HTPC freezes after resume from sleep

[kbshufelt]

I recently completed a windows 7 64 bit media center built with two tuners, a Hauppauge 2250 and a Ceton cable card tuner. I am using a Microsoft media center keyboard that I have had for several years with an original MCE USB IR receiver that came with my earlier copy of Windows XP MCE. The keyboard includes joystick mouse functionality if you are not familiar with it. The HTPC sleeps and awakes properly if done within a few minutes of automatic or manual sleep (using both the PC button or the USB keyboard/mouse). I am unsure how long it takes but if I try to manually resume from sleep using the PC button or the keyboard after a longer period of time, the keyboard no longer functions and the PC is frozen. What is odd is I have a separate USB mouse receiver connected for occasional regular USB mouse use and if I use that mouse I can activate the cursor and shut down the PC but I can't get the MCE keyboard to function again without a restart. Windows native drivers were installed when I connected the keyboard and all keyboard functions work perfectly until the long sleep/resume freezes it. With my XP MCE PC I used hibernate rather than sleep with no problems. I wonder if trying that will solve my issue. Any suggestions?

[kbshufelt]

I am wondering if the older USB receiver or drivers for the keyboard are the culprit. There is no 64 bit driver support for the keyboard but many others seem to use it with no problem on a 64 bit Windows 7 PC. I may try the receiver that came with the 2250 as an experiment to rule this out. I will also try the MCE Standby tool as has been suggested in other posts here. I appreciate any comments or suggestions that might lead me in the right direction.

[mistarick]

Are you talking about the actual button on the computer? Pc button? If so that is strange. Do you have any power options in the control panel that may need configured? Does the USB power off when the pc goes to sleep?

[kbshufelt]

Thank you and yes - the button on the Media Center PC Case. The behavior is sporadic. At times the PC will be out of sleep mode but frozen with no wireless keyboard function (reboot required) and other times apparently in sleep mode but when awoken by pressing the button it is frozen. I had disconnected my second mouse receiver yesterday so that the only USB devise now connected is the media center receiver that I use for the IR keyboard. When I got home last night the sleep mode functioned somewhat properly. It was sleeping with a blinking power LED. I tried the keyboard buttons and mouse but there was no power it seems to the IR receiver (no light blinking showing a received signal). I pressed the PC power button and it came up with normal function and keyboard working as it should. Maybe the second mouse was conflicting with the mouse function of the keyboard (never had this issue with both mice connected in the XP version but I used hibernate rather than sleep on that machine)? I was going to try installing the MCE Standby Tool tonight. Hopefully my sleep function is stable with only the keyboard connected. My goal is consistency and the ability to wake from sleep using my IR keyboard. Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[dmagerl]

I have that same IR keyboard and it works just fine here.

I'd try a few things.
First, plug in a normal wired keyboard and mouse and see if you can control it from that. Leave them plugged in for the duration of your troubleshooting. I'm thinking your bios may have difficulty running headless. I see you already ditched the wireless mouse (I assume that it's wireless. You mentioned "receiver". Wireless mice often cause sleep problems.

Then go into the device manager and run through all the keyboard, mouse, usb devices and disable all the "allow computer to turn of this device to save power" features. If things start working, then go back and re enable things one by one.

Finally, your motherboard doesnt perchance shut down +5V on the USB bus when it goes to sleep?

[kbshufelt]

I did ditch the wireless mouse and it may have solved the issue of going to sleep and waking but I still can't awake the PC after a long period of sleep with the IR receiver/keyboard. My motherboard is a new Asus Z87-A - not sure if it shuts down the .5V - maybe a power setting in BIOS that needs changing?. I will take your suggestion of mounting a standard mouse and keyboard to troubleshoot. I don't recall my power settings and can't get into the BIOS with the IR keyboard anyway so I need the wired keyboard to get started. I will post back with results and setting info. Thanks for the advise.

[kbshufelt]

I had little time to experiment last night but I did install the MCE Standby Tool and configured it the best that I know how. I also enabled USB Selective Suspend but now realize I probably should have left it disabled. I did not go into the device manager properties yet to adjust the USB hubs but will do so tonight. When I quickly checked the system this morning the PC was in sleep mode and hitting keys on the USB keyboard lit the IR led to signal that it was receiving signals from the keyboard but it did not wake. When hitting any key on the plugged in keyboard it came to life but black screen. I had to use task manager to close "MCE Blanker" to get a screen back. I think the MCE tool may be more than I need but I will continue the troubleshooting tonight.

Another thought I had this morning after leaving the house - I don't think I tried the sleep button on the remote keyboard to wake it up. I just hit any keys and the mouse joystick and buttons. I assumed that any press would do the trick. Do you know if that keyboard requires a press of the sleep key?

[Crash2009]

Running this diagnostic might help target your trouble. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976034

[Crash2009]

What about the BIOS? does it need a tweak to run the keyboard. S1 - S4 http://blogs.msdn.com/b/omars/archive/2 ... 29553.aspx

[kbshufelt]

Thanks for the link. I will take a look at that tonight as well. The BIOS is set to S3 and the MCE Standby Tool confirms that S3 & S4 are available sleep options. The black screen is a new problem I created after installing the tool so I need to figure out what settings to use for that too. I will continue making adjustments until I get it humming. Thanks you for the advise and let me know if there is anything I might be missing.

[Crash2009]

There is also the old stand-by event viewer. Not quite sure where to tell you to look though. Maybe those diagnostics will point the finger at something. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... =windows-7

[kbshufelt]

Well...all of my trouble shooting efforts using sleep mode made things less stable. I uninstalled the MCE Standby Tool because it simply was not solving my problem. I used system restore to go back to a previous state. I disabled USB selective suspend. I checked and changed power settings in the device manager for all USB Hubs and devices (USB or Otherwise) that had a setting for power down on sleep. I dis realize that the Media Center USB keyboard would only wake the PC with the sleep button so although this worked it typically would not function after the PC was awake. I also experienced black screens and resolution changes upon awakening. I decided to try hibernate. I activated it on first tests (last night and this morning) it worked as it should, recorded shows as it should, went back to a hibernate state and I was able to wake it with my keyboard sleep button. I will use this mode and when I have time for the interest of myself and others, will continue to troubleshoot the issues with sleep. I suspect as does everyone else that I have a bad driver issue.

For the record I am using an ASUS Z87-A motherboard with an I5 processor, 16GB RAM, Radeon video card, Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 and a Ceton Infinity 4. There is also a USB card reader that creates 4 USB devices for various flash cards. I use a Microsoft IR that came with an edition of Windows XP Media Center and a Microsoft Media Center Keyboard (the original made for XP but no longer available).

If anyone has any insight as to why the system seems to be stable using hibernate vs sleep I would be grateful. Thanks.

[kbshufelt]

Well - another freeze using Hibernate. Not a complete freeze but the media center wireless keyboard/mouse stops functioning (although the receiver lights up showing it is receiving the signal). The connected PS2 keyboard functions but I have no second mouse connected (the second USB mouse was causing problems so I disconnected it through this test process). So it seems some event is causing the IR to stop responding in the system. I ran SFC /SCANNOW which reported several issues and repaired. I will run it again to see if I have ongoing problems. With the Ceton Infinity 4 cable card tuner or the tuning adapter. I did see an error in event viewer related to the Hauppauge 2250 but only once so I assume it has nothing to do with this issue. I am currently at a loss but will continue troubleshooting. I may take out the Hauppauge tuner to see if it is causing any conflict with the Ceton but I have read posts from others with both tuners that do not have my issues. Any advise is appreciated.

[Crash2009]

Well - another freeze using Hibernate. Not a complete freeze but the media center wireless keyboard/mouse stops functioning (although the receiver lights up showing it is receiving the signal). The connected PS2 keyboard functions but I have no second mouse connected (the second USB mouse was causing problems so I disconnected it through this test process). So it seems some event is causing the IR to stop responding in the system. I ran SFC /SCANNOW which reported several issues and repaired. I will run it again to see if I have ongoing problems. With the Ceton Infinity 4 cable card tuner or the tuning adapter. I did see an error in event viewer related to the Hauppauge 2250 but only once so I assume it has nothing to do with this issue. I am currently at a loss but will continue troubleshooting. I may take out the Hauppauge tuner to see if it is causing any conflict with the Ceton but I have read posts from others with both tuners that do not have my issues. Any advise is appreciated.

Why do you want to hibernate so bad. It's just about spring! Time to wake that old bear up. Poke it with a stick. Disable hibernate.

[CyberSimian]

I decided to try hibernate. I activated it on first tests (last night and this morning) it worked as it should, recorded shows as it should, went back to a hibernate state and I was able to wake it with my keyboard sleep button.

Wow! I am surprised. I was under the impression that hibernate removes power to virtually all systems in the HTPC. The only parts that remain powered up are the system timer (so that it can wake the HTPC to perform a recording), and the lan port (so that it can wake the HTPC when it receives a magic packet over the lan).

Are you by accident using hybrid sleep? Hybrid sleep is effectively the same as normal sleep, but it also writes the contents of memory to the hibernation file on disk, so that the HTPC can recover exactly in the event of a power failure. If you are in fact using hybrid sleep, then you are likely to experience the same problems as you do when you use normal sleep.

I use hibernate on my HTPC, but I have to press the power button on the system unit in order to wake it to watch live or recorded TV. If you have found some way to use a remote control to wake the HTPC from true hibernation, please tell me how you have managed to achieve this!

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[barnabas1969]

In my experience, the difference in power consumption between standby (S3) and hibernate (S4) is negligible. For example, one of my PC's uses 1.5 watts in S3 and 1.0 watts in S4. In my opinion, S4 is only useful on a battery-powered computer like a laptop. There is no good reason to use S4 on your HTPC.

[CyberSimian]

In my experience, the difference in power consumption between standby (S3) and hibernate (S4) is negligible. For example, one of my PC's uses 1.5 watts in S3 and 1.0 watts in S4. In my opinion, S4 is only useful on a battery-powered computer like a laptop. There is no good reason to use S4 on your HTPC.

My Dell XPS420 (dating from 2008) consumes 9 watts in sleep, so rather more than yours. That is a factor, but other reasons that I use hibernation are:

(1) The Dell USB IR receiver goes AWOL on wake-from-hibernation less often than it does on wake-from-sleep.

(2) For some reason, recordings fail with a tuner error more often on wake-from-sleep than on wake-from-hibernation (these are not the tuner errors described in (3) below). In fact wake-from-hibernation has had zero tuner errors of this type (it very occasionally has "weak signal" errors due to atmospheric conditions, but those are understandable, and would be fixed with a better aerial system).

(3) My second TBS tuner card never appears in "Device Manager" on wake-from-sleep, but remains present and usable on wake-from-hibernation.

(4) My Dell has a flashing blue light on the front panel when sleeping, but nothing when hibernating.

These reasons are, of course, all specific to my system, but other people may have a variety of reasons specific to them. I would use sleep if the problems could be solved, as the inability to wake a hibernating HTPC using the remote control is quite irritating!

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[barnabas1969]

CyberSimian,

Based on what you wrote above, and the various issues you've had when certain cards are installed in certain PCI/PCIe slots...

I wonder why you have kept that PC for so long. I also wonder why you are camping on Vista. It seems to me that it would be much better for you to replace the PC with something newer and move to Win7.

Just my opinion, of course.

[CyberSimian]

Just my opinion, of course.

Mine too! To paraphrase Oscar Wilde:

I have the simplest of tastes. I am always satisfied with perfection.

But perfection is rarely achievable, and we go through life accepting compromises.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK