Windows 7 Beta Suffers from MP3 Corruption Bug Before it Even Reaches the Public

alexp999 · Jan 9, 2009

The first official public beta of Windows 7 launches today (Build 7000), but already there is a serious bug which can corrupt your mp3 files. Although it will not render them unplayable, it has the potential to cut off the first 2 or 3 seconds of the mp3 recording. According to a poster on the Neowin.net forums:

The problem only happens when you edit metadata on a certain class of MP3 file (a file with a header larger than 16KB). When the new metadata is written, it corrupts the beginning of the file. This can happen either when you edit the metadata from inside WMP or Explorer, or it can happen if you have WMP set to automatically fill in missing metadata using the online service and add the MP3 to your library. This problem is only present in the recently leaked build (7000)

This same problem has been noted on Microsofts MSDN and TechNet websites when you click to download the beta:

To protect your MP3 files
1. Before you install this Beta release, back up all MP3 files that might be accessed by the computer, including those on removable media or network shares.
2. Install the Beta release of Windows 7; download and install the Update to Windows 7 Beta (KB961367) located on this page.

Although there is no official support page for KB961367 yet, Microsoft have the updates ready for download.

You can download the 32-bit (x86) version here and the 64-bit (x64) version here.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

csendesmark · Jan 9, 2009

this is humiliating for M$

kenkickr · Jan 9, 2009

It's a beta!! what more can be said! When you use a beta EVERYTHING is at YOUR risk.

ShadowFold · Jan 9, 2009

Whoa I did notice it but I don't really care lol the best parts in the middle and the end :rockout:

TheMailMan78 · Jan 9, 2009

csendesmark said:
this is humiliating for M$

Um...you do realize this is a BETA.

95Viper · Jan 9, 2009

kenkickr said:
It's a beta!! what more can be said! When you use a beta EVERYTHING is at YOUR risk.

Ditto! He is correct. I don't think MS is doing things on purpose to cause problems - it causes delays and cost money to fix things...

Gam'ster · Jan 9, 2009

Its just beta being beta, when did anything in development ever work as it should..... now that they know they can fix it, its the point of a beta release.

mdm-adph · Jan 9, 2009

kenkickr said:
It's a beta!! what more can be said! When you use a beta EVERYTHING is at YOUR risk.

True -- Microsoft is not liable for any damage that occurs to your computer as a result of you using the Windows 7 beta.

That being said, I wonder how they could've got something so simple as writing metadata to MP3 files wrong. :confused:

Did they even need to code anything new for that, considering we've all been doing it safely for years?

DrPepper · Jan 9, 2009

I'm glad it got caught in the beta.

Breathless · Jan 9, 2009

Give them a freekin break. There are doing a good job with 7. Give em some time

ASharp · Jan 9, 2009

I don't see how this is really that big of a deal. It's not the final release and technically, most of us shouldn't have access to it anyway but who are we kidding, right?

Either way, hate to be redundant but, it's a beta. Stuff happens. It's part of the development process. Microsoft caught the problem and issued a fix. Problem solved.

ManofGod · Jan 9, 2009

Crap, installed the patch and now my wired network connection is missing. (Does not even show up in the device manager as a hidden device.) I used system restore but that did not help either.

Oh well, I am going to put my Vista harddrive back into my laptop I guess.

Edit: I rebooted after installing some Office updates and now it is back. (Well, it is a beta after all.)

DaJMasta · Jan 9, 2009

It may be a beta, but if it was spotted so quickly by MSDN users and the general public, they potentially didn't do enough checking (you do plenty of checking for beta releases too).

It's an odd problem to have though, I guess it just overwrites the song with more header information or something.

silkstone · Jan 9, 2009

I'm guessing the policy at the M$ labs is not to have their computers contain huge amounts of MP3's, and the tech's wouldn't really be focusing on editing meta data. But yea a pretty big error and understandable that it has gone unnoticed so far. Windows7 should be a great OS because of this public beta.

EnglishLion · Jan 9, 2009

I'm sure there will be plenty more bugs and fixes before release. Probably a whole load more after too!

It is a beta after all :rolleyes:

Assimilator · Jan 9, 2009

It's likely a buffer overrun bug. The only way you could have over 16KB of metadata in an MP3 is if you embed the album art into the audio file itself, which IMO is nothing but a good way to waste disk space.

thunder_2008 · Jan 9, 2009

alexp999 said:
The first official public beta of Windows 7 launches today (Build 7000), but already there is a serious bug which can corrupt your mp3 files. Although it will not render them unplayable, it has the potential to cut off the first 2 or 3 seconds of the mp3 recording. According to a poster on the Neowin.net forums:

This same problem has been noted on Microsofts MSDN and TechNet websites when you click to download the beta:

Although there is no official support page for KB961367 yet, Microsoft have the updates ready for download.

You can download the 32-bit (x86) version here and the 64-bit (x64) version here.

Why is the download site for the windows 7 beta not available it just only has information on it and videos all I can find are the updates for the W7-beta but not the actual os???

I read that it would be available 12:00pm 1-09-09...so where's it at...can you please provide a proper link to the download directly.

Thanks in advance

Aw...found link for W7

LiveOrDie · Jan 10, 2009

i used the 32bit for a week with out the hotfix my mp3 are fine, using 64bit now with hotfix now though

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Windows 7 Beta Suffers from MP3 Corruption Bug Before it Even Reaches the Public

alexp999

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