Author Topic: Computer freezes during rendering  (Read 5085 times)

2021-01-18, 19:47:27

petter2304

  • Active Users
  • **
  • Posts: 7
    • View Profile
Often when rendering with Corona my computer becomes real sluggish. It freezes for several minutes before even the mouse cursor moves. If I forget to set a time or pass limit I am pretty screwed since it will be real hard to stop a render when I can see the movement of my cursor once every five minutes. If I do set a pass limit, the computer freezes totally until its finished. It is impossible for me to work this way. But strangely this only happens about half the time. The other half it works perfectly fine! I can give up one day because it doesnt work, and the next day when I open the excact same scene everything is fine.

I have posted this problem here once before (https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?topic=31786.msg179432#msg179432), but have since rebooted my computer totally and installed everything from scratch. Could this be a hardware problem?

My specs are:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9750H CPU @ 2.60GHz
32 GB Ram

I run 3ds Max 2020 and newest version of Corona, both on student licenses.

2021-01-18, 19:57:04
Reply #1

TomG

  • Administrator
  • Active Users
  • *****
  • Posts: 5434
    • View Profile
Do the problem scenes have the thousands of animation layers as before? Did you install the cleaner script in the startup to make sure those were always removed?

If only when rendering, does the freeze start right away or only after rendering for a while? (Could be an overheating issue throttling the CPU in that case, what are the temps?) What is the CPU usage when rendering?

Are you running a firewall or anti-virus? What other things are running at the same time?

Is the Material Editor open or closed while you render? Are you rendering single frames, or animations? While there was no out of memory issue in the one scene in that previous thread, what is memory usage like in these other scenes that have a problem?

You can capture a minidump when things are freezing, see https://coronarenderer.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/5000524006-how-to-report-issues-3ds-max

You can override the number of threads used in rendering, to see if that keeps things more responsive (https://coronarenderer.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/12000019240-where-are-the-system-settings- )

Tom Grimes | chaos-corona.com
Product Manager | contact us

2021-01-18, 20:20:44
Reply #2

petter2304

  • Active Users
  • **
  • Posts: 7
    • View Profile
Do the problem scenes have the thousands of animation layers as before? Did you install the cleaner script in the startup to make sure those were always removed?

I have used the script yes, and it makes no difference. However I do not have it as a startup script. How do I do this?

If only when rendering, does the freeze start right away or only after rendering for a while? (Could be an overheating issue throttling the CPU in that case, what are the temps?) What is the CPU usage when rendering?

It starts to become slower the first 30 seconds or so, and then it totally freezes for minutes at a time. Could be an overheating issue yes, I do use a laptop... I have not checked the temps, will definitely do that. -> Checked now, the CPU-usage is 100% and the temperature is 95 degrees Celsius.

Are you running a firewall or anti-virus? What other things are running at the same time?

I run nothing at the same time and have uninstalled the default anti-virus software from Norton.

Is the Material Editor open or closed while you render? Are you rendering single frames, or animations? While there was no out of memory issue in the one scene in that previous thread, what is memory usage like in these other scenes that have a problem?

Material editor is closed and I render a single frame. I am not sure of the memory usage but I get no errors or warnings from Corona.

You can capture a minidump when things are freezing, see https://coronarenderer.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/5000524006-how-to-report-issues-3ds-max

You can override the number of threads used in rendering, to see if that keeps things more responsive (https://coronarenderer.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/12000019240-where-are-the-system-settings- )

What would be a decent amount to test with? Im not that technical...
« Last Edit: 2021-01-18, 21:00:48 by petter2304 »

2021-01-21, 11:07:32
Reply #3

mienda

  • Active Users
  • **
  • Posts: 22
    • View Profile
Have you tried to disable " Exploit protection exceptions for 3dsMax & Corona (almost everything OFF, not just Flow Guard)"
I had the same problem with my new computer ( amd 3990X with 256 GB) with big scenes ( many forest) and after this process  all works perflectly!
Hope it helps.

mienda

2021-01-21, 14:47:46
Reply #4

TomG

  • Administrator
  • Active Users
  • *****
  • Posts: 5434
    • View Profile
For removing threads, just removing 1 or 2 should be enough to see if it affects overall computer responsiveness (it will slow down rendering, how much depends on how many threads you have), so a -1 or -2 value should be enough.
Tom Grimes | chaos-corona.com
Product Manager | contact us

2021-02-01, 17:18:34
Reply #5

maru

  • Corona Team
  • Active Users
  • ****
  • Posts: 12709
  • Marcin
    • View Profile
@petter2304 - Do you have any updates here? This could be interesting in case other users experience similar issues.

Also, one more question if I may: when the freezes occur, what is your RAM usage? Task manager > Performance > Memory > X / 32 GB.
Marcin Miodek | chaos-corona.com
3D Support Team Lead - Corona | contact us

2021-02-26, 18:14:59
Reply #6

danio1011

  • Active Users
  • **
  • Posts: 361
    • View Profile
I've started to have a similar issue to the OP.  For me , sluggish behavior and 'blinking windows' during rendering used to be caused by Control Flow Guard.  I found out about CFG etc about a year ago and the problem went away.  Unfortunately it's recently come back and exhibits itself as sluggish UI during IR, full freezes and flashing windows during production, similar to the old 'CFG enabled' days. 

Interestingly I went and checked my Exploit Protections and a recent Windows Update must have made changes there.  For one thing CFG was turned back on, and Program specific exploit options were slightly different.  For example I don't recall seeing 'Hardware-enforced Stack Protection.'  A quick Google search turned that up as a new addition to Windows exploit protections.  Just a heads up to everyone on that if you're interested.

Sadly disabling CFG system wide and disabling all exploits on 3dsmax.exe didn't fix it for me.  I'm almost starting to wonder if it's video card related, because GPU heavy programs like Photoshop and even CIE makme the problem notably worse.  Super aggravating problem.  Considering rolling back to a one year old nVidia driver to see if it fixes it.  Happens pretty universally across all scenes but to different degrees based on complexity.  Problems gets notably worse as Forest and other complex items are introduced.  Not running out of ram, not overheating.

System Specs:
Windows 10 latest
Corona latest daily
Max 2021
nVidia 2080 Ti on 461.40
3970x
128gb ram

2021-03-16, 17:01:09
Reply #7

sailor

  • Active Users
  • **
  • Posts: 68
    • View Profile
I ran into similar issue which started a couple of days ago. As soon as I start rendering it freezes right away but it keeps rendering until the noise limit, I wanted to save it but hit the End task button in Task Manager.

I thought it was due to hardware issue since my PC is pretty old. When I tried rendering 2048x1536px CPU usage was 100%, memory was 23.4/63.9GB, disk 0 SSD gets to 100% sometime.

It was warmer day in my place, not sure if this is due to temperature, hardware or software issue. Any help would be appreciated.

2021-03-16, 17:26:30
Reply #8

TomG

  • Administrator
  • Active Users
  • *****
  • Posts: 5434
    • View Profile
Hi, I am a little unclear about freezing but keeps rendering (which would mean it hadn't frozen :) ). Does the image keep refreshing and updating as the render continues? Or do the stats in the VFB show things are updating, but the image remains static (black? An early noisy pass?). By freezing, do you mean something else, like you can't open other windows, or can't move the VFB around?

Which version of Corona, which host software and which version too, please.
Tom Grimes | chaos-corona.com
Product Manager | contact us

2021-03-16, 18:44:47
Reply #9

sailor

  • Active Users
  • **
  • Posts: 68
    • View Profile
Yes, it finished rendering but I couldn't press any button so it was just waste of time. The stats were updating. I had higher EV value then and wanted to adjust it but couldn't. I leave Max as frozen, do something else on Chrome and come back to it, it sometimes wakes up but only for a couple of seconds then go back to freeze. I've never had this issue before.

Corona is the latest, Max 2015. I will try Defender's Control flow guard off and see if it fixes but need to go to bed now.

2021-03-16, 22:40:57
Reply #10

TomG

  • Administrator
  • Active Users
  • *****
  • Posts: 5434
    • View Profile
BTW, never a good idea to say Corona is the "latest" - we can't tell from that whether you mean "latest official release", or "latest daily build", and there's also the danger in both cases that you think you have the latest but there is in fact another version out... so please always give what version it is, like Corona 6 HF 1, or Corona Daily Build March 5th. That way there is no possible confusion or error on either side :) Thanks!

Meantime, have never heard of this issue myself. What was the CPU usage at the time? You say it finished rendering, but stats were still updating (they would only update if it had not finished rendering and was still calculating) so I am not sure what is meant there - which stats were updating still, and what made you think the render was finished?

Just to check, you don't have "Lock 3ds Max during render" enabled in the System Settings? (It is disabled by default - if enabled, it would make Max unresponsive to any clicks etc. under rendering had indeed finished).
Tom Grimes | chaos-corona.com
Product Manager | contact us

2021-03-17, 16:29:55
Reply #11

danio1011

  • Active Users
  • **
  • Posts: 361
    • View Profile
Yes, it finished rendering but I couldn't press any button so it was just waste of time. The stats were updating. I had higher EV value then and wanted to adjust it but couldn't. I leave Max as frozen, do something else on Chrome and come back to it, it sometimes wakes up but only for a couple of seconds then go back to freeze. I've never had this issue before.

Corona is the latest, Max 2015. I will try Defender's Control flow guard off and see if it fixes but need to go to bed now.

Yeah this sounds a lot like my issue.  I don't think it's heat related, seemed to start the day or two after a series of windows updates and driver updates that Windows 10 snuck in on me.  Interesting someone else saw a similar pattern, but who knows.  I'm in an air conditioned office so summer\winter doesn't really make a difference and my fans and vents aren't clogged.  I don't have 'lock max during render' checked, this is very different in the sense that you can't even hit 'stop.'  Temps seem fine but I'll monitor more closely in the coming days.