Encoding problems

[El Barto619]

'Ello,

My PC seems to have a real problem with Video Encoding every time I try I just get a Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) and I'm almost certain it's a hardware or driver problem rather than a Windows one as using the same software to do the same task on different machiens using Windows works and I've had this problem on this computer with Windows XP, Vista Ultimate x64 and Windows 7 RC1 x64.

I'm hoping someone could help me diagnose what the problem is and give me an idea as to where to start to try and fix it. The messages I get on the BSoD seem to change each time but more often than not it says there is a Memory_Management problem or a problem with ntfs.sys.

I'll give a few examples of what causes the problems, I was copying a DVD from my Graduation over to my PC using Handbreak and that caused a BSoD, videos which I already have on my PC from holidays I was trying to change the format of so I could stream it through my Xbox 360 also causes the problem. Another one which is getting very annoying is when I edit home movies using Adobe Premiere Elements saving the edited version out as a .mpg (or any other format) causes my machine to BSoD as well.

Thank you for reading and thank you in advance for any advice.

[minidv2dvd]

get a temperature monitoring program like coretemp. start watching it when doing cpu intensive tasks. get a ram memory testing program like memtest and run it. could be overheating/ a bad memory module/ or other.

[El Barto619]

'Ello,

It looks like you are right and it was a heat issue I used CoreTemp to check the temp of the CPU cores while it was encoding the video and when it gets to about 65C - 68C I get the BSoD, the processor is only rated to 62.2C.

I think the reason for it is my own fault as by the looks of things I haven't put the thermal paste on evenly because out of the four cores I have two will over heat and two won't, if I set the computer to only use the two that don't get as hot it works fine, so I'm going to reapply it.

Also I already did a MemTest and the memory was fine so it was definatly the CPU over heating

Thanks alot in helping me with this , I kept thinking it was a problem with RAM and never thought to check the CPU.

[tomlee59]

Use only the thinnest layer that covers everything. This is a case where more is not necessarily better.

Also make sure that your airflow is unimpeded. Clear out all dust bunnies, make sure vents aren't blocked, get cables out of the airflow path (if it's a desktop), etc. Makes a huge difference.

[poisondeathray]

65-68 C is unlikely to be the cause of BSOD. What model is your processor? Thermal specs for most are usually >90-100

One of the most common causes is video card driver conflicts. I would download the newest drivers from your vendor's website

Another common cause already mentioned is bad memory. I would run memtest86+ again from a dos boot disc (running it in OS will miss sections) for a few hours

Also some drivers might be causing issues with Win7 beta