Install on Vista fails

[fbara]

I'm having continuous problems installing EMC 10 on my system. I have been reading these posts and performed many install, uninstalls, clean uninstalls (Windows Install Clean Up and KB 000086CR) and still can't get the program to run without problems. I have opened a ticket with Roxio support and want to post this info in the forum in hope that someone can help. I have over a decade of experience as a software programmer and have beta-tested applications including MS Windows (v95 to Vista) and Symantec. I mention this in order to let those at Roxio know that I have never had such a difficult time installing a production-ready application. Even MS Vista, which many in these forum deride, installed and ran better than this software.

 

I am the only user of this system and have administrator rights.

 

Here are my system details:

Operating System: Windows Vista™ Ultimate (6.0, Build 6001) Service Pack 1, v.668 (6001.longhorn_rc1.071129-2315)

Language: English (Regional Setting: English)

System Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard

System Model: HP Pavilion DV8000 (EX177AV)

BIOS: Ver 1.00PARTTBL

Processor: Genuine Intel® CPU T2250 @ 1.73GHz (2 CPUs), ~1.7GHz

Memory: 2046MB RAM

Page File: 1142MB used, 4936MB available

Windows Dir: C:\Windows

DirectX Version: DirectX 10

DX Setup Parameters: Not found

DxDiag Version: 6.00.6001.17052 32bit Unicode

---------------

Display Devices

---------------

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM)

Manufacturer: NVIDIA

Chip type: GeForce Go 7600

DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC

Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0398&SUBSYS_30A5103C&REV_A1

Display Memory: 520 MB

Dedicated Memory: 248 MB

Shared Memory: 271 MB

Current Mode: 1440 x 900 (32 bit) (60Hz)

 

I receive errors such as:

When starting Vista:

1) Skin image "MenuSeparator.png" found but cannot be loaded.

2) Runtime Error! RoxWatchTray10.exe

3) RoxMMTrayApp Module has stopped working

4) Error: Unable to load skin

 

When starting EMC 10:

1) Please wait while Windows configures Roxio Central Tools...

2) Please wait while Windows configures Roxio Central Data...

3) Please wait while Windows configures Roxio Central Copy...

4) Please wait while Windows configures Roxio Central Audio...

 

When trying to run DVD Express by itself:

1) Runtime Error! RoxWizardLauncher10.exe

2) RoxWizardLauncher10.exe error R6025 - pure virtual function call

 

After opening ticket with Roxio, they advised:

“A Roxio Agent has responded to your ticket!

Thank you for contacting Roxio Technical Support

1.) Update to the latest version of Direct X from the Microsoft website below.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en

2.) Update your video drivers. (Important)

To find out what video device you need to update you can click on start, run, and type 'dxdiag' and press enter.

Click the display tab at the top of that window and that will tell you the manufacturer of you video device.”

 

I did this and received this DirectX notification: "DirectX setup has determined that a newer or equivalent version of DirectX has been installed already. No installation is necessary."

 

I updated the Nvidia drivers to v7.15.10.9815. This is the latest version available for my laptop.

 

After doing this and reinstalling EMC 10, I'm receiving the same errors. I verified that RoxWatchTray10.exe was not in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run or any other Registry startup location.

 

I have tried to only install the basic, core system, leaving out items such as Copy, Audio, MediaWatcher, etc. This has had no visible impact on the errors I receive.

 

As I mentioned at the top of my post, I have performed many cleaning uninstalls and these have taken several hours to perform and verify. I am currently waiting to hear back from Roxio, but any help would be appreciated.

[grandpabruce]

fbara, Roxio switched to a new server, and there are many folks who can't log in. When I tried, it kept going back to the login screen, so I clicked on the Forgot Password button. I got an e-mail, with a link to reset the password, so I clicked on the link, got to a reset password screen, typed in my original password (twice) and got logged in.

 

If you do get logged in, don't log out.

[Guest ml]

I had this problem and found a simple solution that worked for me.

 

First, set up a NEW Windows Vista User Account. It's under Start\ Control Panel\ User Account. Make certain that the account is set up as an administrative account.

 

Once that's done, log off your main account and onto the new Vista User Account.

Disable your virus and pop up blockers.

 

Install Roxio on that New User Account. Once you've done that, you should be able to access the Roxio program from either account.

 

Hope that helps.

[The Highlander]

Hi fbara1,

 

We all know and understand were you have been and have gone with this, most of us older users or even guru's have been in the same boat at some time with one of there products , as nothing can be made that works perfectly on ever computer in this world (sorry not defending them)

 

but do keep on asking questions and do post back what you have found or what you did to get it to work , as the ongoing repair side seldom gets posted here after people do find a fix for there issue.

 

Good luck and report back if you can

Regards

[fbara]

Thanks JamesTw. I should've stated in my post that I disabled my antivirus (AntiVir) prior to installation. I'm running Windows built-in firewall and don't have any other 3rd-party utilities running at the time of the install. Thank you for reminding me to mention that!

 

On the positive side, I'm receiving daily answers from Roxio to my support ticket. However, it appears the tech is not reading the previous comments as they are asking me to do things I indicated I had already performed. This does not instill confidence in the support process.

[fbara]

I wonder if I can create a VM in Vista, install XP Pro, and then install EMC 10 into that VM?

 

Has anyone had any luck doing this?

[fbara]

Thanks ml.

 

Do you think it matters if my account already has Administrator privileges? I'm the only one who uses the machine so my account has all the administrative rights.

 

fb

[Guest ml]

Do you think it matters if my account already has Administrator privileges? I'm the only one who uses the machine so my account has all the administrative rights.

 

No. Mine was set up like your computer with one account having administrator privileges and I went through a very frustrating couple of hours trying to reinstall EMC 10. ( I didn't want to go through the steps outlined in the Knowledgebase article and delete folders and edit the registry.)

 

So I tried a trick that has worked on previous versions and set up another User Account with Administrator priviledges in Windows and installed the program on the other user account.

 

It worked with no problems. I haven't gone back and deleted the second user account yet, but that shouldn't affect the installation of EMC 10 once it's on the computer.

[Patty]

Thanks ml.

 

Do you think it matters if my account already has Administrator privileges? I'm the only one who uses the machine so my account has all the administrative rights.

 

fb

No, more than one person can have those privlileges.

[Guest ml]

No, more than one person can have those privlileges.

 

Thanks for clarifying that, Patty.

 

I completely misread the question...... (time for more caffeine to wake me up)

[fbara]

Thanks ml and Patty.

 

So if I'm reading this correctly, since I'm already the administrator on my system, I have already performed the steps ml laid out in the original suggestion.

 

Oh well, back to crafting my letter to Dave Habiger, the CEO.

[Guest ml]

Thanks ml and Patty.

 

So if I'm reading this correctly, since I'm already the administrator on my system, I have already performed the steps ml laid out in the original suggestion.

 

Oh well, back to crafting my letter to Dave Habiger, the CEO.

 

So did it install on the second user account or not?

 

And if it didn't install, what happened?

[fbara]

Now it's my turn to misread the post (must be something in the water...). I thought that since I can only have 1 administrator account, and since I'm already signed in and using that account, the idea of creating a 2nd account 1) wouldn't work, and 2) I've already done.

 

So, I did not create a new account yet. I will try to do this tonight when I get home from work. I will post my experience.

 

Thanks ml!

[Guest ml]

Now it's my turn to misread the post (must be something in the water...). I thought that since I can only have 1 administrator account, and since I'm already signed in and using that account, the idea of creating a 2nd account 1) wouldn't work, and 2) I've already done.

 

So, I did not create a new account yet. I will try to do this tonight when I get home from work. I will post my experience.

 

Thanks ml!

 

I hope it works. Make certain that the second account is also an administrator account.

 

Also, sometimes activation is extremely slow and pop up blockers can interfer with the process once the program is installed. I had to try 3 times to get it to activate because they were having problems that week.

 

Let us know.....

[REDWAGON]

I also have EMC 10 installed on my Vista Home Premium OS computer and had no problems with the installation. But as far as being the administrator and only operator on your computer, please note that you can have more than a single user account on Vista and they can have full access and permissions, same as you. So as ml as suggested all users that have full permissions will be able to run EMC 10.

 

Sorry to hear that you are frustrated with your feedback from Roxio/Sonic, but continue to log onto this forum and you will find a ton of solutions to many problems. I suggest giving ml's suggestion a try and then let us know if you are still having problems.

[fbara]

That's what's great about this county, grandpabruce, we can agree to disagree! I have Vista Ultimate and it was an upgrade from XP Pro. I don't know if you, grandpabruce, have the same setup.

 

On the advice of ml, I checked my MSXML*.dll files in the system32 folder and made sure they were all registered (regsvr32). I received a few errors trying to register versions 2 thru 5. Version 6, the latest version, is already on my system. I d/l'd the file again from MS's site and reinstalled it, just to be sure.

 

I did a complete, clean unistall of EMC a few days ago, so I need to reinstall it (again) to see if this will work. I'll post my results.

[fbara]

Thanks, everyone for the suggestions. Unfortunately, I'm still having the same errors.

 

I unstalled Vista SP1 and rebooted.

I performed a clean uninstall per KB000086CR. I ran several registry cleaners to make sure all traces of Roxio and Sonic were removed.

Then I started the system in Safe Mode and deleted all Roxio and Sonic folders from about half-dozen locations.

Then I rebooted and created a new Administrator account, logged in to that account, disabled AV, firewall, and everything else I could find. I ran the registry cleaners again to verify the keys were gone.

I installed EMC 10 using the Typical install, then rebooted.

 

After the boot, I (again) started getting the "Skin image 'MenuSeparator.png' found but cannot be loaded" error message. Then the flood of additional error messages started, just as it has during every other install I've tried.

 

ml, looks like adding the new admin user account and doing the install under that accont didn't work.

 

Thanks anyway.

 

Frank

[fbara]

Ok, I did a complete format of the hard drive and installed Vista from scratch, no upgrade. I installed EMC 10 and it appears that everything is working. While I'm happy it's working, I wish there was a less drastic way of getting it to work.

 

I'll be trying out different apps within the suite and report back at the end of the week.

 

Frank

[fbara]

Well, I reinstalled again. I did as ml suggested earlier, I logged in as Administrator and did the install with that account. Then I logged in as me, I have administrative rights, and I immediately received the 'unable to load skin image' error, the same error I've received after every install.

 

It doesn't look like I'm any closer to getting this to work.

[fbara]

Thanks Geed and Daithi.

 

During the uninstalls I made sure to check all the folders. I've turned off 'hidden files and folders' in the folder options dialog. I want to see everything on my system!

 

I also have Google Desktop and I do searches for anything Rox* and Son* to make sure it's all gone.

 

Frank

[backpacker777]

Gee, and I thought I was the only one having these smae install issues. Sounds like EMC 10 is not yet ready for Vista prime time.

[Beerman]

Gee, and I thought I was the only one having these smae install issues. Sounds like EMC 10 is not yet ready for Vista prime time.

I've got no problems running EMC10 on 2 Vista Ultimate systems. But, you are not alone with having some problems with EMC10. Each system is different and there may be something on your system that causes problems with it. I installed EMC10 on 1 system completely fresh and on the other, after I installed a number of other programs before installing 10.

[Guest ml]

After the boot, I (again) started getting the "Skin image 'MenuSeparator.png' found but cannot be loaded" error message. Then the flood of additional error messages started, just as it has during every other install I've tried.

 

ml, looks like adding the new admin user account and doing the install under that accont didn't work.

 

Actually, you've provided a bit more information......

 

It looks like the install worked. However, your computer isn't loading the MenuSeparator.png file and then the other error messages spin off of that.

 

Now we need to find out why your computer won't load the MenuSeparator.png file.

 

* Edited*

A couple of questions.... Did Windows Vista Premium come preloaded on your computer or did you upgrade?

Do you have an older version of a Roxio program on your computer and if so what? ( Some HP computers came with an OEM version of EMC)

[fbara]

I checked my system and I don't have Drag to Disk installed.

 

Frank

[fbara]

It appears Roxio has officially washed its hands of my support issue. I received this from Roxio support regarding my open ticket:

 

We have exhausted our troubleshooting steps for you.

 

Looking at the pictures of your errors shows that there are many problems there.

 

We have tested the software on many machines with various configurations and were not able to duplicate your issue.

 

You may want to clean uninstall the software and run a registry cleaner before reinstalling.

 

Regards,

 

Roxio Technical Support

http://www.roxio.com/enu/support

 

Then they promptly closed my ticket, again, even though I have an outstanding support issue that is still not resolved. I advised them several times that I had run the clean uninstall process, per their knowledgebase post, and run several registry cleaners prior to reinstall. They just don't seem to listen or care.

 

I must admit, I have never, never been treated this poorly by a major software vendor. I haven't even been treated this poorly by a freeware or shareware vendor.

 

Since I received this software as a Christmas gift, I will not be returning it. I will simply stay away from any Roxio software in the future. I will advise anyone who asks, and there are many as I'm in the software development industry, to avoid any Roxio purchase as they deploy extremely buggy code that is not tested very well, and they will not assist you with support when you have a problem.

 

I'd like to thank those of you who posted responses to me and tried to help. You provided more feedback and assistance than I received from Roxio support.

 

My next step is to contact the CEO of Sonic Solutions, Roxio's parent company, Dave Habiger and advise him of my experience. I might receive help at that level.

[Larry]

I wonder if I can create a VM in Vista, install XP Pro, and then install EMC 10 into that VM?

 

Has anyone had any luck doing this?

While you can probably install it in a VM ( I tested that with v9 a few months back), none of the video apps will work and you wouldn't be able to burn directly to discs. Have you considered creating a dual-boot setup so you can boot into either Vista or XP?