Question / Help OBS cooked my hardware.

[bitrate]

I got a new wacom Cintiq companion 2 about a couple of days ago. It's a great drawing tablet, worked flawlessly, loved it well. Decided to install OBS today so that I could stream my work online. OBS ran me through an automatic set-up feature based on my machine's compatibility and I've well trusted this software. I've been using OBS for a while now on my main desktop without any issues.

After about 5 - 10 minutes of working (mind you, nothing else but a rather lightweight art program on windows 10) my tablet shuts off completely. I thought it had run out of battery or just hiccuped in general. I boot it up again and the process repeats - it shuts down immediately without any warning about 10 minutes later. Except this time, I realize that my hardware had been absolutely cooked and I am now unable to properly turn it on. The tablet works, the screen doesnt. Wacom's repair is valued at 1k.

I am well aware that a 2k$ cintiq should be stronk enough to run OBS. It had absolutely nothing else on it asides from the only program it had ran for years and obs itself. Afaik, there was 0 warning about OBS having a hard time with it.

Um, hello?? obs???? whats up with that?

 

[bitrate]

I've emailed Wacom as well, and I'm yet to receive a reply. I've asked around a few people and my lawyer friend is prodding me to poke you, OBS, on this matter though. Is there any credit on this situation?

 

[Osiris]

Encoding is a resource-intensive process, which uses quite some CPU power, especially on low-power cpu's like in that wacom tablet.
Using CPU power heats up the CPU, and if the screen can't handle that, then that is on Wacom.

 

[bitrate]

I wouldn't call a Core i7 a weak CPU, especially on a device built to render/process as it's main purpose. Wouldn't OBS warn me of high CPU usage, though?

 

[Fenrir]

Not exactly. OBS operates with the assumption that your device has sufficient cooling, and can handle being stressed.

OBS will only warn if the encoder cannot keep up (i.e. the PC is OVERloaded, just just heavily loaded).

Also, according to their website the Cintiq Companion 2 only has an i5, not an i7.

 

[bitrate]

I don't think it would be logical to sell processing oriented machines without a fitting balance in its hardware. In that case, I believe Wacom wouldn't be as successful of a company as it is now, given their products wouldn't fit the consumer's requirements. They do come with their own fans, though I wouldn't believe OBS would take enough power to kick out the entire CPU. It was running at around <10% on my end.
Wacom has several sub-models when it comes to specs. Some come with i5, some come with i7. Mine's the latter. https://us-store.wacom.com/Product/cintiq-companion-2#/undefined2

 

[bitrate]

Also, while it was at a constant ten percent it would periodically receive spikes that would peak completely

 

[Rodney]

This appears to be an older model, did you buy it used? It's possible that the cooling isn't working adequately (dust, broken fan, etc.). Also consider that OBS will put some load on the GPU, which can in some mobile devices exceed the power consumption and heat output of the CPU.

In any case, a hardware failure caused due to the system being under load is not something we can really help you with. Especially if it's a closed system where maintenance is not easily possible.

 

[Fenrir]

Well, a Cintiq is not a "processing oriented machine". It's an art tablet with a PC shoved inside of it. Even higher-end desktops can struggle with video encoding. Would need to see logs from OBS to see what might actually be going on from a settings/issues point of view, but as OBS runs entirely in userspace it cannot be directly responsible for any overheating/shutdowns/crashes of the system itself. It can be a contributing factor, but not a direct cause.

I don't want to sound like I'm dismissing this, though, I'm just trying to explain what is going on, and why there won't really be much we can do about it. If you want to grab me a log from OBS that has a stream/recording session in it, I can take a look and make suggestions on how to reduce the overall load on your system to avoid overheating issues going forward.

 

[Michael Graves]

No issue at all with OBS. What you've experienced points the flawed design of the Wacom device. Bad thermal design. If possible I would return it. Or offload the processor heavy tasks to another system.

 

[_ZLD_]

my lawyer friend is prodding me to poke you

What a joke. A thinly veiled legal threat toward OBS over this? That isn't gonna stand up in any courtroom in the US, just fyi.

1. If you purchased this new from Wacom, then this is a warranty matter. Take it up with them.

2. If you purchased this used, then it is up to you, the end user to understand and accept the limits of your machine. OBS is neither able to "cook" your computer or able to prevent it from happening. OBS only runs as it is supposed to, which is the same as what you have instructed it to do.

3. Speaking from a 25+ year background in computer hardware, this is 99% the result of a hardware failure. Pretty much all x86 based computers within the last 15 years, have built in thermal protection to prevent catastrophic failure of a machine. These protections can be further restricted if the machine qualifies as an ultrabook, a tablet or any number of micro forms that are available, all to prevent damaging other nearby components that would be packed in closely. What has happened is that you purchased a defective machine. It should have prevented this circumstance and did not. Either you started your computer and it warned you of it being too hot and you were able to and did dismiss this warning to continue bootup, or something in the thermal management hardware system failed to prevent bootup until it cooled down.