-1

I'm doing very time consuming ffmpeg video editing. That's why I put my commands into a .bat batch file and run them over night. Usually that works fine, but from time to time when I look the next moring I see an error message of this kind:

enter image description here

From that state on, I didn't find any good way to close the console. When I press the [x] button in the top right corner, it freezes. When I try to kill the application using the task manager nothing happens. Even explorer.exe cannot be closed using the task manager. A shutdown won't do anything. During the last month I had this problem about three times and the only way I could close it was to long press the power button of the computer until it was turned off "the bad way".

Any ideas what to in such situations?
Or even better: How to prevent those situations? What can the reason(s) be for the error? Do you understand the message?

When the computer is started again the next morining and I run the same .bat file again everything works fine. So the same error does not repeat and the video is edited nicely!

Edit: Now, about one week after posting this question the problem occurred many more times! It is very annoying. I guess it has to do with the external hard drive connected by USB. Sometimes it randomly interrupts the connection! That might be the reason for the behavior. Whatever its causing the error, I want to learn a solution how to deal with this in future. I don't want to always push the reset button of my computer. I want a proper way to be able to shut it down.

Sam
  • 15,254
  • 25
  • 90
  • 145
principal-ideal-domain
  • 3,998
  • 8
  • 36
  • 73

1 Answers1

1

To narrow down the cause, what is causing this error, and what is not, here is a list of seven seven seemingly isolated solutions that each alone or all together should fix your problem:

  1. The .bat Batch File
    Apparently there is nothing wrong with your coded .bat batch files. If that was the case, then none of your past videos would have rendered. But just to be sure, try to run your .bat in a different laptop or computer on the heaviest and most demanding video editing project files just to make sure that the .bat files in fact and without a doubt flawless.
  1. The Computer CPU
    Make sure that your CPU runs flawlessly not just for 30 minutes but for the hours long burn tests that are the video projects at night you mention. Poor contact between a concave or convex heatsink and cpu or lack of or too much of thermal paste can make cpu too hot and unstable during prolonged cpu intensive burn tests. A software like OCCT or Intel Burn Test should be able to run for hours in your case without a single fault.
  1. The Computer RAM
    To test your memory you can use MemTest86 or my favourite the open source MemTest86+ which should run for hours without a single memory error.
  1. The OS Integrity
    Run CMD as admin, and type chkdsk c: /f or chkdsk c: /f /r /x and press Y to check and repair (after a reboot) the local hard drive c: or any other partitions that are the source or destination of your rendering projects. When your computer encounters a sudden shutdown or detects a corrupted file system, sometimes this is the cause of a corrupted OS file. This checks for the integrity of the most important system files. Also sfc /scannow is another way to check System Files which scans and repairs system files.
  1. The Harddrive
    Connect your external drive locally, and run both a short and deep long test to make sure the harddrive has zero cluster faults. A SMART test from Crystical Disk Info famout for their Crystal Disk Test, can be a good way to see all the past errors on a Harddrive. Also, try to run the nightly batch files on the HDD connected internally. That way you can rule out the next item:
  1. The Cable Quality
    Cat rated UTP networking and USB cables are notoriously known for their poor manufacturing quality and low reliability. Not just over time, but new out of the box they can be the cause of disconnects, bad connections and low throughput. There is not something like they work 100% or they work 0%. Sometimes they sit right in between and "work, but to a degree" enough to be sold, with the absolute bare minimum and sometimes under minimum quality strands that are anything but cupper. So check your cables, replace the cables with other cables that you have laying around. CCA (Copper Cladded Aluminium) is the garbage to stay away from. Get proper Cupper only cables.
  1. USB to SATA (HDD) or M.2 NVMe (SSD) Adapter Chip
    Some USB-to-SATA adapters are notorious for their low stamina, stopping working when the adapter chips become exhausted in professional usage over prolonged continous workloads, resulting in disconnects even if they would be connected via a cupper USB 3.2 cable to the computer! The internet is full of forums with people having problems with older generation cheaper JMicron chips causing interruptions causing failures in copying files from or to the PC. Realtek chips are somewhat better, but often the solutions on the last page shows all problems went away when they bought an expensive adapter that uses an ASMedia chip.
Sam
  • 15,254
  • 25
  • 90
  • 145