Blue Iris PC Lock Ups

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Hi all - Been running BI for over a year with no issues at all. Within the last month, the machine started hard locking. No keyboard/mouse/monitor. Only thing to do is to hard boot it from the physical power button. It happens every few days. I uninstalled BI as that is the major consumer of resources and it didn't freeze any more. Reinstalled BI and the freezes began again. Nothing in the event log at all. I have always noticed high CPU utilization (likely due to the AMD proc) - always over 50%, many times at 80/90/100%.

I really need the cameras up for the next few weeks - work going on in the backyard. Any thoughts?

My setup below:
AMD FX 8350 8 Core Processor
AMD Radeon HD 5450 Graphics
16 GB Memory
Boot/app disk - SSD, storage on HDD
6x Amcrest 2mp cameras
Windows 10 x64
Latest drivers, bios, BI versions

Thanks in advance.

Dan
 

fenderman

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Hi all - Been running BI for over a year with no issues at all. Within the last month, the machine started hard locking. No keyboard/mouse/monitor. Only thing to do is to hard boot it from the physical power button. It happens every few days. I uninstalled BI as that is the major consumer of resources and it didn't freeze any more. Reinstalled BI and the freezes began again. Nothing in the event log at all. I have always noticed high CPU utilization (likely due to the AMD proc) - always over 50%, many times at 80/90/100%.

I really need the cameras up for the next few weeks - work going on in the backyard. Any thoughts?

My setup below:
AMD FX 8350 8 Core Processor
AMD Radeon HD 5450 Graphics
16 GB Memory
Boot/app disk - SSD, storage on HDD
6x Amcrest 2mp cameras
Windows 10 x64
Latest drivers, bios, BI versions

Thanks in advance.

Dan
There is no reason why that system should be at 50 percent with your low load even with the AMD. Is the windows install clean? Do you run any other software on the machine? Best thing to do is to clean install w10 using the ms media creation tool.
Note a 100 dollar intel i5-3570 system will run that load at under 20 percent, so its a cheap fix if you cant get it resolved.
 
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Thanks for the feedback. BI is never less than 50%. I assumed that was because it was AMD which I know isn't ideal for BI. The machine is also running Plex which generally doesn't do much at all. I suppose I could get a cheap refurb machine on ebay but don't really want to run two machines 24x7. I guess next step is a fresh install, just annoyed that its worked ok for nearly a year and I can't pinpoint what's changed.
 

lgRich

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There is no reason why that system should be at 50 percent with your low load even with the AMD. Is the windows install clean? Do you run any other software on the machine? Best thing to do is to clean install w10 using the ms media creation tool.
Note a 100 dollar intel i5-3570 system will run that load at under 20 percent, so its a cheap fix if you cant get it resolved.
@dansarrosick, Take a look at my signature, BI run between 10% and 15%, so check your hardware and if everything is OK like @fenderman suggest you, do a clean install…
 

bob2701

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I recently had a problem similar to yours where the BI server would lock up for no apparent reason. Problem turned out to be the CPU cooler. Google and run Coretemp to eliminate this as your problem. Good Luck.
 

bp2008

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Definitely check the CPU temperature. I searched for the temperature limit for AMD FX 8350 and didn't find any numbers from a reliable source (just users on other forums). It seems that most of them run under 65 C when not overclocked.

A heavily dust-covered CPU cooler can easily cause excessively high temperatures. I had an i7-3770K box running 95C for months due to this (fortunately it survived and is still good and reliable, although using a better cooler now).
 

bp2008

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61°C max? Yeesh. My 3770k is a similar age and its limit was I think 100°C. Heck it will even work with the air temperature in the case as high as 67.4°C according to its specs.
 
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Given the lack of event log entries and the hard freezes I've been thinking its a temp issue all along (Which really means its a CPU utilization issue given what fenderman and lgrich said about this CPU). I've been paying closer attention to it lately... It regularly hits 100% and stays there for a while. Memory utilization also increases at that point from 2.5G to 10G. When the memory usage starts to decrease the CPU follows. During those times, the temps go up to 59c. If 61 is the max then this is the problem.

I'm going to run prime95 tonight to see if there are any CPU issues (doing a timelapse video of the backyard during the day). After that I guess I'll reinstall Windows but would really prefer to figure the issue out!

Thanks all for your input!
 

bob2701

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AMD typically run much cooler than Intel, in the 30c range. If you are hitting 59c then you definitely need to look at your cooler.
 

lgRich

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Also its important to check is the thermal paste between the CPU and the FAN is not dry. This often append after some year.
 
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will check on the fan and the paste but real question is why BI would push the CPU that high all the time...
 

SouthernYankee

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Have you read the wiki on blue iris cpu performance.
Are you measuring the CPU when the Bi display or web browser is up ?
Is windows a clean install ?

What are your camera frame rate, iframe rate, max bit rate, vbr or cbr, INcode method ?

Provide a screen shot of the windows task manager processes sorted my CPU utilization.


check out what other BI PCs are running and the number of cameras.
Blue Iris Update Helper
 

Maekonesot

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In my opinion it is hardware related problem. Probably faulty component, soldered using lead free alloy causes such problems. I don't think you will cure it by any reinstallation. Try to change memory sticks from another computer, just pair by pair and observe. If not this so probably another component, maybe something on the motherboard. I am quite old person and I had plenty od self built computers and also I had some issues I coped with.
 
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Thanks for the link to that page. The four users with my the same CPU as me have much lower utilization. How do you get Intel HW acceleration with an AMD chip? Assume that is the reason? Will post the rest of the details later tonight..
 

SouthernYankee

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The newer version of BI support hardware acceleration is supported on AMD. check out Nivdia CUDA.
 
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Of all the recommendations in the wiki I never changed the camera fps down to 15. Once I did that CPU utilization is now at about 20 percent and the box hasn't gone down so hopefully that's it.

Somehow it did break my time lapse setup though I don't see how but troubleshooting that now.

Thanks all.
 

bob2701

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Are you still having lock-ups? In your first post you said your problem was lock-ups, and your CPU usage has always been high.
No more lock-ups?
 
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