UPnP Search Fails when adding Xbox 360 Media Center Extender

[jkuehn]

First off, I've spent a week searching for a solution to this so if I've missed something obvious I apologize.

My xbox has been connected as a media center extender to this computer and router combination for several months now. The router is a Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH. Earlier this week the media center extender was having trouble playing back video. After a restart of the computer the extender was no longer connected.

When I try to add a new extender I get the message "Cannot add extender". Microsoft says to enable upnp and multicast. Check. Reflashed firmware to dd-wrt. No luck. Flash back to buffalo firmware. No luck. Try an old Linksys WRT54GL I have lying around. No Luck.

The event logger has this error: "Media Center Extender Setup failed as the Extender was detected on the network but the UPnP search for the Extender failed (timed out after 20000ms)." Event ID: 538

Now I've done everything I could find about enabling network discovery, allowing anything to access media and such. Network and sharing is set pretty much wide open. I've also tried switching between home and work networks.

With that said, I decided to check and see what updates have been installed. It turns out that an update was applied on the day I started having problems. It says it cannot be uninstalled. Description of the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 installation software feature update

Note: I do not have system restore points. Small SSD and didn't take the time to figure out how to save them elsewhere.

So that's all the information I have. I've convinced myself it's not the router through the steps described above and that it's something to do with the computer. Help?

 

[jkuehn]

I've tried restarting the upnp, media center extender, and network list services. Also deleted the media center computer in the xbox 360. Still nothing.

 

[Qmass55]

I had big problems with mine too, and before that when I had Vista64! Last extender problem was solved by turning off upnp at the router to allow a connection to be made with media center, then I could turn it on afterwards. I doubt that'll be much help as your setup is different, but you may find more useful help at the xbox live forum too, as there are hundreds of people posting there with similar problems trying to make two bits of microsoft software work together, and I always got a solution in the end.

 

[kevinjohnson]

I came across this problem many times. If the XBMC fail during the search process, most likely because Media Sharing is not turned on in Windows 7. You can turn it on by going to advance sharing. And if you cannot turn on Media Streaming (assuming the button is available but won't turn on) make the computer has a legitimate copy of Windows 7. I've found out after working on the field that many cracked activation tend to break the Media Sharing service. Uninstalling the crack activation will fix the problem.