Updating video drivers to latest should resolve this issue. Rest of post preserved for posterity.
TL;DR: Windows 10 Anniversary Update broke stuff.
Best solutions/workarounds: update AMD drivers to the latest version; update OBS Studio to the latest version, or disable your OBS Studio preview. Setup your sources and scenes, disable your preview, then restart OBS and start streaming or recording immediately. Do not edit your sources or add any new sources that have a video preview, or you might trigger this error, and then you'll have to restart OBS. If that doesn't help, then alternatively, you can temporarily run OBS with the OpenGL rendererer in advanced settings, but make sure to change it back to Direct3D 11 as *soon* as we tweet or alert users that Microsoft/Nvidia fixed it; the OpenGL renderer has poor capture performance in comparison to Direct3D 11.
Disclaimer: I'm just a community member trying to collect information, and work out solutions and workarounds. I am not an official OBS Project staff member. I do not speak for the project or the staff. If a moderator or staff member feels this post is out of line, they are welcome to delete it.
Throughout this post, I might use "OBS" instead of "OBS Studio". This is just for brevity, or for making sentences sound less awkward, or because I'm lazy.
Why should I read this?
Are you on Windows 10? Is OBS Studio suddenly crashing or not capturing games? If you answered yes to both of those, then you may be having a rather difficult-to-remedy issue. Read on.
Why write this post?
I'm posting this as a new thread because I've done a lot of copy-and-pasting in a lot of threads over the past few weeks about issues with Windows 10, specifically the Anniversary Update. Using that method, the information I'm trying to share is getting spread inefficiently. It's also becoming more and more difficult to keep the information I've shared to everyone up-to-date and relevant. By making a single post, I can update it with new information as it arises and have a single up-to-date place to which users can be pointed.
Wait, what happened?
Microsoft released the Anniversary Update (AU) for Windows 10. Initially, this broke a bunch of things like webcams. Lots of webcams. Basically, it broke the majority of webcams (no really). For more reading on that, see this thread.
After that, Microsoft released more updates to fix what they broke. Unfortunately, it seems some of those hotfixes broke other things in ways that we don't fully understand.
How do I know if I'm having this problem?
In short, if you are on Windows 10 and OBS is crashing, freezing, or locking up, you may be affected. If you're not on Windows 10, you're not affected by this particular issue.
This issue only affects users who are running Windows 10 AU. If you are on Windows 10, you can check if you're on the Anniversary Update by running "winver" from your Start Menu. See the image below for what the winver utility looks like. If your version is lower than 1607, then you are not on the AU, and you have a different issue. If that says Version 1607, then you're on Windows 10 AU, and you should read on.
However, even being on Windows 10 AU does not mean that you're automatically affected. Many people have no issues on Windows 10, even on the Anniversary Update. To tell for sure, we need to check the OBS Studio logs.
Check your OBS logs at "%AppData%\obs-studio\logs". You get there by pasting that into the Windows Run dialog, which you can access by pressing Windows Key + R. In your logs, do you see a line like the one below?
If you see that message, then you are almost certainly affected by this issue. Other possible messages may include:
I'm having problems. How can I fix it?
If you're using an AMD graphics card, this was reportedly fixed in AMD driver version 16.10.2. Update your drivers to the latest version.
If you're using an Nvidia graphics card, unfortunately, there is currently no way for you to completely fix it, but there are some workarounds that you can try. First, consider updating to the latest version of OBS Studio. OBS Studio 0.16.3 introduced a workaround for this problem, but there's a catch. When the error is triggered, instead of freezing completely, the stream/recording may pause briefly and then show some green frames while OBS rebuilds its Direct3D assets. If that's okay with you, go update! If, for some reason, you find that unacceptable...
Currently, some workarounds for getting OBS Studio to work right now on Windows 10 Build 14393 (AU) are as follows:
Option 2 might work, but it has also been known to trigger the error in some cases. Keep in mind that using Display Capture comes with a performance penalty compared to Game Capture.
Option 3 seems to work, but it could use more testing and confirmation. Keep in mind that OpenGL does not perform as well as Direct3D on Windows. It will cause a major decrease to capture performance. This is not recommended.
Option 4 is inconsistent. Some people report that it works for them, while others report that it does not help.
Option 5 seems to work for most people, though a few have reported that it did not help.
Option 6 also works without fail, but it is sort of a last resort nuclear option.
Option 7 is very much only if you're desperate.
This is also confirmed to occur in OBS Classic, so using that is not a viable workaround.
One of these might work for you, or none of them may work for you. I've been researching this for weeks and have found the most consistent workarounds to be #1, #5, #6, and #7. However, uninstalling Windows Updates is generally a temporary solution, and it understandably makes people uneasy. Additionally, since I'm unable to reproduce these issues on my computers, it's hard to troubleshoot it and find good workarounds.
If you try any of these on an affected system, please let us know what you did and whether or not it worked for you. Having logs from before and after the applied workarounds would also be helpful.
Please understand that uninstalling specific Windows Updates is a temporary measure, especially on Windows 10. Windows 10 is far more aggressive about its automatic updates than earlier versions of Windows, and Microsoft does not intend for you to be able to turn them off, only delay them.
However, there is a way to forcefully disable receiving Windows Updates on Windows 10. For more info, see this article (with video guide!) by Void4ever.
Please note that uninstalling Windows Updates may also inadvertently break other things, and may expose your system to security vulnerabilities that the updates had patched.
Please note that disabling Windows Updates may expose your system to security vulnerabilities that are patched in updates that you are not receiving.
If you're working on a Windows 10 system and software just suddenly stopped working after a Windows Update, I highly encourage you to report it to Microsoft so that they can investigate what they changed and if their code is at fault. If they changed something significant and expect developers to do things in new ways, then that would also be useful information to have. You can report issues to Microsoft by using the Feedback Hub that is built-in to Windows 10.
What is OBS doing about it? Why can't OBS fix it?
The lead OBS developer (Jim) and some community members are looking into it, and there is a Mantis Issue for this.
Jim has posted his preliminary findings here. OBS Project Staff have reached out to Microsoft, and Microsoft is looking into it.
Jim did say that Windows 10 is causing issues and that so far there hasn't been anything found that points to OBS as being at fault for causing the issue. Nvidia, Sage, Logitech, Dartfish, Firestorm, and many others have pointed to Microsoft breaking things either in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update or its subsequent hotfixes.
Some have suggested that this is caused by how OBS encodes video. As far as I know, it has nothing to do with how OBS encodes. The current consensus is that OBS is not at fault, but that Windows 10 is mismanaging the VRAM, which causes the VRAM to be filled until the DirectX device is "removed" from the system. Certain OBS setups or configurations can exacerbate the issue, but OBS is not currently believed to be causing the issue itself.
2016-10-21: Word from Microsoft is that they've replicated two distinct issues related to the issue detailed here. The latest update is that the D3D developers took a look at it and it got forwarded to the Graphics Kernel team for further investigation.
2016-10-28: News from Microsoft! They have found a bug regarding Nvidia currently, and they're engaging with Nvidia to get it fixed. Details here.
2016-11-04: Jim has built a workaround into OBS Studio 0.16.3.
Some Technical Mumbo-Jumbo
I suspect that the particular update that is causing the most issues to arise is KB3176938 (Build 14393.105). Any Windows 10 Cumulative Update after that one will also have the same patches in it, along with whatever new patches the new updates include. However, since Windows 10 Revision logging was somewhat broken before OBS Studio 0.16.0, and most of the reports I've seen were with OBS Studio 0.15.4, it's hard to tell for sure if a specific update is a factor.
Some people, including Nvidia employees, have pointed to issues with the new Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) 2.1 that came with the Windows 10 AU. It could be caused by changes in D3D11.4. It could be something changed in DXGI 1.5. It could be something else in the Win10AU changes. It could be changes in any of those things not liking something in the OBS render pipeline. At the moment, we just don't know. It is also possible that the time and effort to research it could also be for nothing, as Microsoft may revert or patch whatever they changed in the first place.
Edits
2016-10-10: Added a workaround. Reordered workarounds. Clarified workaround options. Clarified that the developer is investigating the issue. Changed formatting.
2016-10-12: Clarified the instructions to a couple workarounds. (edited by dodgepong)
2016-10-12: A Jim edit to yell at people to provide log files in the start of the post or he'll hunt them down and point an angry finger at them.
2016-10-13: Add method for disabling Windows Updates on Windows 10, for the brave, daring, or foolish. ;P
2016-10-20: Add a TL;DR to the top mentioning Disable Preview (most reliable and least severe workaround).
2016-10-21: Update from Microsoft.
2016-10-28: Update from Microsoft. Clarification about AMD cards.
2016-11-04: Workaround added in OBS Studio 0.16.3.
TL;DR: Windows 10 Anniversary Update broke stuff.
Best solutions/workarounds: update AMD drivers to the latest version; update OBS Studio to the latest version, or disable your OBS Studio preview. Setup your sources and scenes, disable your preview, then restart OBS and start streaming or recording immediately. Do not edit your sources or add any new sources that have a video preview, or you might trigger this error, and then you'll have to restart OBS. If that doesn't help, then alternatively, you can temporarily run OBS with the OpenGL rendererer in advanced settings, but make sure to change it back to Direct3D 11 as *soon* as we tweet or alert users that Microsoft/Nvidia fixed it; the OpenGL renderer has poor capture performance in comparison to Direct3D 11.
Disclaimer: I'm just a community member trying to collect information, and work out solutions and workarounds. I am not an official OBS Project staff member. I do not speak for the project or the staff. If a moderator or staff member feels this post is out of line, they are welcome to delete it.
Throughout this post, I might use "OBS" instead of "OBS Studio". This is just for brevity, or for making sentences sound less awkward, or because I'm lazy.
Why should I read this?
Are you on Windows 10? Is OBS Studio suddenly crashing or not capturing games? If you answered yes to both of those, then you may be having a rather difficult-to-remedy issue. Read on.
Why write this post?
I'm posting this as a new thread because I've done a lot of copy-and-pasting in a lot of threads over the past few weeks about issues with Windows 10, specifically the Anniversary Update. Using that method, the information I'm trying to share is getting spread inefficiently. It's also becoming more and more difficult to keep the information I've shared to everyone up-to-date and relevant. By making a single post, I can update it with new information as it arises and have a single up-to-date place to which users can be pointed.
Wait, what happened?
Microsoft released the Anniversary Update (AU) for Windows 10. Initially, this broke a bunch of things like webcams. Lots of webcams. Basically, it broke the majority of webcams (no really). For more reading on that, see this thread.
After that, Microsoft released more updates to fix what they broke. Unfortunately, it seems some of those hotfixes broke other things in ways that we don't fully understand.
How do I know if I'm having this problem?
In short, if you are on Windows 10 and OBS is crashing, freezing, or locking up, you may be affected. If you're not on Windows 10, you're not affected by this particular issue.
This issue only affects users who are running Windows 10 AU. If you are on Windows 10, you can check if you're on the Anniversary Update by running "winver" from your Start Menu. See the image below for what the winver utility looks like. If your version is lower than 1607, then you are not on the AU, and you have a different issue. If that says Version 1607, then you're on Windows 10 AU, and you should read on.
However, even being on Windows 10 AU does not mean that you're automatically affected. Many people have no issues on Windows 10, even on the Anniversary Update. To tell for sure, we need to check the OBS Studio logs.
Check your OBS logs at "%AppData%\obs-studio\logs". You get there by pasting that into the Windows Run dialog, which you can access by pressing Windows Key + R. In your logs, do you see a line like the one below?
If you see that message, then you are almost certainly affected by this issue. Other possible messages may include:
I'm having problems. How can I fix it?
If you're using an AMD graphics card, this was reportedly fixed in AMD driver version 16.10.2. Update your drivers to the latest version.
If you're using an Nvidia graphics card, unfortunately, there is currently no way for you to completely fix it, but there are some workarounds that you can try. First, consider updating to the latest version of OBS Studio. OBS Studio 0.16.3 introduced a workaround for this problem, but there's a catch. When the error is triggered, instead of freezing completely, the stream/recording may pause briefly and then show some green frames while OBS rebuilds its Direct3D assets. If that's okay with you, go update! If, for some reason, you find that unacceptable...
Currently, some workarounds for getting OBS Studio to work right now on Windows 10 Build 14393 (AU) are as follows:
- Disable the OBS Studio preview. (Right click the preview window and uncheck Enable Preview)
- Try Display Capture or Window Capture instead of Game Capture.
- Use the OpenGL renderer instead of Direct3D 11. (Settings > Advanced > Renderer) (Jim edit: not recommended if capturing games, but it is an option. Set it back to D3D11 when you hear that the issue has been fixed)
- If you're using an Nvidia card, rollback your Nvidia drivers to 368.81 or 365.19.
- Rollback Windows updates KB3176938, KB3189866, KB3193494, KB3194496, KB3194798, KB3197954, or their successors.
- Revert to a Windows 10 build that is before the Anniversary Update. (Uninstall the Anniversary Update for the time being)
- Worst case scenario, revert to an older version of Windows (Windows 8.1 or Windows 7). Although it's better to just uninstall the Anniversary Update if you're able for the time being.
Option 2 might work, but it has also been known to trigger the error in some cases. Keep in mind that using Display Capture comes with a performance penalty compared to Game Capture.
Option 3 seems to work, but it could use more testing and confirmation. Keep in mind that OpenGL does not perform as well as Direct3D on Windows. It will cause a major decrease to capture performance. This is not recommended.
Option 4 is inconsistent. Some people report that it works for them, while others report that it does not help.
Option 5 seems to work for most people, though a few have reported that it did not help.
Option 6 also works without fail, but it is sort of a last resort nuclear option.
Option 7 is very much only if you're desperate.
This is also confirmed to occur in OBS Classic, so using that is not a viable workaround.
One of these might work for you, or none of them may work for you. I've been researching this for weeks and have found the most consistent workarounds to be #1, #5, #6, and #7. However, uninstalling Windows Updates is generally a temporary solution, and it understandably makes people uneasy. Additionally, since I'm unable to reproduce these issues on my computers, it's hard to troubleshoot it and find good workarounds.
If you try any of these on an affected system, please let us know what you did and whether or not it worked for you. Having logs from before and after the applied workarounds would also be helpful.
Please understand that uninstalling specific Windows Updates is a temporary measure, especially on Windows 10. Windows 10 is far more aggressive about its automatic updates than earlier versions of Windows, and Microsoft does not intend for you to be able to turn them off, only delay them.
However, there is a way to forcefully disable receiving Windows Updates on Windows 10. For more info, see this article (with video guide!) by Void4ever.
Please note that uninstalling Windows Updates may also inadvertently break other things, and may expose your system to security vulnerabilities that the updates had patched.
Please note that disabling Windows Updates may expose your system to security vulnerabilities that are patched in updates that you are not receiving.
If you're working on a Windows 10 system and software just suddenly stopped working after a Windows Update, I highly encourage you to report it to Microsoft so that they can investigate what they changed and if their code is at fault. If they changed something significant and expect developers to do things in new ways, then that would also be useful information to have. You can report issues to Microsoft by using the Feedback Hub that is built-in to Windows 10.
What is OBS doing about it? Why can't OBS fix it?
The lead OBS developer (Jim) and some community members are looking into it, and there is a Mantis Issue for this.
Jim has posted his preliminary findings here. OBS Project Staff have reached out to Microsoft, and Microsoft is looking into it.
Jim did say that Windows 10 is causing issues and that so far there hasn't been anything found that points to OBS as being at fault for causing the issue. Nvidia, Sage, Logitech, Dartfish, Firestorm, and many others have pointed to Microsoft breaking things either in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update or its subsequent hotfixes.
Some have suggested that this is caused by how OBS encodes video. As far as I know, it has nothing to do with how OBS encodes. The current consensus is that OBS is not at fault, but that Windows 10 is mismanaging the VRAM, which causes the VRAM to be filled until the DirectX device is "removed" from the system. Certain OBS setups or configurations can exacerbate the issue, but OBS is not currently believed to be causing the issue itself.
2016-10-21: Word from Microsoft is that they've replicated two distinct issues related to the issue detailed here. The latest update is that the D3D developers took a look at it and it got forwarded to the Graphics Kernel team for further investigation.
2016-10-28: News from Microsoft! They have found a bug regarding Nvidia currently, and they're engaging with Nvidia to get it fixed. Details here.
2016-11-04: Jim has built a workaround into OBS Studio 0.16.3.
Some Technical Mumbo-Jumbo
I suspect that the particular update that is causing the most issues to arise is KB3176938 (Build 14393.105). Any Windows 10 Cumulative Update after that one will also have the same patches in it, along with whatever new patches the new updates include. However, since Windows 10 Revision logging was somewhat broken before OBS Studio 0.16.0, and most of the reports I've seen were with OBS Studio 0.15.4, it's hard to tell for sure if a specific update is a factor.
Some people, including Nvidia employees, have pointed to issues with the new Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) 2.1 that came with the Windows 10 AU. It could be caused by changes in D3D11.4. It could be something changed in DXGI 1.5. It could be something else in the Win10AU changes. It could be changes in any of those things not liking something in the OBS render pipeline. At the moment, we just don't know. It is also possible that the time and effort to research it could also be for nothing, as Microsoft may revert or patch whatever they changed in the first place.
Edits
2016-10-10: Added a workaround. Reordered workarounds. Clarified workaround options. Clarified that the developer is investigating the issue. Changed formatting.
2016-10-12: Clarified the instructions to a couple workarounds. (edited by dodgepong)
2016-10-12: A Jim edit to yell at people to provide log files in the start of the post or he'll hunt them down and point an angry finger at them.
2016-10-13: Add method for disabling Windows Updates on Windows 10, for the brave, daring, or foolish. ;P
2016-10-20: Add a TL;DR to the top mentioning Disable Preview (most reliable and least severe workaround).
2016-10-21: Update from Microsoft.
2016-10-28: Update from Microsoft. Clarification about AMD cards.
2016-11-04: Workaround added in OBS Studio 0.16.3.
Last edited:
