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[tzr916]

Does anyone else use sleep on clients? Does it work properly? This has happened twice now:

Watching MC THEATER VIEW- press stop, press sleep, computer goes to sleep.
Some time later- wake up computer, see THEATER VIEW guide on screen, start browsing guide and within first few button presses the computer just reboots.
After it comes back on, THEATER VIEW comes on the screen and all is normal again.

Do I have to wait a minute or two after waking up computer to start pressing remote buttons?



SOLVED: Learned that running Media Server service on Clients is a big no no!

[RoderickGI]

I haven't heard of computer reboots in this situation, but there was a big discussion or two about Clients waking from Sleep, and getting them to talk to the Server again.

I believe that at least one person decided to set up a task in Windows Task Scheduler to restart MC using an MCC Command whenever the PC came out of sleep, so that it reconnected properly and there were no issues. Search for the threads. There was good information in there.

[tzr916]

Thanks. I just did some quick tests and found this may have been caused by having the IR receiver dongle plugged into front usb port. I returned it to a rear usb port and so far it is not rebooting. Will keep and eye on it.

[tzr916]

may have been caused by having the IR receiver dongle plugged into front usb port. I returned it to a rear usb port and so far it is not rebooting.

No such luck. Just failed again (last night).

And failed again (this morning with the USB IR dongle not even connected at all).

If I find out that I have to exit MC, then put the PC to sleep, then wake it up to the desktop, is there a way to launch MC after waking with a MCE remote button? Just found that TGB does launch MC. See if doing this is the cure....

[RoderickGI]

If I find out that I have to exit MC, then put the PC to sleep, then wake it up to the desktop, is there a way to launch MC after waking with a MCE remote button?

No need to exit MC, or relaunch it when the PC wakes up. Make the PC do the work. As I said above;

I believe that at least one person decided to set up a task in Windows Task Scheduler to restart MC using an MCC Command whenever the PC came out of sleep, so that it reconnected properly and there were no issues. Search for the threads. There was good information in there.

MC has Command Line parameters as well as the Media Center Core (MCC) commands. It is actually one of the Command Line parameters that will restart MC, i.e. "mc21.exe /restart" will restart MC, and that should overcome the problem you are having. Not that the problem should exist in the first place, but at least this should fix it.

So, set up a task in Windows Task Scheduler. The image in this post should help you set up the Trigger "On an event" (which will be waking from sleep) that you need for the task, and the Action should be to "Start a Program", where the program is "mc21.exe" and its parameter is "/restart". Just about everything else can be left at the defaults. Save that, then turn on "All Task History" so that you can see if the task runs when you wake the Client PC. Once you are happy it is working, you can turn off the Task History.

If you need more help with the task, ask here or in the thread I linked to.

[CountryBumkin]

Also check the computer's CPU fan. I had a similar problem once where the computer would reboot when I started watching a movie. The increased CPU load/heat (as compared to idle) along with a bad fan was causing the reboot.
Check Windows Event Viewer too.

[tzr916]

I have done this successfully 5 times now without crash/reboot:
-exit MC
-put PC to sleep
-wake PC
-restart MC manually

No need to exit MC

Something to try I guess but, if I don't exit MC before putting into sleep, then the instant that the PC wakes MC will be on the screen and running, which is a bad thing. So restarting it after wake with command line/task scheduler is kinda useless, because MC is already running! Which is the whole problem here.

I will provide any information needed to actually solve the this bug on my machine. The goal here is to leave MC Theater View on the screen and be able to put the PC to sleep, then later wake the PC and have MC Theater View on the screen (without the PC hard rebooting in 5-10 seconds).

[Arindelle]

just out of curiosity, have you tried to have the PC go to sleep on a sleep timer ... I never put my HTPC to sleep, it just goes to sleep after x period, no reboots, and I never exit JRiver its always running in the background or at least media server is.


EDIT: actually this used to happen to me, I forgot about it. I had an older ASUS board and it had a utility called AI Nap on it ... that caused problems all over the place. Resolved by disabling the ASUS tool, conflicting with WIndows.

[RoderickGI]

Something to try I guess but, if I don't exit MC before putting into sleep, then the instant that the PC wakes MC will be on the screen and running, which is a bad thing. So restarting it after wake with command line/task scheduler is kinda useless, because MC is already running! Which is the whole problem here.

I was assuming based on your description that it was the MC Client trying to reconnect to the Server after waking from sleep that was causing the reboot. In the same situation, I am able to move around MC for a little while before MC tries to reconnect, as it is using the local cached version of the library initially. The reconnection attempt in your case may be putting extra load on the power supply, stressing the network card, or memory available, or something else in the PC, which kicks it into a reboot. A restart at wake should mean that MC issues WOL commands and connects to the Server with less "effort".

But really I guess you should try to find the underlying cause and fix that.

Often these sorts of issues are underpowered or poor quality power supplies. Do you have another program that uses a fair bit of processing power, that you can start doing something, sleep the PC, wake it and see if the reboot happens. Do a test without MC running. For example, a video converter uses a bit of power. Start some video conversion to load up the PC then sleep it, wait 30 seconds, then wake it. What happens?

If the PC still reboots, you know it isn't a MC problem, and it could be the power supply, CPU, memory, or a lot of other things. If the PC doesn't reboot, look to the network card, drivers, etc. first. Then look elsewhere.

[tzr916]

At no point in this process am I closing the Media Server Client service:

I have done this successfully 5 times now without crash/reboot:
-exit MC
-put PC to sleep
-wake PC
-restart MC manually

I was assuming based on your description that it was the MC Client trying to reconnect to the Server after waking from sleep that was causing the reboot. In the same situation, I am able to move around MC for a little while before MC tries to reconnect, as it is using the local cached version of the library initially. The reconnection attempt in your case may be putting extra load on the power supply, stressing the network card, or memory available, or something else in the PC, which kicks it into a reboot. A restart at wake should mean that MC issues WOL commands and connects to the Server with less "effort".

Are you saying that after waking a Client from sleep, the Media Server Client service does not perform a Sync operation until you actually run the MC program?

I guess my next test is going to be leaving MC open in Standard View while putting the Client to sleep/waking. All my previous crash/reboots have happened when sleeping/waking the Client while in Theater View.

[blgentry]

I hate to be "that guy", but here I am...

Why bother putting them to sleep at all?  I see nothing but trouble with people trying to "save energy" by shutting down NAS devices, disks, and computers.  Computers run best and last the longest when they are left on 24x7.  Ask anyone who's worked in a large IT environment.  Computers like to be left on.

I won't belabor the point.  I know a lot of you guys won't listen to my observations and experience at all because it seems "wrong" to leave things running when you're not using them.  I'm not here to fight.  Just offering my opinion on the matter and moving on.

Brian.

[tzr916]

I hate to be "that guy", but here I am...

Why bother putting them to sleep at all?  I see nothing but trouble with people trying to "save energy" by shutting down NAS devices, disks, and computers.  Computers run best and last the longest when they are left on 24x7.  Ask anyone who's worked in a large IT environment.  Computers like to be left on.

I won't belabor the point.  I know a lot of you guys won't listen to my observations and experience at all because it seems "wrong" to leave things running when you're not using them.  I'm not here to fight.  Just offering my opinion on the matter and moving on.

Brian.

Because the Client is in a bedroom where people are trying to sleep and having a PC running with power supply fan and CPU fan does not help people fall asleep.

If I had $2000 ($500 per Client X 4 bedrooms), I would get high power NUC's but I have a budget.

[RoderickGI]

At no point in this process am I closing the Media Server Client service:

On a MC Client, the MC Service starts when the MC Client is started, and stops when the MC Client closes. Well, it should anyway, as on a Client the "Options/Startup/Windows Startup" should not include the Media Server. It should be just Media Center, or nothing. I assume that when the Client is restarted, the Service is also restarted, but I haven't tested that.

Are you saying that after waking a Client from sleep, the Media Server Client service does not perform a Sync operation until you actually run the MC program?

That is correct. When a Client is started, it connects to the MC Server, sending WOL commands if required, and then gets a fresh copy of the library from the MC Server. It doesn't do a synchronise, it gets a complete new copy. Then it will synchronise at regular intervals.

When a MC Client is running on a PC that is woken from sleep, it does nothing, other than try to use the connection, which the PC network components may still be re-instating. No WOL commands. No refresh of the library.

I guess my next test is going to be leaving MC open in Standard View while putting the Client to sleep/waking. All my previous crash/reboots have happened when sleeping/waking the Client while in Theater View.

That could be interesting, and if it doesn't happen when MC is in Standard View, then I would be looking at the video driver, since Theatre View uses different display technology.

PS: Brian, tzr916 is asking about Clients here, which most people probably don't want to leave on all the time, depending on how often they are used. Servers, NAS etc. are a different matter. Of course, tzr916 could just shut down and restart the Clients when needed...

[tzr916]

...on a Client the "Options/Startup/Windows Startup" should not include the Media Server. It should be just Media Center, or nothing...

Oh, that's something I will need to change.

[tzr916]

Able to sleep and wake the client from within theater mode two times already without hard reboot! I suspect having the server running on this machine was to blame.

As far as connecting to the server after wake, it appears to be fine- the guide does populate and the recorded shows are updated, except any custom cover art recently done on the server isn't showing up until I restart MC on the client (seems to be the norm even when not putting a client to sleep).

Thanks for helping a total Newbie.

[RoderickGI]

No problem.

Note that if you ever do implement the task in Windows Task Scheduler that I described above, it seems to cause a bit of a problem if it runs when MC isn't running on a PC. If MC is running when the Client wakes it seems to be fine. I only tested a little though. So it may need some fine tuning if you ever want to use it. Sounds like you don't need it though.

The custom Cover Art may appear if you run a manual synchronise of the Client with the Server. You can do that by clicking on the library name under Playing Now at the top of the navigation bar on the left, and then clicking the "Synch Library..." button. I'm not sure if that always works though.