why does CCE *reboot* my pc ?

[fozzieee]

Does anyone else have this problem? Whether i frameserve with avisynth or vfapi, whether i use CBR, VBR one-pass multi-pass, the end result is the same. It either crashes immediately upon beginning the encode, or sometimes gets to 10-15%, always the same result. Here's the strange thing though, it doesn't just return an error, it doesn't close itself, oh no - it actually REBOOTS the pc :devil: No record of it in event viewer, no clue as to why the application crashed, sometimes WinXP does a disk check on the system restart, sometimes not. I am starting to wonder about hardware issues (Bad RAM, maybe) but TMPEGnc, REMPEG2, DVD2AVI, DVD MAESTRO etc all work perfectly well. Also, i'm sure games like UT2003, F12002 would expose any ram issues, they all run fine too

This has been true on all the versions of CCE used so far, from 2.5 thru 2.66.0107. I have used cracked versions, standalone versions, trial versions And its DRIVING ME UP THE WALL !!!!!

My specs

Athlon 1.2g on VIA chipset
768mb sdram pc-133
80gb WD 7200rpm.
20gb MAXTOR
GF4 ti-4600 Gainward "Golden Sample"
Creative SB-Live.
Windows XP pro, sp1.
Pioneer DVR-105
Lite-On 40x CDrw

f0zz
(Currently being tortured by CCE 2.66.0101):confused:

ps - I have followed every guide to the absolute letter, read everything there is to know on every forum, I post this because nowhere does it highlight the issue i'm experiencing.

[The Edge]

http://users.bigpond.net.au/cpuburn/

Download cpuburn and run a few tests and see if machine reboots. This might isolate the issue to hardware or software.
Is the cpu overclocked at all?

Edge

[rui]

Originally posted by The Edge
http://users.bigpond.net.au/cpuburn/

Download cpuburn and run a few tests and see if machine reboots. This might isolate the issue to hardware or software.
Is the cpu overclocked at all?

Edge

And if yes, what power supply do you have?
I used to have a generic 300W PSU, and when in very intensive use, i had random reboots.
Then i bought a Enermax 365 (it has 26A in +12 line), and reboots are gone, i ca even OC a little more my AMD XP 1600+ (it goes to 1626 MHz from 1400Mhz).

[fozzieee]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I'll download cpuburn and give it a go. :)

As far as I know, (and I'll check when I get home) my psu is 300w.

The cpu is not overclocked, and my ram settings in bios are conservative. I tend to disable things like "fast-write" and in truth my system is very stable in normal circumstances.

I used to have a problem with the athlon overheating in games, which would cause a reboot. Generally, when this happened, upon restarting my cpu temp would be 62 deg.C + ! Needless to say, I installed a case fan and this solved the problem. I would say my temp runs now around 52-58C and cpu intensive stuff (openGL fps, etc) run ok.

As far as I can remember, the CCE reboot doesnt report an abnormally high CPU temp (as the game reboots always did.) I will take note next time though. CCE takes a minumum of 200-230mb of ram when it's running, far more than any other application/game, so I can see your points of view concerning power supply and cpu stability.

In the absence of any meaningful conclusion then, (at least till I get chance to check) I have one thought : If my cpu temp is stable while CCE is running, would disconnecting the case fan help? (i.e. by giving more power back to the psu) In addition to this of course, I have 2 hard drives, a CD-rw and DVD-rw, Lan card, Geforce4, Soundcard.

Thanks again for the insight, I'll report back when I know more.

[cjv]

Your reboots in XP SP1 are really BSODs. By default, XP just hides them, and reboots instead (which is annoying because you cannot see the error code)

I am having similar problems with CCE and my Athlon 1.4 and VIA mobo. What _exact_ chipset/mobo are you using? I bet it's a KT133. :)

Like you, I can run all processor intensive apps, without any problems, and have had an otherwise totally stable system the past 2 years.

All I can suggest, is that if you are using Avisynth 2.5a, drop down to Avisynth 2.07 stable...and don't even look at your machine while it is encoding! :) This seems to be a temporary workaround for me...for now.

cjv

[fozzieee]

cjv, you are spot on, here is my chipset info :

chipset : VIA VT8363 (KT-133) chipset with Award BIOS v6.00
Bios id : 6A6LMJ19C
Bios date: 12/18/00
Bios signon: 12/18/2000-8363-686A-6A6LMJ19C-00
Bios type: Award Modular Bios v6.00PGN
Super i/o: VIA 686 rev 64 at port 7h
Chipset: VIA 82C305 rev 3
OEM signon: V.663A/663ASPRO A05 12-18-2000
Manufacturer: JETWAY

I may have updated the bios since i took that snapshot, I know i have the latest version. I also have the latest 4-in-1 drivers. CPUburn hums happily away (for the last 2 hours anyway :D ) my psu seems ok, and i've changed power leads, but CCE still reboots. You are right about the bsod's but I would've expect an app error in the event log at least, oh well... :mad:

I'll take your advice and downgrade avisynth. However, I feel a hit in the pocket coming on by way of a new mobo (my current one is maxed out anyway at 1.2g)

thanks a million
f0zz

ps - that bit about not looking at the computer while it's encoding struck a chord. Seems every time I glanced at the sucker or opened my mouth it crashed :eek: I think that should be incorporated into the faqs :D

[The Edge]

Why don't you disable the reboot upon system fault?
make your way to.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl

In the right pane choose AutoReboot/Right Click/Modify. Change value to 0 to disable and 1 to enable.

Disable this and hoefully we can view the BSOD before reboot.
Keep us posted. ;)

Edge

[cjv]

They are usually: (going from memory here)
KMODE_EXCEPTION_NH 0x1e
-which if I recall correctly indicates possible bad opcode

STOP 0xa
IRQL_NOT_LESS_EQUAL
-bad driver? (it's a fresh install)
-bad hardware? (works with all other programs)
-bad software (gotta be)

I have given up debugging BSODs long ago. Very...not fun...as IRQL_ can be almost anything. :)
cjv

[1loser]

I've had the same problem with my 750 duron running XP pro. I usually am using a downloading program while running CCE 2.5. I set the priority to low for CCE and high for the downloading program. I never had this problem and than one day it started happening so I would only use CCE and even than it would sometimes still reboot. Than one day it went away for several months before it came back again. The problem went away about 6 months ago and hasn't come back. I also upgraded the CPU about 3 months ago to a 1.1 Athlon and it never rebooted when using CCE. I do occasionally get a reboot (maybe once per month) when I click on the CD drive letter in windows explorer.

My friend has a 1.8 Pentium with WinXP home edition and his usually reboots during the muxing process of bbMPEG.

I really think the problem has to do with windows XP especially since I occasionally get a reboot when I just click on the CD drive letter.

I suggest you set the priority of any intense encoding program to low priority either by the task manager or creating a bat file with the text "Start/low cctsp.exe". You would use the bat file as your shortcut and of course it would go in the programs directory.

[fozzieee]

Edge,
There's a kind of grim irony in complaining about not being able to get a BSOD (the words "avoid and "plague" spring to mind) However, it doesn't show up, despite setting the regkey and also double checking in system - still a reboot with no message :(

1loser: thanks for the tip - I'll try it.

I've ordered a kt-333 board and some ddr, I think it was probably about time anyway, since I already upgraded the cpu and gfx card. So it had BETTER work now ;)

Thanks again for the helpful replies
f0zz

ps - anyone wanna buy 3 sticks of 256mb pc-133 sdram, going cheeep :D ?

[The Edge]

Hard luck fozzieee. :(

Edge

[fozzieee]

I decided to keep my old 512mb sdram and got a kt-266 board (which has 2 ddr and 2 sdram slots) This gave me enough cash left to grab a 2000 athlon. So fingers crossed, I put it all together and fired up CCE. IT WORKS :D Not a hint of a problem, I just encoded 5 gigs worth in about 2 1/2 hours.

So it does seem as though CCE has a problem with amd cpu's on kt-133 chipsets. I hope this helps anyone else with the same problem.

Thanks especially to cjv, I would never have thought of changing the board but for your suggestion.

Cheers
f0zz

[cjv]

Hey f0zz,

Great to hear you fixed your problems! Good news for you..bad news for me. I guess the VIA/Athlon was the root of the problems, which unfortunately is not suprising.

I recently bought a _super_ expensive laptop, so I think I should hold off on upgrading for a bit (my gf would flip out :))

How much did your upgrade change your CCE speed? What was it before, and what is it now?

Actually, if you don't mind me asking...if you were not having any CCE problems with your previous Athlon combo, and thus did not really need an upgrade, do you feel your upgrade would still be worth the money. I'm talking overall performance.
Thanks,

cjv

[fozzieee]

I would've kept the 1.2g athlon, the truth is more than a little embarassing - I got complacent and fried the chip by forgetting to take the paper strip off the thermal pad !! :eek: The popping sound I attributed to a loose bearing in the fan was actually the sound of kentucky fried athlon ! Luckily I had an old 800 duron to tide me over. But being a cpu down, I took the 333 board back and I have an understanding supplier so the trade-off worked out ok.

In terms of the overall performance, you have to appreciate that with the previous rebooting problem I didn't really get a chance to gauge the overall speed / performance across the spectrum of a complete encode (since I never managed to complete one) However, I noticed the speed on a one-pass vbr frameserved with avisynth (to a d2v file created with dvd2avi) would hang around the 0.74 mark for the length of time prior to the inevitable crash.

With the new setup, I'm getting 1.2 to 1.4 speed (exact same script) so I would have to say the upgrade was worthwhile. I'm currently encoding the Aliens movie which is 2hrs 28mins and its coming down in about 2hrs 10. I'm not doing anything special, just getting the size to an acceptable level. I mostly use doom's settings in the guide.

It's all relative, and in answer to your question, I would probably not have upgraded had my old spec not encountered this one (albeit crucial) problem. For me, 14 hours to encode the same movie using Rempeg2 or Tmpgenc was just not acceptable. Moreover, since the former application took just that length of time, and was *still* 400mb too large for me to burn to one dvd was pretty much the straw that broke the camel's back :p Ergo, 3 hours to encode a 2 hour movie with my old spec would've been more than acceptable. ;)

I don't know what hardware prices are like in Canada, but here in the UK it cost me £149 (£59 for the new board and £79 for the 2000 athlon, plus another £11 for the copper cooler.) I've had this pc for 2 years and I periodically upgrade one piece of hardware with the best I can afford, one at a time (spreading the cost of obsolence ?) So for me this is an acceptable expense (ok the chip was my fault :scared:) but the board was gonna be next anyway so hey-ho :cool:

Anyhow, the old components are a sort of hand-me-down to the other pc I keep for the kids (I have two boys 8 and 7 and a girl of 10 :) )
So nothing gets wasted and I sleep satisfied I'm leaking cash in the pursuit of enhancing their learning experience *ahem*

f0zz

[grmack]

My computer was doing the same thing rebooting all the time. I formatted the HD's (Dual Boot system) and reinstalled Windows Me by itself, Same thing computer rebooted. Then I formatted again and installed Windows XP, once again the same thing, the Computer kept rebooting. I formatted again and this time I installed Windows 98 and quess what it did not reboot. Everything worked fine. Slow but at least it worked.:)

[Dam0]

i have the same problem as you guys, except that i know my hardware is capable of doing it cause i just upgraded from win98se and all worked well under win98.

the problem only started when i upgraded to winxp pro sp1, the pc crashs every time no matter what version on cce i try .

regards
Dam0

[clickit]

i had some freezin' problems cause i used memory dims mixed at
100 and 133 mHz

i overcome this by setting CCE's priority to low
and finally change the dim to the same mHz

i hope this will help you

[grmack]

Originally posted by grmack
My computer was doing the same thing rebooting all the time. I formatted the HD's (Dual Boot system) and reinstalled Windows Me by itself, Same thing computer rebooted. Then I formatted again and installed Windows XP, once again the same thing, the Computer kept rebooting. I formatted again and this time I installed Windows 98 and quess what it did not reboot. Everything worked fine. Slow but at least it worked.:)

Since I first submitted the above I have changed my Video Card and now everything works fine even in Windows XP.