Help with putting system into S3

[Einsteiny]

Firstly, thanks everyone for all of your tips and tricks that I have picked up while scouring through these forums which have helped me setup my MCE system.

I know have only one annoyance left regarding the S3 standby issues. Here's my problem:

I have read through all of the threads about getting into S3 and religiously followed all of the advice particularly http://www.thegreenbutton.com/commun...essageID=89473 and S3 Standby - What worked for me (thanks Matt).

I have an Asus P4C800 motherboard and I made the jumper setting to all four of the usb jumpers to +5vsb;
I have my bios set correctly (S3 only)
I downloaded and used dumppo (dumppo.exe admin ac minsleep=S3)
I allowed my devices under power management settings to wake from S3
I installed the registry hack to allow the usb devices to wake the computer
I set the options for standby under Power Options
I unchecked the password prompt
I even reformatted my HDD and reinstalled MCE with the bios settings correct

What happens is I have a perfectly stable system that I can put into S3 standby through the MS remote and then bring the system out of standby also by the remote. I can also enter S3 through the mouse, start etc and can exit standby by hitting the power button. The system powers up every second day to download EPG info through TXVB and Quickguide (fantastic) - so this all works great.

My problem is that my computer won't automatically enter standby!!! No matter what settings I use in power options it just won't budge. It will wake to download or to record a show but won't automatically go back into standby. I've tried eveything I can think of. I'm not a newbie (post grad quals in computing!!) and have built more than a dozen systems over the years but this one has stumped me. I've closed the MCE interface back to the desktop and tried with all usb devices removed, everything, I just can't get it into standby automatically!! I have a 250G SATA HDD and I notice that the HDD led dimly flickers constantly which would indicate some HDD activity but I have nothing running in the background (no AV, MSmessenger, applications - nothing - just the services that exist from a standard install). I've set the HDD to power down as well prior to standby but this makes no difference and the LED continues to flash. A clue perhaps?

I've searched these forums, Asus forums, Greenbutton, Googled but generally everyone has issues with resume from S3 with black screens, freezing and crashes. I haven't yet seen a post with this sort of problem.

I will be personally indebted to the genius who can give me some direction on this and you will be truly rewarded. You shall be hence forth known as the ultimate Guru.

Thanks in advance
(not so) Einsteiny

[Matt]

Einsteiny - Welcome to the forums!

S3 can be frustrating can't it

S3 really relies on ALL your hardware to be working with you to achieve S3 utopia

One question, when leave your box alone and let it try to go to standby of it's own accord, do you have the MCE GUI running? or are you at the windows desktop?

Cheers

Matt.

[woohoo]

Einsteiny - your problem sounds something like one I had, but with a difference I don't understand. I discovered that once I started Live TV my hard drive would start buffering TV - and this would not stop even when I stopped TV. My hard-drive LED just kept on flickering. Because of the buffering my machine would not go into standby automatically - despite the fact I could put it into standby manually and bring it out again like you described. One way to test this is to play some music and try standby from there - music stops the TV buffering.

Where your problem sounds different to mine is when you say you closed MCE back to the desktop. That should stop your buffering and your machine should be able to go into standby automatically - but maybe not in your case for some reason. Like I say, try playing a track of music and see how that goes.

One of the problems that gave me was that if I put the machine into standby manually while the hard drive was buffering, when it next resumed from standby it would start buffering all over again! This meant if I wanted to schedule a TV recording it would wake up and record, but refuse to go back to standby.

I sorted this out with a bit of help from some friends on this forum with some script which first closes MCE when I go to standby from the remote (which stops the buffering in my case) and also opens MCE when I resume. If the machine wakes for a scheduled recording it doesn't start the buffering and it can go back to sleep without help.

If it turns out your problem is related to mine I should be able to point you to the standby/resume stuff that I'm now using.

[Einsteiny]

Guys,

Thanks for the prompt responses. Youse guys are jets!

Matt,
I've tried it both ways, both from the desktop and from the MCE GUI - but I've made sure that Live TV has not been running because I'm aware that the buffering will keep the system from going to sleep. It doesn't seem to make any difference.

woohoo,
I was EXCITED! when I read your post because after my first install I found the computer would go into S3 standby from the desktop following cold boot but once I'd started MCE and even after I exited back to the desktop the computer wouldn't enter standby. Unfortunately, this doesn't work now. I started my computer from a cold boot this morning and stayed away from MCE but the computer wouldn't enter standby - still got that annoying, dull pulse from the HDD led though. I wonder if the computer is buffering even though MCE hasn't yet kicked in??

I'm thinking this may be an issue with my Hauppauge PVR-150MCE and what I will do later tonight is remove the drivers and the card and see what happens then. What do you reckon?

Thanks again guys - keep the advice coming!!
Einsteiny

[eepunk]

It sounds strange, but some screensavers have the same effect on my system.

In particular the PHM Dark screensaver, which I would like to use but has the aforementioned problem for me.

Just a thought.

E.E.

[arkay]

You can check if it's MCE causing it. After a cold boot stop all the MCE services. They all start with eh something so haev a look in control panel to see what they are, do a:

net stop ehrecr
net stop ehsched

etc etc till they're all down and then leave it and see if it goes into standby. If it does then you've found the culprit.

ehshell (the MCE gui) is only the gui portion of MCE. Everything else runs as a service which is why it still records even though the gui is inactive.

I have also heard of instances where creating a second user has fixed this sort of thing.

If the above doesn't work, create a new user and log in as that user and see what happens. It has to do with corrupt user profiles.. Worth a try.

Cheers,
Arkay.

[woohoo]

Einsteiny
I have a Hauppauge PVR-150 MCE as well, so it's not the sole culprit. I don't run the latest driver, mind you (from memory mine is second latest version to current). May be your PVR-150 and your motherboard combine to create this mischief (I have an Intel m/b).

A couple of extra thoughts for what they're worth. First, as you've identified, the key is to stop that HDD, whatever it's doing. Removing your PVR-150 is probably your best first test.

If Arkay's suggestion doesn't stop your HDD, maybe you could go back to your BIOS and change the OS default so you boot into Windows and not MCE - that way MCE never starts and never has a chance to start anything else... Then see if your HDD behaves.

Did you try playing a track of music in MCE and seeing if the HDD stops after that? From my experience of MCE, music is the only thing which will reliably stop the MCE-driven TV buffering. I would guess that if your HDD is still flickering away after a track of music has stopped then it's not working on any MCE-related activity.

Which leads to other things that might. I take it you're not running any other applications at the time... Nothing in your startup folder? No scheduled tasks other than the EPG updater (a defragmenter would give you your problem I suppose). Have you installed any desktop searchers like Google desktop or Copernic? If you have, I've noticed they can run indexing that drives the HDD pretty intensively for quite a while... That should stop pretty quickly after the initial indexing exercise, though...

Good luck - I know the frustration...

[Einsteiny]

Hey Guys,

First off to eepunk - Nice try my friend but I'm not running any screensavers (or other things such as applications in my start folder, or desktop assistants or search bars etc). Install is fresh and basic with nothing running in the background - thanks for the tip though!

Hi arkay - you truly are the Big Kahuna of the XP MCE forums. I see your posts all the time and everything you say either works or makes sense. I took your advice and progressively shut down each of the background e services until none were working but this still didn't help my system enter standby. As I said Hombre, if your advice doesn't work it is always extremely logical. So it looks like MCE isn't causing the issue.

Finally - back to woohoo. Now your advice really got me thinking. I don't run the latest Hauppauge driver neither - which I think is 2.5 from the USA site because the UK site lists v2.2(? I think) as their latest - anyhow I'm using the drivers off the disk that came with the card as I purchased it about 5 weeks ago and I thinks its listed as v2.3. I ripped out the Hauppauge card but still the HDD led blinks away merrily. I tried playing a music track and then stopping but still no S3. (See above response to eepunk re background progs).

Now heres where it gets interesting - Based upon the combination of all of your replies I realised that it wasn't MCE causing the no S3 problem. So it was reasonable to assume that it is a hardware/XP issue. I progressively uninstalled any hardware drivers to see if I could eliminate the problem. Now the ASUS P4C800 Deluxe has onboard sound and is driven by a SoundMax audio driver and software. Then EUREKA!!! Once the software was uninstalled along with the sound device the system was consistenly going into standby.

Tentatively, I reinstalled the driver only without the SoundMax software control panel. The system continued to enter S3 as required under power option settings. I then cranked MCE Live Tv and shut down TV back to the GUI and again, the system went into S3. Fantastic, it seems to be working great.

I now have a system that I can put into S3 and resume using the remote, keyboard or mouse. It will wake from S3 to download EPG data or record and should go back into S3 when finished (this'll be tested 3am this morning) but it's all looking good. I still have the HDD led gently flickering away and can't seem to explain that!. But, being a fatalist, I'll wait and see how its travelling over the next couple of days! Anyhow, damn that SoundMax driver.

Back to you guys - through your collective ideas, thoughts and suggestions I was able to eliminate a numbers of issues and relieve that annoying little tic that was developing in my left eye. You are all Guru's in your own right - coming to the aid of others though these forums - I reckon you all deserve a couple of reputation points just for responding. Thanks heaps.

My only remaing issue now is an occassional system lockup which I think is being generated by my ATI 9700PRO but I can live with this for the time being.

Thanks all and catch you on the forums
Einsteiny

[Matt]

Einsteiny - Good to hear mate, glad you got it sorted

Cheers

Matt.

[arkay]

Einsteiny,

Fantastic. Love it when people have a win. Asus and soundmax... Sheesh. I'm tempted to put a big banner on the site that pops up anytime you log in:

DO NOT BUY ANY ASUS BOARD WITH SOUNDMAX AUDIO

I'm using a p4p800s and it's rubbish as well all because of bad soundmax audio drivers...

Can't wait to change it out for something that does work!!!

Cheers,
Arkay.

[Matt]

I believe my recent SPDIF problems with AC3 passthrough where due to Soundmax on an ASUS board as well.

eerrr... bloody annoying!!!

[headshot]

Originally Posted by Einsteiny

Back to you guys - through your collective ideas, thoughts and suggestions I was able to eliminate a numbers of issues and relieve that annoying little tic that was developing in my left eye. You are all Guru's in your own right - coming to the aid of others though these forums - I reckon you all deserve a couple of reputation points just for responding. Thanks heaps.

I SECOND THAT!!!
I've struggled for a week with ALMOST the exact problem Einsteiny had - the diff with mine was that i set everything up in an old box, got it all working PERFECTLY, even the dreaded S3, then bought a Silverstone LC10 (bloody Monster!!! ) and simply swapped all the gear over, resulting in all working perfectly again EXCEPT NO S3!!!!

After reading so much on these forums (a four day headache - see avatar to left!!!!), I read Einsteiny's post with delight - but better yet, the solution (i have a P4C800ED and Soundmax too).

If i wasnt a strict Atheist, i'd be saying "Glory be to God", because as soon as i deleted Soundmax, S3 worked PERFECTLY again. I then installed only the drivers, not the utility, and it all STILL worked!!!

WOO HOO - now a fully working MCE box..... total outlay: $450.00

A BIGGGGGG thank you from me as well guys!!!

P4 2.2, 512 meg Kingmax ram, 120gig maxtor SATA NCQ hdd, 2 x Avermedia A16A tuners, Sapphire Radeon 9800 XT Edition (256 meg), Asus P4C800ED, Pioneer A109 D/L DVD, Silverstone LC10, MS MCE R/C

[Einsteiny]

Nice one Headshot,

These problems can be really frustrating - glad to see our collective problems were solved.

Regards
Einsteiny