Server causing Windows 10 to hang every 10 minutes

[Luke 37119]

That would be great, thanks!

[FormulaFox 5]

It's been nearly two days with no recurrence of the issue. I am going to continue to run in this state until either the issue return or a week has passed since reinstalling the DLNA plugin. I will skip testing with Blast Alive Messages shut off and move on to the Port Mapper plugin test if a week passes with no issue.

[Luke 37119]

That's great, thanks !

[FormulaFox 5]

Full week with no sign of recurrence. I will be reinstalling Port Mapper immediately after I post this - one week or until issue recurs.

 

It recently came to my attention that the recent Windows update has apparently tweaked CPU/memory management in some way(would not surprise me, as I've seen a lot more claims of it messing up PCs than with most updates), so it's possible there's been an OS-level fix already done. Only way to find out is to do the tests and see what happens.

[Luke 37119]

Great, thanks for doing this !

[FormulaFox 5]

Great, thanks for doing this !

Okay, issue has... possibly recurred? In the past two hours I've been getting hangups again, but there's been no indication of any CPU or memory spikes from Emby, and no corresponding entries in the log. The hangups are also seemingly random, not on a predictable timetable, and came in clusters - two or three hangups for 1-2 seconds in a random 30-second timeframe. This is completely different from the past issues, so I've no idea if this is the same issue or something else.

 

Nonetheless, I've moved onto next phase and removed Port Mapper again. If it's not at least contributing, I should continue to have issues. I grabbed the log before I did so and have posted it here, but the only entries I see in it correspond to the times of me accessing the Emby config page.

 

EDIT: This recurrence is most definitely NOT being caused by Emby, but a system process. I will reinstall and begin monitoring with Port Mapper opening as soon as I can isolate and clear up the root cause.

Edited June 5, 2020 by FormulaFox

[Luke 37119]

has it come up again?

[FormulaFox 5]

3 minutes ago, Luke said:

has it come up again?

Not yet, but I've had repeated power outages the past few days so I haven't gotten a full week of test in, so I'm still not sure if we can rely on the lack of any issue.

[Carlo 4330]

Out of curiosity have you checked your disc lately with chkdsk?

With power failures and unexpected restarts you could have an issue on disc which is contributing to this.

[FormulaFox 5]

19 minutes ago, cayars said:

Out of curiosity have you checked your disc lately with chkdsk?

With power failures and unexpected restarts you could have an issue on disc which is contributing to this.

The power failures have been within the past few days, and none of them have caused unexpected restarts as my PC is on a UPS - I was always able to shutdown safely. With what happened last night, however, I think I might finally be free of them(severe storm caused a nearby power transformer to go boom - power company replaced it pretty quickly and I've suspected that transformer was the cause of the previous issues).

I did several forms of disk checking(including chkdsk) way back when the problem first began - before I even suspected that ANY single program might be at fault. Everything came back clean. (did memtest as well - also clean)

Edited June 12, 2020 by FormulaFox

[Carlo 4330]

Sounds good, just always a good thing to check but looks like you're on top of it.

[FormulaFox 5]

7 minutes ago, cayars said:

Sounds good, just always a good thing to check but looks like you're on top of it.

It's good of you to mention this, though, as I'm on an SSD that I've been using for a good five or six years so I need to remember to keep a close eye on it as it could be reaching end of life sometime soon - I need to start checking it regularly even without any indication of trouble.

[FormulaFox 5]

Was ready to give an update of "no recurrence" when I woke up in the afternoon, only for it to start up again as I was going to bed, so I stayed up to monitor a couple times and post the update. There is no corresponding log entry that I can see, but Task Manager DOES show a jump in Emby's activity when it happens, and the behavior is exactly as before. I've of course attached the log just to be sure, however.

I've removed Port Mapper again(and restarted server) and we'll see what happens from here.

embylog 2020-6-19 7-05 am.txt

Edited June 19, 2020 by FormulaFox

[Luke 37119]

Ok thanks for the info. Let us know how you get on.

[FormulaFox 5]

Issue has "recurred" in a sense - I was checking the Task Manager for something else when I saw the Emby Server entry jump up, so I waited ten minutes to check again - it's showing the spikes, but for now the system is not hanging when it does(it's not jumping all the way up to the top of CPU usage this time, either). This time there are entries in the log that correlate to the timing of the jumps(*h*5m**s in this case), but there's something off with the log this time - I know I've no idea what I'm reading with these logs, but I've posted enough that I've gotten a good look at their formatting, and there seems to be some chunks missing at points. Like it wasn't logging data correctly - don't know how bad it is, I just noticed something off near the start and scrolled down a bit and saw a couple other similar points, where it seems like the entries just cut off. Sometimes it looks like the next entry picks up right at the cutoff point instead of on the next line.

Hopefully this weirdness can point us to something.

 

EDIT: Forgot to mention that since these spikes are not causing any hangups, I have opted not to change anything or reboot the server for the time being.

embylog 2020-6-24 3-36 pm.txt

Edited June 24, 2020 by FormulaFox

[Carlo 4330]

I took a quick look through the log and didn't see any of the entries you were talking about that stop and then pickup.

Could you give a couple of examples of this with either quoted sections of the date/time stamp of the entries?

BTW, I'm wondering if the little spikes you're seeing are the extra logging being done when Emby hits and error and has to log it such as the FFPROBE log entries trying to read your ISO files?

You really should consider transcoding those entries to a streaming format as ISO are ancient.

[FormulaFox 5]

2 hours ago, cayars said:

I took a quick look through the log and didn't see any of the entries you were talking about that stop and then pickup.

Could you give a couple of examples of this with either quoted sections of the date/time stamp of the entries?

BTW, I'm wondering if the little spikes you're seeing are the extra logging being done when Emby hits and error and has to log it such as the FFPROBE log entries trying to read your ISO files?

You really should consider transcoding those entries to a streaming format as ISO are ancient.

I haven't always had ISOs present during these issues - My media folder contains the location of where I put various downloads, CD/DVD/BD rips etc temporarily until I process them and put them elsewhere(it's easier for me to keep track of).

As for the examples of the log cutting off, the most notable in this case is the opening bits. There's a peice that normally looks like this:

"2020-06-04 00:00:04.005 Info App: Plugins:
    Bluray Folder Support 1.0.0.0
    Cinema Intros 1.0.32.0
    Dlna 1.0.38.0
    Dvd Folder Support 1.0.0.0
    Fanart.tv 1.0.8.0
    MovieDb 1.3.4.0
    MusicBrainz 1.0.13.0
    Nfo Metadata 1.0.30.0
    OMDb 1.0.9.0
    Open Subtitles 1.0.27.0
    Port Mapper 1.0.4.0
    Studio Images 1.0.3.0
    TheAudioDb 1.0.10.0
    TheTVDB 1.0.32.0"

 

In the latest log, it stops short:

"2020-06-24 00:00:17.074 Info App: Plugins:
    Bluray Folder Support 1.0.0.0
    Cinema Intros 1.0.32.0
    Dlna 1.0.38.0
    Dvd Folder Support 1.0.0.0
    Fanart.tv 1.0.8.0
    MovieDb 1.3.5.0
    MusicBrainz 1.0.13.0
    Nfo Metadata 1.0.30.0
    OMDb 1.0.9.0
    Open Subtitles 1.0.27.0
    Studio Images 1.0.3.0
    TheA"

Since the few other pieces I noted seem to run in to each other they're not easy to spot(and I don't have time right now to dig deep into them to find more examples), but I think they're just similar incidences to what caused this anyway. I've no idea if it's related or if this was just some one-off glitch while this log was being generated, but it's weird to me to see any piece of the log get cut off.

[Carlo 4330]

Thanks for that. I clearly see what you are talking about.

I think this is something that @Luke will need to take a look at.

[EZEd 53]

My system was exhibiting similar behavior with Windows 10 seemingly "locking up" periodically while in use as described in the beginning of this thread.  So I too and trying an "uninstall Port Mapper plugin" experiment.  As I go to the plugin section it says what Port Mapper is but it doesn't really describe what Port Mapper does.  By uninstalling Port Mapper plugin what exactly will I be missing from my server implementation (i.e. will I actually miss it or will something else get totally screwed up if I don't have it)?  Any info would be helpful.

[FormulaFox 5]

EZEd's reply notice popping up in my e-mail reminded me that I have not posted an update even though I have not had to do a reboot since my last post, so we've got a fair bit of data.

Put simply: No recurrence of issue. Log attached as usual.

I too would like to know what Port Mapper does, as I have not had any discernible need for it and removing it seems to be solving the issue.

embylog 2020-7-7 2-07 pm.txt

[pwhodges 1534]

Portmapper is a tool to open ports in your router for Emby.  This uses UPnP, which is often considered a security risk.  If you are not accessing Emby externally, or if you have configured your router manually, then you don't need or want it.

Paul

[FormulaFox 5]

I had to set up my router to access Emby through my VPN even with Port Mapper installed.

[pwhodges 1534]

You'd have to enable UPnP in the router for it to work; but you're better off doing it as you already have done.

Paul

[FormulaFox 5]

I set up openVPN on my router. I have to activate an OpenVPN app on my phone/tablet to access my server.

[EZEd 53]

2 hours ago, pwhodges said:

Portmapper is a tool to open ports in your router for Emby.  This uses UPnP, which is often considered a security risk.  If you are not accessing Emby externally, or if you have configured your router manually, then you don't need or want it.

Paul

Yeah I had to set up port forwarding manually through my router as well,  so I suppose removing it is inconsequential in my case.  I'll remove and monitor to see if machine gets back to working normally.  I hope it is that simple.  I am just worn out from chasing ghost all of the time.