Always Crashes Mid-rip

[Hattyfatner]

I'm posting again as everyone seems to have forgotton about me! :(

Its the same problem I've been having from the beggining of using GKnot as I posted in "It won't work".

Basically, whilst compiling a video with DivX 3.11alpha or 5.02 it always crashes at any random point into the process. In either first or second pass at anywhere between 0% and 99%.

I reinstall the drivers before every try, I've freed up 10gigs of spare space for the rip in case it was running out of space.

However, every time now, it crashes; leaving the computer completely out of action and the screen black and the monitor standby not working. The log file just ends at "started (first/second) pass".

Thanx for any suggestions.

[meta]

What OS u got 2k then XP seem most stable to me.

Try uninstalling gordian knot.

If that doesnt work when did u last reinstall windows. Maybe a reinstall is due. I have had my pc for 8 mths and have reinstalled XP 3 times.

[Hattyfatner]

I'm using Windows 2000 and I installed Service Pack 3 last week so the OS should be fine.

I didn't think XP would need so much re-installing! I've delayed installing it since I heard it was slower then 2000, then Service Pack 3 came out and that sealed the deal! Anyway, wrong forum for OS discussion.

[Hattyfatner]

Ok, last bid for help before I give up and go back to Flask.

Does anybody have any idea why this would happen?

I'll stop bugging everyone now I leave it alone.

[jggimi]

Just a suggestion...describe the error you are getting.

It should be in your XP error log. "Always crashing" is probably not enough information to get sufficient help.

[Hattyfatner]

Basically, as stated above [and in thread; Just won't work], the crash is just an instantaneous and absolute freezing of the entire OS where the screen goes black, and thats it.

I'm using Windows 2000 but I have something called 'Event Viewer' which has three areas; Applications log, Security log and System log. Strangely, it returned an error stated that the system event log is corruped which has never happened before, so I can't look at the system log, but the problem would probably be in the applications section anyway.

The closest thing I could find relating to the crash is a CHKDSK log from when CHKDSK runs on the startup after the crash...

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Winlogon
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1001
Date: 12/08/2002
Time: 6:55:11 PM
User: N/A
Computer: JAC1
Description:
Checking file system on E:
The type of the file system is FAT32.


One of your disks needs to be checked for consistency. You
may cancel the disk check, but it is strongly recommended
that you continue.
Windows will now check the disk.
Volume Serial Number is 1B0F-1DDF
The size of the \LORD_OF_THE_RINGS\Lord of the Rings.mv entry is not valid.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.
40192800 KB total disk space.
3360 KB in 55 hidden files.
23968 KB in 749 folders.
31731136 KB in 10587 files.
8434304 KB are available.

32768 bytes in each allocation unit.
1256025 total allocation units on disk.
263572 allocation units available on disk.

Hope that helps, otherwise it must be a problem that can't be fixed if none of the moderators have any idea what it is.

I think I'll reluctantly upgrade to WindowsXP and see if that helps.

Cheers.

[jggimi]

You can delete corrupt event logs in W2K. Here's the link to how in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q172156

If successful, you might try re-creating your problem. If the log corrupts again, you might try converting from FAT32 to NTFS; that more robust file system is more likely to survive a crash with an event log intact. I would think a file system transition would be less disruptive than upgrading to XP.

[Hattyfatner]

I did what you said and the system log had no clues as what caused the crash. I tried GKnot in win98 and it F****d the entire system first time. But the same crash in win2k doesn't even leave a system log error.

This is imensly frustrating as GKnot is by far the best way to make DivX (if your a bit thick like me).

Incidentally; I re-installed all the software again and tried Lord of the Rings again and it completed both the first and second pass withouth fault (it was the 9th attempt) and then did the same sort of crash whilst appending movie and credits and muxing audio. This I found very strange and leads me to believe that GKnot is just an all round very unstable program (albeit the best) for encoding DivX.

If someone thinks installing winxp will help, then just say the word.

Thanx V much. Hatty.

[jggimi]

...did the same sort of crash whilst appending movie and credits and muxing audio.... Your first 8 crashes would have been during the execution of Virtual Dub. This last crash would have been during the execution of Nandub. Don't blame GKnot, which is a GUI, bitrate calculator, and suite of multiple programs used in the encoding process. You could run Nandub manually to re-mux your audio, without running GKnot...and you might have the same problem again.

From the description of the problems you've described ... this "sounds" to me more like a hardware stability problem. Excessive heat from overclocking, or from having insufficient cooling in the case. There are PC-stress-testing programs you could download to test your PC, as well as tools that will report temperature readings from thermistors in your case, on the motherboard, and under the CPU.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of people have been able to install and use GKnot successfully, without seeing the symptoms you described.

Video encoding stresses the CPU and produce more heat than e-mail, word processing, or web browsing. An "off-the-shelf" PC might still have problems due to heat, as this type of application produces lots of heat from the CPU.

Of course, I'm not looking over your shoulder, just thinking based on the description of the problem you've described. You might poke around in the "PC Hardware" forum here at Doom9 for test and measurement software links. That could help you prove or disprove hardware as the root cause.

Sorry I'm not any more help. I'm just thinking hardware because you've had problems with both Vdub and Nandub.

[Hattyfatner]

I muxed the audio and video fine in Nandub and made a one CD rip of Lord of the Rings. I firmly believe that it is the GKnot suite that somehow conflicts with my harware and not the individual programs.

I tried the 2CD rip and it crashed again somewhere inside the first pass, however (I think because of Windows2000 Service Pack 3), windows failed to start up any more stating an error. So now I've lost Windows2000 I'll start again with WindowsXP.

However, I'm very confident my comp isn't overheating as its never been overclocked, its a very stable P3-733, there are two heat sensors: one for the cpu and one for the m-board. A sensor regulates the rpm of the cpu fan and adjusts it accordingly, if the cpu still gets too overheated it slows itself down. There is also an additional cooling vacuum inside the case which shift tons of hot air.

Most of all though; I have made 20 odd DivX's without crash with the cpu at 100% for days sometimes (Flask). (That was when you were emplored to use reference IEEE-1180 standard.)

Anyway, I think I'm blowing too much hot air now, so I'm going to attempt the 2CD rip of Lord of the Rings in WinXP (crappy OS has crashed 3 times already in 24 hours, but hey).

Respect again to theWEF. Word up. Hatty.

[Navellint]

hi i hope my addition is helpful.

i ripped about 20 movies with flask (PAL) and then switched to gordian because flask sucks with NTSC and doesn't do 2-pass encoding (may be my mistake) and doesn't crop nicely etc. Gordian has never let me down so far (50 movies, 2k/me), excluding three instances where i got an access violation (certainly my mistake) during second pass. Stick with gordian!
Needless to say you should do not doing all kinds of other stuff at the same time as ripping, as well as unchecking the pointless automatic 'turn off hd after 1 hour' function of windows. Turn off stuff like norton utilities/virusscan/screensaver whatever. Actually i didn't do all that, as i never had big problems apart from 720 MB or async videos with flask hehe.

FYI:
p3 @450MHz (yes i process divx at night)
abit be-6 @100MHz 192 MB
Maxtor 30 GB 7200rpm and a separate hdd (2GB) for the OS:
winME/98 for flask 0.594 and divx 3.11/4.11
winME/2k with gordian 0.21/0.26 and divx 4.11/5.0.2
ghost5 to get my clean OS back in 6 min in case of emergency 8-)

[Hattyfatner]

Well, no I don't have the "turn off hard-drive function" on and I never use virus checkers. I was using NTFS file system as well, jggimi btw. It seems there is no solution to my problem; I think I'll give up with DivX for the time being as I cannot be bothered to learn Nandub inside and out (and don't have the time), and the quality of Flask just looks laughable now compared to GKnot.

There is one thing I've noticed though: recently all the rips seem to be crashing, after completing the credits fine, on exactly 16Mb into the movie.avi. Also, DivXfix says "This is not an avi file", where it used to make it readable.

Good luck with your DivX-ing everyone- I give up.

Thanx. Hatty. :rolleyes:

[Navellint]

1. don't give up:

2. i haven't spend more than 15 min learning NanDub (obviously there are still a number of mindboggling/eyepopping/jawdropping) options i haven't gotten into):
- muxing avi (direct stream copy!) with mp3/ac3/dual-mp3/dual-ac3 (also direct stream copy) and syncing
- first pass encoding (analyzing)
- second pass encoding (with SBC and ecf etc)

3. those three crashing instances i was talking about is exactly the same as what you're talking about: nandub tells you that it is encoding for a few seconds (but you don't see the videodata grow as normal) and then it crashes leaving you with a 16 MB empty (?) file. I still don't know why, but i think i was doing other things with my computer at the time i was ripping the files to my hdd, so maybe the files were fragmented or anything like that. The very same dvd was rippable on a computer of a friend of mine.

4. i have never used NTFS: i installed win2k on a fat32 drive (yes really) and it works (call me what u want :-)

5. i'm sure if you try ripping your dvd on another computer with the same instructions and progs it will work fine

6. don't use ghost on XP: i believe it doesn't work perfectly

7. if u NEVER use any viruschecker, r u sure the system isn't infected?

8. don't give up (i gave up after 1 year trying and 6 months later someone gave me some hint and suddenly everything worked, i still don't know exactly why)

9. still have any questions?

[magicclue]

Originally posted by Hattyfatner

There is one thing I've noticed though: recently all the rips seem to be crashing, after completing the credits fine, on exactly 16Mb into the movie.avi. Also, DivXfix says "This is not an avi file", where it used to make it readable.

Good luck with your DivX-ing everyone- I give up.

Thanx. Hatty. :rolleyes:


I OPEN MY EYES AND LISTEN CLOSELY : "recently all rips crash with avisynth" -> seems to be hardware related as you said you tried several OS versions.

I've got exactly the same problem and here is my tip:
Maybe your processor doesn't get enough power. I have a P4 2GHz Northwood on an Abit TH7-II Board. After monitoring heat and power supply I noticed that the processor didn't get 1,5Volt while encoding.
Everytime the power went below 1,42Volt I got that strange "Access violation" exception!

Go to your BIOS and change the power supply manually. I used 1,625Volt and now my monitoring software shows 1,5Volt while encoding.
The problem went away. Everything's fine now - no heat problems either. That's my solve and it makes me happy :-)

Hope that helps.

magicclue.

[Akolite]

I have a similar problem. Since I upgraded 2 a athlon xp 2000+ with 256 DDR my rips have been crashing at random during vdub. Sometimes the credits will work, and the rest will crash with access violations and other times none of them work. I'll give a check 2 the voltage settings.

[Akolite]

Almost forgot, What should the voltage setting be for my processor?

[magicclue]

Originally posted by Akolite
Almost forgot, What should the voltage setting be for my processor?

For an Athlon XP/2000+ it depends on its architecture: if you bought your PC after June, 2002 it could be one of those with 0,13Micron architecture.

Athlon XP/2000+ 0,18 Micron 1,75 Volt
Athlon XP/2000+ 0,13 Micron 1,6 Volt

But I recommend that you first check all other hardware or software related problems!

** Especially your avisynth (AVS) scripts!! **

And use a motherboard monitoring software if you change the automatic settings to see if your processor produces too much heat!!
Change your voltage only if it differs from the above mentioned values! Use 0,25 steps if possible and try encoding and watch the heat and voltage sensors.

Good luck and REMEMBER - changing your voltage settings can result in severe system failure and damage.

magicclue.

[Akolite]

OK. so it's not a voltage problem, i've checked. Could it be a heat problem or something wrong with Vdub?

[magicclue]

It might be a heat problem. Use a motherboard monitor program and check if your cpu is below 70 C.

Try Nandub instead or another Version of Virtual Dub.
Try without avisynth use the VFAPI way.

Just do little steps to find the source of the problem.

Good luck.

[Akolite]

Well i used a motherboard monitor and my chip runs at 69/70 if i dont divx. But when i'm divxing, it goes up 2 like 82/85 degrees. When it hits this temperature it gives me an access violation. I'm gonna get a new heat sink and fan. That should help.

[magicclue]

so you've found the problem at last -
tremendous :p

[manono]

Hi-

Good work magicclue. If I were Akolite though, I'd check first to see if the heatsink is sitting tight and flat on the CPU, and that the fan is working. With these small Athlon CPUs these days, it's easy for it to be tilted, and not dissipate the heat correctly. I'd say he's lucky that VDub crashed. With those temperatures, I'm surprised his CPU didn't fry (this is Centigrade, right?) Amazing!

[magicclue]

yes it's 70 Celsius or 158 Fahrenheit.

[Akolite]

I think my heat sink is a bit fubar'ed. So i'm definatley getting a new one and a new case with better airflow. I'm also surprised my chip hasnt fried. Well, no half measures with the heat sink anymore.