Plex server crashing randomly. Win7 - Logs included

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Server Version#: 1.15.0.659
Player Version#: web client Version 3.77.4
If providing server logs please do NOT turn on verbose logging
–sorry, I’ve disabled verbose now and can provide another log bundle when it happens again

Plex Media Server Logs_2019-03-14_18-11-14.zip (3.3 MB)

This has been happening for some time now and I have no idea why, I’ve had Plex running fine for years. For some reason in the past few weeks/months (this year) the Plex icon in system tray disappears only when I move my mouse onto it. This is after noticing already that the service is down.

It can be during the day, or in the evening and seems to be happening every. single. day. So it cannot be related to maintenance.

I rarely notice it happening while I’m watching something, but users (3-4 that use it on the regular) tell me they have experienced interruptions. I can’t determine any type of trigger.

I able to restart PMS from start and it comes straight up and everything is working perfectly again.

I don’t see anything in event viewer for the time when it last went down (approx 3pm)

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

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PMS has crashed again, now without Verbose logs!

I always see people on the forums here banging on about, “if you have an issue, provide the logs” so here they are. :slight_smile:

Plex Media Server Logs_2019-03-14_22-27-37.zip (3.1 MB)

We also have an error in Event Viewer this time…

Faulting application name: Plex Transcoder.exe, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Faulting module name: avformat-58.dll, version: 58.9.100.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x001c32cb
Faulting process id: 0x233c
Faulting application start time: 0x01d4dacea2ada11f
Faulting application path: D:\Plex\Plex Transcoder.exe
Faulting module path: D:\Plex\avformat-58.dll
Report Id: 0c91d9a7-46c2-11e9-9889-d43d7e044f43

1 Like
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Usually the random crashes where it just disappears from task tray are related to conflicts with other apps DLLs. https://support.plex.tv/articles/206910047-windows-repeated-crashes-of-plex-media-server/

Afaik a transcoder crash would not cause all of PMS to crash. You can try turning off Hardware accelerated transcoding and see if things change when playin back same files.

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Further to the reply from @BigWheel - i can see server crashes at about 15:01 and 21:34 - in both cases the crash was whilst testing hardware transcoding API for dxva2

Mar 14, 2019 15:01:54.351 [9140] ERROR - [FFMPEG] - could not create MFT
Mar 14, 2019 15:01:54.352 [9140] WARN - avcodec_open2 returned -40 for encoder 'h264_mf'
Mar 14, 2019 15:01:54.352 [9140] DEBUG - Codecs: hardware transcoding: testing API dxva2

and

Mar 14, 2019 21:34:16.563 [3768] ERROR - [FFMPEG] - could not create MFT
Mar 14, 2019 21:34:16.564 [3768] WARN - avcodec_open2 returned -40 for encoder 'h264_mf'
Mar 14, 2019 21:34:16.564 [3768] DEBUG - Codecs: hardware transcoding: testing API dxva2

I don’t know if there are any updates to dxva2 for your windows 7 sp1 system - the logs also showed issues with Media Foundation - see if there are any updates. It could be an issue for windows 7 - are you sticking with it or intending to upgrade to Windows 10?

Also suggest you update Plex Media Server to latest beta 1.15.2.793 which came out yesterday.

Disabling hardware acceleration within the Transcoder Server settings would stop the Plex Media Server.exe crashes

Unfortunately no valid dumps are being created and i think you will probably find a number of zero length dmp files here
C:\Users\Stephen\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Crash Reports\1.15.0.659-9311f93fd\PLEX MEDIA SERVER

Also check
`C:\Users\Stephen\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Crash Reports\1.15.0.659-9311f93fd\PLEX MEDIA SERVER``

Could you look at the Application Event Log using eventvwr.exe and let me know what Event ID 1000 and 1001 events you see at around 15:01 and 21:34 on 14th March

With regards to the Plex Transcoder.exe failure in the event log - that probably was at 21:31:28 which was about 75 seconds into transcoding I'm Sorry - S02E10 - New York vs. LA WEBDL-480p.mkv

If this repeatedly crashes the transcoder, you could create a 5 minute clip from it and add to a test library and see if it crashes the transcoder. If it does provide the clip and logs

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If the Plex Media Server.exe crashes persist and no valid dmp files get created - indicative by error 400 logged in the Plex Crash Uploader log files
eg

Mar 14, 2019 22:26:26.166 [4028] DEBUG - HTTP 400 response from POST https://sentry.io/. . .

We could try to see if windows can generate the dmp files instead
See the Regedit documented on this support article
https://support.plex.tv/articles/201455336-crash-logs-plex-media-server/

It is a matter of creating key named LocalDumps under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting
Note it is a type key and not a string or other type

If that creates dmp for such crash, please get the logs zip associated with it and also zip the dmp file and upload - also check application log for event ids 1000 and 1001 - you could filter on 1000,1001 and save to evtx file and zip and include

Thanks

6

Thank you both for your replies,

I’ve updated Plex Media Server to latest beta 1.15.2.793 and turned off Hardware acceleration.

It does appear transcoding did crash while playing “I’m Sorry - S02E10 - New York vs. LA WEBDL-480p.mkv”, I’ve since seen that the same user was able to watch this episode in it entirety this morning without issue.

I ran a tool called DXVA checker, I could not see anything suspicious.

I only see the single error 1000 from 21:37:21 PM, no other Errors for March 14th. At all.

Faulting application name: Plex Transcoder.exe, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Faulting module name: avformat-58.dll, version: 58.9.100.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x001c32cb
Faulting process id: 0x233c
Faulting application start time: 0x01d4dacea2ada11f
Faulting application path: D:\Plex\Plex Transcoder.exe
Faulting module path: D:\Plex\avformat-58.dll
Report Id: 0c91d9a7-46c2-11e9-9889-d43d7e044f43

And the corresponding 1001:


Fault bucket 654570085, type 325557154
Event Name: APPCRASH
Response: Not available
Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:
P1: Plex Transcoder.exe
P2: 0.0.0.0
P3: 00000000
P4: avformat-58.dll
P5: 58.9.100.0
P6: 00000000
P7: c0000005
P8: 001c32cb
P9: 
P10:

Attached files:
C:\Users\Stephen\AppData\Local\Temp\WERDD3.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml

These files may be available here:
C:\Users\Stephen\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\AppCrash_Plex Transcoder._e198911b41ba9217cbd8b53c6ce2692c040a6d8_33340fe5

Analysis symbol:
Rechecking for solution: 0
Report Id: 0c91d9a7-46c2-11e9-9889-d43d7e044f43
Report Status: 0

There are in fact 8 empty (0kb) dmp files in ‘C:\Users\Stephen\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Crash Reports\1.15.0.659-9311f93fd\PLEX MEDIA SERVER’

Such as :
0ba58ac6-5552-4809-a696-e903068cda2e.dmp - Mar 14th @ 21:34
c4c0621f-2617-48bb-b9cf-1e813e7d4b39.dmp - Mar 14th @ 15:01

The registry key named LocalDumps already exists in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting, but I see nothing for Plex

I do see the dmp files in C:\Users\Stephen\AppData\Local\CrashDumps

CrashDumps.zip (5.5 MB)

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Transcoder crashing and server crashing are two separate types of problems and two different investigations

With hardware acceleration disabled, i expect the DXVA2 related server crashes to go away

With regards to the transcoder crashes - what i said before still stands. So you have given me Plex Transcoder.exe.9020.dmp which does correspond to the logs provided above - but to investigate would need an actual media file clip that we can use to try and replicate the crash and fix

See
https://support.plex.tv/articles/201035968-generating-sample-files-from-media/

As it is an mkv it should be very easy to extract the first 5 minutes using tools such as mkvtoolnix

Once you have a clip add it to a test library type Other Videos and see if it crashes. If it does, provide the logs and zipped dmp file and the clip

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It could be because of the type of crash. Crashes due to stack corruptions and memory issues tend not to have successfully created dmp files by Plex or windows - but sometimes windows manages it and adds it tothe CrashDumps folder

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