Vista, sleep and EPG update failure

[b00sfuk]

I think I've seen the odd mention of this problem before but not a full resolution. I have a vista setup which goes into S3 sleep after 5 minutes which works fine after recordings etc. The problem is that (only recently) when it wakes automatically for the EPG update it only stays awake for exactly 2 minutes before going back to sleep (invariably before the EPG update starts). So the EPG update fails even though there are message(s) in the log

[SIZE="1"]Will run EPG update soon...
Keeping machine awake for pending EPG update...[/SIZE]

I have botched a solution with a scheduled task to keep the system awake at this time but recently found this statement about vista that might explain the problem:

[SIZE="1"]If a scheduled task (typically nightly backup jobs) is configured to wake the system from hybrid sleep state, you may experience that the system powers down again after two minutes, even though the scheduled job is not done yet. This happens because Vista expects scheduled programs to actively tell it if the system and/or the display are required while the task is running.[/SIZE]

If at the time of waking I have the screen switched on and interact with it then the PC stays awake fine. I'm also confused why it has only started recently (maybe one of the recent vista updates).

Anybody else seeing this problem?

[sub]

When it logs these "Keeping machine awake for pending EPG update" messages, its actively telling the system that it needs to stay awake (as indicated in the other paragraph you quoted), so it shouldnt go to sleep during this time. Window power management is very quirky on some machines though, so it wouldnt surprise me if its those ignoring on your machine.

Sorry, I dont really have any suggestions what might fix this for you.

[b00sfuk]

Thanks Sub. I've now found a fix for this that might help others. It seems there are two timers in vista for keeping it awake:

1. Attended wake-up - configured in "power options" in control panel.

2. Unattended wake-up - this defaults to 2 minutes and is configured only in the registry for each power plan.

It seems that (on my PC) (2) is ignoring anything that GB-PVR does to keep the PC awake when the PC wakes for an EPG update (but not for a recording or any other wake-up as far as I can see). I also tried having another "keep awake" utility running via the task scheduler but this failed to keep the system awake as well, so it might just be my machine playing up or another vista oddity.

The registry can be edited as per this link. Though I found the info to be wrong if you have added a user plan (there is no additional user registry entry, you have to edit the default one the plan is based on).