Black Screen when running Media Portal (3 Viewers)

[Marvin Miller]

My "Microsoft.DirectX.Direct3DX.dll" file seems to be located in c:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\DirectX for Managed Code\<version number>.
This causes me to wonder whether the issue could be partially or totally a .NET issue on top of or instead of a DirectX issue. I just don't know for sure whether those files were installed by a .NET redist or the DirectX redist.

I have a ton of those as well. It appears to be the only location where that file is located. I have network/system admin rights and am logged on as such. In this case it's my personal workstation.

I find myself wondering if I should be hanging around on Windows 7 much longer. With MS trying to basically force me into Windows 10 I'm wondering if I should make the switch now and possibly side-step this issue. Do you know if MP is OK on Windows 10? This would really be the deciding factor for me.

 

[mm1352000]

I have a ton of those as well. It appears to be the only location where that file is located.

Okay.
The exception that is being thrown - BadImageFormatException - essentially means the file is invalid. Perhaps corrupt.
Are you able to zip and attach all of the DLLs that you have so I can sanity check them?

I have network/system admin rights and am logged on as such.

Hmmm, my experience has been that sometimes this isn't enough. Nevertheless you have the file, so let's look at that first.

I find myself wondering if I should be hanging around on Windows 7 much longer. With MS trying to basically force me into Windows 10 I'm wondering if I should make the switch now and possibly side-step this issue.

I'm not so sure that updating to W10 would enable you to side-step the issue. You may find that you end up in exactly the same position - invalid or missing DirectX DLLs - but this time without access to WMC. Therefore I personally would not recommend this course of action. Ultimately it's your choice though.

Do you know if MP is OK on Windows 10? This would really be the deciding factor for me.

MediaPortal 1 works on W10... but like I said above, I personally wouldn't recommend updating to W10 if it's only to try to workaround this problem.

 

[Marvin Miller]

Many thanks for the continued help with this issue. I would love to get my DVR issues straightened out today (or, at least on the right path) as I feel a pressing need to get away from MCE and have a Schedules Direct feed in place.

I zipped and attached the entire directory as it only came to about 4 megs. On the permission side, trust me, I'm the admin

Odd.....I attached the file, received no warnings about size (4 megs or so) but it doesn't seem to be there.

Let's try putting it on the webserver and see if that works.

http://www.cbr125world.com/DirectXforManagedCode.zip

 

[mm1352000]

Many thanks for the continued help with this issue.

You're welcome.

I would love to get my DVR issues straightened out today (or, at least on the right path) as I feel a pressing need to get away from MCE and have a Schedules Direct feed in place.

Okay. Knowing what I do about MediaPortal, I think expecting to get everything sorted in one day is... with the greatest respect, optimistic. I don't know what's driving you away from MCE, but setups involving external STBs are significantly more complex with MediaPortal than they are with MCE. I'd encourage you to take your time.

I zipped and attached the entire directory...

I think you probably hit "post reply" before the upload finished, and hence attachment missing.

 

[Marvin Miller]

No worries I updated the post above with a direct link off my webserver. Don't worry - it's safe

 

[mm1352000]

Yep, got it. I can confirm that the Microsoft.DirectX.Direct3DX.dll in folder 1.0.2911.0 is completely borked. Corrupt. A 565 KB sequence of NUL characters.

I compared the version in the 1.0.2910.0 folder with the one on my system and they're 100% identical, which leads me to suspect that the DLLs on my system would be compatible with your system despite the difference in OS. Therefore I've attached my version of the 1.0.2911.0 DLL for you to replace your corrupt version.

 

[Marvin Miller]

Interesting....very interesting!

I installed it and tried to run MP but got same black screen
I made a new log though - perhaps it will have moved further down the chain?
As an aside, I could not find a service for Media Portal in the Services.msc (I figured I would re-start it).

 

[mm1352000]

I installed it and tried to run MP but got same black screen
I made a new log though - perhaps it will have moved further down the chain?

Same error.
If you used the built in Windows zip/unzip capabilities, you may need to right click on the file select properties, then select unlock. Windows [rightly] doesn't trust files from the internet by default. Otherwise try replacing the file again and rebooting.

As an aside, I could not find a service for Media Portal in the Services.msc (I figured I would re-start it).

MediaPortal doesn't have a service. It's just a standard program. MediaPortal's TV Server does - TVService.

 

[Marvin Miller]

I used WinRAR and got the warning about over-writing the files. They were over-written. I checked the .dll with a text editor and it can be 'read' in that I can see it saying this is not a valid DOS application in the right hand side (I'm trying to check that the file is not corrupt).

Nevertheless, I replaced it again and re-started with same effect. This is both a server/client machine (if that matters).

Just in case, here's another log file

 

[mm1352000]

Ohhh, hang fire. Other files are borked there.
It seems that all the files except Microsoft.DirectX.Direct3DX.dll in the 1.0.2902.0 folder are also corrupt. I assume Microsoft.DirectX.Direct3DX.dll is okay because it was superceded by the files in the later folders. Therefore the 2902 version would not have been loaded at the time of whatever event caused this mass corruption.

My 2902 folder is attached.

I'm amazed that DXDiag did not report any problems. Maybe it would have if you'd tried to run any of the tests within it.