Can't render to 2K resolution - Entire machine crashes

Support Lighting and Rendering
1

I have been trying to render an animated, low-poly VR/360 scene in Blender. When I test at lower res (1280x720 for e.g.) and get no issues however when I try for 2k About 10 mins into the render my computer reboots with no warning.

I have been working with our IT department to try and work out what is wrong and we are running out of ideas. The machine is only 7 months old

We have removed the security software, uninstalled and reinstalled blender, tried an older version of blender, updated and then reverted the drivers to an older state, reverted windows 10 to the previous version and still nothing has worked.

My PC specs -
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Processor: Intel® Xeon® CPU E3-1270 v5 @ 3.60GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.6GHz
Graphics card: NVIDIA Quadro M2000
Memory: 32GB RAM
1TB of hard drive space

It has 5 fans and all are clean

2

Probably should be in technical support since the post doesn’t even hint it would be a Blender problem. No version, render engine mentioned, no test file, and how the render is executed.

Could be anything from

  • windows/driver problem
  • to inefficient cooling paired with cautious max temperature setting in bios/uefi for safety shutdown,
  • to a faulty component. psu not being able to push power through some lines without overheating over time, or any other component,
  • or even an electrical problem with the mains if there’s a power peak/dip and psu is smart enough to protect the computer from it. Heavy load in the same power group could cause that, anything working with a powerful motor can do it.
3

What render engine are you using?
Are you using the CPU or GPU when rendering?
Does it crash rendering an animation or a still image?
If it crashed rendering an animation, can it render the frame it crashed on alone?
Is it the same frame that it crashes rendering?
Is it the same time after starting it crashes?
Does it crash only when rendering or has it happened doing other demanding computational tasks?
Are the OS power management settings set up not to turn stuff off?
Are you using resources on network locations for rendering?
Is there any info about the event in the OS logs (run %windir%\system32\eventvwr.msc)?
What are the GPU and CPU temperatures when it crashes?
How much RAM and vRAM is used when it crashes?
Is the machine overclocked?
Since you mentioned them, are the 5 fans blowing air in the right direction?
What ideas did the IT departament have?

4

What render engine are you using?

Cycles. I am doing a 360 test (which I should have mentioned in my initial post but failed to do so I am very sorry) I have just completed a render of the same file using cycles but turned off the stereo 3D settings and it finished without any issues
Are you using the CPU or GPU when rendering?
I have tried both and both crash

Does it crash rendering an animation or a still image?
Animation. Still image is fine

If it crashed rendering an animation, can it render the frame it crashed on alone?
Haven’t tried this to be honest as sometimes I have been away from my desk when it crashes.

Is it the same frame that it crashes rendering?
Frame varies

Is it the same time after starting it crashes?
between 10 and 15 mins after render starts

Does it crash only when rendering or has it happened doing other demanding computational tasks?
I have closed all windows and anything taking up CPU and memory that is in the background not touched the computer during render

Are the OS power management settings set up not to turn stuff off?
Sleep, hibernate etc. are all off I have checked other settings and they all seem to be off as well

Are you using resources on network locations for rendering?
No rendering is done locally on the PC

Is there any info about the event in the OS logs (run %windir%\system32\eventvwr.msc)?
“The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.”

What are the GPU and CPU temperatures when it crashes?
How do i find this?

How much RAM and vRAM is used when it crashes?
3.65

Is the machine overclocked?
How do I find this?

Since you mentioned them, are the 5 fans blowing air in the right direction?
Yes thwy are

What ideas did the IT departament have?
He think’s it’s a software conflict and is suggesting a rebuild.

5

I think it’s definatelly worth inverstigating the temperatures. I think MSI Afterburner that can be downloaded for free could be used for that. I would also check all of the power management settings to make sure none of devices are turned off to save power just in case, I don’t think it’s very likely.

I have closed all windows and anything taking up CPU and memory that is in the background not touched the computer during render
This should not be needed. You should be able to use the PC while rendering. I use multiple computers like that - if for example a dedicated GPU is rendering, the rest of the computer is not slower in any way and there are no reasons to not use it. I sometimes even run photogrammetric reconstruction that uses 3 of 4 CPU cores and one of the GPUs while rendering on another GPU while working on Photoshop. Not touching it should never be the solution.

It might also be a bug in Blender. Maybe trying to crash the machine just by stressing it would be a good idea to see that there are no problems with it.

If turning off the stereo 3D settings helps it might be a bug in Blender. Maybe you can render stereo cameras separately and that would be the solution?