Windows 7 - Suspends even though rendering

MattAdamson wrote on 8/18/2009, 10:05 AM

Guys

Correct me if I'm wrong however I thought any power saving options would not be used if vegas was rendering a file. I'm using Windows 7 RC1 and have set up power options to the "Power Saver" profile however whilst rendering windows suspended.

Has anyone else experienced this? I assume this isn't the correct behaviour? Perhaps it could be a bug in vegas which isn't honouring some windows messages corrected to report back to windows it's active although I didn't actually think you had to do this

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 8/18/2009, 10:50 AM

I've always understood Windows power saver options to relate to user interactions only. So, after you stop touching the keyboard and mouse for a period of time Windows assumes the computer is idle.

The method i've always used is to disable all the power saving features. If i want the computer to stop using power i shut it off or suspend it when i want it off or suspended. I haven't used any of the power saver features since ... oh, about Windows 3.1 days.

Steve Crouch wrote on 8/18/2009, 11:14 AM

In Windows Vista and above Microsoft changed the way that applications say that they do not want Windows to sleep.

Instead of responding to a Windows message, applications have to call SetThreadExecutionState to tell Windows that they do not want it to go to sleep.

Vegas does not currently make this call, but Iit would be useful if Vegas and DVDA used this call whilst they are rendering.

Former user wrote on 8/18/2009, 12:05 PM

Using anything other than "High Performance" will not only cause hard drives to suspend and other things - but it can also throttle back the CPU - something you do not want while rendering in Vegas.

In Windows 7 - set your Power Plan to High Performance and ensure that the hard disks and monitor never go to sleep.

Works like a charm here. Machines are at full capacity when needed and then I manually "tuck them in a night" by pressing Sleep on the keyboard...

VP

MattAdamson wrote on 8/18/2009, 12:36 PM

Hi Steve Crouch

Actually I'm not so sure calling SetThreadExecutionState is the right approach given what it mentions here

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms703398(VS.85).aspx

"You can use the SetThreadExecutionState function to disable the idle-to-sleep and display-blanking time-outs. However, disable these time-out periods only if absolutely necessary, such as when data or media loss will occur, or when there are special "hands-off" scenarios, such as watching a movie. Be sure to restore the time-out periods after your operation is completed."

Given there is no data loss here I guess it's expected to sleep although I agree it does seem odd not to prevent the sleep in this case as your clearly doing some work. Reviewing

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc163386.aspx

it's really a balance being trying to get your application to respond well with the power desires the user has set through the power options. It certainly got me thinking about power management in my own applications now :)

Steve Crouch wrote on 8/18/2009, 4:01 PM

I think it could certainly stand to be on the options tab in Vegas: "Prevent sleep during rendering"?

Rendering probably counts as a "hands-off" scenario from that list