Vista Media Center/Sleep/WakeUp/Record

bazwaldo

I've setup a HTPC with Vista Ultimate. What I want to have working is to have the PC go to standby when not in use. Wake up to record and sleep again when recording is finished. I have go to standby set to 20 mins I think in my power options.

The problem I'm seeing is that the PC goes to sleep while recording. It wakes a few minutes before starting to record, starts recording and a few minutes later, goes to sleep. On waking up by hand, I check the Recording History and the Media Center Event logs and it reports that its a partial recording that failed due to a power outage or temporary failure. Or something like that.

I've searched around thegreenbutton and the xpmediacenter aussie site and see a few with similar problems so tried a few of their suggestions.
1) Close Media Center App before sleeping
2) Allowing PC to sleep manually rather than by hitting the button
3) Don't use internet time, download your own time server.

None have worked. I tried the MST (Media Center Standy Tool) also and didn't make any difference.

Anyone see this problem before and manage to fix it?

8T8

It's is probably a fault in the bios and/or driver if updates are available for either then I would suggest using them and see what happens.

Also make sure HPET is enabled in the bios.

bazwaldo

Updated the BIOS and ensured HPET was on. Installed updates for drivers and OS through MS Update. Tried to record some TV during the night, and just checked now and they cut off after a few minutes :-(. I could try a newer NVidia driver but then I lose out on overscan (I'm using a CRT telly and had installed the newer driver before). Don't no why that would make a difference though.
Any suggestions welcome.

bazwaldo

I've reinstalled from scratch.

Installed Vista Ultimate
Installed latest microsoft updates (31 in total)
Setup autologon
Changed internet timeserver to time.nist.gov (Bug in Vista: default fails)
Installed AVG anti virus
Installed VFD driver
Installed NVidia Graphics Card driver
Installed XP codec pack
Setup TV and guide
Got MC to change display for TV

I'll post again when I've tried some recordings.

bazwaldo

Still broken.

Did some more tests and its definitely to do with sleep/wakeup. Recording after a reboot is fine. Once I put it to sleep and wakeup, the system is all screwy. LiveTV struggles and I get a Media Center Critical Process failure. Even if I close MC and open it again, makes no difference.

Not sure what to try next.

311

I had a problem with sound in a similar situation.

I tried to find a way of hard drive usage ,preventing sleep mode. But the option doesn't seem to be there:(

8T8

What kind of motherboard do you have is it NVIDIA based ?

mukki

i am pretty sure vista can still do a lot of stuff in sleep mode, sounds like its going into s1 or s3 standby,

is hybrid sleep enable in your power setting.

bazwaldo

The spec is;
Gigabyte GA-M61PM-S2, nForce430+GeForce 6100, Socket-AM2, m-ATX, DDR2, PCI-Ex16 (Yes, nvidia based)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ 1.9GHz Socket AM2 1MB
Crucial DDR2 PC5300 2048MB
Gainward GeForce 8500GT 256MB
320GB Maxtor SATA
500GB WD SATA
Antec Fusion Case

Its definitely going into S3. And I think I have tried both hybrid sleep on and off. By default its on so I've defo tried that. Don't know what hybrid sleep is though!

After some more investigation, its not just recording thats an issue. If I bring it out of sleep and select LiveTV, It takes at least 10 seconds to display, will only transmit 2 of the 3 STB digits and get a critical process failure message from MCE soon after. Rebooting is the only thing that gets LiveTV back. Watching recorded TV works fine after sleep, its recording and watching live tv thats screwed.

mukki

bazwaldo wrote:

The spec is;
Gigabyte GA-M61PM-S2, nForce430+GeForce 6100, Socket-AM2, m-ATX, DDR2, PCI-Ex16 (Yes, nvidia based)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ 1.9GHz Socket AM2 1MB
Crucial DDR2 PC5300 2048MB
Gainward GeForce 8500GT 256MB
320GB Maxtor SATA
500GB WD SATA
Antec Fusion Case

Its definitely going into S3. And I think I have tried both hybrid sleep on and off. By default its on so I've defo tried that. Don't know what hybrid sleep is though!

After some more investigation, its not just recording thats an issue. If I bring it out of sleep and select LiveTV, It takes at least 10 seconds to display, will only transmit 2 of the 3 STB digits and get a critical process failure message from MCE soon after. Rebooting is the only thing that gets LiveTV back. Watching recorded TV works fine after sleep, its recording and watching live tv thats screwed.

try your tuner card in a different slot, also is there a manufacturues app for using the tv card, to try instead of vista media center