PC freezes with 0.5.2.99 (and 0.4.5.74)

Hard-Boiled · Newbie Joined: 15 Apr 2005 Posts: 5

Hello, maybe someone can help.... This program looked promising when i discovered it appx. one week ago, so i gave it a try with 0.5.2.99. at that day and managed to do 4 successfull conversions that day. Now, one week later, when i tried a file again, i have the situation, that the program starts working, and after some time, usally some minutes only , the PC freezes completely. Only thing which helps is a re-boot..... I first thought, it may be a corrupt input-file, however, one of the files which did work earlier, got the same problem now.... After searching the net, i found 0.4.5.74 and tried that one. Same, bad, result.. All ideas are welcome. Thanks

bigly · Junior Member Joined: 21 Jan 2005 Posts: 53

People are reporting previous versions not working since installing the latest version even on files which did work in previous versions. This would imply: 1. The latest version is buggy. AND 2. Some part of the uninstall of this latest version is not working and the buggy component of the new version remains in place even when re-installing older ones.

Hard-Boiled · Newbie Joined: 15 Apr 2005 Posts: 5

Hi, thanks for replying. When there are reports, that the latest versions are buggy (0.5.2.99), do you know, whether these reports mention the "freeze" situation as well ? It just seems to be strange, that 0.5.2.99 worked first, and then all of a sudden produce symptoms like a System freeze when running. Thanks

bigly · Junior Member Joined: 21 Jan 2005 Posts: 53

Not too many threads from this someone is reporting a constantly increasing use of memory whilst converting, to the point that 1Gig RAM is used up and the page file starts growing! If what is reported in that thread is happening to you the PC certainly could freeze. Rather than a persisting bad component (e.g. dll) of the current install another likely possibility (also mentioned in that thread) is that we have received an automatic update which may have triggered these probs - have you received an update recently? (I was prompted within the last few days about some 'hotfixes' and I was up to date at that time so presume they were 'new' for everyone.) I don't know for sure 'cos I daren't install latest version with all the reported probs but if such reports continue I will go through a snapshot process to discover what new components are installed and un-installed when reverting to previous version. Confused

JJ · Moderator Joined: 23 Dec 2004 Posts: 3293

Whoa - I watched this forum close for two weeks. Nothing. Then I go for away for a week - and boom- problems. ;D It seems that there has been a bad update. I will test it when I get home on tuesday, but what people have reported - it look like problem due windows update combined with some changes on new version. Hopefully it is not new version at all; it might just be that windows upgrade. And that would be nothing new - those updates have caused a lot of problems.

Hard-Boiled · Newbie Joined: 15 Apr 2005 Posts: 5

Hi @bigly - hmm, i'm using the 0.5.2.99 version downloadable from the VSO web-site (without updates). I tried today again, for this test i removed all user-processes, e.g antivir and such with the help of task-manager besides exlorer. This time DivXtoDVD did run appx. 1 hr before the system freeze occurs....When I did th test yesterday, the freeze occured after some minutes, e.g 10-15...

bigly · Junior Member Joined: 21 Jan 2005 Posts: 53

Hard-bolied you didn't say whether you had any Windoze updates within that week? You can't usually stop an anit-virus product with task manager - decent ones would monitor such 'attacks' ('cos killing processes is easy to do programatically - e.g. by a virus!) - which AV have you got? - if you really want to rule your AV software out of the equation unplug your network/internet connection and turn off (real-time) monitoring via the AV product itself. When we are talking about problems with the latest version, so far yours is only 1 of 3 such reports so I'm starting to think it might not be a general issue - can you think of anything you have changed (software) on your system during that week? Also what input source format(s) have you tested with? (The one which did work but didn't now especially!)

Hard-Boiled · Newbie Joined: 15 Apr 2005 Posts: 5

@Bigly - Nope, no windoze system updates, had some small other installs, tools and demos lately, though. Need to check, what and when exactly and whether these fit into the timeframe. The AV program is "PC-Cillin". By the way, started the PC this morning, removed all user-tasks via Task-Manager again and manged to convert a file (run appx. 1:20 hrs or so toal)successfully, which broke yesterday. Did a try again later again that day, and this time got a system freeze again after 15-20 minutes. This is strange.... I'm starting to think, this may be a hardware problem, somehow related to cooling. When starting the system, all is cool, and over the day the system is heating up...How "hot" is a PC allowed to get ?... Just an idea... However, didn't have this problem before. PC is 3 month old..

bigly · Junior Member Joined: 21 Jan 2005 Posts: 53

DivXToDVD could certainly highlight a cooling issue as it will push the CPU as much as possible in conversion. It depends what other types of apps you use - if you don't generally do 3D-gaming, conversions or encoding then it certainly could be that DivXToDVD is the only app you use which 'pushes' the system. I personally start to worry if a CPU temp goes above the mid 50c's under load but I think they can safely get to the high 60c's - I'm not sure what the limit is. When you reboot after a freeze, immediately go into the bios (press delete immediately on boot up) and look for a section labelled "Hardware/System monitoring" or similar. Note down the temps and fan speeds and let us know the results if you still think this could be the prob. Another thing to try is a stress testing tool such as "SiSoft Sandra" which could also highlight a cooling problem by pushing the system as far as it will go similar to DivXToDVD.

JJ · Moderator Joined: 23 Dec 2004 Posts: 3293

New Pentiums might get up 70-80 degrees celsius. AMDs are usually a bit cooler, under heavy load they usually go to 50-60 C. It might also be your graphics card that is overheating - that would freeze PC totally. If you have fan blowing air out from chassis, then try that airflow with your hand. If it is really hot then you do have a problem. Proper airflow is needed to cool it. If you do not have a chassis fan - get one. Preferable 12cm version, as they are quieter.

Hard-Boiled · Newbie Joined: 15 Apr 2005 Posts: 5

@JJ, @bigly, thanks for the tips. Will try to stress test first as suggested with "SiSoft Sandra" and also look for temperature...

CDR-Zone.COM · Advertisement Bot