Sage - Black Screen

[mike1961]

I'm not positive if this is since the latest version or if it has something to do with my computer but here's the situation. I'll be working on my computer and I'll put the Sage screen behind another window and Sage is at the main menu or just in a menu (not watching TV) but the Sage window is covered by another window such as Word or Internet Explorer, etc. Then I'll bring the Sage window forward either by minimizing the top window or clicking on Sage from the taskbar, it is completely black. This only happens once in a while (a few times a day). I try right clicking on Sage and there is nothing. It's as if SageClient has totally crashed on my workstation (I run SageTVControl on my file server). I can go into explorer and still see the file server so I know the server is just fine. If I click the X to close SageTVClient and then start it up again on my client it works just fine.

I've attached a jpg. I don't think this problem ever existed in V5 but I can't say for sure what the problem is. Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

Thanks,
Mike

[JREkiwi]

Mike, I have certainly seen this, and it appears to be much worse with the 6.0.13 beta. There seems to be a bug in the refresh code. I've been trying to figure out some kind of pattern so I can file a bug report, but it's so inconsistant, I haven't seen a pattern as yet.

Seems to happen:
1. like in your case, when Sage has been behind another window or minimized.
2. waking up from sleep
3. following an import of an stvi
The thing that's in common with these is that sage is in a window and not full screen.

John

[mike1961]

John - I do have other stvs / plug ins. I thought it was only when sage was behind a window so my workaround would be to minimize the sage window before bringing other windows in front of it but I think that does not seem to matter. It's started happening to me with ver 6. Now - I did notice when I was using the Radio plugin with Slimplayer and I got the "black screen" it was still playing the radio. So, I know the plugin via Sage was still active and the program did not crash. Like you said, it seems like some sort of screen refresh problem.

Mike

[sleonard]

I also see this on my clients when Sage has been asleep for a length of time. For example, if I sleep sage when I go to bed, in the morning I'll have a black screen. Usually I'll have to end task or sometimes even reboot.

Scott

[JREkiwi]

Mike, I found that when the UI was black I could open studio, select a menu, press f5 and the UI would switch to the selected menu and work fine. I have submitted a bug report, but with the inconsistency of it, I haven't found anything specific that will reproduce the problem.

John

[nyle]

I know this is a stretch from what you are seeing but I wonder if this is related to why my Nero MP4 playback worked in 12 and 11 but not 13. I get a black screen but audio plays fine.

[camus]

I have this happen a few times coming out of stand-by. I think for me it is a result of using FSE, if can get another program to open, I get my desktop back with sage minimized.

[mike1961]

Okay - I was "playing around" and I think I may be able to reproduce this problem at will on my computer. So, I need your help out there to test and see if you also can reproduce the problem and so that we may send Sage a bug report. I was able to reproduce the problem literally at will. Here are the steps that worked for me:

Steps to Reproduce the Black Screen
1. Right click on the windows desktop and click Properties, Screen Saver and set the windows screen saver to wait 1 minute. I also set the saver to the 3D FlowerBox. I have the box checked for On Resume, Password Protect. (I do have a logon password to windows but I'm not sure if any of that matters). Save the settings so that the windows screen saver comes on in one minute of inactivity.

2. In Sage, Detailed Setup, General set the following:
Screen Saver On Sleep = Enabled
Screen Saver Timeout = 1 minute
Screen Saver Style = Logo
Show Mouse Icons = Enabled

I'm not sure how much of the above matters but I'm providing some of my computer specs. Also, I am runniing SageTVClient so again that may be a big factor or totally irrelevant in reproducing this error. It may be just as much an issue when running Sage even without the client. I'm also using many plug-ins such as the Dynamic Menu but I don't think those are a factor in this problem.

3. Make sure the Sage window is NOT maximized. Put Sage at the Main Menu.

4. Open another window such as My Computer or Internet Explorer and make it larger than the Sage window and place it completely over the Sage window so that the Sage window cannot be seen and is covered by IE or My Computer or some other window.

5. Wait at least one minute for the windows screen saver to come on. Continue to wait an additional 30 seconds so that we are sure both the windows screen saver and the Sage screen saver are on (this may be part of the problem but I'm not sure).

6. Move the mouse so that the windows screen saver goes off and you are now at the sign on screen to enter your windows password.

7. Move the top window to the right exposing part of the Sage window. It may appear completely black as it did for me every time. Close the top window and the Sage window stays black.

8. You can close the Sage window but if you maximize the Sage window then the entire screen is black. The only way to get out at that point other than a reboot that I know of is to go to the task manager and close Sage.

Let me know if this bug happens to you also. It's a real pain when I'm listening to radio in Sage and I have other windows covering it and I go to Sage and I realize I have to close it out and restart it again.

Mike

[mike1961]

Has anyone been able to test this and also reproduce the problem?

Thanks,
Mike

[mike1961]

This problem is now even worse in the latest 6.014 beta. It's giving me a black screen like every 30-60 minutes and I'm constantly having to close Sage every time I bring up the window. It's really a PITA. Has anyone tested my suggestion above to try and reproduce the problem?

It's VERY frustrating and occurred with far less frequency in V5.

Mike

[Opus4]

I'm not sure from the above posts... did you file a bug report?

- Andy

[mike1961]

No - I have not filed a bug report yet because I wanted to see if others can reproduce the error using my steps in post #8 but no one has replied yet. I'm trying to find a way to reproduce this problem and I thought to just file a bug report without any steps to reproduce would not be as easy as if others could try the steps first and see if it does it to them also.

Thanks,
Mike

[rickgillyon]

I think most people won't have screensavers or passwords on their HTPC, so it may be unlikely that anyone will bother trying it out. Have you tried a simple Alt-F4 to quit sage when you get the black screen?

[mike1961]

They may not need to invoke the passwords at all but it certainly is no big deal to turn a windows screen saver on to test it.

I have not tried Alt-F4 as of yet but either way this is a real PITA because I don't want to Alt-F4 every 30 minutes.

Thanks,
Mike

[mike1961]

I GIVE UP - this black screen problem persists in the latest beta release 6.015. I'm submitting a bug to Sage....Hopefully they will be able to reproduce this problem. It's so annoying as it appears at least once every 30-60 minutes. It's like every time I put a window on top of the Sage window, it's doomed to happen in a short amount of time.

Yes - Alt-F4 does quit Sage so it still seems to be some sort of screen refresh problem. I now have to quit about every hour if I want to see the screen.

Mike

[JREkiwi]

mike1961, do you have any imports loaded? It may be one of them that is causing your problem.

There was a problem with some of my imports from here, that were causing a symptom like this. All of the imports that were causing problems have been updated and since then I have not seen this problem.

John

[mike1961]

I have a few imports but most if not all are up to date. I use these:

Dynamic Menu
IMDB
MovieTimes
MultiFunction Stop
RSSnews
SlimPlayer

I have not yet imported them one by one to see which if any may be causing the problem.

Mike

[hemicuda]

I get the black screen only on the Main Menu so far. It does it either when it comes out of standby or if I click the Sage logo in the upper left corner to jump directly to the main menu. I'm running about 10 imports so it could be any of them. I'll double check to see if any are behind a rev.

dynamic_menu_import.stvi
imdb_search_import.stvi
IntelligentSuggestions.stvi
Upcoming_Movies.stvi
comskip_playback.stvi
Close_Media_File.stvi
recpadding_import.stvi
mailcheck_import.stvi
SageTV3_FM_Radio_0.14.stvi
weather_report_suite_import.stvi

the batch importer hung on a black screen w/ the non-spinning logo last time I ran it so something is amiss for sure.

Edit: went back and imported each stvi manually starting from the base xml and no more black screen issues so far.

[jvfff]

I just want to confirm that I also have the same problem with 6.0.16, and it's very easy to reproduce. Just run SageTV, lock the computer with "Windows Key+L", enter the password to unlock - SageTV window is black. SageTV does not hang, I can still send it to sleep by blindly clicking on the area where the sleep icon supposed to be, it goes to sleep into the tray and when I restore it, it's back to normal again. Just hope this can be resolved.
Alex.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by jvfff

I just want to confirm that I also have the same problem with 6.0.16, and it's very easy to reproduce. Just run SageTV, lock the computer with "Windows Key+L", enter the password to unlock - SageTV window is black. SageTV does not hang, I can still send it to sleep by blindly clicking on the area where the sleep icon supposed to be, it goes to sleep into the tray and when I restore it, it's back to normal again. Just hope this can be resolved.
Alex.

Try upgrading to the final product. 6.0.18 is the released product. You're running one of the betas.

Gerry