[solved] TV Server no longer waking up thr PC for sceduled recordings (2 Viewers)

Digsy

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After working fine all weekend, as of today the MP2 TV server is no longer waking up my PC for a scheduled recording.

From checking event logs I can see that it wakes up at 02:00 for the share refresh, and it wakes when I connect to it from my second client. but it has simply stopped waking up for recordings. This is the same for series linked recordings, "once only" recordings scheduled form the EPG, and manually set recordings.

The recording starts as soon as I wake the PC manually.

Logs files attached. In these files, the last recording which started at 22:35:41 was scheduled for 22:30:00. 22:35 was when I woke the PC up myself.
 

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  • MediaPortal2-Logs-2018-09-10-22.35.47.zip
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Digsy

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No takers?

I've re-enabled Power Scheduler to see if it makes a difference. Failing that I will treat it like a server and leave it on 24/7. Not ideal but if that's what it takes...
 

HTPCSourcer

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    I can only suspect that the recording schedule is somehow not working. What exact options did you select to schedule the Winter Soldier? Does the system wake up if you schedule a single recording?

    EDIT: Ah, you mentioned it in your first posting.

    So I wonder if this is really a true MP2 problem or rather something in Windows. Interestingly the 2:00 task is waking up the machine, but the standard schedules are not. Did you verify if a new recording schedule behaves the same way?
     
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    Digsy

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    So I wonder if this is really a true MP2 problem or rather something in Windows. Interestingly the 2:00 task is waking up the machine, but the standard schedules are not. Did you verify if a new recording schedule behaves the same way?

    Yes, after discovering the issue I scheduled new recordings as many different ways as I could, but it did not wake up for any of them.

    You're going to hate me saying this, but since I re-enabled PowerScheduler, the issue has gone away. At least - my PC now wakes up for recordings. I am not sure if it goes to sleep again afterwards, though. It always seems to be awake in the mornings and when I get home from work.
     

    Lehmden

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    Hi.
    but since I re-enabled PowerScheduler, the issue has gone away.
    Absolutely clear. As long as PowerScheduler is deactivated Windows don't know nothing about scheduled recordings. If you deactivate PS you need to add every scheduled recording to Windows Taskplaner by hand...

    But PS definitely is not the reason why your system may never go to standby...

    You can try this: First shutdown all programs, incl any MP clients, Browsers, Downloaders,... literally anything that is no system task or service... Just to be sure no other running program is blocking the standby. Then open a Shell (Command Prompt) and type:
    powercfg /REQUESTS
    Now a list of all that request the system to stay awake... There are 6 different areas. For a successful standby none of those areas should contain anything excerpt for the note "none" ("nothing" or similar, I only can see them in German, there it is "Keine") Example:
    PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> powercfg /REQUESTS
    DISPLAY:
    [PROCESS] \Device\HarddiskVolume4\Program Files\Media-Buddy\DontSleep_x64.exe

    SYSTEM:
    [PROCESS] \Device\HarddiskVolume4\Program Files\Media-Buddy\DontSleep_x64.exe

    AWAYMODE:
    [PROCESS] \Device\HarddiskVolume4\Program Files\Media-Buddy\DontSleep_x64.exe

    AUSFÜHRUNG:
    Keine.

    PERFBOOST:
    Keine.

    ACTIVELOCKSCREEN:
    Keine.

    PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>
    Here is a task running that prevents standby. It's named "DontSleep". The name is program so it only runs to block standby. It's started from Media-Buddy and prevents the system from going to sleep while Media-Buddy is transcoding videos (or similar). Once it is finished the "DontSleep" process is killed and the system can go to sleep. Very handy when you want to do many transcoding at night. Once finished the system goes to sleep without you doing anything.....

    If you have stopped all programs as told it should look like:
    PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> powercfg /REQUESTS
    DISPLAY:
    Keine.

    SYSTEM:
    Keine.

    AWAYMODE:
    Keine.

    AUSFÜHRUNG:
    Keine.

    PERFBOOST:
    Keine.

    ACTIVELOCKSCREEN:
    Keine.

    PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>
    (Keine = none and AUSFÜHRUNG = Execution in English)
    If there still is something left, then your system's energy management is not properly working and it can not go to sleep. Most often the "bad guys" are some drivers (normally listed under "System") so you can see where you need to start fixing...

    If this fails also you've tried anything to fix the issue you still can use the setting that PowerScheduler plugin forces the system to sleep. This is only a workaround for faulty or bad configured systems but it always works even if some nasty drivers are preventing standby in general... But you definitely should try to get Windows itself in a state that it can handle the standby properly...
     

    Lehmden

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    Forget to mention, it is possible that you need Admin rights for the powercfg command to run... I don't know as I always work as Admin...
     

    Digsy

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    @Lehmden : Thanks for the information. I shall do some investigation.

    But...

    Absolutely clear. As long as PowerScheduler is deactivated Windows don't know nothing about scheduled recordings. If you deactivate PS you need to add every scheduled recording to Windows Taskplaner by hand...

    So what you are saying is that the default behaviour for MP is that in order to use it as a PVR you have to leave your PC on 24/7? :eek: That's a bit surprising. So, is that how PowerScheduler works: By adding wake events to Task Scheduler?
     

    Digsy

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    Forget to mention, it is possible that you need Admin rights for the powercfg command to run... I don't know as I always work as Admin...

    OK, I found that I had several network files which had been left open. These all had the same PID which turned out to be the MP2 server. I'm not sure why they were open because none of them were files I had played recently. Maybe they were left over from an interrupted share update or something?

    I stopped the server and that left me with no requests to stay awake at all. I shall check again tomorrow to see if any more files have been left open.

    Something that crossed my mind: MP2 wakes up my PC to do a share update at 02:00. I have a task which runs at 04:00 to run EPG Collector. This task forces the PC to sleep afterwards. If the MP2 share update was still running at this time, would this leave files in the share open if they were being indexed when the PC went to sleep?
     

    Lehmden

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    So what you are saying is that the default behaviour for MP is that in order to use it as a PVR you have to leave your PC on 24/7?
    No definitely not. The default behavior is to allow standby and wake up the system if a recording (or epg grabbing or system restart or,...) is scheduled. That's why the PowerScheduler plugin exists and is a core part of MP2. This plugin "tells" Windows about scheduled tasks (like recordings, EPG- grabbing,...) so Windows can handle the standby management as wanted by the user. And as an extra it can take over the standby handling if this is not (properly) working in Windows itself.

    Only if you explicit deactivate this plugin you need to run the server 24/7 as then the MP2 server don't "speak" to Windows about scheduled tasks.. Normally you don't need to configure anything for the system to wake up for a scheduled recording. PowerScheduler Plugin is for very good reasons part of the main MP2 installer and is activated by default. Indeed a proper PVR function simply is impossible without the PowerScheduler plugin. So it's a very bad idea to deactivate this plugin if you ever want to schedule a recording...

    I really don't understand why @HTPCSourcer think Powerscheduler is obsolete. It is not, never was and most likely never will be as long as we use the MP TV Engine (no matter if it is the recent 3.0 or the never finished 3.5 or any other not even planed future version). The PowerScheduler Client!!!!! Plugin known from MP1 is obsolete in MP2, It even don't exist and never has existed in a MP2 version. But the PowerScheduler TV engine Plugin is an essential part of the TV Engine and is more important than the Web-EPG or XMLTV or any other plugin.

    .
     

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