Cannot load skin error message and repair option not responding

[jeanrosenfeld]

After everything had been running well for weeks (all items registered and activated without problems, including mpeg 2), suddenly Videowave and MyDVD would not open, giving a cannot load skin error mesage. Nothing particular had been added or removed from the system, other than regular updates of XP, Norton NAV 2007, etc.

 

Going to add/remove, clicking change on EMC9, then Repair, that does not work, it hangs. Modify or Remove do work. I therefore tried the modify option to uninstall Videowave/MyDVD, then using modify again to reinstall those, but that did not recover from the cannot load skin error.

 

In the end I did a full uninstall of all EMC9/Sonic components (including all those that show up separately in add/remove), deletion of all folders and registry keys.

Then reinstalled, which went OK, including again registration/activation of all components (this time the mpeg 2 activation request came up the first time I opened Videowave, after having registered Roxio central, Backup MyPC and Cineplayer :-)). All components are again fully functional. However, checking add/remove repair, that still hangs. When you click on repair, the window opens but is blank except for the title bar and task manager shows not responding. I have to kill it. The error log shows

Event Type: Error

Event Source: Application Hang

Event Category: (101)

Event ID: 1002

Date: 12/02/2007

Time: 14:13:25

User: N/A

Computer: 6PH5R0J

Description:

Hanging application rundll32.exe, version 5.1.2600.2180, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

 

 

This has now happened twice in the past couple of months, most recently yesterday (hence this post).

 

I did a search of this board for 'cannot load skin' and one post related to EMC 8 hinted that NAV might be interfering. I have now excluded all Roxio and Sonic folders from NAV's autoprotect, will have to see if that helps.

 

Any other advice to avoid repetition or explanation of underlying cause would be most welcome.

I'd also like to get the repair option back if possible.

 

Or, if there is another way to overcome the cannot load skin error, short of a complete uninstall/reinstall, I'd be grateful for instructions, in case it happens again.

[gi7omy]

Very strange to see you having a problem Jean And even stranger for any of us to make suggestions to you

 

At the risk of being obvious - did you try uninstalling IE7 and see if that helps? Also, did it happen just after one of the updates?

 

Just trying to narrow the field a bit here is all

[jeanrosenfeld]

No I did not uninstall IE 7, nor WMP 11, I have no problems with those. They do not interfere with install or uninstall of EMC 9, and as far as I know, the problems with pre final versions of IE 7 were related to the activation/registration only, and did not occur with IE 7 final. I've had no problems registering/activating after an install.

The problem did not, as far as I know occur after any specific update, though I can't be sure. I hadn't used Videowave or MyDVD for a few days, then yesterday wanted to use them and I got that unpleasant surprise.

 

Some good news as far as the repair install option is concerned:

Just after posting the above, it occurred to me to run Chkdsk /f on restart. The event log shows that it cleaned up some unused index entries and minor inconsistencies on the drive and freed up space in the MFT. On restart I tried add/remove/change repair again and this time it did not hang; although it took about 30 seconds I got as far as the screen saying click next to install. At that stage I cancelled, since after yesterday's complete reinstall things are OK.

 

Would still like to know what causes the 'cannot load skin' problem, though. I don't know which dlls or other files are called upon when loading Videowave or MyDVD, so I can't track the one failing that causes that error message to appear. No event logs are generatedwhen it happens.

[gi7omy]

Actually Jean there are problems cropping up with both WMP11 and IE7 - even in their final form and more than just the installation/activation problems.

 

IE7 has been problematic - even to the extent of failing on some websites (a friend of mine who is a web site designer was joking at one stage of charging extra to make sites work with IE7 - he says that it isn't W3C compliant anyway). WMP11 is also a bit problematic in its tighter control of DRM but that, I agree shouldn't affect EMC9 skins

[jeanrosenfeld]

Getting a bit OT, but never mind.

Yes, some webmasters have not updated their code to comply with IE 7, although I haven't encountered many sites recently that don't open in IE 7. What I meant was that I don't think IE 7 interferes with the loading or functioning of Videowave/MyDVD.

As for WMP 11, I'm not worried about DRM, as I don't buy music on line :-). I use it to listen to my own audio CDs and converted LPs, and for Video DVDs and clips (although for the latter I sometimes use PowerDVD 7).

[Larry]

Just wondering, are you starting the programs from the Roxio Home interface, or going thru Start -> Programs ?

 

Some have been reporting issues when using the Home app to start programs like MyDVD or VW, but when they use the Start -> Programs method to open one of the programs they are fine.

 

Could try it to see if it helps.

[jeanrosenfeld]

I use the start/programs method (well, in fact I have copied those shortcuts to a folder which is on my Office toolbar, which gives more convenient access).

However when the cannot load skin error occurred it did so both from the start/programs Videowave and MyDVD shortcuts and from within Roxio Home, as well as from my added shortcut copies.