Nothing will stream to 360 anymore, getting desperate

[kevinor]

Streaming content wirelessly to my xbox 360 has been working flawlessly for about a year now, then suddenly, the whole thing just breaks. It will however stream if it's wired, but this function is useless to me.

What happens when you try to watch either live TV on the 360 or recorded TV is a black screen is displayed. No video, no audio. I can back out back to the media center menus no problem. When I go back to those menus, the play button doesn't change to "resume", so it doesn't seem to think it ever played anything. Now, to be clear, this is not the startup black screen. I get all the regular menus and can see the shows, but once I'm supposed to watch something, it looks like it's just about to show something, but the screen stays black and nothing happens.

Attempts to stream music looks fine also, but the music doesn't play either. The counter that shows where in the song you are just stays at zero.

I contacted Xbox support, and we uninstalled and re-installed the extender a few times (which I had already done) and some other stuff nothing worked. Their determination was that it was a firewall issue. However, I could completely disable the windows firewall, and it still doesn't work. Also, I don't run any anti-virus. So then they determined it was my router (and then basically ended the call on me).

Router is a WRT54GL with DD-WRT v24 SP1 on it. It's solid. I haven't changed anything on it for months, long before this issue started. I power cycled it. Even re-flashed the firmware, just to be sure. Nothing changed.

Anyway, put the xbox in the DMZ, nothing. Put the computer in the DMZ, nothing. Still won't stream wirelessly. So just for kicks, I used an older hard drive, completely wiped it, and put a new fresh clean install of vista home premium on it. And when using that install, IT WILL STREAM wirelessly. That's through the router with no changes, and the windows firewall up.

So to re-cap, it's not a firewall issue, it's not a router issue, it's not a network issue, and it's not a 360 issue (I have two 360's and the problem is identical on both). Is there anything else I can do OTHER than re-install Vista? I'm desperate at this point. Plus if this problem returns after a couple weeks on a fresh install, I'll probably lose my mind.

HELP!

[hugh]

The fact that you can stream using a wired connection certainly seems to point to your wireless router settings. If the router is working okay then it would certainly point to the Xbox. The fact that a fresh install of Vista works suggests its neither the router or the Xbox!!

I respond to your post because last week streaming to my Apple TV from my Vista computer suddenly stopped working.

Long story short, I think a recent Windows update screwed up the firewall settings. Finally, I went into Control Panel and under security I clicked on "Allow a program through Windows Firewall" and found that iTunes could no longer stream from my computer. I clicked on allow iTunes and everything worked.

I doubt this is your problem since you can stream using a wired connection but you may want to review your Windows Firewall settings.

[kevinor]

Yeah, I checked the firewall before I disabled it completely (to test that I wasn't doing anything wrong, and to see if it was a firewall issue) and it should be allowed. Plus when you install an extender (or re-install in my case) it has a step were it pokes holes in the firewall.

Xbox support also gave me the port list, which I added manually in addition to the previous exceptions in the firewall.

These changes unfortunately had no effect.

My first thought was a windows update as well, so I did a system restore to a previous backup with no effect. It's possible that I didn't go back far enough, but I'm pretty sure I did.

[BadLag]

Kevinor, it does seem to be a windows problem....I had a similar incident with my PS3 and streaming media from my PC, after a MS update, something got fubarred in DRM Digital Rights Management and that had to be removed and re-installed before the MP11 Media Server would work again.....

[hugh]

The problem I have with saying its a Windows problem is the fact that the problem only occurs wirelessly.

If it was a Windows problem, then shouldn't the problem happen with a wired and a wireless connection?

[BadLag]

Good point Hugh, I never tried mine wired when it happened but Kevinor did say he re-imaged a different hard drive and all is working again so it has to be something in Windows....wonder if it a corrupt winsock issue, I have seen stranger things caused by corrupt winsocks...

Manual steps to recover from Winsock2 corruption for Windows Vista users
Winsock corruption can cause connectivity problems. To resolve this issue by using Network Diagnostics in Windows Vista, follow these steps:
Click ,
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and then click Network.
Click Network and Sharing Center.
In the Network and Sharing Center box, click Diagnose and Repair.
Note You may also access the Network and Sharing Center in Control Panel.

If the Network and Diagnostic tool was unable to find a problem, you can manually repair or reset Winsock.
Manual steps to repair or to reset Winsock for Windows Vista users
Click
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, type cmd in the Start Search box, right-click cmd.exe, click Run as administrator, and then press Continue.
Type netsh winsock reset at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.

Note If the command is typed incorrectly, you will receive an error message. Type the command again. When the command is completed successfully, a confirmation appears, followed by a new command prompt. Then, go to step 3.
Type exit, and then press ENTER.
Back to the top

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811259/en-us

[kevinor]

That WinSock thing sounds familiar... Not sure if I tried that or not. I will again anyway.

I may try rolling back all my updates to early january... That's about all I can think to try. Doesn't seem like anybody is having this particular issue, or at least hasn't posted anything on the net, I've been searching pretty hard.

[kevinor]

Thank you BadLag, your winsock solution seems to have fixed my issue. I read the KB article from microsoft, and even though all the items they listed were present, I decided to do the manual reset anyway. Low a behold, wireless streaming is now working again on both my Xbox 360s.

Thanks so much, my quality of life has just been significantly enriched!

[hamudi]

hmmm i should try this...i've been having problem with 360 where it wont stream music from my Vista PC, like some songs will show on the list and some wont.