Ok I set up a MCE PC about 2.5 years ago and I love it. Now the mobo in it died. It was a Shuttle SD36G5M and the mobo is going to cost me over $200 to replace which seems rather silly considering I can buy a new shuttle for $400-$500 and build a HTPC out of a mATX based computer for $350 that will do the same thing (and better)

However I realized today that my SD36G5M supported Intel Viiv and I used the remote control to put the computer into a semi sleep state (it was a low power mode that could still record tv and would turn off the video out so my TV would shut off).

Now my question is what is the functionality of the MCE remote power button without Intel Viiv? From my understanding I can use it to put the computer to sleep but will MCE automatically bring it back out to start a recording? What are my options here? Do I just have to leave my computer on all the time and program the TV button to shut off the TV?

The only way to keep this viiv functionality from my standpoint would be to replace this shuttle mobo which just seems like a big waste of money.

viiv was more marketing talk than actual hardware capability


I'd wager that 99.9% of all modern mobo's will do S3 (suspend to ram) flawlessly while in MCE

the rest are fixed with the mce standby tool (MST)

Can the MCE still record in this state though? Or can it come out of it to record and go back into it after recording?

The nice thing about the way I had it was I would press the power button and sound and video would cut out and the computer basically stayed running. So all recording and scheduled events would still occur. And then when I pressed the power button it was instant on and I could do whatever.

 

EDIT:

Been doing some reading into S3 and it looks like it will not do what I wan't. Even if MCE could wake it up for recording's it would turn my TV on in the process. As where the way i had it background processes could work while the video and sound was still off. That way my TV stayed off and it could silently record... however with S3 it would turn video and sound on thus turning on my equipment at the same time (as I have everything set to auto turn on with signal)

Shoot...

If it's asleep, it can't do anything.

Bun-Bun:

Can the MCE still record in this state though? Or can it come out of it to record and go back into it after recording?

The nice thing about the way I had it was I would press the power button and sound and video would cut out and the computer basically stayed running. So all recording and scheduled events would still occur. And then when I pressed the power button it was instant on and I could do whatever.

 

EDIT:

Been doing some reading into S3 and it looks like it will not do what I wan't. Even if MCE could wake it up for recording's it would turn my TV on in the process. As where the way i had it background processes could work while the video and sound was still off. That way my TV stayed off and it could silently record... however with S3 it would turn video and sound on thus turning on my equipment at the same time (as I have everything set to auto turn on with signal)

Shoot...

no, you're wrong

s3 is exactly what you're describing in the first part

it will NOT turn your tv/audio on when it needs to record

it comes out of sleep, records, goes back to sleep until you hit the power button on your remote and everything wakes up at once


seriously, what you're describing as viiv is just s3 ;)

I had all kinds of problems with ViiV, aka Away mode.  I had everything set to go to S3 sleep and by and large it worked well. Wakingup, recording, going back to sleep. 

Every so often, it wouldnt go back to sleep. The screen would go black but the fans would stay running.   This happened often enough to be really annoying.

Looking in the Event log, it would say, "Entering Away Mode" rather than saying "Entering Sleep Mode".  Eh?

I couldn't figure out how to keep it from entering Away mode so I ended up disabling Viiv in the bios and things went back to how they should behave, always entering sleep mode.

In my opinion, Viiv isnt ready for prime time. Either that, or Vista has a bug in it.

-dickm

Well Viiv isnt around anymore and it had that away mode which I liked cause it would just shut off the video and sound but leave everything else to run the way I intended.

But what your saying is that when MCE wakes up from S3 to record (and it does this by itself?) that it only turns on the CPU to do it and not the video or sound? And then If i hit the power button on the remote it would turn on video and sound withotu screwing up the recording?

Thats the way MCE2005 worked, but I've noticed where Vista turns on video when it wakes and records.

-dickm

Bun-Bun:

But what your saying is that when MCE wakes up from S3 to record (and it does this by itself?) that it only turns on the CPU to do it and not the video or sound? And then If i hit the power button on the remote it would turn on video and sound withotu screwing up the recording?

yup

that's how both my MCE systems work

Ok well I took the plunge. Ordered the Sugo SG01-F case from Silverstone and the Asus P5E-VM HDMI mATX board for it today. Will set it up and see if this all works as expected.

Played wtih S3 on my other machines and its actually pretty cool... in conjunction with WOL I now have my print server and file server come out of sleep automatically to serve there services and then go back to sleep when finished. Very cool. My power bill will thank me (or I thank it...)

yup, once you've got it setup properly, s3 is a godsend

Generally, I can go 2-3 months between reboots

I am having problems with my gaming rig though. Most of the time it will go to S3 just fine but then sometimes it gets half way there... like it will get right to the point where its about to shut off the PSU but it gets stuck it seems. The video card fan spins down and the HD's spin down but it just gets stuck. Nothing brings it out except for a hard shut down. Thankfully vista also saves the ram to the HD so it restores perfectly fine after that but I have to reboot to get sleep working again.

I though't it might be my overclock but I put everythign back to stock and it still does it. So I am not sure what is going on there.

Bun-Bun:

I am having problems with my gaming rig though. Most of the time it will go to S3 just fine but then sometimes it gets half way there... like it will get right to the point where its about to shut off the PSU but it gets stuck it seems. The video card fan spins down and the HD's spin down but it just gets stuck. Nothing brings it out except for a hard shut down. Thankfully vista also saves the ram to the HD so it restores perfectly fine after that but I have to reboot to get sleep working again.

I though't it might be my overclock but I put everythign back to stock and it still does it. So I am not sure what is going on there.

It may not be the "sleep" that is causing it. What you are using is called "hybrid sleep". In that case Vista not only puts the computer to sleep but basically also stores the ram to the hard driver (think "hibernation"). The benefit of this is that coming out of "hybrid sleep" is quicker than "hibernation", but in the case of a full power loss you still can return to your last state. This was originally created for laptops in case they battery ran out while in sleep.

In other words, it may not be the sleep that is causing your failure, It could be something with hybrid sleep. Just a thought. At least something you could test. Especially if this is a PC and not a laptop and you have it on a battery backup (like you should anyways). I've found putting the machine in hybrid sleep takes a log longer than just putting it to sleep (since it doesn't have to save to the hd)

yeah it does take longer but I dont mind for the peice of mind that it will work. But it is on a UPS but thats only a finite time as well.

Where do I find options for this "Hyrid" sleep? I will look into it.

The weird thing is all the lights change on the mobo but it gets stuck. Like all my voltiminder LED's will flash right before completely going into S3 however when it gets "stuck" they all turn on and I can hear a slight buzzing (I have really sensitive ears to electrical noise). So its getting stuck a split second before its through.

you have to look in the advanced power options for the individual power plans, but with what you've just said I would look for a bios update to your MB or search online and see if this is a common problem for your MB.