United3dArtists Archive

Oct 2013 Primitive 'mation_Pri-mate

Hope I can pull this off. My computer is shutting down out of the blue. No warning, just shuts off. Sometimes it'll stay on only for a few minutes, other times is don't happen at all during a session. Doesn't seem to be related to heavy processor use at any given moment. ANy guesses what the problem is?

So here's the opening shot...

Could be hardware. The power supply or it is overheating.. Is it a laptop? If so, then elevating it usually stops it from shutting down. If it is a tower, blowing it out with ionised air and putting some oil in the fans help. I have had that happen to me before and it was mostly that.

If you get blue screens, then it might just be the ram slot, blow it out and put the chip board back in firmly.

My mates used to put wooden blocks under their laptops to stop it from shutting down from overheating.

You beat me Draise!
I would recommend watching the temperature while you are working and see if that is the problem. Open a window with the temperature charts in full view and work normally. Monitor the temperatures while you work helped me in the past. (eliminated causes)
Yes the second cause could be memory chips not seated properly.
The CPU fan is hitting a wire or not secure. (or is it a heat sink?)
Dirt on fans or clogged vents. (however I think this is a newer computer... right?)
If all this checks out do a memory test. There are free apps out there to do this. You might have a bad chip.
Last but not least do you have a virus checker that shuts down the computer when it sees something bad about to happen?

Thanks guys. I think it's a hardware issue too Draise. It feels like a self-preserving shut down of, something. No blue screen (screen stays on but says 'no signal'), just powers off, the whole desktop.
Its hard to see temp. on screen and live; I can snapshot it, but have never caught it right before it died. I do monitor often, particularly during peak moments (have gotten it upto 210F when rendering. Its water-cooled), but so far haven't timed viewing any culprit yet; it's happened so unpredictably. Different software open, etc.
Anyway, working on the first part of the animation.

Glad you are in the challenge!

I had my computer power off unpredictably when the power supply had trouble.

Did change the power strip lately. Hmm... But wait. The screen should shut off also. Hmmm...x2

If not that... any guesses on which puter component would shut the system down like that with no warning at all?

I mean the power supply thing in the computer.

Ah. Got ya
Well I am going to reclean it inside today. We'll see if its simply a dust thing.

Tried to render in Blender Cycles the first 160 or so frames but doubt I will go that route. Puter running at 210F steady. GPU at 140F.
Will have to make it a Blender render - but need to figure out how to give the ball a glow like in the pic.
Umm, is that Too high a temp. do you all think, or just high? When in full render mode, what temperatures do you folks run at on average?

Blender Cycles render, basic...

I'm not sure which chip you have but here is a chart to help:
Also step by step instructions to isolate your shut-down problem.

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000687.htm"

Similar problems here were the fault of a faulty computer power supply unit.
Relatively easy fix once I tracked down a compatible replacement.
Unfortunately, catastrophe elsewhere soon after rendered my repair moot and I ended up buying a whole new machine.
Turned out for the best. Make backups now.

I feel ya spacekdet. My fear also is having to buy a new (though much needed upgrade) computer because of this.
Thanks for the link Steinie. From what I read (HAVE heard strange high pitch noise on rare occasion lately) it just may be a fan issue or simply a power supply. Had this puter for a while now, and its worked quite solid till this happened.
My temps seem to all be fine from the list, but don't know if running 210F when rendering (for this animation, the pics I showed above are screen captures of 3 different frames, each frame taking 1 min. 20 sec to render) is within limits.

Would really like to hear from a few of you what your render temps are.

How do I find out what the temp is? I have XP if that matters.

http://youtu.be/uZ2ff8SkxTU"

Here's the first round. Since I'll be doing all the animation old school (by hand), just working out the paths.
Unfortunately I won't do this in Cycles render mode. Now have to figure out how to get the same glow.

Finis, I have Vista. What I use is the nVidia self monitor so don't know an answer to that other than an external program. The Task Manager only shows me load, not temperature.


lol... PS: After I finished the previous post and settled down to animate... the puter shut off. That's after a thorough dusting. To be cont'd

Try this one to see if you can monitor your temps. It will work for XP and Vista. It may not work if your computer is not to specs. One way to find out is just try it.
http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/"

Thanks Steinie.

Updated the video link above with the new animatic. Timing is abt right. Lighting and bright ball...not.
Now on to part deux.

My CPU ran at 62 degrees C while rendering in TS model side. Pentium D dual core 3.6GHz.

Guys, doubt will be able to finish. First time been back on since last post. Don't know when/if I'll be back. -
Now it don't boot at all - message at start up: "something' boot fail. Insert disc and press Enter''
Kicked it around a bit, it started, I worked for about 2 hours, and shut down. Today it came on normal and expect it to turn off soon.

over and out

You'll be missed. I hope you get the computer problem fixed soon.

Hey folks. Puter did bug out and have been off line totally till now. We talk abt disconnecting, well, I just did.
We should all try it. Interesting experience in this day and age. Anyway, friend lent me his laptop for abit and thought I'd say hello, vote, and just give you all the heads up. Will be back in abt a week.

PS: Some cool entries. Y'all better watch out for the next one. "I'll be back"

I'm glad you'll be back soon!

Thanks Stienie. How's the fishin' been?

Well, ' I'm back' is relative. A buddy has lent me a computer, but now have to put what I need to function on it. For starters, I added Blender, but all the animation files are messed up. BIG problem because it seems the new Blender 2.69 can't display the character rigs (all made in 2.67 + ). The whole is squished into a small ball. Really need to sort that out.