any serial numbers you need to reinstall programs you have bought. On Sat, Nov 28, 2009 at 1:01 PM, Gail.Miller <gail.mil...@comcast.net>wrote: > Hi ... > > I'm running Windows xp media center edition and I have a Hauppauge box that > allows me to see tv on my computer screen. This has become my favorite way > to watch TV and now, suddenly, I'm getting a "video error" message when I > try to turn on the Media Center. > > I don't believe there have been any recent updates that seem likely to have > caused this, but I've tried all the fixes Microsoft recommends (uninstall > and reinstall Service Pack 3, rollback to earlier date, etc., to no avail. > > A friend (who just loves to reformat HDDs) told me the only way to go is > with a "clean install" by starting over with the recovery disk. > > I have a TON of programs on my computer and the thought of reinstalling > everything is daunting, indeed, but if that's the way to go I'll do it. > Thing is ... is that what you would recommend? And if so, what are the > pitfalls? I don't believe I've ever reformatted a HDD (or if I have it's > been a long time ago). > > I look forward to your always-sound advice. > > Warmest regards, > Gail Miller > > ______ > "I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, > one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the > morning." ... J.B. Priestly > > > ************************************************************************* > ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** > ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** > ************************************************************************* > ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
