Question / Help OBS freezes PC

[Strimsen]

I've been having a problem these last few weeks where my whole PC will freeze while using OBS to stream, which requires me to restart my PC. (I have no freezing issues when I'm not streaming.) Sometimes I can stream for days without issue, other times my PC will freeze three times in one night.

http://pastebin.com/wTB626ka

 

[Boildown]

The log file you posted is incomplete and is missing the performance statistics, so impossible to tell. However, I do see that you're using wireless, and the symptoms you describe could easily be attributed to a wireless problem. Uploading a stream over wireless is just a bad idea, use a wired connection instead.

 

[Strimsen]

OK, I'll try using a wired connection when streaming today. I'm also including the logs I forgot to post yesterday.

http://pastebin.com/veg3iBV6
http://pastebin.com/XXNTcGDg

 

[Boildown]

The log was still cut off. What was there was too short of a stream to be able to tell anything about the performance of OBS. Stream for at least five minutes of high action content (whatever counts for high action in the game you're playing), and then post that log. The whole thing, double check afterwards to make sure its all there.

 

[Strimsen]

I believe I had a successful stream on Monday. Here is the log from that:

http://pastebin.com/DENcUcwk

 

[Boildown]

I found a good long stream in that log, so that's good:

16:05:45: Video Encoding: x264
16:05:45: fps: 30
16:05:45: width: 1280, height: 720
16:05:45: preset: veryfast
16:05:45: profile: main
16:05:45: keyint: 60
16:05:45: CBR: yes
16:05:45: CFR: yes
16:05:45: max bitrate: 1000
16:05:45: buffer size: 1000
16:05:45: ------------------------------------------
16:05:46: Using RTMP service: Twitch
16:05:46: Server selection: rtmp://live.twitch.tv/app
16:05:47: Interface: Realtek 8821AE Wireless LAN 802.11ac PCI-E NIC (802.11, 225 mbps)
16:05:47: Completed handshake with rtmp://live.twitch.tv/app in 135 ms.
16:05:47: SO_SNDBUF was at 65536
16:05:50: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Increasing send buffer to ISB 131072 (buffer: 0 / 144384)
16:05:52: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Increasing send buffer to ISB 262144 (buffer: 0 / 144384)
18:43:13: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Stalled for 2704 ms to write 143561 bytes (buffer: 0 / 144384), unstable connection?
18:43:15: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Stalled for 1973 ms to write 144299 bytes (buffer: 0 / 144384), unstable connection?
18:47:37: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Stalled for 3256 ms to write 142080 bytes (buffer: 0 / 144384), unstable connection?
18:47:43: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Stalled for 5902 ms to write 142411 bytes (buffer: 0 / 144384), unstable connection?
19:02:45: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Stalled for 2882 ms to write 140352 bytes (buffer: 0 / 144384), unstable connection?
19:02:47: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Stalled for 2168 ms to write 144054 bytes (buffer: 0 / 144384), unstable connection?
19:02:49: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Stalled for 1799 ms to write 143731 bytes (buffer: 0 / 144384), unstable connection?
19:04:55: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Stalled for 12532 ms to write 144267 bytes (buffer: 0 / 144384), unstable connection?
19:05:05: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Stalled for 9303 ms to write 141254 bytes (buffer: 0 / 144384), unstable connection?
19:05:08: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Stalled for 1994 ms to write 144098 bytes (buffer: 0 / 144384), unstable connection?
19:05:11: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Stalled for 1968 ms to write 140374 bytes (buffer: 0 / 144384), unstable connection?
21:30:14: =====Stream End (recording continues): 2016-02-08, 21:30:14=========================
21:30:15: ~RTMPPublisher: Packet flush completed in 106 ms
21:30:15: ~RTMPPublisher: Send thread terminated in 0 ms
21:30:15: RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Graceful loop exit
21:30:15: ~RTMPPublisher: Socket thread terminated in 0 ms
21:30:35: ~RTMPPublisher: Final socket shutdown completed in 20306 ms
21:30:35: Average send payload: 3463 bytes, average send interval: 24 ms
21:30:35: Number of times waited to send: 31, Waited for a total of 97541 bytes
21:30:35: Number of b-frames dropped: 531 (0.091%), Number of p-frames dropped: 706 (0.12%), Total 1237 (0.21%)
21:30:35: Number of bytes sent: 2757156832
21:30:35: FlushBufferedVideo: Flushing 3 packets over 67 ms

See how you've got a wireless connection and it keeps asking if your connection is unstable? There's your problem. Get wired.

21:30:36: Total frames encoded: 584694, total frames duplicated: 13 (0.00%)
21:30:36: Total frames rendered: 584716, number of late frames: 2 (0.00%) (it's okay for some frames to be late)

The performance encoding-wise was excellent. Clearly its a problem with your wireless. The solution is to not use wireless.

Your other problem is that you're only encoding at 1000 kbps for a 720p30 stream to Twitch. You should double that to 2000 kbps for the encode to look ok. Maybe you had it that low so that your wifi could handle it, but once you get off wifi, assuming your upload is good enough, you want to increase the bitrate if you stay at 720p30.

 

[Strimsen]

Thanks for your help! I streamed for a few hours tonight without any issues. Hopefully getting a wired connection did the trick. By the way, my upload speed is not that great, so I will probably keep my bitrate at 1000 kbps. I'm including tonight's log just in case you were curious about it.

http://pastebin.com/zUipjfsQ

 

[Boildown]

What is your nominal upload rate?

If you can only upload at 1Mb/s, then you should downscale more, unless your game is mostly static screens. I'd go for 480p30 or maybe less than that. 480p15 or 360p30.

There was another unstable connection message in that log file even while wired, so you might still be exceeding your connection.

 

[Strimsen]

According to a speed test, my upload speed is 2.59 Mbps. However, I tested my bandwidth using Xsplit Broadcaster last year (with a wired connection) and only got about 1.20 Mbps. I wouldn't mind downscaling the resolution more except for the fact that any small text on my stream will be a bit blurry and possibly difficult to read.

 

[Boildown]

At 1000 bitrate, you're going to have bad compression artifacts if you leave it at 720p. I suggest you experiment to find out what looks best to you though.

 

[dping]

According to a speed test, my upload speed is 2.59 Mbps. However, I tested my bandwidth using Xsplit Broadcaster last year (with a wired connection) and only got about 1.20 Mbps. I wouldn't mind downscaling the resolution more except for the fact that any small text on my stream will be a bit blurry and possibly difficult to read.

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/tech-support/478845-twitchtest-twitch-bandwidth-tester

run this test for your region. speed tests are a joke as they don't test real world consistent quality.

wired would be best to test with but just make sure nothing else is running. dont stream, download, upload, windows update or anything.

 

[Strimsen]

OK, according to that tool my bandwidth is 2500 kbps across all U.S. servers. However, I'm worried some of my viewers would get stuck buffering if I set it that high. I will try out 1500 kbps when streaming tonight.

 

[dping]

OK, according to that tool my bandwidth is 2500 kbps across all U.S. servers. However, I'm worried some of my viewers would get stuck buffering if I set it that high. I will try out 1500 kbps when streaming tonight.

the quality tab is much more important than the ping so use that as a guide for best ingest. 1500 to 2000 should be fine

 

[Strimsen]

Thanks, guys! Everything is running smoothly.