blank screen after extended period in suspend mode

[nkd]

Hello Folks,

I am seeing a strange issue. After putting the unit in sleep mode for extended periods (overnight), on waking up the unit I see no video on my TV. I can see that the unit is doing something as the link and data lights are on. I also know that there is some video going to my TV (TV does not complain of 'no signal') but the TV is dark. The way to recover is to power cycle the unit.

This does not happen for short periods in sleep mode.

The only thing that does happen overnight is that my server goes to sleep and wakes up again in the morning automatically.

Any one having this issue??

I have also noticed that the sage service is unstable with the latest version of sage (6.3). I don't know if this is related but who knows ....

[emok]

I see this behavior, but it's immediately after I select my server from the server selection screen (I can't even get to the sagetv main menu). Besides that, you're describing the exact behavior I'm seeing.

I've also noticed that the service has been less stable starting with 6.3.5. Not sure what it is yet.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29139

[emok]

I notice the manual for the extender mentions that if you see the blank screen, you should try to cycyle through the output resolutions of the extender by pressing the "video out" button on the remote and waiting several seconds before trying the next resolution. This didn't work for me, but it might work for you.

[nkd]

thanks ... I will try that out

This morning I noticed that I can also bring up the extender by pressing the menu button (insted of power cyceling). This brings the extender up in setup mode and then brings up the SageTV UI.

[bastafidli]

I had another experience. After some time not using HDME I turned my TV on and the entire screen was green (as I saw during firmware update). Pushing no button on the remote nor on the front face of the unit didn't help so I had to power cycle it.

[nkd]

Couple of more observations ... hopefully some one from Sage will chime in and help out ..

It looks like the extender will not recover if it looses connection to the server. So if I were to kill the sage service, the extender goes dark and then if I restore the service the extender will not recover until I do power cycle. (can someone please confirm this behavior)

In comparison on a client (running sage client software) the client will complain that it has lost connection to the server and then once the server comes on-line again it recovers.

Looks like the extender establishes a protocol when it power cycles (evident from the fact that the IP address I see under setup is very different from the one assigned by DHCP). On loosing connection to the server this protocol is not re-established and hence the extender never recovers.

May be in a future firmware upgrade Sage can build in a recovery cycle if connection is lost with the server.

Why is this important to me - My (Sage)server shutdowns at night and then re-starts in the morning. But the Extender remains dark (no video on TV) until I power cycle (or press the home button while in standby). And this exception is not something I can teach my wife or son to recognize and do the needfull to starting enjoying the PVR

[heffe2001]

I came here tonight to see if anybody was having this exact problem (as the OP). I'm trying the video-out thing as I type, but so far no dice...

Nope, only way to get it started again is to restart the service. I'm going to try switching over to non-service mode and see if the problem persists tomorrow...

[steven017]

Well, whether my problem was the same as any of yours, I'm not so sure. But I have solved my problem by updating my system's bios to the latest version. Now I have a new problem. My DVD drive doesn't work. Go figure. Traded one problem for another. But my system now seems to wake from S3 without any trouble. It's been 4 days and not a wink of trouble yet.

So, for those having these resume issues, my suggestion is to check with your motherboard maker's site/forum to see if others are having similar issues if you haven't already. If so, a bios update might be the solution.

UPDATE: I've fixed my DVD drive issue. Actually, the problem was a bit of carelessness and a bit of weirdness. I neglected to set a couple bios settings after updating the bios. Also, I had a codec pack installed that also seemed to be somehow involved. I'm not sure why exactly, as it worked fine before the bios update. Removing the codec pack and just installing the codecs I need resoved the issue.

Steve