Handbrake causing reboots?

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fcmarriott
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu May 17, 2007 1:13 am

Handbrake causing reboots?

Post by fcmarriott »

Specifics:

Intel Core Duo Mac Mini 1.66 ghz
2 GB RAM
80 GB internal stock hard drive
2x 500 GB external hard drives enclosed in Newertech Ministack v2
System Version: Mac OS X 10.4.10 (8R2218)
Handbrake Version 0.8.5b1 (2007042001)

It seems that Handbrake is causing my system to reboot. I generally put 4-5 movies into a queue to run overnight or while I am out of town. No one else is using the system when encoding. I generally close all other applications to conserve memory. Not every time, but every 2nd or 3rd time, after the first job in the queue is done, the system will do a full reboot. It almost always occurs during the second encoding job, no matter how many jobs I have in the queue.

I am using a modified AppleTV preset, raising the encoding rate to 2500 kbps, but retaining the other x264 commands noted in earlier posts. DVDs are ripped using MTR 3.0 R14d. All original DVD files are on one of the external hard drives and the encoded files are going to the same external hard drive.

I have looked through kernel panic logs and Handbrake logs, but can't really discern any meaningful information. Also, it doesn't seem either of those logs capture the reboot information; for example the reboot occured last night but the last Handbrake log entry is from over 2 weeks ago.

I am looking for any help or tips to isolate the problem, to determine if, in fact, Handbrake is causing the reboots. Any tips for external utility apps are welcome as well (Onyx?, others?). Is there other information that I can provide to help the troubleshooting?

Thanks,
/bpm
rhester
Veteran User
Posts: 2888
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:24 pm

Post by rhester »

Your machine is almost certainly overheating. HandBrake is not known to cause reboots.

I would recommend you contact Apple Support for assistance.

Rodney
fcmarriott
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu May 17, 2007 1:13 am

Post by fcmarriott »

Overheating? Interesting. The form factor of the Newer Tech Ministack is similar to the Mac Mini and are meant to be stacked (http://eshop.macsales.com/static_pages/ ... Pgoda1Yi7A).

I have taken your advice and un-stacked them so they all are set on their own. I will run some more encoding and see. Interestingly, the external hard drive that the files are on, and where the encoded file is going, was on the top of the stack (and warm to the touch), so it is very possible that you are correct.

Thanks for the input.

/bpm
loyalty_anchored
Bright Spark User
Posts: 183
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2007 1:49 pm

Post by loyalty_anchored »

i would have to agree with rhester, make sure your computer has enough breathing room to ventilate itself, although i am not sure how good a job macminis are at keeping cool, im assuming the ventilation is pretty poor.

you need to make sure your fans are kicking in to move the hot air out, thats if the macmini even has any fans...

if not, you should make sure your thermal paste (conductive material) is not worn away between your computer process and heatsync. if you are handy and know how to work on computers i would highly recomend you clean and apply a new coat of thermal paste, ideally silver compound, as it does a much better job as conducting heat away from the processor and to the heatsync.

you should also blow out your system from time to time, maybe it has a heavy load of dust and hair accumulated inside which has crippled the airflow. do you have cats? when working as a tech, i noticed cat owners computers get clogged very frequently... yukky cats!

what you can do to really find out if it is your system overheating is running a stress test program on your mac mini to see if it will overheat and cause the reboot. here is one i just found by doing a quick google:

http://www.soft32.com/download_199513.html

good luck!
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