MP / Win 7 does not wake from sleep with Microsoft MCE remote (1 Viewer)

[scott_mckenzie]

Hi kiwijunglist,

Yep I've checked the bios, and the power settings in control panel.
In the BIOS the state is set to S3 Only.

I think these settings are all correct as I am able to wake the HTPC so long as TV is not turned off while putting the HTPC to sleep.
As I retest it now, if I leave my AV receiver and TV on the HTPC consistently (5 times in a row) wakes up with both the Harmony Remote and the MCE remote. Also as you have recommended, I have been doing my testing primarily with the mce remote before making attempts with the Harmony remote.

One observation I have found though is that when I do wake the HTPC, the or receiver does respond with flashing the red or light, but does when pressing buttons at all other times. What this means is that I cannot conclude if the ir receiver is receiving the power on signal from my mice remote or not when I am having issues.

Thanks - Scott

 

[kiwijunglist]

I had a similar problem with the 780G chipset but it's actually if you don't turn the tv on first then the display wont come on. It was solved using a DVI Detective which fools the HTPC into thinking the TV is always on. This would also solve your problem, but it will cost ?$60USD? . There is DVI Detective HDMI Detective DVI Doctor HDMI Doctor, all similar products.

With regards to the bios I wasn't meaning S3 state only, I meant that you can configure which devices are allowed to wake the HTPC, but again given your wierd problem I assume it's already correctly configured.

I'm pretty sure your problem would relate to the display adaptor not waking correctly, but you seem adamant it's not

 

[scott_mckenzie]

Hi kiwijunglist,

Apologies - I think my comment re the display adaptor not being the issue didn't come across quite right.
What I meant was that I didn't think that it was a case where the PC was waking in all instances and the only issue was the display wasn't coming on.

I definitely think it is possible that when I trigger the the TV to turn off while the HTPC is on the 780G chipset could be triggering/disabling the USB wake function (this is all guessing though).

Do you have any ideas / suggestions if there is anything I can tweak with the power setting relating to display/HDMI?

Cheers - Scott

 

[kiwijunglist]

Hi Scott

Probably not what you want to hear but...

I think it is either your harmony not sending the correct HTPC-PWR IR code -> troubleshoot with mce remote
(or) you are mistaken and your HTPC is waking from sleep but the display adapter is powered off and the machine is stuck in away state
(or) you are mistaken and your HTPC is not waking because it is powered off or hibernated and not in S3

Nothing other than above would clearly explain your intermittent issues related to turning off the display when waking from S3 sleep.

I don't think I can help you further, other than suggesting a discrete video card or using a edid device (mentioned earlier) between the htpc and the display.

Sorry I have nothing else to suggest for you.
Kiwi[DOUBLEPOST=1359072434][/DOUBLEPOST]

I definitely think it is possible that when I trigger the the TV to turn off while the HTPC is on the 780G chipset could be triggering/disabling the USB wake function (this is all guessing though).

Nope, I doubt it. More likely it is the display adapter not outputting video because of an EDID handshake issue caused by above when you wake from S3 sleep.

 

[scott_mckenzie]

Hi kiwijunglist,

OK, I think the next step for me is to work out the most likely options you have suggested.
I think I have tested the first one - I turned off my TV, then the AVR, and finally my htpc with the mce remote.
I cannot get the mce remote to resume as previously described, so I have tried to vnc in. Vnc can't connect.
I think that closes off the first possibility. Also there is no sound from the htpc at all (no fan noise).

As for the second option, I have looked into things a bit more and my understanding is that if the option in the power settings called allow hybrid sleep is set to 'on', it will disable hibernation mode. When I set this to 'off', hibernation mode is available to be selected in the win 7 shutdown options. Funnily enough, if I leave the display on and go into hibernation mode, it wakes perfectly.

I am curious though, my understanding is that hybrid sleep enables some hibernation features even though it disabled. I'm wondering if there is a way to only have pure s3 mode - maybe changing one of these settings will miraculously fix the issue.

While I might have to go down that road - I really want to avoid purchasing any other hardware just to get sleep mode working.

Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Scott

 

[Dave Reynolds]

Hi,

This is interesting had EXACTLY the same issue with a harmony remote, Can put the HTPC to sleep but not bring it out, although if I use my MCE remote both work fine, so it does not appear to be a system issue but the "Command" the MCE remote is sending, I have tried to clone the MCE button with the Harmony remote but that didn't work either.

Hope that helps.

 

[scott_mckenzie]

Hi Dave,

Your point is pretty interesting - I might restest the issue again, but I seem to have the same problem regardless if I use the MCE remote or the Harmony remote to put the HTPC to sleep. Are you saying that you only have trouble when using the Harmony remote to put the HTPC to sleep?

Cheers - Scott

 

[Dave Reynolds]

Hi Scott,

The system goes into standby and resumes with the MCE remote, but will only go to standby with the Harmony remote power button (I can't get it to resume with the power button).

I have tried a couple of different options within the Harmony software but had no joy.

Are you saying you can't put it to sleep at all with the MCE remote ? does the power button put it to sleep ?

 

[scott_mckenzie]

Hey Dave,

My issue seems to be consistent between both my Harmony and MCE remotes, but I think have a workaround.
I have contacted Harmony support and they made a custom macro for my "All Off" button which seems to be working so far:
- Put HTPC to sleep
- wait 8 seconds
- Power Down AV Receiver
- wait 2 seconds
- Power Down TV

Why this works is because the HTPC doesn't sense that the TV has been turned off. Any time I turn the TV off first or turn it off shortly after pressing the button to put the HTPC to sleep it won't wake up with either remote.

Cheers - Scott

 

[scott_mckenzie]

Hi All,

What I didn't mention after this post was a day later it stopped working.
I have just don't a major upgrade to may HTPC (new M/B, CPU, RAM, and an additional HDD), formatted and reinstalled Win7 and MP and I still have the issue where I cannot wake the HTPC from sleep with my MCE remote.

I have had a good think about what is the problem - looking at various forums there are a number of different suggestions (and I've tried pretty much all of them), but I am still stuck.

I have had a bit of a think about why with my upgrade is there still an issue and I only have one explanation - the USB port is not getting enough power while in S3 sleep. The reason why I say this is because the IR receiver does not respond at all - no red lights when I press buttons on the remote while it is in sleep. My gut feeling is that the reason why my USB RF keyboard consistently works is because the USB dongle it uses requires much less power than the IR receiver.

My new specs are in my footer - any suggestions would be great - here's what I have tried:
- ensuring that all the Root Hubs, the eHome receiver, etc all have the "Allow the Computer to turn off this device to save power" options unticked, and the "Allow this device to wake the computer" options all ticked (where they are not greyed out).
- Checked Power Settings in the BIOS to ensure Mouse and Keyboards can wake the PC (which works perfectly to wake the HTPC with the keyboard).
- Tried plugging the IR receiver into various ports at the back of the HTPC (as well as removing all other USB ports in case these had an impact).
- Installed MST and tried various settings there.

I'm more than happy to try anything - I have not yet tested if it will take in the same situation as I previously mentioned (turning off the AVR and TV) and then putting the HTPC the sleep, and starting the TV and AVR before the HTPC, but my gut feeling is that will allow the remote to work. If there's a way I can confirm the USB ports are getting the right amount of power, that would be a good start to eliminate that being an issue.

Let me know your thoughts.

Cheers - Scott