Win XBMC goes black every few hours
#1
Hey guys,

I'm having this frustrating experience with XBMC... I hope someone here might have an idea.

Every so often, say every few hours or so, the screen just goes black (TV says no signal from the computer). The machine keeps running yet I'm not able to interact with it (CTRL+ALT+DEL doesn't work) and I have to force reboot. Interesting enough this doesn't happen during playback rather only when browsing through menus or after standby (which I saw is an issue on it's own).

This is what I tried to do so far:
- Looked into XBMC debug log: I didn't find anything too weird there. Some warnings and errors, but usually not the same ones every time it happens. You can take a look here: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B36hN58...nd4UlRNaW8
- Looked into Windows events: No sign of XBMC crashing here. Only my forced reboots, yet Windows doesn't report an application crash before them.
- Changed the display connection from VGA to HDMI: I read some stuff on the machine loosing the display connection or something. So I tried HDMI instead of VGA but this had no affect. The same thing happens.
- Clean install of Eden: I also wiped the roaming directory and did a clean install. Just as I added all my directories back it happened again, before installing any skin or plugin (only plugin that I installed was the XBMC subtitles plugin).

After all this, I'm still at square one. I just have no idea how to further debug this... Does someone have an idea what else should I check?

Thanks,
Oren.

P.S. - While I'm already here in the XBMC forums, I have to say to the devs and everyone involved that this project is just insanely awesome. Putting aside crashes and such, the quality of the product exceeds any other media center software out there. Thanks for all the effort you guys are putting into it. You've built something truly amazing.



Machine details:
Lenovo Q150, running Windows 7
Intel Atom D510 @ 1.66Ghz with NVIDIA ION

Display:
Samsung 37" LCD 720p
Desktop resolution at 1366x768 via VGA
after which I tried desktop resolution 1280x720 via HDMI

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#2
Sounds more like a windows power scheme issue. It is as if Windows is seeing the PC as idle and is turning off the monitor. Have you checked your windows power scheme to see if setting "Turn off the display" to never helps?
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#3
Thanks for the note, giving it a try now. I'll let you know if it does the trick.
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#4
Nop, didn't work... Any other ideas worth trying?
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#5
What are your power saving settings set to in XBMC?
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#6
Put display to sleep when idle - Off
Shutdown function timer - Off
Shutdown function - Quit
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#7
I'm having the same type of problem (just started yesterday). Complete blackout after about 40 minutes of letting it sit idle, have to do a hard reboot to get the screen back. Only in XBMC, no problem with other Windows applications. All my power and screen saver settings are off.

I have found a work around, so I can still use XBMC (don't make me go back to Media Browser), I turned ON the XBMC screensaver, and that has seemed to have stopped the blackouts. So I'm guessing it's related to that.
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#8
(2012-05-16, 22:35)Imiron Wrote: I have found a work around, so I can still use XBMC (don't make me go back to Media Browser), I turned ON the XBMC screensaver, and that has seemed to have stopped the blackouts. So I'm guessing it's related to that.

I spoke too soon. Turning on the screen saver did not fix it.
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#9
@orenaim,

What are your screensaver settings set to inside of XBMC?
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#10
I'm pretty sure I resolved my issue. I'm using my backup video card, a lackluster 7350 LE. Once I switched the resolution from 1080 to 720, I don't get the blackouts anymore. So for me it was an hardware issue, not XBMC.
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#11
Screensaver settings: 3min, Dim (20%). Don't have any special issues getting out of the screensaver, though.

I just changed yesterday my TV and computer resolution to 1920x1080 over an HDMI cable. I'll let you know if that makes any difference...
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#12
Nop, didn't help... Still having the same issue with the new TV. The problem is on my computer for sure. Any other ideas?
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#13
Nope. I am out of ideas. I don't see how it can be XBMC. It must be the system or system/TV combination.
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#14
I'm pretty sure it has <i>something</i> to do with XBMC as it only happens when it's running.

@Imiron - What machine / OS are you running?
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#15
Really. It only happens when XBMC is running? Have you tried it with MCE running or any other media player running for the same amount of time fullscreen?
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