XBMC will not turn on screen when idle for prolonged period
#1
I am running Dharma 10.1. My problem is that when XBMC is idle for a long time, I cannot get the screen to resume. I have all sleep, hibernate, and screen settings in Windows turned off. I also have XBMC's monitor not set to turn off as well. If I leave Windows on without XBMC running everything works fine. I can leave the pc idle for days and when I turn on my receiver the screen resumes. This only occurs when XBMC is running. The only way I can get the screen to resume is to restart the computer. It seems as if XBMC somehow kills the HDMI connection and does not re-establish it. My receiver does not get a signal from the pc. The pc itself is still on because I can navigate to it from another pc and access its share folders.


Any ideas?
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#2
I'm experiencing the exact same problem. If I turn off my AVR and projector, then turn them back on within a few hours or so, everything comes back fine. If I wait a day (roughly), the projector gets signal from my AVR, but the AVR has no input signal from XBMC. If I leave the system sitting at the Windows desktop there is no problem. I can RDP into the system and everything works as expected, so the system itself is up and responding fine, just not displaying any video if I leave XBMC open.

I have found that selecting "Settings > System > Video Output > Use a fullscreen window rather than true fullscreen" prevents this from happening, but also doesn't allow me to have XBMC adjust refresh rate to match the source media which is useful in my setup. I'd really prefer not to leave this option enabled, and it appears to be a problem that XBMC is causing.

Some details on my system:
  • The system is Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x64, installed from TechNet ISO with SP1 slipstreamed by Microsoft.
  • CPU is an Intel E5300, again running 64bit
  • 4GB RAM
  • Video card is a ZOTAC nVidia 430 running "266.58_desktop_win7_winvista_64bit_english_whql" drivers. Behavior also experienced with "267.24_desktop_win7_winvista_64bit_english_beta" driver pack.
  • Sound is running through the video card above for HDMI bitstreaming via WASAPI and is working as expected.
  • Video goes from HDMI out to an Onkyo TX-NR1008 to a Mits HC5500
  • XBMC installed from file "xbmc-10.1.exe"
  • Power options are set not to turn off anything ever
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#3
http://www.gefen.com/kvm/dproduct.jsp?prod_id=8005
I recently added this product to my setup. I was having issues where I could not get the display back if I switched to the tv then back to the pc or switched the tv off then on again. I haven't had the problem since.
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#4
michaelxtc Wrote:http://www.gefen.com/kvm/dproduct.jsp?prod_id=8005
I recently added this product to my setup. I was having issues where I could not get the display back if I switched to the tv then back to the pc or switched the tv off then on again. I haven't had the problem since.

I've seen this thing mentioned any time HDMI problems crop up. While I'm not opposed to a hardware solution, spending $100+ for a hardware device that isn't HDMI 1.4 compatible to resolve a software problem seems a little silly.
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#5
luma Wrote:I'm experiencing the exact same problem. If I turn off my AVR and projector, then turn them back on within a few hours or so, everything comes back fine. If I wait a day (roughly), the projector gets signal from my AVR, but the AVR has no input signal from XBMC. If I leave the system sitting at the Windows desktop there is no problem. I can RDP into the system and everything works as expected, so the system itself is up and responding fine, just not displaying any video if I leave XBMC open.

I have found that selecting "Settings > System > Video Output > Use a fullscreen window rather than true fullscreen" prevents this from happening, but also doesn't allow me to have XBMC adjust refresh rate to match the source media which is useful in my setup. I'd really prefer not to leave this option enabled, and it appears to be a problem that XBMC is causing.

Some details on my system:
  • The system is Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x64, installed from TechNet ISO with SP1 slipstreamed by Microsoft.
  • CPU is an Intel E5300, again running 64bit
  • 4GB RAM
  • Video card is a ZOTAC nVidia 430 running "266.58_desktop_win7_winvista_64bit_english_whql" drivers. Behavior also experienced with "267.24_desktop_win7_winvista_64bit_english_beta" driver pack.
  • Sound is running through the video card above for HDMI bitstreaming via WASAPI and is working as expected.
  • Video goes from HDMI out to an Onkyo TX-NR1008 to a Mits HC5500
  • XBMC installed from file "xbmc-10.1.exe"
  • Power options are set not to turn off anything ever

luma...i will try that suggestion of using the full screen window instead of true fullscreen.
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#6
I'm having the sleep issue too. Once XBMC goes to sleep it never wakes up. No remote access no pings nothing. I don't see anything of interest in the logs. I also have windows 7 ultimate with the Zotac nVidia 430. I don't have the issue unless I use XBMC.
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#7
bry1128 Wrote:I'm having the sleep issue too. Once XBMC goes to sleep it never wakes up. No remote access no pings nothing. I don't see anything of interest in the logs. I also have windows 7 ultimate with the Zotac nVidia 430. I don't have the issue unless I use XBMC.
I'm not sure about the OP, but my system doesn't sleep - all power down features and timers are disabled.
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#8
luma Wrote:I'm not sure about the OP, but my system doesn't sleep - all power down features and timers are disabled.

Same here...no sleep, hibernate, etc features enabled.
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#9
After some more testing I'm thinking my video card gets too hot if I leave XBMC on for longer than a day. I guess I need more fans Sad
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#10
I got the same problem on Vista. I can shutdown XBMC doing the following:
1. CTRL + SHIFT + ESC (start taskmanager)
2. CTRL + ALT + DEL (bring up user screen)
3. ESC (exit user screen)

Then i can see the taskmanager en manouver my way to end XBMC.
Very annoying.
Guess I'll try to disable sleep in the settings of XBMC.
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#11
UPDATE...I did as Luma suggested and it seems that my issue is resolved. Luckily for me it does not seem that using true full screen or a full screen window has any affect on the image (at least to me).

Thank you Luma!
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#12
Rgkc77 Wrote:I got the same problem on Vista. I can shutdown XBMC doing the following:
1. CTRL + SHIFT + ESC (start taskmanager)
2. CTRL + ALT + DEL (bring up user screen)
3. ESC (exit user screen)

Then i can see the taskmanager en manouver my way to end XBMC.
Very annoying.
Guess I'll try to disable sleep in the settings of XBMC.

This is helpful if I can make it work in order to perform further troubleshooting to finally resolve this issue. Thanks for the post!

As I said, full-screen windowed mode prevents this problem, but one of the major reasons I'm using XBMC over 7MC is in hopes of being able to have the HTPC display the content in it's native refresh rate to allow my projector to handle the refresh correctly. It makes quite a difference in panning or scrolling shots and it's very noticable.
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#13
Having the same issue and thought it was a problem with my Denon 1909 AMP at first and was investigating issues with it losing HDCP connection to the TV. Had not traced it to having XBMC running too long, but it's possible that's what happened if my stop script failed to stop XBMC when I had previously turned everything off via the remote.

I'm running a nvidia GT 210 fanless but I don't think its overheating as restarting the PC makes everything work fine again, I have all the sleep / screensaver options of Windows/XBMC disabled and for me killing the xbmc.exe process via RDP when the issue happens does not resolve anything, the only thing I can do is restart the PC.

Really been tearing my hair out with this issue as its very intermittent and while I can quickly resolve it with a restart the wife has no chance.
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#14
Weavus Wrote:Having the same issue and thought it was a problem with my Denon 1909 AMP at first and was investigating issues with it losing HDCP connection to the TV. Had not traced it to having XBMC running too long, but it's possible that's what happened if my stop script failed to stop XBMC when I had previously turned everything off via the remote.

I'm running a nvidia GT 210 fanless but I don't think its overheating as restarting the PC makes everything work fine again, I have all the sleep / screensaver options of Windows/XBMC disabled and for me killing the xbmc.exe process via RDP when the issue happens does not resolve anything, the only thing I can do is restart the PC.

Really been tearing my hair out with this issue as its very intermittent and while I can quickly resolve it with a restart the wife has no chance.

I also have a Denon. Have you tried setting your screen to full sized window instead of true full screen? This seemed to have worked for me.
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#15
tboooe Wrote:I also have a Denon. Have you tried setting your screen to full sized window instead of true full screen? This seemed to have worked for me.
I get tearing when I use a full sized window rather than a true full screen. Aero is switched off and always wait for v-sync enabled. It does however change the refresh rate of the TV as desired.

I've found that using directsound rather than waspi seems to help resolve the issue, but I need to test further.
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