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[ABx]

I'm using J River 15.0.150 on Windows 7 x64. Ever since upgrading to Win7, the monitor will go to sleep while playing videos in full-screen mode (I don't use Theater Mode). It will stop the screensaver, at least, but not sleep. VLC Player and Windows Media Player don't seem to have this problem.

I've looked through the settings, but the only thing I could find was for stopping the screensaver while in Theater Mode.

Am I missing something? Any ideas?

[glynor]

This isn't helpful at all, but that doesn't happen here.

Did you do an in-place upgrade to Window 7?  If so, from what OS?

Lastly, have you installed proper video card drivers, or are you just using whatever came with Windows?  If you haven't downloaded and installed video drivers, that would probably be a good first step.  Do you know what kind of GPU powers your video card (Nvidia, Intel, or AMD/ATI?)

[ABx]

It was a fresh format; the previous XP install was quite old and it needed it.

The video card is an nVidia 7600 GT(X?) (this machine doesn't need much) using the OEM driver. This did prompt me to update the driver last night, but it's still doing the same.

I thought it might be my security software so I temporarily uninstalled it with no results. I'm mostly watching Divx avi files with the latest Divx codex (I like it better than the alternatives), in case that makes a difference.

[glynor]

So, you're using the Windows Update drivers, which are crap.  Download and install the real ones for your video card.  It might very well solve the issue.

Windows 7 x64: http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7-winvista-64bit-260.99-whql-driver.html
Windows 7 x86 (32-bit): http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7-winvista-32bit-260.99-whql-driver.html

You may also want to do the chipset drivers, which could be involved.  Assuming you have an Intel board, and not Nvidia or AMD, the ones to get would be the Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility.

[ABx]

No, I'm using the OEM (nVidia) drivers, and the update was from the nVidia website (I hadn't installed the latest for some time).

The motherboard is a Gigabyte board with the Intel Chipset, and I do have the chipset drivers installed. I just ran the INF update utility and it only updated the SATA drivers.

This is a self-built system, and I always use the manufacturer's drivers.

I should also mention that running JR as Administrator has no effect. Were this a driver issue, I wouldn't expect JR to be the only media player to have this problem, although I do realize that JR has more kernel-level interaction (though I don't know to what extent) and I'm not particularly familiar with the world of A/V software.

[glynor]

No, I'm using the OEM (nVidia) drivers

Ahh... I was confused.  For graphics cards specifically, the term OEM is often used to refer to the actual card vendor (Nvidia's customer, like XFX or Gigabyte), or to the manufacturer (TSMC almost certainly), and not to the GPU designer (Nvidia or AMD).  So I assumed you were using either Windows Update drivers or the ones from the board manufacturer, which are typically horribly out-of-date.

MC does not need to be run as an administrator.  It will elevate properly if it needs those rights.

I'm not sure what else could be causing it.  Is your system set to go to S1 or S3 sleep (via the BIOS)?

[petrossa]

I assume you've set your power configuration correctly?

[Matt]

Is the monitor turning off, or is the entire computer sleeping?

Are you using Display View or a detached display?

I'm not sure the issue.  We disable the screensaver and monitor sleep in Display View.  I use this feature (if you call it that) most every night on a Windows 7 x64 box, so I know it normally works.

[ABx]

It's just the monitor turning off; the system isn't set to sleep.

I'm using Display View, but I've also tried detached display.

I'm not sure what mode (S1 vs S3) it uses. I will have to reboot at some point, but I would think that it's probably S3.

I do control the system in question using Multiplicity (it's like Synergy), so it doesn't usually have a keyboard or mouse connected. I wouldn't think that that would affect anything, but it is something different.

[Matt]

I do control the system in question using Multiplicity (it's like Synergy), so it doesn't usually have a keyboard or mouse connected. I wouldn't think that that would affect anything, but it is something different.

As a test, you might try without that.

Also, make sure Media Center has the focus (click on the window) when playing.  I'm not sure if non-focused applications are allowed to block the screen saver and power management features.

Finally, you mentioned you're running Media Center as administrator.  You shouldn't need to do that, so try running it as a user if you're under UAC.

Thanks.

[glynor]

I'm not sure if non-focused applications are allowed to block the screen saver and power management features.

This happens to me occasionally.  If MC fails to prevent my monitor timeout, it is almost always because somehow it isn't "on top".

I asked about S1 vs S3 because I had one system that failed to work properly when set to S3 with Windows 7's Hybrid Sleep mode enabled.  Once it would go to sleep, the video card would just randomly power the monitor down on its own.  The computer would continue running (I could even remote in via VNC and see the full desktop and everything), but the video signal wouldn't come back up without rebooting.  Sometimes it could sleep for hours without this happening, and sometimes 15 seconds would be enough.

Anyhow... Obviously this issue isn't the same, but I simply asked because it might be worth backing off to S1 just to see if the problem goes away (I suspect I have a driver problem on that machine).  If so, you can switch back to S3 and then try to tweak the Advanced Power Options settings in Windows till you get it.