Standby Problems

[bobsmith]

I can't get standby or hibernate to work with gbpvr. When I go into standby via the gbpvr menu, the PC doesn't wake to record - it just stays in standby. I applied the standby patch per the v0.99.12 survival guide. Still won't work.

I'm wondering if it has something to do with my settings. I have not used standby before... I have tended to view it as trouble, but I would really like to use it with gbpvr because I'll have the PC on 24/7 and use it only 3 or 4 hours a day to watch/record. The PC is dedicated entirely to gbpvr.

I'm using an Asus P4B266 MB, and an Enermax 460W power supply. I'm not sure what to enable or disable. I have tried various settings and nothing seems to work, so I assume I have the wrong mix. My options in the BIOS are as follows:

--ACPI Suspend to RAM (I have it enabled)
--Power Up Control:
PCI Card (disabled... enabling it didn't fix it)
USB (disabled)
KB (disabled)
Mouse (disabled)
Automatic Power-Up (disabled)
--HDD Power Down (disabled)
--Power Management (disabled - other options involved # of minutes, etc.)

In XP I have hibernate checked.

What settings should I use? Are there any settings within gbpvr beyond the "wake" check-box to update the TV Guide? Are there other XP settings I'm missing? Any help would be appreciated.

[HtV]

Maybe you should check the bios at system-startup, to see if there are any "energy-seettings" you need to change.
You might also want to take a look here:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.php
Maybe there's something there to help you.

[fhmanas]

You might want to see if your PC does go into standby even without GBPVR. If it does, you don't even need to press the standby button, just let the PC go into standby by itself

[melearp]

I too have this problem and have posted it before, including logs but never got any reply. The two answers so far have misread the question. They assumed it is a shutdown problem, probably because most of the posted problems are about a machine not shutting down.

In a way I am really pleased that someone else is experiencing a WAKEUP problem. It means I am not mad. I have been trying for weeks to get the machine to reliably wake up to do a recording. It DOES relaibly wake up to do conventional Windows scheduled tasks. I have a nightly script which does backups and gets an XMLTV file etc. It logs the fact that it has rune and it is 100% reliable.

GBPVR recording wakeups are only about 50% reliable.

[sub]

I'm not really sure what to suggest. Each time a recording is scheduled GB-PVR just ask Windows to ensure the machine is awake at that time, and Windows takes care of the rest. For most people this just works, and is very reliable. If its not working on your setup, I'm pretty sure it'll relate to some motherboard ACPI compatibility issue or some setting not being enabled in the bios.

[bobsmith]

I did get it working. Three test recordings worked, so we'll see if it holds.

I disabled all power management in the BIOS except "ACPI Suspend to RAM". In Windows I set it to go into standby after 5 minutes of inactivity. Then I set it to record for 10 minutes - three times - all at least 1/2 hour apart.

In windows the PC goes into standby in precisely five minutes (I timed it). I expected the same when gbpvr was running, but it varied in my three test recordings. Example: On recording number 1, it took 13 minutes to go into standby after I set it up to record and walked away (I expected 5 minutes). On recording three it took exactly 5 minutes. When recording 2 was finished, it went into standby in 2 minutes (again, I expected 5 minutes). On recording three the PC woke three minutes before the recording was scheduled to begin.

So the timing of going into, and out of, standby varied for reasons unknown to me, and that makes me a little uneasy... but the bottom line is that all three recordings were there, and it is going into and out of standby as it should. Sometimes it's a little late (going into standby) and sometimes it's a little early, so whether that becomes a problem down the road remains to be seen. But so far, so good. To those who commented, thanks for the help.

[melearp]

I'd be interested to see if your now working system holds. I am pleased that you got it to work, but monitor it. On one occasion I did a test of 5 small recordings spaced out in a similar fashion to your own test. They all worked fine. I thought I had cracked it. The next night an "important" recording for the other member of the household failed. I was not popular.

Sub: I understand that it is not a common problem and that you can't suggest the magic answer. I still think GBPVR is great. I am a little busy on other things at the moment (like redecorating the room GBPVR is in) so can't go into diagnostic mode - but eventually I will, and will fix it.

In desperation some weeks ago I wrote some test code just to monitor when suspend and resume events happened. All the code did was to register for the power mode change events and logged them (carefully flushing and closing and reopening the log files - and I put them into the system log for good luck). I was really surprised that my code was not notified of all the events. It seems windows has some unreliability built in here.

[HtV]

@ Bobsmith:
You might wantb to tryn this patch:
http://forums.gbpvr.com/showpost.php?p=1...ostcount=6
This patch was meant for an other problem but it also fixed going into standby/hibernate problems for several people, including me.
Maybe it "stabelizes" the going into standby for you.

[bobsmith]

I'd be interested to see if your now working system holds. I am pleased that you got it to work, but monitor it.

Thanks melearp. I tend to be a pessimist about PC quirks, so whenever something isn't really consistent (like the timing of XP coming into and going out of my standby) , I tend to think it will come back to haunt me later.

I just got my system all tucked away into the entertainment center today, for the first time, after having all the paraphernalia spread about the room while putting it together. So I'm flying solo now with the PC hooked to the TV (no monitor, KB, mouse, etc.). So far so good. I am VERY glad I installed TightVNC so I can access the gbpvr PC from my main PC. Someone here suggested that. I've learned a great deal here. Without this forum I couldn't have done it.

[bobsmith]

@ Bobsmith:
You might want to try this patch...

Thanks HtV. I installed it.