Do you really think that Jim has nothing better to do than follow up every self-inflicted fault that users create on their own systems? ...
Nice attempt at being snarky. Dale can tell you I'm a
lot better than you at it, but at least I'm trying to be a) polite and b) helpful here.
When I find a problem, I research it myself, (it is after all MY problem). Then when I find what has caused it, I report the results, and if the underlying reason was with MA, then Jim can take any action he considers necessary or possible. - If on the other hand the remedy is by making corrections to MY system, the need to report is solely so others can be aware of the effect such a situation can cause.
I had multiple systems that exhibit the problem. I performed every diagnostic test suggested here, no matter how unlikely it was to fix the problem or create new problems (install DirectX 8 components on Windows 7? Why not?). None of that helped.
After some additional exploring on my own, I found that running a component (media center) that
is not even included in some versions of Windows 7 seems to correct the problem. Of course, that won't help the customers who have Windows versions that don't include it.
I have repeatedly expressed my willingness to try other troubleshooting steps, explained to Jim how he could run Windows 7 free for at least 30 days so he could track it down, and made several suggestions about a debug option in MA3 which would log "what goes out and what goes in" so that Jim could gather whatever data he wants on systems that have the problem.