Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) when encoding video?
 

Hello,

I have a fairly recent PC with i7 processor and 4 GB RAM.

However, the PC started to crash and showing the blue screen of death every time I start a CPU intensive activity such as encoding.

Thinking that it could be due to overheating CPU, I removed all dust inside the system unit. My BIOS shows CPU Temperature as 58 C - 53 C and Motherboard Temperature as 37 C.

When I ran the PC in Safe Mode, encoding is going on fine, no blue screen.

Please help.

Overheating is what I'm thinking, too.

What heat sink are you using? A better one may be needed. The freebie that comes with CPUs is usually pathetic, should be discarded.

Which exact i7 processor?

Sometimes it's as simple as removing the heatsink, reapplying new paste, and re-seating it on the CPU. Cheap paste can turn to powder, and disappear over time. Sometimes CPUs come with decent paste, sometimes not. Any idea what you were using?

However, all that said, safe mode is mostly disabling drivers and programs that run in the background. Perhaps it's still from overheating, thus overuse, meaning something else is pushing it over the top. Use procmon.exe (Microsoft Process Monitor) and see what else is using the high CPU.

I caught Windows Update eating a whole CPU core earlier this year, undetected by Task Manager. ProcMon saw it. The CPU fan kept running high for "no reason". I've since disabled Windows Update. I run it manually when needed, and re-disable afterwards. That was ridiculous. You may have a similar gremlin eating your CPU.

Do you have a graphics card in the system?

"Show processes from all users" should force Task Manager to unhide Windows services.

Thank you LS for the quick reply.

This PC was custom-built by purchasing parts separately. I am using the heatsink (CPU fan??) that came with the CPU. If I have to buy a better after-market heatsink, what would be my most economical yet effective brand and model?

It is Intel Core i7-4790K @ 4.00 GHz. I did not do any kind of overclocking.

I did this. Removed the heatsink, scrapped the paste and applied new paste and put the heatsink back. But the thermal paste I used is a very cheap one. An unrecognizable brand. [/quote]

I will check this and come back with results.

There is no graphics processor in the system.

-- merged --

I have an update and still worried. I replaced the stock heatsink with s Cooler Master Hyper 103 (this is what will fit my case). Now the idle temperatures are around 40c and 88-95c while encoding using Handbrake. Are these temperatures safe for the CPU? After installing the new heatsink, the blue screen is not coming though. Something else is at fault? I am not sure how to find out the culprit...

I wasn't sure how to use ProcMon...it's interface was too overwhelming for me.

-- merged --

An update: I got the CPU and Motherboard replaced in warranty and everything is fine. With the Cooler Master Hyper 103 heatsink, the CPU is running cooler as well.