Windows 7 PC will not go into S3 Sleep mode with Boxee Box online

Yuval Tal [Boxee] added a comment - 09/Dec/10 12:45 PM Interesting. Maybe it happens because we are scanning the network, looking for Samba devices... Please let us know about your findings with wireshark.

Ami Ben-David [Boxee] added a comment - 14/Dec/10 9:07 AM Kelly, is this issue still reproduced ? did you find anything with Wireshark?

Kelly Kirkwood added a comment - 14/Dec/10 10:32 AM Hi, Sorry for the delay, new baby at home.... The problem still exists, though I am trying to figure out if it is related to: http://jira.boxee.tv/browse/BOXEE-7260 as my network speeds (as reported by speedtest.net) drop from 15 Mb/s to <3Mb/s when the Boxee Box is on. *However* it seems to be intermittent and I have not really figured it out for sure. I have determined that:  - If I *unplug LAN* from Boxee Box, PC will go to sleep as per settings  - If I lower the settings on the PC to sleep after 1 minute, it will sleep 90% of the time (seems to indicate that network activity is not constant and there are breaks of at least 1 minute)  - If I watch a movie on BB the PC *seems to* go to sleep as per PC settings  - Occasionally the PC will sleep with the box in standby (I am trying to figure out if there is something that is causing this ie. what screen I put BB to sleep in etc.)  - Network speed problems that appear to be caused when BB is online (need to verify further)  - I do see a fair bit of network lag on even local .mkv files (a 720p file will need to stop and cache once or twice per show with also what look like some dropped frames occasionally)   Other than these issues, my network seems to be fine in all other areas. I have a WDTV Live also and it does not have these issues (it has it's own issues) so I am not 100% sure where the problem lies. As for the Wireshark captures, it is a little (lot) over my head. Though I have used the program before and can capture and look at the packets, I really am not too sure what I am looking at. I do see the ARP requests as detailed in the BOXEE-7260 issue, but I am not sure what would keep a PC awake, nor am I too sure why I would be seeing this when the BB is asleep? I can upload some Wireshark caps if it will help? Long post, sorry....

Rafael Mizrahi [Boxee] added a comment - 15/Dec/10 10:37 AM thank Kelly for your details. Boxee has few scheduled background tasks. most of them are disabled during playback. * Are your sources set to scan Daily ? Hourly ? maybe they used to be with scanning type MONITOR before we removed the MONITOR type. * Boxee scans the network every 5 minutes. this is my first suspect here. that this network discovery scanning is somehow keeping the PC from going to sleep.

Kelly Kirkwood added a comment - 15/Dec/10 11:13 AM Rafael, I have about 6 'sources', all of which are directories on my D-Link DNS-321 NAS drive. They are all set up to scan daily (is hourly an option in the Boxee Box or just the PC?), though I do notice that after the PC is in sleep mode for a couple of days that the folders all show last updated dates a couple days old (ie. when it was last 'on'). Definitely not set to MONITOR, I did not see that option. The 5 minute scan seems logical here given the way it behaves when I shorten the sleep times and the fact that the tasks are halted during playback. I shut it off last night and watched the PC, it will sleep every time it hits the time setting. So tonight I will try to run a Wireshark capture and save it (there is not much activity I looked last night). Then I will turn the Boxee Box on and run one again, that should show the differences. Even scanning, why would the Win 7 machine wake up when others are not reporting the same issue? Do I have a setting that would allow this? Thanks again, Kelly

Rafael Mizrahi [Boxee] added a comment - 16/Dec/10 10:28 AM * Hourly an option introduced in the Boxee version 1.0 on the Boxee Box * what do you mean by "when others are not reporting the same issue? "

Rafael Mizrahi [Boxee] added a comment - 16/Dec/10 10:31 AM there is a similar general issue BOXEE-7013 that even when Boxee is in sleep mode, the accessed networked computers does not go to sleep.

Kelly Kirkwood added a comment - 16/Dec/10 10:45 AM Hi Rafael, Thanks for clarification on the Hourly option, I could not remember from work what I had my settings at. I confirmed last night that I am indeed set to 'Daily'. The similar issue you mentioned only briefly touches on the networked PC by implication as it states "also accessing local network resources". The issue (unless I am not seeing something) did not seem to address a networked PC not going to sleep mode?!? What I meant by my comment is that I have searched the web and the Boxee forums and I do not see anyone else complaining of their PC not sleeping with the Boxee Box on their network. This made me consider my own setup as possibly having a setup problem somewhere. As you pointed out with issue 7013, there are a few other *similar* issues, but with the amount of negative feedback the web generates on anything I would have expected someone else to be asking about this also. I did note a few more things last night though: I did a full 'Factory Reset' (which I think only clears the dB and restores to initial release firmware as it did retain my App reposotories and location data) and upgrade to current firmware rev (which by the way is fantastic). I did notice that when I added my smb sources again last night and it began scanning and identifying them that the PC went into sleep mode correctly. I am not sure if this is because the network scanning is halted as it is during playback or if it is a byproduct of the restore and upgrade?!? I will test it further tonight as it was still scanning when I went to bed last night. I hope this helps a little, sorry for the confusion. Kelly

Rafael Mizrahi [Boxee] added a comment - 16/Dec/10 11:00 AM Hi Kelly, your information is very helpful. thanks. We had few reports about machines or NAS not going to sleep because of Boxee. "factory reset" removes everything you have on the box, so use this as last resort of problems. we hardly recommend on doing so. "Reset All Settings" removes your media library, File sources and other local settings such as display. this will also remove all manual identified items. we also barley recommend on doing this. Now that you are saying that after doing a "factory reset" and upgrade, that the "PC went into sleep mode correctly" I have another suspect. Could it be that you had one of your sources previously set as scanning type MONITOR (which we removed)?

Kelly Kirkwood added a comment - 16/Dec/10 11:50 AM Rafael, I do not recognize 'Monitor' as a setting that I have seen, but that may be the case. I have not looked at my NAS to see if it is sleeping as it sits on the floor under my desk. I will check that tonight as well as verify the PC is sleeping now that the scanning and identifying phase is done. Is the factory reset supposed to remove the repositories and location settings? If so, I have something else going on because they are indeed still there after a restore, and FW down and then up grade... odd. I will test tonight and let you know my findings. K

Kelly Kirkwood added a comment - 17/Dec/10 11:53 AM OK, short lived success.... Once the scanning and identifying process is done, the box once again holds the PC from entering sleep mode when it is on or in sleep mode. If the box is off, the PC will sleep. Forgot to check the NAS, but I suspect it is the same. Sounds like the Box is running constant network scanning that is keeping the PC awake. Personally I would rather specify networks manually, to me it makes more sense than constant scanning as I would assume most peoples home networks where they are using this would be fairly stable. But then again, that is just the way it makes sense for *me*. Is there anything we (I) can do to stop this from occurring? Thanks! K

Dan Conti [Boxee] added a comment - 20/Jan/11 2:24 PM Heya, Yes, the box has a constant background scanner, independent of searching for content, that is sending out netbios traffic. The netbios traffic it sends is designed to see if a given host is still available so we can add/remove machines we show in the file menu. The problem is this. In Windows Vista and Windows 7, there are a few scenarios that cause a machine to wake on network traffic (or stay awake): * If the machine gets a direct TCP open (i.e. i connect to a server on the box) * If the machine gets a 'magic packet' (i.e. specially formatted packet designed to wake the machine) * If the machine gets directed netbios traffic Kelly, can you check and see if the 'wake on lan' option is enabled for your network interface? It should be as simple as turning it off. The downside of this is if your machine is in s3 you won't be able to wake it remotely from the box.

Kelly Kirkwood added a comment - 20/Jan/11 3:01 PM Hey Dan, I will verify when I get home. I did enable Magic Packets at one point on my NIC for remote wake up but lost interest as my router did not support Broadcasting to all addresses. I have since changed ISP's and now have a different (their) router. I will verify that the BB still keeps my Win7 machine awake with the new router, and if so I will verify that Magic Packets are shut off in the NIC. No wake up abilities is not a problem with me as I serve all files from a NAS. I will let you know, Thanks. K

Kelly Kirkwood added a comment - 21/Jan/11 10:31 AM Dan, I tested the BB out last night and this is what I have found: - New router did not fix the problem, if BB is not *off* my Win7 machine does not go to S3 Sleep (that is 3 different routers so they are not likely the issue) - I turned OFF both 'Wake on Magic Packet' and 'Wake on Pattern Match' on the NIC and rebooted. Still no difference, will not go to S3. - I *think* my NAS is also 'waking' as I thought I heard the drives spin up for no reason last night but they are in a location that I was not 100% sure that is what I was hearing.... I am a little confused as to why the aggressive network activity on a box that is 'asleep'? Personally, I would rather control the network sources by entering the path and that be the end of it. But if the network is going to be continually scanned to determine what to add in the files menu perhaps others would find that of benefit, but why is it doing it when the Boxee Box is in sleep mode? As such (I have learned on these pages) the box really just shuts off the HDMI, but still... with no HDMI what does it matter what sources are available? If a tree falls in the forest.... That is *my* thinking. In any case, I am pretty much resigned to shutting the thing OFF when not in use so as to settle my network down. I have also just moved to IP TV so if the box is waking up my PC, who knows what impact it will have on the rest of the devices. The only real drawbacks of turning it off are the wait time to boot and rebuilding the thumbnails. Functionality wise it seems to be no different. Anyhow, Thanks for the continued assistance. K

Adam Whiting added a comment - 23/Jan/11 3:31 AM I think this might be happening to me too. I have a Win7 PC and I believe something between the BB and my PC is causing my PC to crash. I have disabled my PC's auto sleep mode so that it stays on all the time. I've also disabled my screensavers with the hopes that there wasn't a conflict.

Minh Pham added a comment - 07/Feb/11 1:46 PM I had a related issue that was closed but was resurrected with this one. I also have a Win7 file server that doesn't sleep due to boxee. Dan mentioned this boxee behavior: Yes, the box has a constant background scanner, independent of searching for content, that is sending out netbios traffic. The netbios traffic it sends is designed to see if a given host is still available so we can add/remove machines we show in the file menu. Instead of a constant scanner, can't the scan initiate only when the user accesses the file menu? Or make this a user configurable option in the settings similar to how we set the media scanning frequency. I typically don't use the files browser so I wouldn't mind a slight delay if the scan was done here.

Kelly Kirkwood added a comment - 08/Feb/11 11:33 AM I completely agree Minh, but to take it even further than that, can the scan only initiate when the box is "ON". I am seeing this trouble when the box is in standby which I have learned seems to only mean the video output is off. It just seems like a lot of wasted time and energy to scan a network when the box is off?!?

Dennis O'Neill added a comment - 19/Feb/11 2:41 PM I have this same issue too. Even though I do not share any files on the PC with the Boxee Box it keeps the PC from entering S3. If I turn the BB off or diconnect the ethernet cable then S3 works perfectly. The PC will sleep if the BB is streaming a file from my NAS or the internet. The last beta before the Netflix release fixed the problem, but on loading the current release the problem was back. Dennis I also have wake on lan and magic packet turned off and even tried turning off the media sharing service on the PC.

Bruce Wilson added a comment - 24/May/11 6:10 AM I also have the same issue, Win7 64 bit. Since installing my new Boxee Box the computer no longer sleeps until I turn Boxee off. Happy to help debug although I'm fairly new to Boxee.

Bruce Wilson added a comment - 25/May/11 6:10 AM Have confirmed via wireshark: Boxee Box connects via SMB every 5 minutes, after 2 minutes it disconnects (so another 3 minutes and its connecting again). powercfg /requests constantly reports: SYSTEM: [DRIVER] \FileSystem\srvnet An active remote client has recently sent requests to this machine.

Bruce Wilson added a comment - 25/May/11 6:11 AM Just an amendments to the above, thats directed traffic in those cases.

Rafael Mizrahi [Boxee] added a comment - 30/Nov/11 5:12 AM Full Network scan for SMB network shares is now an optional setting. closed in 1.5.0.22686