A lot of Windows XP Media Center Edition users experience problems when using the standby function of their system. So did I. This and the endless list of forum posting on the subject made me decide to program this tool.

 

 

The MCE Standby Tool helps to configure the system properly for the desired sleep state. Just by selecting the sleep state all the appropriate power management settings will be made, both hidden and unhidden. Including the ones which required the Microsoft tool dumppo in the past.

 

You can also use it to configure auto logon and which devices can wake the system from standby.

 

Besides these configuration options the MCE Standby Tool (MST) has a number of advanced features to support the system by the properly functioning of standby. To use this features the program has to be installed.

• It can stop eHome (the MCE shell) when going standby and restart it when resuming (at a number of start-screens). Closing eHome often solves the problem of not going back to standby after a scheduled recording or guide update.

• It can reboot the system on a regular basis so you will always have a ‘fresh’ system.

• It has an idle detection when not going into standby after a scheduled recording or guide update.

 

Hundreds of users (mainly Dutch and English) are using MST by now. The problems MST solved are quite a few. The user reports vary from properly going into and out of standy, going back to standby after a recording, no longer miss recordings, being able to wake the system by remote, put it standby by remote, drivers blocking going standby and using the right sleep state to mention some.

 

Move over here for the MCE Standby Tool (MST). This page contains more details and screenshots.

Search this forum http://www.avforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=192 for "MST" or "MCE Standby Tool" to find out other peoples experiences with this tool.
 

Although still in beta it is quite mature by now, the first public release was almost 6 months ago.

 

Feel free to try MST, don’t hesitate to ask questions or suggest new features.

 

Herman van Eijk

 

I have updated the MCE Standby Tool to version 0.9.49.

Besides the usual bux-fixes and a number of minor improvements I have enhanced MST with a recording monitor.
When the system is awake for an guide update or scheduled recording and refuses to enter standby, the recording monitor detects it is finished recording and will put the system standby.

This is much more reliable than the previous idle detection and does not need any configuration. This is why it replaces the idle detection.

Hi I have been using your tool for a few weeks now, works very well for me.
I have been able to get rid of all the untidy startup scripts ive had until now.

One thing though, have you given any thought to the possibility of launching other programs as well when the computer comes out of standby too.


Thank you, Circuit.

This new version actually has the option to run scripts or applications at suspend or resume. It is a quick fix I made because of the great number of requests for it.

In the registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Herman van Eijk\MceStandbyTool
the values RunAtSuspend and RunAtResume are created, here you can enter whatever you would like to run.

I have plans for a really neat solution. Running things, killing processes, enabling and disabling device drivers etc. Jus wait and see.

I was wondering, can Media Center Extenders continue to function while the PC is in any of the available standby modes?  If so, which would be best for a HTPC that's being used at all times either directly or by Extender?

Pardon my ignorance as I currently do not use any of the Standby modes and generally leave my PC powered on and running 24/7/365.

MCE standby tool, does not really work for me. When I wake up the computer from standby I get an error message says "Your graphicadapter / driver is not compatible with Media center" (something like that)
I use a Nvidia 5200, DirectX 9 compatible. (and of course I use the MCE drivers) This message only appear when I suspend the computer. Is there any fix for this message?

Your videocard is probably not fully restored for suspend when MST starts ehome.
Try increasing the "Delay before starting ehome" in the "Debug" tab.

I've tried the tool and it made more problems than it solved on my system.

before MST i could put my system in S3 and restore it without problems using the remote but the computer would not go into standby after a recordig if it was waked up from S3. annoing but not a big deal

I installed the MST tool hoping it would help me but no. Now when i try to put the comp. in S3 it resumes right away.
After a bit of troubleshooting I figured out it was the remote (or the usb reciver) that caused it to resume. the only USB device that needed to be 'live'. I've tried all kind of different setups for MST but everytime the same problem so I decided to uninstall MST and just go back to the old setup where S3 worked but no auto S3 after a recording.

But I hoped too much - I still have the problem with the resume right after i put it in S3. What to do next????

Are you sure your system was using S3 before?

I know of people using a very quiet Intel barebone based system who assumed they were using S3. The system builder actually configured it to use S1 because S3 was problematic on those barebones.

Use MST to force S1 and see if it behaves like before.

on my system, when I restart, the programs GUI comes up in the center of the screen and doesn't minimise to the tray.... I believe an earlier version did... ????

Jim

 

I am aware of this, it should be fixed in the next version.
Thanx for your feedback, I realy need this kind of reactions to keep improving MST.

okay , then here's another, maybe.... I have a scheduled task set to run a defrag on my Recorded TV drive at 3 am.... in the morning when I wake, the machine is in S3, but when I wake it up, the defrag continues to run.... it's suspending at 3:20 while the defrag is running.... I've played with the sliders but have yet been able to cure it.... what is the logic behind the Tolerance slider?

Jim

 

Hi Jim,

You seem to be running an older version, not that it is a problem tough.

In the latest version I removed the idle detection you are using right now.
It was to complicated to get it working for a lot of people.

At the moment I am working on a dedicated MCE idle detection which does not need any configuration. I will add support for defrag and get you a version to try somewere next week if you like to.

Herman

Have you heard of any problems running MCE Standby with Frontview (VFD front panel display plugin)?

Since installing MCE standby, Frontview periodically loses its connection to MCE and shows a default display, then after a few seconds it will go back to the proper display. I've also had a problem where MCE locks up if you are watching Live TV when a recording ends on the other tuner.

I have tried temporarily uninstalling MCE standby to see if the problems go away. Unfortunately I changed some other stuff at the same time as installing MCE Standby so it might be caused by something else.

I am wondering if there's some conflict going on with the information stream provided by MCE.

I do not know about any problems hen using MST with Frontview.
I use frontview myself (Hitachy display on printerport).

Do your problems disapear when removing MST?

What version of MST have you tried?

When removing MST nothing active stays behind, only some powermanagement settings and mabye some USB settings (from the USB tab).