blue iris suddenly a memory hog and at 100% cpu usage

[CorporalCuddler]

I've been using blue iris for around a year, and suddenly after restarting my computer that runs blue iris the other day, and doing the update it said was available, blue iris is running at 100% cpu and causing my computer to completely lock up. This is while idle, no cameras recording. Typically, the cpu usage while no cameras are recording is around 25% or less.

If I kill blue iris, the computer is back to normal. Once I restart blue iris, it goes crazy and uses up all the memory and cpu.

What's the deal? Can I roll back the update? Anyone else have this issue just pop up?

 

[Probird79]

This is a known memory leak issue that is talked about on the forum frequently. You need to rollback a driver. Search the forum for further information, you will find a copious amount.

 

[Q™]

Search Results for Query: "memory leak" | IP Cam Talk

 

[CorporalCuddler]

So I've searched and read many posts about this memory leak issue. The most common solutions/proposed solutions are ...

1. Turn off hardware acceleration.
That's not even an option on my computer, so nothing to turn off.

2. Roll back the graphics driver.
Driver version was - 10.18.10.3345
had some issues installing drivers from Intel, so I went to Toshiba's website and installed
driver version - 10.18.10.3308
This appeared to help. Until about 15 minutes later, up to 100% cpu utilization. So, it didn't help.


This issue began when I restarted blue iris and clicked to install the newest updates. I'm running version - 4.6.4.12 x64
I see on Blue Iris Updates that they have versions - 3.66.00 and 2.64.00
Maybe installing one of these legacy versions might help ... I don't know.


Other than that, I don't know what to do.

Is there anything else to look for that I missed?

Here's what I'm working with, though it's probably not useful to anyone else ...

Intel Core i3-3120M dual core 2.5GHz
RAM - 6GB
64-bit OS, Windows 8.1

Intel HD Graphics 4000
Driver version - 10.18.10.3345 (just changed to 10.18.10.3308)


I've had the full, paid, version of blue iris running smoothly for about 9 months now, so this is aggravating and irritating, that it would suddenly fall into this memory leak issue. Anyway, I'm trying to figure it out. If anyone has any helpful input, I would appreciate it.

The only thing I can think of that is left, is to reinstall Windows and/or a legacy version of Blue Iris.

 

[fenderman]

So I've searched and read many posts about this memory leak issue. The most common solutions/proposed solutions are ...

1. Turn off hardware acceleration.
That's not even an option on my computer, so nothing to turn off.

2. Roll back the graphics driver.
Driver version was - 10.18.10.3345
had some issues installing drivers from Intel, so I went to Toshiba's website and installed
driver version - 10.18.10.3308
This appeared to help. Until about 15 minutes later, up to 100% cpu utilization. So, it didn't help.


This issue began when I restarted blue iris and clicked to install the newest updates. I'm running version - 4.6.4.12 x64
I see on Blue Iris Updates that they have versions - 3.66.00 and 2.64.00
Maybe installing one of these legacy versions might help ... I don't know.


Other than that, I don't know what to do.

Is there anything else to look for that I missed?

Here's what I'm working with, though it's probably not useful to anyone else ...

Intel Core i3-3120M dual core 2.5GHz
RAM - 6GB
64-bit OS, Windows 8.1

Intel HD Graphics 4000
Driver version - 10.18.10.3345 (just changed to 10.18.10.3308)


I've had the full, paid, version of blue iris running smoothly for about 9 months now, so this is aggravating and irritating, that it would suddenly fall into this memory leak issue. Anyway, I'm trying to figure it out. If anyone has any helpful input, I would appreciate it.

The only thing I can think of that is left, is to reinstall Windows and/or a legacy version of Blue Iris.

1 - its an option on every computer since you enable and disable hardware acceleration within blue iris.
2- you need to google or read the threads on how to install the proper driver...since you have a toshiba oem version of windows it will block some drivers...there are workarounds discussed....this is why its best to ALWAYS do a clean install of windows using the MS media creation tool. While you are at it, upgrade to w10.
you dont want to run BI3 or 2.

 

[CorporalCuddler]

1 - its an option on every computer since you enable and disable hardware acceleration within blue iris.
2- you need to google or read the threads on how to install the proper driver...since you have a toshiba oem version of windows it will block some drivers...there are workarounds discussed....this is why its best to ALWAYS do a clean install of windows using the MS media creation tool.
you dont want to run BI3 or 2.

1. In blue iris, I have "no" selected, or whatever the exact wording is. I was referring to my graphics driver options. There was no option for hardware acceleration. But, yes, I have it turned off in the Blue Iris settings.

2. A clean install is possible ... I'm not familiar with the MS media creation tool. I'll look into that

But, again, I'm still puzzled on why this would seemingly come out of nowhere after 9 months of no issues. I'd just like to know the root cause.

 

[fenderman]

1. In blue iris, I have "no" selected, or whatever the exact wording is. I was referring to my graphics driver options. There was no option for hardware acceleration. But, yes, I have it turned off in the Blue Iris settings.

2. A clean install is possible ... I'm not familiar with the MS media creation tool. I'll look into that

before doing a clean install, do an in place update to w10. Accessibility at Microsoft
make sure it activates, then do a complete clean install of w10 using the creation tool...
windows likely updated the graphics driver..
or if your cpu pegs at 100 percent even after a reboot, then its not the driver at all...something else is going on...a clean install is always the first place to start.

 

[bp2008]

By the way you should deactivate Blue Iris before updating to win10 so you can re-activate with the same key afterward. If you've lost your license key you can recover it with this tool: Releases · bp2008/biupdatehelper · GitHub

 

[Rockford622]

Correct me if I am wrong, but the display driver memory leak issue has never been a "start BI and I'm at 100% CPU" problem, it has always been a gradual increase in CPU usage over hours. 15 minutes seems very quick, unless others have had similar experiences.

For what it's worth, I had this issue twice and settled on video driver version 20.19.15.4463 for my Intel HD Graphics 530 video adapter.

 

[bp2008]

That is right, you'd have to be at the memory limit already for the memory leak to have an instant effect on CPU usage.

 

[jcraigcx]

The same thing happened to me this weekend. System running perfectly around 35% CPU typical. After update and reboot its idling at about 50% and pegs the CPU at 100% during playback. Its missing obvious trigger events, I'm guessing due to high CPU. I love this product and its been rock solid so this kind of issue doesn't scare me at all, but I would like to roll back for the time being. I didn't know about BIUpdateHelper so haven't been running that. Is there another way to roll back?

 

[bp2008]

There is a guy who set up a server hosting several recent update files. His newest one is a month old.
blueiris.rudisillnetworks.net - /ftp/

 

[Jeff Billimek]

Ever since the version of blue iris was released with the new feature to 'limit decoding unless required' (4.6.4?), there has definitely been a change with CPU consumption. CPU usage stayed flat prior to that version. After that version, CPU usage climbed until it hit 100%, blue iris restarted, and then it climbed again, etc.

The only way to combat this new behavior, for me, was to turn on the new 'limit decoding unless required' feature. As of 4.6.4.12 this CPU issue still exists unless 'limit decoding unless required' is enabled.

 

[bp2008]

Nice graph. What are you using to make that?

 

[Jeff Billimek]

Nice graph. What are you using to make that?

The dedicated windows server where Blue Iris runs has a telegraf service running and emitting metrics to an influxDB on a different server. The graph is generated from the influxDB data in grafana using this template.

 

[bp2008]

Do you also have a graph of memory usage, just to confirm it isn't the intel graphics driver memory leak?

Sometimes Windows just loves to overwrite your working driver with a version that has the memory leak.

 

[Guitarist155]

Same thing happening here, memory is climbing as is cpu. Started right after most recent update. No issues before this.

If I remember Correctly my limit decoding feature is turned on but I will have to check. Luckily I have enough ram and cpu to keep it going a day or so before maxing

 

[Jeff Billimek]

Do you also have a graph of memory usage, just to confirm it isn't the intel graphics driver memory leak?

Sometimes Windows just loves to overwrite your working driver with a version that has the memory leak.

Hey bp2008, memory usage did increase (by noting that the 'available bytes' decreased) during the time of 4.6.4+ and 'limit decoding' turned off:

(edit) Here is a better memory usage graph of the blue iris process with notations of 4.6.4 installation and 'limit decoding' turned on and off:

 

[jcraigcx]

Love the graphs and insight. I'll try enabling the limit decoding feature tonight and see what happens.

 

[Q™]

In my case, running 4.6.4.12 does not result in a 100% CPU spike -- however -- 4.6.4.12 does appear to result in my i7-6700 CPU running approximately 10% to 20% higher than 4.6.4.11. As a result, I've downgraded to 4.6.4.11 for the time being.