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Full Version: Screen Blanks After a While
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I've been having an issue with XBMC on a Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop for some time, originally with XBMC 10, and now 11. It may be a Windows issue, but I thought I'd ask and see if anyone has any ideas.

My system is running Windows 7 Ultimate, which I installed clean after re-purposing the laptop to be my media centre. I have XBMC set within the system startup, so I boot the laptop, and after Windows loads, XBMC loads right up. I've disabled the screensaver, and all power saving features within the Windows Power Options control panel. My TV (Sharp Aquos 37") is connected to the laptop via a DVI to HDMI conversion cable, and the video setting are set to mirror whatever is on the laptop screen to the TV (at full 1920x1080).

Almost every time I'm watching a video in XBMC, sometime in the first 30 minutes or so, the TV will blank. Audio will keep playing, but the TV screen is black. I'll have to ALT+Tab to bring up the application switcher, and then ALT+Tab back to XBMC. This only seems to happen once, even in long movies. I've sat and watched 3.5 hour movies, or 3-4 episodes of hour-long shows, and this will only ever happen once during a session. I do shut the laptop down when not using it, and so it seems to happen only once every boot.

Anyone have any ideas what this might be, or how I may be able to fix it? Otherwise, my media-center setup has been working flawlessly for nearly a year.
I hate to bump, but does anyone have any ideas?
I have the same problems, and I have to kill xbmc process to get video back. I have noticed a few things that help, but just delay the inevitable. Changing the match refresh rate to video(not at xbmc machine not sure exact wording) has kept the video from dropping for me. Also I have seen suggestions of using windowed mode, rather than full screen helps. Another thing is to update your video driver if you haven't already.
I don't know if this will help, but it's solved focus problems for me, so maybe you can try XBMCLauncher.