Lockup Xnormal and Maya
polycounter lvl 6
Hi guys, I've run into a problem and was hoping someone could help me out. A while back my computer started locking up during long batch renders with Maya. It always locked up on frame 9 of a turntable render. I could render in batches of 8 frames no problem, but nothing more.
Then today while baking a rather lengthy AO map in Xnormal it did the same thing, locking up after a while. This is the only time I've ever had any issues with this computer. Its seems like anytime I have a long render is when it locks up. Maybe some sort of memory problem? This has just started recently and after getting a virus that completely took this system out. Scans have come back clean but it hasn't been the same sense. Any ideas?
Then today while baking a rather lengthy AO map in Xnormal it did the same thing, locking up after a while. This is the only time I've ever had any issues with this computer. Its seems like anytime I have a long render is when it locks up. Maybe some sort of memory problem? This has just started recently and after getting a virus that completely took this system out. Scans have come back clean but it hasn't been the same sense. Any ideas?
Replies
Try going back into your BIOS, and turning on full memory check if it's off.
Thanks for the reply! That's exactly what I was thinking as well. I ran a memory diagnostic last night and it came back fine. So this morning I tried baking the AO with only XNormal running and nothing else up in the background. It worked fine so go figure. I still cant do a lengthy batch render in Maya but fortunately I don't have a need for that very often at all. Its probably time to upgrade, this system is old and tired.
Another thing you could try is adding the 3gb switch to your boot.ini file. It will allocate more memory to whatever application you are using. Basically Windows only allows up to 2gb of memory per app, and the switch allows up up to 3gb per app. What's interesting, is even if you don't have more than 2gb of memorry, it can still help.
A guy at work had a ZTool that he couldn't open on his machine cuz it was too big, so we added the switch and he was able to open it. His machine only had 2gb of RAM, so in theory, it shouldn't have mattered, but it enabled him to open the large file.
This might not work if you've only got 512 of RAM or some small amount, but worth a try. Here's my original boot.ini...
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
and here's the line I added beneath it to give me the option of more RAM allocation.....
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional 3GB" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect/3GB/USERVA=2816
(the USERVA part is allocating some memory to my video card)
Obviously, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK, and do your homework and learn about this before you jump in and do it. I've used this for years and never had any problems. For guys like us on our outdated machines, every little bit helps
Just consider to switch to a 64-bits OS and CPU. 32 bits is soooooooo 2000...
About the lock ups there are some possible causes:
1. Your system in unstable. Just run a 24h MemTest for Windows, OCCT/wPrime/Orthos and see what happens.
2. Old deprecated Windows OS ( like is XP ) wasn't designed for multi-core CPUs. For AMD probably you'll need their multicore patch. Just switch to a modern-designed OS like Windows 7 x64.
3. Memory disk swapping. If you run out of RAM then Windows will start flushing data to the hard disk... that will slow all the processes.
4. Antivirus. I've seen AVs to make the OS very slow, unresponsive and out of RAM. Just do a simple test: disable/uninstall the AV a moment and see if that helps. Once you finished the test, re-enable/re-install it immediatly.
5. Automatic updates. Sure you always have your OS updated. On the other hand, set Windows Update to manual install. Perhaps Windows Update(or AV update or defragmentation) is taking place in the moment you are rendering... and that will slow the computation a lot.
6. If you use a SSD, be sure you have half the disk unused. In that way any write operation could be done without having to trim the data.
7. Clean up the Windows's startup. A lot or programs can start when you log in. Just be sure you have not a zillion of programs running in the moment you start Windows. Use the msconfig.exe