Hardware transcoding (QuickSync) causing server crash

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
63

I took @mmmmbop’s advice and disabled Intel HD Graphics and Device Manager, and no more crashes. My other GPU is AMD RX 460.

64

I’ve got the same issue, crashes all the way back to 1.17.0.1841 with HW transcoding enabled.
running on a Intel 620.

Also updated to 1.18.3.2111 - same issue.

65

There are two different crashes at the moment when using intel hardware transcoding. One has been confirmed to be resolved by going back to an earlier intel driver and the other is an issue that is still with our development team.

Both are mentioned in my earlier post here Hardware transcoding (QuickSync) causing server crash

66

Reverted back to the following driver number: 26.20.100.7000.

This seems to have resolved my issue, although I’ve only tried streaming for a few minutes.

But before downgrading the driver I’d have an instant plex crash.

Thanks for the tip!

67

CONFIRMED~!!! This fixed the issue with Plex HW crashing, disabling intel HD graphics in device manager fixed the issue. Now HW acceleration works!!!

68

Thank you! I disabled the Intel GPU and my crashes went away! I can now use HW transcoding without any issues.

69

Thank you for this. My HW transcoding dies yesterday and I was beating my head against the wall to figure out why. Disabled Intel 4000 in the BIOS since i use a dedicated card and all is well again. Thanks for you post!

70

We now have a fix for one of the causes of crashes relating to intel graphics and hardware acceleration

See release note for beta 1.18.3.2156-349e9837e which was released earlier today Plex Media Server

  • Fix crash on Windows with Intel graphics adapter and hardware acceleration enabled (#10736)

Until I hear otherwise, we have two causes for the hardware acceleration related crashes:

(it will be good to know if the new 1.18.3.2156 beta does crash with the later intel drivers)

1 Like
71

Thanks for the update.

Good news: the new release seems to work well with hardware accelerated transcoding. Sources videos tested: H.264, MPEG2 .ts 720p, and MPEG2 .ts 1080i.

Less good news: as mentioned in a different thread tracking this issue, if I connect to my Windows system via RDP at all after a reboot, even after I disconnect the RDP session, Plex server crashes when I start playing a video that needs transcoding.

72

There are two solutions until now after several days searching on this forum.

  1. downgrade your drive to xxx.7000
  2. use other methods to connect your server other than RDP. ( didn’t try this personally)

Good luck.

73

Thanks for trying.

With 1.18.4 beta, there is now a new Server Advanced Transcoder setting for hardware encoding. One thing to try now is disabling this and keeping Hardware Acceleration enabled to see if this avoids the crashes when running as a Service or running headless via RDP and could be the way to configure hardware transcoding

See release notice for 1.18.4.2164

  • (Preferences) Enable “Use hardware-accelerated video encoding” by default.
74

Thanks, I won’t get to try the beta until later. I need Plex server to be up this evening to provide some entertainment!

Note that my system isn’t completely headless. It has an AMD GPU connected to a TV but the Intel HD 4600 output is the side that’s headless.

For now, at least I know to avoid RDP. I could switch to VNC as someone else suggested but I’ll check out the beta.

75

Consolidating all info relating to crashes and hardware acceleration

Following the test of new Intel driver by @Geran and previous feedback from @d0cx, we now have a conclusion to these crashes.

So to summarize the fixes for Plex Media Server crashes when hardware acceleration is in use

  1. Intel Graphics Adapter Driver bug - leading to crash of the Plex Media Server process in module igdumdim32.dll

This is now fixed in the latest driver - this table shows the versions and which version fixes the crash

image
See https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/29274/Intel-Graphics-Windows-10-DCH-Drivers?product=197599 (or equivalent)

  1. Plex Media Server bug leading to crashes when testing the intel graphics adapter with hardware acceleration enabled

This was fixed as from Plex Media Server 1.18.3.2156-349e9837e Plex Media Server

  • Fix crash on Windows with Intel graphics adapter and hardware acceleration enabled (#10736)
  1. There may be still be crashes when running Plex Media Server headless through RDP or as a Service or Scheduled Task.

For these, as from version 1.18.4.2164 of Plex Media Server, there is a new Advanced Setting for the Transcoder that allows user to disable Hardware Encoding whilst leaving Hardware Acceleration enabled and used for decoding. That would be a better option than disabling all hardware acceleration in such environment

See Plex Media Server

  • (Preferences) Enable “Use hardware-accelerated video encoding” by default.
2 Likes
76

Is there any chance you can expand on why the encoding is still an issue while hardware decoding works fine in this type of setup? Also, is this crash specific to RDP or does it affect other remote control clients?

I am so happy after reading this thread to see that there looks to finally be a fix for my hardware transcoding crashes. Thank you for investigating this issue!!

77

That level of detail would be really helpful:
— Is this crash specific to RDP or does it effect all remote control clients?

I use RDP extensively because my Plex server is hooked up to nothing. Am I going to be successful with these drivers, and/or do I need to buy an HDMI headless/dummy monitor?

78

So I use RDP for my set up. I have the dummy displayport plug and I am not having any issues with the newest driver.

79

Which driver, exactly? 26.20.100.7584? And for what hardware generation?

80

Is there a reason there isnt a checkbox for hw decoding as well?

81

My understanding is the encoding needed a desktop session with the drivers loaded and that this would not be the case when Plex Media Server is run as a Service or as Scheduled Task or through RDP

1 Like
82

There were 3 different types of crashes manifesting themselves differently within the crash dumps. The 3rd on my list is the one relating to running headless. This would be the case when Plex Media Server is run as service or as Scheduled Task or through RDP

My understanding is that the encoder would not be loaded if there is no desktop session on windows.