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Author Topic: Problems when coming out of sleep  (Read 1485 times)

khollister

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Problems when coming out of sleep
« on: December 19, 2011, 05:43:05 am »

Tried searching, but didn't find anything  - is anyone else having issues when MC 17 wakes from sleep? There is a greater than 50% chance that when I bring the HTPC out of sleep (via the power toggle command on my Harmony One in MCC mode) I either get a "Media Center has shut down" dialog (or something similar - don't recall the exact wording) or Theater View is only displaying half the screen and the remote doesn't work. Never a problem when using MC, only when waking from sleep.

I am on the latest beta of 17, i3 on a Gigabyte MB, Win7 Home, Nvidia GTS450 video, nothing else running on the PC.

I have dropped back to MC 16 to see what happens.

I just deployed the HTPC after completing my CAT6 wiring to my NAS, so I have no previous track record with either MC 16 or MC 17 other than in test mode (never tried sleep).

I have a Nvidia 440 card on the way to see if the fan noise is more tolerable, but I am letting the Harmony sleep the HTPC due to the video card fan noise being objectionable when the HT rig is turned off (room is very quiet). If I can get a quieter card, I have no problem just leaving the PC on 24x7.

And yes, I tried a passive ATI, but was not happy with the video image quality compared to the Nvidia.
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JimH

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Re: MC 17 issues when coming out of sleep
« Reply #1 on: December 19, 2011, 06:29:32 am »

The image problem sounds like a driver issue.  You might try updating.  Someone recently reported problems with the latest Nvidia beta driver.
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Sandy B Ridge

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Re: MC 17 issues when coming out of sleep
« Reply #2 on: December 19, 2011, 08:29:10 am »

I bet you have the PC connected to an amp via HDMI and using HDMI as a audio output?

I don't have a problem with MC shutting down or crashing because of going into sleep anymore.  I recall having a few problems in the past if I hit 'power off' on the remote whilst a movie or music was playing. I put this down to MC being in Wasapi exclusive mode and when 'losing' the output with a power shutdown (amp turns off and PC switches away from HDMI output and thus losing the soundcard unexpectedly).

What I now do is make the Harmony remote put out a 'stop' command as part of the power off sequence for the PC and haven't had any issues.

The problem with the MC window being half offscreen is also possibly partly to do with this change in video output. I discovered that as soon as the amp was turned off it would default to the VGA output and a lower screen resolution. The windows would get resized to the new resoulution and become partly off screen. The only way I discovered to fix this was to use a remote desktop application (I use splashtop remote on my iPad and set to 'use desktop resolution') to remote into the PC whilst in this 'default' VGA mode. Once I set the screen resolution to the same as what I had for the HDMI output (ie 1920 x 1080) I found that I didn't have a problem with the windows on wake up (either in windowed standard mode or theaterview).

Occasionally the remote doesn't wake up from sleep, but that is definitely due to crappy remote drivers/software!

SBR
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Mr ChriZ

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Re: MC 17 issues when coming out of sleep
« Reply #3 on: December 19, 2011, 08:37:21 am »

This also could occur if you're using either an install that is not stored on an internal drive for example not in C:\program files
or a portable install.

I've noticed external drives don't seem to be to spin up quick enough on return from sleep and as a result MC will fail because it can no longer access it's own binary files on resume from sleep.  (That I think is a Windows issue not MC's)

Sandy B Ridge

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Re: MC 17 issues when coming out of sleep
« Reply #4 on: December 19, 2011, 08:39:07 am »

One minor niggle I have with the NVIDIA card is that it sometimes doesn't detect the HDMI output is active sometimes on coming out of sleep. A toggle of the amp inputs to something else and back again easily fixes it though. I have seen a wake up script somewhere that forces activation of the HDMI output when waking up but I can't remember where now.

I didn't have this issue when using the MoBo Intel HDMI out.

SBR
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MrHaugen

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Re: Problems when coming out of sleep
« Reply #5 on: December 19, 2011, 09:02:17 am »

I have issues with Theater View resolution my self. In your case I would try to put a serious delay on the Harmony One, to prevent the  HTPC to wake up faster than the TV does. Check my response under for the reason.

The problem with the MC window being half offscreen is also possibly partly to do with this change in video output. I discovered that as soon as the amp was turned off it would default to the VGA output and a lower screen resolution. The windows would get resized to the new resoulution and become partly off screen. The only way I discovered to fix this was to use a remote desktop application (I use splashtop remote on my iPad and set to 'use desktop resolution') to remote into the PC whilst in this 'default' VGA mode. Once I set the screen resolution to the same as what I had for the HDMI output (ie 1920 x 1080) I found that I didn't have a problem with the windows on wake up (either in windowed standard mode or theaterview).

I can't do this. If I turn the Reciever off, the TV automatically switch to another active signal. Normal TV broadcast for instance. And it's the other problem that there is no actual signal on my TV to change resolution. I could try to remote into the HTPC, but I think that if I move out of theater view, the correct resolution is immediately set. Normally when I get this error I go to standard view and back to theater view.

In my case this happens because of the HTPC being powered on faster than the TV. So the TV does not get the initial HDMI signals from the HTPC, and just defaults to a lousy resolution. This is of course a HDMI problem, BUT as not other apps seems have this problem as far as I've seen... Is it not something lacking in MC's Theater View? Or at least there could be a solution to refresh the display after a wakeup perhaps?

Are there other apps that could do this for you? A delay of a couple of seconds before a screen/resolution refresh would do the trick I think.
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khollister

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Re: Problems when coming out of sleep
« Reply #6 on: December 19, 2011, 01:09:27 pm »

Great - have a few ideas to chase down. Thanks for the ideas. I'll report back with some results in a few days after I get some more data.

Keith
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