Jump to content

Fixing the Flash player auto-suspend bug


Phenomic

Recommended Posts

My win7 machine is a home-theater, used like a TV in many ways. I have a suspend timeout of 2 hours in Power Preferences. If there’s no keyboard/mouse activity for 2 hours I expect the machine to suspend S3.

However, if there’s Flash video in the browser, even if it’s not playing, the PC will never shut off. It looks like this malware-like behavior is by design, and that the user’s system-wide power preferences are being defeated by web pages scripted by ignorant people.

Any ideas how to force auto-suspend?

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Using Firefox, Youtube does it, all Flash containers do it. They're trying to prevent screen blanking (or machine suspending) while video is playing. It's known behavior, many have complained about it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This website has some various ways to force a suspend in Windows. Make sure to read all of them since some of the ones posted are said to cause some corruption.

http://superuser.com/questions/39584/what-is-the-command-to-use-to-put-your-computer-to-sleep-not-hibernate

Thank you, I know how to do that, Sysinternals has command line utilities too. But it doesn't solve the problem, Windows will still not auto-suspend based on Power Preferences, because page scripts are sending bogus key events. Linux works fine for some reason.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just set auto-screen blanking to 10 mins and auto-suspend to 20 mins, then run some Flash video that is 30 min long or more, and you'll see for yourself. The machine will not suspend. Screen will blank temporarily, but then it will turn back on, as if it received keyboard event. I'm not too familiar with Linux APIs, but it could be that the Linux kernel can differentiate between real keystrokes and software-generated ones (whereas Windows can't). Whatever the reason, Linux strictly enforces system-wide POwer Manager settings. Microsoft has guidelines on what are inappropriate programming practices for well-behaved apps, but browsers and plugins often break the rules.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I did a quick search and found some grumbling about this problem, but most common in 2009-2011. Also it doesn't seem to be a 100% across the board problem and only happens in certain circumstances. Neither my work PC nor my home PC have this problem. However neither of them are set to go into suspend. I can tell you these scenarios:

1. Work PC, streams a radio station via Flash in IE9. PC will turn on screensaver and put monitors to sleep on time with no wake problem. OS is Win7 with Aero disabled.

2. Home PC. Flash (Youtube specifically) in Pale Moon works only 10% of the time due to some problem I haven't figured out. So all my flash video work is done using Chrome. Whether on a paused Youtube video, or a streaming twich video, screensaver and monitor sleep happens and resumes without issue.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you. Can you try setting a suspend S3 timeout while flash video is playing? Some Flash containers keep a timer running even when the video is stopped (script loads with the page). I'm hoping that the days of Adobe flash are numbered.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I will try to test after I reload this notebook and see what happens.

Update: I confirm this behaviour on a notebook.

Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x64

Firefox v23.0 using Flash Plugin v11.8.800.94

Chrome v28.0.1500.95 using whatever Flash plugin that is built in

I set plugged in power settings to dim at 3 minutes, turn off display at 4 minutes, put computer to sleep at 5 minutes. I chose a relatively annoying 10 hour video on Youtube to test but I turned the volume down. And the display did not even dim and I let it run 15 minutes for each browser. Also to note that the wireless NIC drivers were not installed and using Ethernet connection.

My Chrome at home should be the same version, but a difference is that I am using a 32bit OS. I can test turning off the monitor later, but I won't be changing my power settings to put the computer to sleep.

Here is a reference thread:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7702748/how-does-youtube-prevent-the-screensaver-from-showing-up-during-video-playback

Edited by Tripredacus
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...