ehshell.exe locks up when powering up the display

[woodchuck]

If I'm watching a live show that is currently being recorded, and I pause/stop the show and then power off the display (Sammy plasma), when I return and power up the display I'm presented with a black screen. The only resolution is to login behind the scenes with RDP and kill ehshell.exe. Any ideas here? The machine isn't even entering standby or anything. Updating the display driver hasn't done anything either.

[tzr916]

This is bound to happen any time WMC is showing picture/sound (even paused) and you power off the "display" (AVR or Tv) because there is a momentary break in HDCP/EDID. That brief change in HDCP/EDID will cause the audio/video driver to crash and you get black screen. There is no way around it except placing an EDID spoofing device between the PC and the "display". I use Dr HDMI, works great.

Now if this happens even if you press STOP (no picture/sound playing), then I don't know. Might be a AMD thing because I use nvidia.

[woodchuck]

This is bound to happen any time WMC is showing picture/sound (even paused) and you power off the "display" (AVR or Tv) because there is a momentary break in HDCP/EDID. That brief change in HDCP/EDID will cause the audio/video driver to crash and you get black screen. There is no way around it except placing an EDID spoofing device between the PC and the "display". I use Dr HDMI, works great.

Now if this happens even if you press STOP (no picture/sound playing), then I don't know. Might be a AMD thing because I use nvidia.

Interesting... Seems like a reasonable explanation. I have considered devices of this sort for other issues I have had in the past. Might be worth the investment to improve WAF...

[STC]

If you can press LiveTV and it brings the picture back, then this is most probably your issue / fix.

[woodchuck]

Thanks STC. I'll check it out.

[CyberSimian]

If I'm watching a live show that is currently being recorded, and I pause/stop the show and then power off the display (Sammy plasma), when I return and power up the display I'm presented with a black screen.

I do not experience this using Vista with my 2006 Toshiba TV. So what is the difference between your configuration and mine? The difference may be that I have enabled the Windows screen saver ("Aurora"), which kicks-in after 5 minutes if I pause live/recorded TV. It is noticeable that switching back from the screen-saver screen to the MC screen causes a "screen blink" (screen goes black momentarily), which may be the HDMI negotiation being re-executed (I think that the Windows screen saver on Vista executes in desktop mode).

I have tried the screen saver on Windows 7, but that seems to use a photo slide show that executes in "full screen" MC mode. If this is correct, it will not cause an HDMI re-negotiation when you switch back from the screen-saver screen to the MC screen. If you could somehow force the use of a desktop-mode screen saver, that might solve your problem.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[woodchuck]

I use Dr HDMI, works great.

I ended up going down this road. I must say it does work great! Aside of solving the problem, whenever I power up my display Media Center is up in all it's glory in less than 1 second. (assuming it wasn't in standby) Previously, it would take seconds - and sometimes never come up! Minor - yes - but it does make it feel a lot more like a standard old STB now.

[woodchuck]

Reporting back in on this, the Dr HDMI seemed to help, but did not end up resolving my problem. I ended up going down a route like the link STC posted, but I didn't use eventghost. All is well now! Thanks for everyone's help.

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 401#p75401