Question / Help OBS Crashed computer on startup... sometimes.

[Adam W]

Hello everyone. I am having an issue where I start OBS studio and it completely freezes my computer to the point I have to hard boot it. After rebooting, it gives me an error that my overclock has failed. After booting again, the computer starts up normally with no changes made. I don't experience this problem with any other program. I am at a loss as to why OBS is doing this to my computer. Additionally, it is also "disconnecting" my camera mid stream occasionally. I have to unplug and replug the camera as well as restart OBS to get the camera working again. Any help is appreciated. I have my specs and the log file from the crash. Thank you!

UPDATE: When I look at the crash log, it is stating my cpu freq at 3.3ghz. I have my cpu oc'd to 4.5ghz. Why is OBS reporting the wrong cpu speed?

OS: Windows 10 Pro
Mobo: Asus x99 aII
CPU: Intel 5820k OC @ 4.5ghz 1.32v
Mem: 16gb Crucial Ballistix ddr4 2400mhz
GPU: Asus GTX970 Strix
Cam: Logtiech c920 plugged into usb 2.0

Log File from crash: https://gist.github.com/anonymous/cc7f1f58ca50347212c07ff5c051ea75

 

[Adam W]

Bump. Devs?

 

[Fenrir]

OBS cannot cause that kind of hardware event directly. It's likely that the issue is exactly what the error states, your overclock is unstable, and OBS is just utilizing the PC in ways that are not seen during normal everyday use. Encoding is extremely hard on your CPU, so it's not uncommon to see.

Also, OBS reports the CPU speed as reported by the OS. I have a 4790k OC to 5.0ghz, and half my OBS logs show 5, half show 4. Probably related to turbo settings or some other nonsense.

 

[Adam W]

This literally doesn't happen with any other program. My OC is 100% stable except in the situation stated. I can only see the 2 as related when it comes to causing the computer to freeze.

 

[RytoEX]

You're describing three separate issues: a "crash", camera device interruption, and reported CPU speed.

If OBS is actually crashing ("Woops, OBS has crashed!"), then please also include a crash log for that session (located in "%AppData%\obs-studio\crashes"). If it's not doing that, then it didn't actually crash, but did something else (froze, locked up, etc.). The distinction here is important, because they indicate different kinds of problems.

On Windows, OBS pulls the processor speed from the registry, probably because that is the simplest way to get it. This results in it seeing the "reported stock" speed of the processor rather than the current clock speed.

As @Fenrir said, OBS itself would likely not cause the issue that you're describing. Neither coincidence nor correlation imply causation. Live encoding/streaming/recording are very resource intensive and can strain systems in all sorts of ways (CPU, RAM, GPU, PCI-E, bandwidth, etc.). Additionally, OBS does some particularly complex stuff to do what it does. A good way to prove that your OC is not the cause of this issue is to test at stock speeds/voltages. If you can reproduce the issue, then it's not the OC. If you can't, then it's probably the OC.

As an aside, OBS Studio 0.16.4 is out now with plenty of new fixes. I would suggest trying to reproduce in that.

 

[Adam W]

1. The entire computer freezes. There is no crash log to post from OBS.
2. This occurs randomly when first starting OBS. The program doesn't finish loading before it freezes my entire system, mouse included. So the encoder ect ect is not running at this point. Strain of my system isn't in the picture.
3. A recent log from the "freeze" tonight indicated a memory leak on the last line of the log.
4. I have updated and will reset CPU to stock freq to rule out OC issues.

 

[RytoEX]

1. Then it's a system freeze, and not an application crash. That it's happening when OBS starts is peculiar, but still not quite a smoking gun. It could be a driver issue that OBS is triggering, but is ultimately still the driver's fault.
2. It's random? So it doesn't occur every time OBS starts? But when it does occur, it's always at OBS startup and not sometime later, like when streaming/recording?
3. Yes, there seems to be one memory leak haunting OBS. I get that too. It's not causing this issue.
4. Cool. Let us know what you find out.