A couple of questions for Windows 7 Media Center users

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › A couple of questions for Windows 7 Media Center users

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ZollyMonsta

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#330409 15-May-2010 16:03

Asmodeus:
ZollyMonsta: I can't even get my system to go to sleep via the power settings. It just never does :-\

No luck with that MCE Standby Tool either.

Have you enabled S3 in your bios?

Yes, S3 was turned on (by default) in the bios.

Oddly, overnight it went to sleep mode (it hadn't previously)... however it hasn't again since being brought back to life even though it hasn't been touched since at least 10:30am (sleep timer is set to 2 hours).

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mikehayton

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#334585 25-May-2010 15:46

The feature hasnt been as well tested as I would like.
I personally havent had much experience with it as I have a dedicated machine and just leave it running.

Yeah - you dont need to be running media center (aka ehshell.exe) or even be logged in to record a program. The key processes are ehrecvr (a service that interacts with the tuners) and ehrec.exe (runs under networkservice account). ehrec.exe is started up by a scheduled task in the task scheduler (under library->microsoft->windows->media center). It starts up around 5 or so mins before the prepadding is meant to start recording and ehrec.exe is the process that talks to echrecvr and tells it to tune to channel X, start recording, and stop recording. Last thing it does is to update the scheduled task to restart when it next needs to start recording. It if encounters errors coming back from ehrecvr, it will do a quick recomputation and use a different tuner if possible.

The scheduled task has the flags set to wake up the machine. (so technically its the windows task scheduler that wakes up the machine)

powercfg.exe is your friend in diagnosing why you machine is failing to sleep; or what woke it up.

windows has a funny system in that its the abscence of things keeping it awake that will allow it to go to sleep - Often I'd see bugs complaining about media center not going to sleep, when really it was something non-media center that was keeping the machine awake.

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ZollyMonsta

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#334666 25-May-2010 17:56

powercfg.exe may indeed be helpful.. but not without the appropriate command line flags.

/? prints several pages of commands. So what do you recommend for 'trouble shooting' ?

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mikehayton

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#334688 25-May-2010 18:27

I should clarify that as far as powercfg - we're talking about Win7.

I use the

powercfg /requests - to see whats stopping it from going to sleep
powercfg /lastwake - to see what woke it up.

I find its good to look at both, Ive been caught out once where I thought it wasnt going to sleep, but it really was and instantly waking up again.

you need to run it from an admin command prompt (i.e. start menu, type cmd, right click on cmd in the start menu and "Run as Adminstrator")

I'd suggest you have a look at the video http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/ee430886.aspx

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ZollyMonsta

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#334721 25-May-2010 19:24

I have

\filesystem\srvnet
"An active remote client has recently sent requests to this machine"

and...

ehrec.exe

The above are listed when I do the /requests switch.
ehrec.exe I am guessing is Media Centre recording something?
srvnet seems to be a microsoft windows component.. I don't understand what the descriptive line means though.

the lastwake switch indicates the htpc was woken up by Windows Media Centre.

So it looks like srvnet is maybe stopping my HTPC going to sleep.. any ideas?

Check out my LPFM Radio Station at www.thecheese.co.nz - Now on iHeart Radio, TuneIn and Radio Garden

As per the usual std disclaimer.. "All thoughts typed here are my own."

Mattv

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#334736 25-May-2010 19:45

Going back a few posts...

I run my dedicated HTPC with DVBLink TV Source for Sky and have 2 XBOX 360's connected. Sleep and wake have worked fine "out of the box". The 360's wake the PC when required and if I push "power" on the PC remote to turn it off, when a 360 is still running somewhere, the PC screen turns off but the 360 keeps going strong. The PC then goes to sleep when I turn the 360 off - Works great really. I have never missed a recording via DVBLink either. The only time I have had trouble was when trying to use the remote desktop - multi login hack. This may have stuffed the sleep up although it may have been another problem I had at the time. An image roll back fixed it and I haven't tried again.

rattewisday

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#334774 25-May-2010 21:16

ZollyMonsta: I have

\filesystem\srvnet
"An active remote client has recently sent requests to this machine"

and...

ehrec.exe

The above are listed when I do the /requests switch.
ehrec.exe I am guessing is Media Centre recording something?
srvnet seems to be a microsoft windows component.. I don't understand what the descriptive line means though.

the lastwake switch indicates the htpc was woken up by Windows Media Centre.

So it looks like srvnet is maybe stopping my HTPC going to sleep.. any ideas?

Just googled it and saw this..worth a try?

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproui/thread/bce158e2-d057-4761-b715-5f68b8002fc2

ZollyMonsta

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#334801 25-May-2010 22:20

Ahh true. Enabled media streaming (think this is within Media Player) so will give that a go and report back!

Check out my LPFM Radio Station at www.thecheese.co.nz - Now on iHeart Radio, TuneIn and Radio Garden

As per the usual std disclaimer.. "All thoughts typed here are my own."

Regs

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#334810 25-May-2010 22:30

ZollyMonsta: I can't even get my system to go to sleep via the power settings. It just never does :-\

No luck with that MCE Standby Tool either.

have you checked your bios configuration? also, if your bios was wrong when you installed windows, it may have installed a non-ACPI HAL, which doesnt support sleep or soft-off, and reinstalling might be your only option to 'fix' it. (some of the hacks might work, but i've not had a good track record with them)

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ZollyMonsta

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#334885 26-May-2010 07:50

Regs:
ZollyMonsta: I can't even get my system to go to sleep via the power settings. It just never does :-\

No luck with that MCE Standby Tool either.

have you checked your bios configuration? also, if your bios was wrong when you installed windows, it may have installed a non-ACPI HAL, which doesnt support sleep or soft-off, and reinstalling might be your only option to 'fix' it. (some of the hacks might work, but i've not had a good track record with them)

Checked that, and it was already set to ACPI.

Check out my LPFM Radio Station at www.thecheese.co.nz - Now on iHeart Radio, TuneIn and Radio Garden

As per the usual std disclaimer.. "All thoughts typed here are my own."

ZollyMonsta

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#334886 26-May-2010 07:51

dannyres:

Just googled it and saw this..worth a try?

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproui/thread/bce158e2-d057-4761-b715-5f68b8002fc2

Didn't work for me... same issue still keeping PC awake.

Check out my LPFM Radio Station at www.thecheese.co.nz - Now on iHeart Radio, TuneIn and Radio Garden

As per the usual std disclaimer.. "All thoughts typed here are my own."

Rollux

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#339299 8-Jun-2010 10:58

I used to have an issue with this - i had to switch off remote connections via LAN being allowed to wake the PC. I can't remember how to get to it now, but it was a Windows setting buried deep in the background (like the instructions on how to do it are buried deep in the background of my mind )
It turned out that my modem was sending packet data to the pc occasionally and it was enough to prevent the pc from sleeping.

Hope it helps
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ZollyMonsta

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#340781 11-Jun-2010 20:20

Oddly over the last couple of weeks I've noticed the HTPC is sleeping correctly. Which is odd as I haven't changed anything. :)

I have sleep set to 2 hours. It seems from the recordings still happening that if the PC is asleep, it's waking up.. recording, then going back to sleep immediately (seeing as it recorded One News and Shortland Street tonight.. finishing at 7:30pm and I noticed at 8pm it was asleep). Checked and confirmed both programmes recorded just fine.

So Dunno. *shrugs shoulders* lol

Check out my LPFM Radio Station at www.thecheese.co.nz - Now on iHeart Radio, TuneIn and Radio Garden

As per the usual std disclaimer.. "All thoughts typed here are my own."

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