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July 23rd, 2010 15:00
Media Center Edition
I am runing Windows XP MCE on a Dell Dimension E510. Recently I had to do a Windows reinstall and everything is working properly except for Media Center.
Media Center shows up and when I try to open the program I get the following message "Video card or drivers are not compatable", Then the Media Center screen show up and I then get this message "Files needed to display video are not installed".
I went back and to insure the drivers were installed correctly, by downloading and installing chipset and then the video drivers. I get the same result. All of the connections are correct. MCE ran fine before I did the reinstall and I changed nothing on the PC.
Any recommendations.
Thanks.
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fireberd
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July 24th, 2010 04:00
I have an E510.
How did you reinstall? From the Dell Recovery Partition on the hard drive (accessed by CTRL/F11 at power on) or a manual install? It sounds like you did a manual install and if you still have the Dell recovery partition that should have been used as it would have avoided any install problems.
In most cases of a manual install, if something was not installed correctly or in the correct install sequence, reinstalling what was missed will take care of the problem. However, in a few cases it will take a complete new install with the correct install sequence and drivers.
Given the Dell supplied drivers on the Drivers and Utilities disc are way out of date, that could be one issue, especially if you have updated Windows to SP3 (and you must upgraded to SP3 to continue to get updates from Microsoft). If you have an optional video card (as I did when new), go to the video card vendor's site and download the latest driver (e.g. ATI or NVIDIA) and install that and see if makes a difference. Also, as noted you need to upgrade to SP3 and maybe that will also fix the problem.
As a last resort if it still has problems, reinstall using the Recovery Partiton as that should take care of any problems. You will still have to update Windows and some drivers after the Recovery install but at least that will get it back to the original factory condition. If the recovery partition is corrupted or gone you are facing possibily a complete manual reinstall. The correct and required install sequence (including hard drive reformat) is (1) Install Windows (2) Install Dell Desktop System Software (3) Install Intel chipset drivers (4) Install device drivers including Video, Dell SigmaTel audio drivers, ethernet, etc.
tofriedel
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July 24th, 2010 13:00
Thank you for your response. I did a manual reinstall. I wasn't aware of the Dell Recovery Partition, until I started searching for a fix.
I have kept my PC current with all upgrades from both MS and Dell. I have been running SP3 ever since it first became available.
My video card was what Dell offered on the PC when I bought it, ATI Radon X600 256 MB. I went to their web site and download the latest driver, which was Catalyst Software Suite ( a package that includes Display Driver, Catalyst Control Center, &WDM Drivers). It did not resolve my problem, in fact I had to go back to the original drivers.
Rather than reinstall XP, I may upgrade to W-7 and upgrade my video card.