[Major problem] Blender completely freezes/crashes computer when orbiting. Need help

I’m in a huge bind here, Blender is causing my computer to completely freeze up ( Requiring a power cycle / computer restart ) whenever I orbit around an object. I can orbit for maybe 5~30 seconds before my computer freezes up. It starts with Blender freezing, then five seconds later my mouse will freeze, my keyboard will freeze, and then I have to press the reset/power button on my computer. This happens regardless of what file I am working on or working on a new file.

I have no idea what is causing this. This computer used to have no problems with blender, and there have been zero hardware changes or OS upgrades or anything significant I can think of. It just randomly started doing this one day and it has completely killed my ability to use Blender in any way.

I Have tried the following with no luck:

-Ran a Furmark benchmark test and tried other GPU intensive programs ( 3DSMAX runs fine, games like Tribes Ascend run fine, etc. ) to see to see if anything is wrong with my GPU ( No problems found )

-Reinstalled/Rolled back/Uninstalled/Updated my video drivers many times with different versions tried. ( No difference made. Blender will crash like this no matter what state my drivers are in. )

-Scanned for viruses/malware ( Nothing found )

-Tried different versions of Blender ( 2.60, 2.63, Various graphicall builds ) All of them froze up.

-Tried running blender under factory settings to see if it was some obscure memory option I accidentally ticked ( Still freezes )

-Tried running blender with fraps. Here is where something strange happened, or maybe totally normal? I have no idea? When using fraps to test blenders FPS, fraps will display an FPS of zero. as soon as I start to orbit in 3D view, fraps shows my FPS shooting up to 300~400 followed by a computer crash. I have never tested blender with fraps before so I have no idea if this is normal or is telling me something.

My specs are:

8 GB ram
Phenom II 975 3.6 Ghz quad core
Radeon HD-6750 1GB
Windows 7 Ult 64bit
ASRock M3A770DE Motherboard
25% free HD space

Any help at all would be much appreciated. I have no idea what is going on or how I got so unlucky with such an obscure bug.

I just reinstalled Windows and it still crashes. What could that mean?

Hard crashes are often overheating. Check the fans aren’t clogged with dust or anything else which might cause the CPU to get too hot. Bad ram could also be an issue, but with these problems you’d notice a global problem as opposed to a specifically Blender one.

Your Windows install of Blender: is the the installer one (goes system wide) or the portable zip version? Generally, I go for the portable versions because they aren’t as likely to leave system wide traces of anything.

How about you try running a Boot disk version of Linux, and see whether Blender performs better from there (as opposed to Windows). Some Live distros are even specifically made with Blender users in mind (e.g. http://www.blenderboot.com ).

It works fine in Linux.

That probably means my hardware isn’t failing on me, which is nice to know, but now to figure out what to do with windows.

Okay - so are you using the installer version or the zip, and does switching to the other make a difference?

I am actually using both the installer, the zip, and I also tried a zipped version from graphicall ( the 64bit “Fastest build” one made by alb3530 ) and all of them crash.

I’m not sure if my last reply went through or not due to the mod approval thing. There are some new things to say.

I am using both the Installed version and multiple different zipped versions. I have tried uninstalling/reinstalling. I Have tried every version of Blender I have ( 2.60 official zipped, 2.63 r47458 zipped, 2.63 official installed ) and all of them crash. I have tried uninstalling blender completely and just using the zipped versions with no official version installed and they still crashed as well.

If all versions of Blender (e.g. installer and zip versions) are crashing on one OS (windows) but not for another (linux) then you’ve pretty much narrowed the issue down to graphic card drivers. Check if there are any updates.

Unfortunately, GPU drivers was the first thing I tried and since this issue started I have gone through AMD catalyst versions 12.2, 12.4, 12.6, and even the 12.7 beta driver. All of them still cause blender to crash. I even went through the trouble of using CCcleaner and Windows installer Cleanup utility ensuring my old versions of AMD drivers were gone before each consectutive upgrade/rollback/reinstall. It still crashes.

I should note that since reinstalling Win7, there is now a slight difference. Instead of just freezing, after about 20 seconds the screen will go black and windows will then bluescreen and automatically shutoff.

Upon restart I get this:


Problem signature:
  Problem Event Name:    BlueScreen
  OS Version:    6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
  Locale ID:    1033
Additional information about the problem:
  BCCode:    116
  BCP1:    FFFFFA800826D4E0
  BCP2:    FFFFF88003F21250
  BCP3:    0000000000000000
  BCP4:    0000000000000002
  OS Version:    6_1_7600
  Service Pack:    0_0
  Product:    256_1

A dump file gets created

Using windbg gives me this:



*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

<b>VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE (116)
Attempt to reset the display driver and recover from timeout failed.</b>
Arguments:
Arg1: fffffa800826d4e0, Optional pointer to internal TDR recovery context (TDR_RECOVERY_CONTEXT).
Arg2: fffff88003f21250, The pointer into responsible device driver module (e.g. owner tag).
Arg3: 0000000000000000, Optional error code (NTSTATUS) of the last failed operation.
Arg4: 0000000000000002, Optional internal context dependent data.

Debugging Details:
------------------


FAULTING_IP: 
atikmpag+9250
fffff880`03f21250 4055            push    rbp

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  GRAPHICS_DRIVER_TDR_FAULT

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT:  1

BUGCHECK_STR:  0x116

PROCESS_NAME:  System

CURRENT_IRQL:  0

STACK_TEXT:  
fffff880`0213d9c8 fffff880`052aaef8 : 00000000`00000116 fffffa80`0826d4e0 fffff880`03f21250 00000000`00000000 : nt!KeBugCheckEx
fffff880`0213d9d0 fffff880`052aac02 : fffff880`03f21250 fffffa80`0826d4e0 fffffa80`096cd1e0 fffffa80`08688410 : dxgkrnl!TdrBugcheckOnTimeout+0xec
fffff880`0213da10 fffff880`05351f07 : fffffa80`0826d4e0 00000000`00000000 fffffa80`096cd1e0 fffffa80`08688410 : dxgkrnl!TdrIsRecoveryRequired+0x1a2
fffff880`0213da40 fffff880`0537bb75 : 00000000`ffffffff 00000000`00029338 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000002 : dxgmms1!VidSchiReportHwHang+0x40b
fffff880`0213db20 fffff880`0537a2bb : 00000000`00000102 00000000`00000000 00000000`00029338 00000000`00000000 : dxgmms1!VidSchiCheckHwProgress+0x71
fffff880`0213db50 fffff880`0534d2c6 : ffffffff`ff676980 fffffa80`08688410 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : dxgmms1!VidSchiWaitForSchedulerEvents+0x1fb
fffff880`0213dbf0 fffff880`05379e7a : 00000000`00000000 fffffa80`096cd1e0 00000000`00000080 fffffa80`08688410 : dxgmms1!VidSchiScheduleCommandToRun+0x1da
fffff880`0213dd00 fffff800`02d776e6 : 00000000`fffffc32 fffffa80`08bd3b60 fffffa80`06b2c890 fffffa80`08bd3b60 : dxgmms1!VidSchiWorkerThread+0xba
fffff880`0213dd40 fffff800`02ab6566 : fffff880`02f64180 fffffa80`08bd3b60 fffff880`02f6efc0 fffff880`01239534 : nt!PspSystemThreadStartup+0x5a
fffff880`0213dd80 00000000`00000000 : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : nt!KiStartSystemThread+0x16

So we now know it is the GPU driver for windows. Problem is, I Have already reinstalled windows ( and it was a clean install ) and I have already tried multiple combinations of drivers.

So I am completely stumped. It feels bad to have to buy a new GPU just for blender, but I am starting to suspect that may be the only way out of this mess unless anyone has any other ideas.

My only other clue here is my GPU usage. Upon monitoring it my GPU instantly spikes to 95~100% usage when I am orbiting in blenders 3D view, and 0% when I am not orbiting. Not sure if this is normal or if a setting can change this. Considering how poor I am, I really don’t want to upgrade my GPU until I am completely sure it will both fix the problem and is the only way to do so.

With multiple Blenders doing the same crash on Windows but not on Linux with same hardware, it pretty much had to be the graphics drivers; glad your dump has confirmed this.

  • Sooner or later, when you get really into 3D, you’re going to want to build your hardware just because of your 3D package. That may not be now (affordability and all that) but just know that one day it will bug you so much that… :wink:
  • Your card may actually have a GPU fault… if it’s on warantee, returning it for another may fix the issue
  • Otherwise, you’re pretty much at the mercy of them pushing another driver out which may fix the problem.
  • You still have the option to boot into Linux when you want to run Blender. No need to have a hard drive install if you’re using a boot disc distro like BlenderBoot: It runs off a DVD (or USB stick) all set up and running Blender out of the box.
  • There are other options to run Blender in “software mode” (try looking for a “software-gl” executable within the install directory). This means you won’t get GPU benefits and speed but you should at least get it running.

My card is on warantee and It worked in the past, this just one day started happening. It’s hard to imagine a fault that only shows in blender, but then again blender is the only thing I have that spikes my GPU usage like this. I think I will try to return the card for anew due to my lack of funds.

Another thing you can check as a temporary solution:

Go into User Preferences -> System

and make sure Compute Device (lower-left corner) is set to something sane for your hardware. Definitely don’t want CUDA with an AMD card. I’m not sure about OpenCL (don’t know if or how well AMD supports this) but None will be your safest choice… Hopefully not your ONLY choice.

OpenCL is available but blender crashes with either CPU or GPU checked. The problem is in the 3D viewport which spikes my GPU usage regardless of the compute device.

MAJOR UPDATE

I managed to get a deal where I turned in my old card, paid 50$ and got a HD 6850, which is definitely a better performer all around. I installed the latest Drivers for it, which is catalyst 12.8. Note that an HD 6850 uses the same driver package as an HD 6750, but not exactly the same drivers as I had to reinstall catalyst to get it to work.

However…

Guess what.

It.

Still.

Crashes.

:spin::spin::spin::spin::spin::spin::spin::spin::spin::spin::spin::spin::spin:

Sort of. It no longer completely freezes my system. What happens with the HD 6850 installed is now only Blender will crash every now and then while orbiting and the rest of my system stays fine. System freezes, screen flashes, Then I get a message stating the 6850 Driver has recovered but blender remains broken. The computer does not restart.

I am completely lost and stumped. It has to be something else that makes it seem like the GPU when it really is not the GPU… but what???

Could be system memory. Run memtest. If memory is ok then could be virtual memory. Reset pagefile. Note pagefile settings, set to no pagefile on all drives, reboot, reset pagefile values from note.

memtest found no errors with 6 passes and changes to the pagefile made no difference. still crashes.

hi, this happens to me also quite regularly.
you are not alone.

I am using 249b as well as new Blender263 without any problem.
But One of my computer has some virus. It destroys executable files. What I do, Install Blender and copy the Blender.exe as B.txt
and Just after installation I open Blender. When I close Blender and next time I have to open, I remove Blender.exe and copy b.txt to b.exe and just after copying I execute it before the virus attack. It works for both versions of Blender.

Please check you may be having some virus.

What are your specs?