[MPlayer-users] mencoder often COMPLETLY locks up my machine

[Matijs van Zuijlen]

On Fri, May 17, 2002 at 04:05:19PM -0400, Diego Zuccato wrote:
> [Automatic answer: RTFM (read DOCS, FAQ), also read DOCS/bugreports.html]
> Jukka Tastula wrote:
> 
> > > Often (w/ about 1/3 probability) mencoder completly locks up my machine
> > > while encoding a vcd (directly from cd or from an mplayer-ripped file
> > > doesen't matter).
> > This really sounds like a hardware problem. Are you overclocking your
> > cpu/memory (not enough cooling/voltage?)? Maybe your hdd is failing?
> > Too long IDE cables? Inadequate power supply?
> It's a laptop. It usually runs UNDERclocked. Never had lockup troubles,
> EXCEPT 4 times in 2 days, and ONLY when using mencoder... Not even when
> compiling the kernel... Quite strange that's NOT related to mencoder...
> BTW, RamStressTest reports no failures, kernel compiles well, mplayer
> works (except for trashing part of the video memory). So I'd look at
> ANYTHING but hardware :-)
> 
> > Anyway, it can't be mencoder's fault that your system locks up.
> > Maybe a kernel bug if its not the hardware?
> uhm... This might be. BUT what can it be ? It must be something that
> gets exposed JUST by mencoder. It's not related to VCD reading (mplayer
> dumped the stream without troubles), it's not related to CPU load... And
> it's something that gets stuck at 100% CPU use...

Some suggestions/questions:

Have you tried to telnet into your machine? Did it work?
Have you tried compling support for the magic sysrq key in the kernel?
That may help to kill runaway processes.
Are you running X when you run mencoder?
Does running mencoder exhaust memory? At some point the kernel will
start killing other processes to free some memory. I had some mysterous
lockups in the past that were probably related to that. Strangely,
upgrading my BIOS solved that problem.

Just my 2 cents...

-- 
Matijs van Zuijlen

    ... designed to fill holes or cracks of not more than two cubic vims.
			    -- Robert Sheckley, Untouched by Human Hands
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