Strangest thing happened this evening with a system I've been tweaking and troubleshooting

[BonzaiDuck]

My 2700K system is used for serious personal business, but it had been a game machine I built in 2014. It had been configured with 2x GTX 970 in SLI. Last fall, I began to have troubles with it here and there, and thought they were resolved.

I also pulled one of the 970s from the system because it was drawing more power than necessary and was no longer my gamer. It picks up the Windows Media Center function with a desktop monitor and an HDTV connected.

So recently, I discovered it was throwing errors around the NVidia driver indicating "DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE.' It would also get stuck in the "Shutting Down" phase of a restart sequence. I replaced the power supply. All those troubles went away. It was behaving itself again.

So this evening, I was watching a premium-channel movie. Not even a good movie -- Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger in "The Patriot." Suddenly, the HDTV went blank, the desktop went blank. Drive light was flickering. I thought it had crashed, but also thought to wait. The HDTV was indicating that it wasn't even getting a signal.

After a while, both screens were restored and the movie continued to play. Now -- this was all about the time my server goes around and backs up the household systems. I checked the Event Log because I was sure it would show something like a video driver failure and recovery.

There was not one single red-bang or yellow-bang event. The system had never rebooted. It was as if nothing had happened.

But . . . what the hell happened? Because of the HTPC function, the monitor(s) are not allowed to sleep; the system doesn't go to sleep; it doesn't hibernate. I need to find an explanation of this incident . . .

And by the way -- all the clocks are set to stock right now.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If this is Windows 7 we're talking about, then it could be due to the weekly WEI refreshes that it does early Sun AM every week. Click on Control Panel, System, System, WEI, then click on something else, and check the "last refreshed" WEI date.

If it is Windows 10, then it could have been some new app or driver update loading. I would check Reliability History, to see if there were any updates or crashes, and then open the new-style Updates widget, and click on Update History, to see if any updates installed or tried to install.

 

[Ichinisan]

Sometimes a random blank out was related to the HDCP encryption between the TV and the video card. I suppose it's possible Windows is not even aware of such a glitch.

 

[Khanan]

Sometimes a random blank out was related to the HDCP encryption between the TV and the video card. I suppose it's possible Windows is not even aware of such a glitch.

I concur with that. I had same issue when applying a cheap HDMI cable. I doubt the video cards or anything else is bad at this point.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Well, folks, thanks for your input. Judging from the 2700K's stellar performance since I posted this thread, it doesn't seem to be hardware, and it hasn't occurred since. I'll check out Larry's suggestions as a checklist. It's not the HDMI cable, or probably not. These are 20 to 25' HDMI cables for which I was willing to shell out north of $50 each for gold-plated, thick, extra heavy-duty.

Then, there's Ichinisan's thought about HDCP and encryption. I've noted for years that every so often, Media Center will throw up a "Copying Prohibited" message or HDCP compliance message when there's absolutely no reason that it should. And those messages may last about 20 seconds or so, at which time the channel broadcast returns without a hitch.

Once again, I almost want to spit on Jack Valenti's grave, even if he wasn't the technical expertise behind today's DRM regulation and restriction.

On the up side, I discovered that I'd recorded "The Bourne Legacy" from some channel that wasn't a premium or encrypted. So I was able to pull it from my server and play it on another Media-Center-enabled box. I'd snagged a few good movies that weren't restricted, like "Road to Perdition" and "Sleepers." And -- ya see -- I wouldn't even have thought for a second to burn copies and go out on the street to wave them around at motorists for a couple bucks. I just . . . want . . .to watch those movies . . . and make them available to fam-damn-ily in other rooms of the house or other household systems.

It isn't the encryption per se that is objectionable. It's the time we've all put in dealing with the glitches and other related hassles . . . . owing to how the encryption works . . . or doesn't work . . .

And after all this hot air which implies it -- yes -- it was Windows 7 . . .

 

[killster1]

you cant try diff adapter or diff cable to test? just happened this once? ive had similar problems from hdmi going to audio receiver then to monitor. gfx card straight to monitor or tv? and just hdmi cable no adapters or anything else? hdmi dvi adapter caused it for me if I remember right.

 

[Ichinisan]

... I'd snagged a few good movies that weren't restricted, like "Road to Perdition" ...

I love that film. I also have the soundtrack on CD.