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Linux freezes randomly during transcoding

Added by German Rincon almost 6 years ago

Hi,

I have an PC that I used several years with Windows (8.1 and 10), which never had a single freeze. Now I want to use it as a Tvheadend server with transcoding. I was able to configure VAAPI hardware transcoding and it works fine. However, the machine is freezing randomly, only during transcoding, it could work for several minutes or hours, but after a random time it stops responding (no network response, nothing in the console, etc.). Also there is nothing in the logs, both in Tvheadend and in the Linux logs. I must power it off using the power button. I tried the following:

- Update the BIOS (upgrading and downgrading), I used almost all available versions
- Tested the memory, didn´t find issues
- Replaced the Linux distribution, to discard kernel version problems. I used Debian Jessie, Debian Strecht and Ubuntu Bionic
- Disabling all not needed hardware in the BIOS
- Increased the memory voltage to 1.65 (according some similar issue reported)
- Added a fan (as this is a fanless system). It maintains temp below 45 celsius
- Changed the power supply by a more powerful one
- Connected the DVB-T2 stick to a powered USB hub

None of these actions has helped, it continues freezing. Could you please suggest other things to test?

The following is the configuration I use:

Asrock Q1900-ITX motherboard with 4 Gb RAM - Intel J1900 processor (https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Q1900-ITX/)
Geniatech T230 DVB-T2 USB stick
Tvheadend 4.3-1733~g7d3aa1194 compiled with VAAPI support

Thanks!


Replies (26)

RE: Linux freezes randomly during transcoding - Added by German Rincon over 5 years ago

Just to follow up on this, I decided to get another motherboard and RAM, I found a good deal in a J4005 board (https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/J4005B-ITX/index.asp) and installed 4G RAM on it. With this new board I had no single freeze during transcoding, so this issue is related to the previous hardware and compativility with VAAPI. Thanks for your support.

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