re: **CRASH ON START FIX!/Event Viewer Info For MS**

- Justananomaly Tools: Mp3tag | MusicBrainz

Sounds like you should try uninstalling and re-installing.

Also ensure your OS is completly up to date via Windows Update (select "Custom" and look to ensure you have a Urgent and Hardware updates, as well as any relevant Recommended updates).

And you probably should run the Chkdsk utility... do this by right-clicking your C: drive and selecting properties, then clicking on the "Tools" tab, and clicking the "Check Now..." button in the top "Error-Checking" box.  Then select "Automatically Fix File System Errors" checkbox, and click start.  You'll need to reboot your system as part of the process, and it will scan the disk as it boots up, which can take quite a while.

You might want to uninstall Zune, then run Chkdsk, and then do a full Windows update and reinstall the Zune software.

I tried this [in both 2000 and XP compatibility modes] and neither worked. I'm getting these error messages:

"Can't connect to Zune Marketplace. Make sure no other instances of the Zune software are running, then try again."

AND

Zune.exe - Corrupt File. The file or directory C:\windows\assembly\GAC is corrupt and unreadable. Please run chkdsk utility."

I haven't been able to run "chkdsk" but there seems to be nothing wrong with the software per se. Can you help me with this?

Thanks -- Karen

K.J. Roberts

im having a similar problem. when i click the zune icon it says. "Microsoft Zune Has Stopped Working"

and then under that "Windows can check online for a solution to the problem."

then it has 2 Buttons one that says. "Check online for a solution and close the program." and the under it says "Close program."

Im getting so frustrated cause i just got it yesterday and yesterday it was working fine. today i called customer support and they didnt help me they said to upgrade my vista or something but it was working fine earlier. all i did was try and restart it to see if it would delete the songs that i had on the music thing and then i clicked on the icon and it didnt work. so if you could please tell me what i can do to get it to work again please. it would be greatly apprecciated. thanks in advance.

Justananomaly, I'm really glad that this solved the problem. I just wanted to give a little bit more context here, since this might help others (and you helping others as well!).

The crash on startup issue was being caused by a corruption in the DRM store, possibly related with the recent hardware change. Zune accesses the store on startup and it was crashing due to this corruption. The change in the compatibility mode settings avoided hitting this problem, but it caused many other issues (particularly in CLR). Those issues were being surfaced as exceptions when Zune was accessing .NET 2.0 components (residing in mscorlib, ver 2.0.50727). Those unhandled exceptions were eventually caught by Watson which identified mscorlib as the faulting module.

The steps in the KB article resets the DRM store, fixing the corruption.

So, as far as I can tell (by Zune running smoothly now) there were no issues with CLR (.NET Framework). And we are currently working on addressing the corruption issues.

  Thanks again for trying this out and sending the crucial information!

-Grimday

Rodrigo
Zune Product Team
.: This posting is provided 'as-is' with no warranties, and confers no rights :.

Aww thanks waxgirl!
Unless you have alot of DRM protected content then yes, I would definatly do it.
The component that checks for DRM licensing seems to be corrupt somehow, causing the .net framework 2.0 components the software uses to crash, causing complete crash of the entire program. By replacing it via the link on that KB article it seems to have fixed it, I'm not sure how renaming the folder is but then again I have not tested this without it yet so I would just do it.

Just make sure you follow the steps exactally. (It gets confusing where it mentions the registry, but you dont need to do any of that if your music is in one of the two folders it mentions). You should be fine.

- Justananomaly Tools: Mp3tag | MusicBrainz

Justananomaly, I could kiss you!  Microsoft offered me no solutions to my non-functioning Zune except for sending it in for a repair.  That was one week ago and I still haven't received my shipping package to send it in with. 

Grimday...no offense, but since Microsoft has yet to offer a fix for their error, I don't think you can scold Just for offering something that not only finally gave me some hope, but actually worked!  I would like to try your suggestion, but am concerned about the "possible consequence".  Forgive me for not trusting it at this point.  I have lost my faith in suggestions Microsoft offers since 3 hours of phone time only produced conversations with 2 people who didn't actually seem to know what they were doing and who were very obviously reading directly from a script.  Very frustrating when I, who only likes to dabble in techy stuff, knew more than they did.  Sorry...venting.  I do know this is not your fault.  I guess I'm just annoyed that Micro has a habit of releasing programs before major kinks are worked out...again, not your fault.. so please accept my apologies.

So Just, if you tell me to do what Grim suggested, I will do it.  I trust what you've said so far.  In reading through forum after forum for the last week, you seem to have helped an awful lot of people. 

On behalf of anyone else out there now immersed in their Zunes again after being shut out - a great big huge THANK YOU!

Also, I did recently (about 2 weeks before the new software/firware update) switch my CPU/Motherboard without reinstalling Vista, and I was pretty much guessing that this is why it was happening, but didn't want to reinstall vista. I went from a P4 Prescott to the Q6600 Core2Quad, maybe it has something to do with going from a single thread/core to multiple thread/cores or maybe it only happens when running a 64bit processor on the 32bit OS, I'm not sure. 

- Justananomaly Tools: Mp3tag | MusicBrainz

Oh wow,
I turned off Compatibility Mode for Windows 2000 for Zune.exe
Renamed the C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\DRM to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\DRMbackup
Downloaded the DRM security component update at http://go.microsoft.com/FWLink?LinkID=34506
Relaunched the software and it's now completly functional, even podcasts.

Thanks I owe you big time, I will pass this information out now.

- Justananomaly Tools: Mp3tag | MusicBrainz

- Justananomaly Tools: Mp3tag | MusicBrainz

We are still working on the determining the exact cause of the issue which is causing Zune to crash on startup. Meanwhile, I think I have a possible workaround for it, but please be sure to notice the caveat in the article regarding restoring your current protected content licenses.

1. Turn-off the compatibility mode for Zune. This is essential here in order to verify the effectiveness of this.
2. Follow the steps in the following KB Article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929642. Although the KB article doesn't really mention this crash issue, it should address the problem. Please be sure to note the possible consequences regarding content licenses mentioned in there.
   1. In step (d) Internet Explorer should be running as Administrator.
3. After successfully performing all steps in the KB, try to start Zune again (with compatibility mode turned off)

Please let us know if that solves the problem.

Also, could you tell us if there was any recent hardware changes in this machine, such as BIOS upgrade or CPU change?

  Thanks,

Rodrigo
Zune Product Team
.: This posting is provided 'as-is' with no warranties, and confers no rights :.