Hi all,

I’m new to MCE but have never seen this kind of install issue on any OS, and I sure need help. I have built dozens of systems from scratch over the years, installed many DOS, Windows, Linux operating systems, tons of software, repaired dozens of systems, taught CS 101 and C++ as a college lecturer, so while I’m not a guru about anything, I’m not a total newbie either.

I bought an OEM System Builder Pack at Fry’s Xmas sale time, for myself. Microsoft Product: Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 SP2. It has hologram Disks 1 & 2 and a plain silver Microsoft disk labeled “updates for version 2005”. Service Pack 2 appears to be slipstreamed, and the plain silver disk appears to be Rollup 2, if that makes sense.

My (also new) mainboard is a Gigabyte MA78GPM-DS2H, Athlon X2 64 5000+, latest chipset drivers, 80 GB Western Digital SATA system drive, 500 GB Western Digital SATA data drive.

The hardware build was uneventful. The latest ATI Radeon chipset drivers did not support my elderly W2K_SP4 OS, so I decided to try out the XP MCE and planned to get a USB TV tuner for this PC later on, when US TV goes all digital, so I could play around with multimedia computing as a new interest. But from what I’ve read here, I’m not sure that works. But anyway, I saved every thing I wanted to the data drive and formatted the 80 GB system drive for a clean install with a GpartEd live CD.

I opened the pristine Microsoft package (“no refund if opened”) took out the MCE disks and started a default install. The install was fine until it asked for the update rollup disk. Then it could not enter the i386 folder to find the .inf or setup file. I then unpacked that disk and installed the rollup components manually, as someone here has also described, and all seemed to be well.

Now comes the weird part. XP boots but is basically non functional because only six of probably 50 Windows Services that are set on automatic startup actually start! All the rest are stopped! They can be started manually in the Administrative Services snap-in, but with any reboot, they all revert to stopped when XP wakes up at reboot.

Additionally, Internet Explorer and the Windows Update applet are missing. None of this makes sense. I’ve either done something totally wacko or the brand new product disks are corrupted or misassembled. The Microsoft package label has a “build date” of 06/04/2008, but that may just mean the date that product envelope was filled and sealed.

Any help would be DEEPLY appreciated!

Pinky

Reinstall it.  It's broke.  Don't feel bad - just about everyone does that to their first MCE2k5 install.  :)

MCE2k5 installs a little (nay, make that a lot), ah, wierd.
You boot from CD1 (as you did), and start the install.  When it asks you for the other disc, insert CD2.
Here's where it gets really wierd:
When it asks you to "please insert the Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 CD", reinsert CD1.
Ignore that third disc - you'll take care of installing RU2 via Windows Update.

Oh, and a really good install guide (I'd highly recommend it, as it's the best way to get a good, stable install done) can be found here.

Oh, future note, for when you do get that tuner:
MCE2k5 has (and, forever will have) a requirement that you have an analog tuner installed, in order to run TV setup - you can't install just a digital tuner.  I know, if you're an OTA-only user, it (the analog tuner) won't work come February; but, you need to install one anyways.  The need for it is hard-coded into the OS.

I’m totally grateful, Cup. Your instructions worked perfectly, The 2 MS MCE discs installed MCE 2005_SP2; Windows Update installed Rollup 2. I won’t even ask how this distribution reached a retail store shelf in such non-intuitive condition. I suppose the REAL install info was only distributed through the System Builder Channel

I’m reading all over this invaluable forum, to which I’ll be posting.

Windows Update wants to install XP_SP3. Is that a good idea at this point? I’ve seen posters here complaining bitterly about poor results. Is there something to watch out for?

Pinky

Thanks for the tip. Gotta lot to learn about Media Center computing but it looks like its gonna be fun.

Pinky