Shut downs while streaming - can my laptop handle OBS at these specs? (log file attached)

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PaulMac

New Member
Hi all, I've been using OBS on an ancient beast of a Dell M4600 with Windows 7 for a number of years without issue. Recently, I've been trying to do the same with my Latitude E7450 with Windows 10 and the following specs:

Intel Core i7-5600U dual core @ 2.60 GHz
Intel® HD Graphics 5500 @ 1GB
16 GB RAM dual channel

For my livestreams (online fitness classes via either Twitch or Restream, just me in picture) I'm running OBS at 1080x1920 with no downscaling, 24 FPS, typically 2000-2500 kbps bitrate and 160 kbps audio. Camera is a Logitech C920, mic is a Blue Snowball.

When I first began testing out OBS with the ultrabook, I didn't get very far before it would overheat and shut down. This is a known issue with this model. Dell released a bios update for the thermal framework, which I installed. I upgraded from the stock 8 GB to 16 GB RAM and for good measure redid the thermal paste (part of the known issue). Made a big difference, with core temps dropping about 10C pretty much straight out of the gate.

I've successfully run two streams with the upgraded rig, a test run of over two hours (at 2500/320 kbps), and then a 75 minute class yesterday (2000/160). Just OBS, no other programs. HWiNFO64 showed core temps peaked in the mid-90Cs but averaged around 10C lower. Today I went to stream (2500/160) and 30 minutes in it shut down again. I've attached the log file which just shows "Recording Stop" as the last event.

Ultimately, my question is as appears in the subject - should this notebook be able to handle OBS at these settings? The graphics drivers on the Latitude make for a much better looking video than that produced by my old workstation, so I'm hoping it's either something I can tweak - or if it's the laptop, something I can have repaired (Dell has indicated motherboard replacements are sometimes necessary for this model).

Any insight you can provide will be greatly appreciated.
 

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If your computer is shutting down due to overheat, then that is a flaw with the laptop -- if operating properly, it should throttle the CPU and ramp up the fans to prevent hitting thermal limits. Yours is not (or at least, not far enough), resulting in the extra safeguards to kick in and shut it off.

Working around that issue, the best you'll be able to do is make efficient use of the hardware you have. Using x264 is a large CPU load -- switch your encoder to quicksync so that your iGPU is handling the encoding (this will probably lower the quality, but it is a much more efficient process heat-wise).

Also, there's no reason to do 1920x1080 if you're only outputting at 2500kbps, and especially if you're just using a C920 (even though you can set 1920x1080 for the C920, the image clarity is not that high). Lower your output to 1280x720 -- this will result in a better looking stream in general, and save you some power/heat generation.
 
Thanks for the feedback, will enable quicksync and play around with the base and output resolution to see if I can level things out without degrading the video quality too much.

Still wondering if the laptop's limitations are due to the specs or this particular unit, though I'm starting to think it's the former. The pinned post re. hardware is 5 years old, about the same time this particular notebook was released. Not getting any thermal crash reports in the bios (which indicates protection is kicking in first), guessing that it simply can't handle the load at those settings.
 
Think I've sorted it. Downscaling the output resolution dropped the CPU usage considerably, core temps are now running at a steady 75-85C, well within range. Am even still able to utilise x264.
 
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