Server Version#: 1.31.1.6733
I have been using Windows 10 as a Plex server for some time now. The windows machine specs is a Minis Forum x400 AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 4750G 3.60GHz with 64GB RAM. I have been using the hardware acceleration setting as long as it has been available when I used to have an Intel NUC with no issues and over a year now with my new Minis Forum PC again with no issues. After Plex Server version 1.29 or maybe even 1.30 is when the problem started. My entire server would crash once a video was started to be watched on any player. The screen on the server would go blank. The computer itself was still running because the fans are still going but nothing would bring the screen back. So only option is to force reboot it by unplugging and plugging back in the power cable. Disabling hardware acceleration fixes the issue. But then I cannot use hardware acceleration anymore. So I reverted back to a previous version where hardware acceleration still worked, I think 1.29 or 1.30 and skipped new updates for several months and I thought to myself by now the problem has been fixed since I had seen other posts on here with similar problems in the past. I installed Plex Server version 1.31.1.6733 and the problem is back.
I checked the event viewer of the computer and I see a critical error log stating the system rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. That’s it. That’s all I get from Windows logs.
I have checked the drivers and everything seems to be up-to-date. I would appreciate any help with squashing this bug. If logs are needed let me know what specifically you need Thank you.
Just curious is there a way to tag a dev to look at this if the community doesn’t chime in? I feel like being a paying customer should provide some kind of communication line to the company for support.
I am experiencing same hard lock up with black screen during daily maintenance. Every morning the PC locks up about an hour into maintenance (event viewer shows nothing like you stated). What I have found was turning off intro & credit detection fixed the problem.
You are right, it would be nice if a dev would be available to troubleshoot this, since crashing entire Windows PC is pretty bad IMHO.
I am running PC with Intel i5-11600K with integrated video for Quick Sync.
Sucks to hear someone else having this hard lock as you call it. It’s an accurate name. It is sad that no one has chimed in who has experience with troubleshooting. It would be nice to get some guidance from a dev. Post has been up for 7 days now. I’ve noticed even after disabling the hardware accelerator option my the computer is still going into a hard lock randomly. And the times that it does this doesn’t coincide with the Plex maintenance schedules. 
@JDubbedN
Leave hardware accelerated transcoding disabled (one less variable to troubleshoot).
Also, disable credits detection, Settings → Library → Generate credits video markers = never.
Not sure about on Windows, but credits detection has caused problems on Linux based servers.
Check that the server is configured for debug level logging. Do not enable verbose logging.
Restart PMS if you change logging levels.
Settings → Server_Name → General + Show Advanced
If/when Plex Media Server crashes again:
- Restart PMS
- Wait 2 - 3 minutes for log files to capture the startup sequence
- Pull log files, Settings → Troubleshooting, and upload the zip file to the thread.
Computer locked up again when a user attempted to play a movie. I have the log. However, does this log contain personal information or is it safe to upload here?
I’m experiencing similar crashes on Debian, this seems to be a pretty widespread issue. I’d really like more visibility into this since, as you said, a service crashing the entire system is really bad. Disabling credit and intro detection improves the situation.
According to this Plex page, Plex logs can contain a lot of information that may not necessarily be the best idea to provide to the public. That being said, can I DM you the log link?
Sure. You can probably DM me the zip file. I think it is under the size limit.
@JDubbedN
Thanks for the log files.
I see two crashes, but no reason for either.
The first was Mar 12 at 16:14, when a user was streaming Hereditary on a Roku (end of Plex Media Server.2.log). The second was the same day at 19:56, when a different user was streaming The Fifth Element using Chrome (end of Plex Media Server.1.log).
Both times the video was transcoding. However, the log files just end, without any error messages.
Question: Did you have hardware accelerated transcoding enabled at the time? It does not show up in the log files.
Reason: You mentioned earlier that Plex did not crash if h/w acceleration is disabled.
Question: What is drive D:? Is is local or a network drive?
Reason: You installed the Plex binaries and moved the Plex data folder to D:\plexdata.
Relocating the Plex data folder to another local drive is fine. Relocating to a network drive will cause problems with Plex.
Is there a reason for moving the Plex binaries to the D:\ drive, instead of the default location in C:\Program Files\Plex\Plex Media Server? The Plex Media Server folder only takes up 217 MB, so disk space should not be an issue.
@FordGuy61
I do specifically remember the computer hard locking up when Hereditary on the Roku player caused it. Mind you the computer only locks up moments after a stream occurs and one time I was able to replicate it over and over again for a specific movie with the remote user. But it does happen to other movies as well. When hardware acceleration is enabled, and on a Plex server version starting with 1.30 and beyond, it is almost a guarantee that the server computer will hard lock up when transcoding. Plex server version 1.29 and before never had this issue. The problem only seems to happen when transcoding occurs. However, I have told everyone to Max video quality settings in their Plex settings so transcoding is less likely to happen. I have personally forced transcoding on my phone recently and I have not been able to replicate a hard lock up. But then again, it’s never been me that causes it. It is always a user who is remote. But I have had 3 users so far in the passed month that have caused the hard lock ups and I believe they have been using Roku devices.
Answer: Hardware acceleration is turned off and has been turned off since you asked me to do so.
Answer: Drive D is a RAID 1 setup attached to the computer via USB that runs Plex. Drive D houses my entire library including the Plex installation folder. The reason I did this was because there would be data redunancy including the Plex installation folder. I also wanted to keep everything Plex related including the library on the same physical drive. I might have also read about this setup somewhere on the internet way back in the day when I first setup Plex when I was new to Plex. If you think this could cause a problem I could always install it on my C drive for troubleshooting. On a side note, I do have a library on Plex that points to a network drive which is a mapped drive, drive Z.
I hope that helps.
@FordGuy61
In the past 2 days I’ve had to restart my computer several times because of this issue. I’m telling everyone to max their video quality in their Plex settings in hopes that it’ll reduce the amount of times the computer locks up. However, with a specific user, even when they did this Plex was still showing that the stream was being transcoded from 1080p mkv to I think it was 720p mp4. Even though his Roku ultimate was capable of native mkv support it was still transcoding. So I’m not sure what’s up with that.
In the meantime I await further troubleshooting instructions.
Thank you
@FordGuy61 I understand that you may be busy and I appreciate your time in helping me troubleshoot this issue. However, it has been 5 days now since our last communication and I am in need of further support. How can we get more eyes on this post specifically Plex team members or someone with the knowledge to help?
Thank you
It has been 13 days since my last communication with @FordGuy61 . It does show he is active and posting elsewhere on this forum. But unfortunately even my DM to him has gone unnoticed. I’m not sure how else to attract support except to start tagging Plex mods and Plex employees. Sorry if this annoys or breaks a rule but I’m out of options. Maybe there is an official Plex support email but I cannot find it. And there doesn’t appear to be a support phone number for paying customers so this is all I have.
@Atomatth
@bengeorge
@BigWheel
@JDubbedN Could you provide some fresh logs after a crash was reported?
Some things you can try. Stop Plex and go to your Plex Media Server directory in D:\plexdata, this would typically be %LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex Media Server then delete the \Codecs directory. Then restart Plex. Plex will redownload any needed codecs and repopulate this directory.
@DrewBurke @BadGrief Your install locations would be found here. You’ll also need to provide logs if you’re still observing this issue.
@JDubbedN When a crash occurs, can you still access the D:\ drive and the contents in it?
Curious what X Test Media library is? If this library is truly test media and likely not needing Credit or Intro detection then make sure that those settings are turned off for that library.
@Atomatth
Thank you for your reply.
I will provide fresh logs when the next crash occurs.
I will also delete the codecs and let it repopulate and see if this fixes the issue.
As explained in the above posts, the computer locks up. The monitor turns black, keyboard and mouse are unresponsive. I cannot ping the LAN IP. All the network drives become unavailable. I have remote connection software installed and even that becomes unusable. The computer just locks up and only way to get it back is to hard reboot. This problem only started happening after I updated from PMS 1.29x to 1.3x. I can revert back to PMS 1.29 and problem goes away.
X test media folder is an older folder I made when I was testing different media formats and sizes. It has several videos in it in different formats with different resolutions/qualitys. I’ll make sure credit and intro detection is disabled for this folder.
@Atomatth I DM’d you the requested crash log.
