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Black Screen After Idle With Windows 7 Media Center

Submitted by Kevin Kleinfelter on Sat, 2010-01-09 16:51.

I'm running

  • Windows 7 Media Center on an

  • Acer Revo with

  • nVidia ION graphics, hooked to a

  • Panasonic 720p TVr via a

  • Pioneer VSX-819 A/V amplifier, using

  • HDMI for video and audio.  

I leave the PC running 24x7.  I turn off the TV when not watching it. 

Sometimes, after the TV is off overnight and the PC is idle, when I turn the TV on, Media Center shows a black screen, even after a mouse wiggle or keystrokes.  Additional symptoms:

  • I do get a mouse pointer when I move the mouse.
  • I do not hear sound effects when I move the mouse (that I would normally hear when mousing over a Media Center button).
  • The screen (back-light) gets slightly darker when I move the mouse to the edges of the screen.

Here are some things I'm trying:

  1. mouse wiggle - gets a mouse pointer, and back-light level changes as I near screen edge, but screen always blank.
  2. press space/shift/letter key on keyboar - no effect
  3. press the dedicated start-IE button (a globe) on the remote:
    1. Starts Internet Explorer
    2. Shows a media-center-not-responding dialog
    3. Media center works after I select Restart.

  4. Disabled screen saver and disabled monitor-off power-save.

  5. amplifier off and back on - no effect

  6. Configure PC and TV to send video via VGA (as a preventative, not as curative) - test in progress
  7. run hdmiOn.exe from a telnet session

  8. tv off and back on - ???? (not tested yet)
  9. "devcon reset" followed by the device ID - not tested 
    1. Might need to "devcon status * > C:\temp\foo.txt" first, to learn the device ID
  10. Could it be running on another virtual monitor?  Disable non-HDMI output.  Is there a move-to-next-monitor hot-key?
  11. alt-F4 (it does work when NOT black first)
  12. dxdiag
  13. Enable monitor-off-on-idle. Then maybe a mouse wiggle will turn it ON.
  14. unplug and re-plug monitor. if this works get an HDMI switch.  What if I switch monitor on the AMP?
  15. Does it happen if I go direct from PC to TV via HDMI?
  16. make it go to sleep on idle.  When wakes up, does THAT make monitor light up?
  17. Remove Nvidia driver and use Windows driver.  Re-add Nvidia driver.
  18. Can I set up a hot-key (maybe via Autohotkey). To re-set video (maybe change resolution and back).  Maybe a monitor-off followed by a monitor-on.
  19. Set up a background task that periodically writes current monitor settings to a log file.  See if/when something changes.
  20. Can test monitor on/off via telnet?

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You ever figure this out

Submitted by Shaun (not verified) on Wed, 2010-02-24 17:36.

You ever figure this out, have the exact same issue.

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Hi Kevin, Did you ever

Submitted by jpitt42 (not verified) on Fri, 2010-03-19 15:26.

Hi Kevin,

Did you ever resolve this issue?  I believe I'm seeing the same thing.  When I came home yesterday, I got a black screen with just a mouse pointer.  I could hear Live TV playing, but no video.  It wouldn't respond immediately to Ctl+Alt+Delete, Alt+Tab, or Green Start Button on remote.  It did eventually respond and I was able to close down WMC and restart it.  Then I started getting errors that my videos weren't able to play.  Even after restart this was the case.  What fixed it for me was to change the audio settings in Windows from 7.1 to 2 channel.  I guess there's some issue related to HDMI audio involved here.

I don't know whether the black screen is somehow related to the video errors and audio settings, but I guess time will tell.

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My Resolution

Submitted by Kevin Kleinfelter on Wed, 2010-03-31 02:08.

In my case, it turns out that the receiver is the source of the problem. Connecting the computer's HDMI out directly to the TV did the trick.

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