Full screen lock-ups

Discussion of getting WMC to work on Windows 10 (unsupported)
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Haze

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Full screen lock-ups

#1

Post by Haze » Mon Aug 22, 2022 10:49 pm

Hi there,

Have been running 8.8.5 flawlessly on various machines for several years now; mucked about with all sorts of combinations of hardware and software and have never ever had a problem before. Until now...

Have been trying to set up a new little HTPC; a dead simple/basic build with a 12100 cpu and a H610 motherboard, using the HDMI output on the internal/integrated UHD730 gfx. Fresh install of Windows 10, nothing else additional installed other than the WMC software. Am finding that the WMC screen is very quick to lock up (freeze) when I click on radio buttons, navigate menus etc. It only does this in full-screen mode; and it does it reliably/predictably all the time. If I use WMC in windowed mode, then there's no problems at all.

Have tried all the obvious - yes I have the latest drivers of everything, yes I've tried different screen resolutions, yes I've tried using different monitors/tvs. None of that helps.

Interestingly, if I plug in a discrete gfx card (I've tried both NVIDIA and an AMD ones) and use that instead of the built-in UHD730 gfx, then the problem totally goes away.

I did look around on this forum and found (somewhat older) instances of people complaining about full-screen lockups - I tried some of the suggestions, such as moving/renaming the ehome folder, playing about with compatibility settings on the eshell executable itself; but none of that has made any difference.

Oh, and I tried a fresh Win 11 install, instead of Win 10; didn't make any difference.

I'm out of ideas now - does anybody have any suggestions to make?

Many thanks!

technodevotee

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#2

Post by technodevotee » Thu Aug 25, 2022 1:17 pm

I've had a Gigabyte z370 HD3 with onboard Intel UHD 630 for a while and went through more or less what you are describing when I first got it.

I tried *everything* and it just started working one day when a different graphics driver was installed as part of a Windows update.

It has been rock solid ever since.

I know this isn't much help - more of a general observation on the vagaries of Graphics drivers.

One thing I should probably have mentioned is that the Intel Display Audio driver doesn't always get installed along with the graphics driver and I've had to install it manually a couple of times. This may be nothing to do with your problem but as you know, WMC can be a bit picky about the hardware / driver configuration it is running on.

Swarbs

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#3

Post by Swarbs » Wed Sep 07, 2022 12:52 pm

I've had the same issue for a while and tried all the 'fixes'.
I came to the conclusion that I wasn't going to get WMC running true full screen so looked for a workaround.
I'm using an AutoHotKey script to start WMC in a full-size window positioned with the top bar just off the screen. The taskbar is set to disappear when not in use. I use an app to auto hide the mouse when it's dormant.
Been working fine for a few weeks with it now.

I'm using a Flicr remote so I've just mapped control+y to a button on my remote to launch/recentre WMC whenever needed.
Script is below (you will probably need to adjust the co-ords to match your screen):

#NoEnv ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
; #Warn ; Enable warnings to assist with detecting common errors.
SendMode Input ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.
SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir% ; Ensures a consistent starting directory.

#singleinstance force


^y::
Run, C:\Program Files\Windows Media Center\ehome\ehshell.exe
Winwait, Windows Media Center
WinActivate
WinMove A,, -14, -66, A_screenwidth+32, A_screenheight-0
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dmcq

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#4

Post by dmcq » Thu Mar 02, 2023 5:54 pm

This definitely seems to be a problem with Intel UHD and drivers post 10th gen CPUs.
I have just bought a Z790 mobo and 13600 CPU and it's a rock solid full screen fault exactly as originally posted above.

I have 4 Z490 10600 cpus and they are faultless on W10 and W11 with MCE full screen.

The issue is definitely not an MS issue but an Intel 11th gen upwards cpu/driver issue - one would hope they would sort it instead of posting a hand washing disclaimer about MS not supporting MCE any more.

As far as I can see there is nothing wrong at all with W10/W11 and Gary Ryan's MSI of MCE - it is solely Intel's recent CPU UHDs/driver.

Anyone have any influence with Intel that could 'have a word' please?

dmcq

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#5

Post by dmcq » Sat May 06, 2023 5:11 pm

After a lot of trying I have managed to get Intel to admit that they 'forked' development of the UHD driver after Gen 10 CPUs
Gen 7-10 UHD is fine including latest version updates, but Gen 11-13 and I believe some of the newer NUCs fail to black when switching channels with WMC full screen.

Thus far Intel's response has been predictable - 'MS doesn't support MCE' - that is of course entirely irrelevant.
The truth is that Intel with their forked driver have broken MCE FS - it is not an MS issue, either W10 or W11, or an WMC MSI problem.

So after all the effort that so many people have put into supporting WMC, it seems it is Intel that is set on breaking it.

In all likelihood the fault is likely to be accidental .......
Please does anyone have a contact in the right quarters within Intel to suggest it is accidentally mended!

PLEASE.

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