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Journeyman III

GPU lockup if running OpenCL and playing video at the same time

- at least, high risk

I have experienced that if I run a fair number of iterations of my kernel while DVBViewer (a media player using EVR custom renderer, not using DXVA) is playing, that the risk for GPU lockup is very high.

It is only the GPU that locks up as I am still able to log in using SSH (cygwin sshd on Vista64/ATI5870).

Is this lockup to be expected? I never experience a lockup with that kernel if I do not run a video.

Normally the lockup occurs after 10-12 iterations, but without video I have run 400 iterations with no ill effect. I guess an iteration takes about 30 milliseconds.

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57 Replies

Also faced this problem -- Vista SP2, 5770, Catalyst 9.12, playing video with Windows Media Player while running any ATI Stream application (if it's actually running, i.e. making a lot of GPU kernel invocations not just executing single CAL sample) results in system lock up.

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plap,

Which drivers are you using?

empty_knapsack,

Are you facing the problem with Catalyst 10.2 drivers too?

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I am using catalyst 10.2, SDK 2.01, Vista 64 but target is x86, not x64.

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plap=galmok (forum bug prevented me from using "galmok" for a while).

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omkaranathan,

Yes, using Catalyst 10.2 doesn't solve the problem. From beginning I've got report from one user that he got lockups with "Vista SP2, Sapphire 5850, Catalyst 10.2, Movie player is latest Media Player Classic Homecinema, using ffdshow nightly build to decode video, using EVR Sync output". I've suggested to use 9.12, he tried 9.12 and 9.10 but without any success. I by myself tested with 5770 & Catalysts 9.12 & 10.2 -- also always ends in lockup.

Looks like it's common issue for all HD 5XXX based GPUs.

 

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galmok, empty_knapsack,

The issue has been reported to the developers and they are looking into it.

Thanks for reporting.

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OK, one year later almost the same problem arose with 6990 -- Catalyst 11.3, Windows Media Player, video playback with acceleration + GPGPU application running results in video driver lock up, watch dog timer, reset. This time it isn't whole system lock up but still it isn't possible to perform GPGPU calculation and watch videos (unless without hardware acceleration) at the same time.

I've also got report from user with 6950/11.3 about this problem. Not applies to 68xx though.

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Second this problem.  I'm using 11.4.


I also noticed that if running Video, the GPU clock will lock at 300 Mhz, thus leading to my thoroughput dropping by ~1/3.

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I can also confirm that the simultaneous operation of applications using OpenCL and DirectCompute or DXVA, leads to the collapse of the system. If instead OpenCL, used CAL / IL / Brook +, the system remains stable
Win7x64 11.4preview HD6950

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Thanks for bringing this up again, I've reported the problem.
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Now on 11.5 and still not fixed.

Could you please update with the release in which this will be fixed?

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maximmoroz
Journeyman III

The same problem.

Catalyst 11.4, AMD 6950, Win7 Ultimate 64bit.

Whenever I start playing movie in WMP the system hangs completely, I need to press "reset" button. The same happens when I try to play YouTube video.

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maximmoroz,

Can you please describe your problem in detail.

Also specify the steps to reproduce it.

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Hi, I registered now to provide some repro cases so this problem can be nailed down and removed.

1. use an OpenCL app. I tested with Ighashgpu and the bitcoin GUIMiner, both which are affected. Ighashgpu has a set of example batch files, so it should require the least setup time for reproduction of the bug.

2. while the app is running, do any of the following to trigger the lockup:

- open Catalyst Control Center, and navigate to the video settings tab.

- open GPU-Z (if you already had it open before starting the opencl app, exit gpu-z and re-start it again. It only causes lockup when its starting up).

- open any video file in Media Player Classic Homecinema with the output renderer set to EVR (it should be the default option). Other video players using the same renderer are highly likely to be affected as well.

- open any website in Internet Explorer 9 (with hardware acc enabled), that uses the <video> tag to embed a h264 video. The IEBlog should have plenty of those. Hardware acc in IE9 may not matter in this case, same for the type of video (h264, webm, etc) - apparently IE9 uses the underlying windows media foundation to display videos, so if that thing is affected, so is anything else that uses it (ex. Windows Media Player).

 

Youtube seems to work fine, even with hardware acceleration in flash enabled, although I've seen it crash once or twice. I couldn't pin that down for 100% so I'm not listing it.

Every other thing I mentioned is a 100% repro case however. There are likely many, many more, but I'm a bit reluctant to actively search for things that lock up my computer.

Test machine: Windows 7 x64 SP1, Radeon 6950, any version of Catalyst that supports the card. However, the same lockup happened on my Radeon 5850 as well, on Vista x86, with Catalyst versions prior to 10.3 (10.3 fixed the bug for the 5xxx cards apparently).

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I have the exact same problem rorirub has, I'm running Win7 professional 64-bit and a radeon HD 6950 (XPX brand) card.  I'm mining bitcoins, and as soon as I try to play any kind of video, youtube, .avi, whatever, the whole system locks up. the display freezes and I have to reboot.

Any idea if this is limited to 64-bit systems? or which OS's this affects?

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Originally posted by: himanshu.gautam maximmoroz,

Can you please describe your problem in detail.

Also specify the steps to reproduce it.

I run application which enqueues 100,000 kernels per second (with buffer reads/writes several thousands per second). If I start playing video in WMP the screen is frozen immediately and forever. The system seems to run but I cannot do anything. Hard reset is required in these cases.

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Thanks for reporting this, we have engineers working on this.
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This affects windows only. I know we have root caused the issue and we should have a fix in one of the next few catalyst releases.
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Originally posted by: MicahVillmow This affects windows only. I know we have root caused the issue and we should have a fix in one of the next few catalyst releases.


Can you give us an ETA? 11.6 (released just now) doesn't have it fixed, can we expect a fix in 11.7, or only in 11.8 earliest?

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rorirub,
I wish I could, our driver release process can take up to 3 months depending on the severity of the issue. I'm not 100% sure the fix has been implemented yet, but we do know what is causing it, and once that fix is implemented it most likely will go out in the next release.
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Now on 11.6 and still not fixed (!!).

Could you please update with the release in which this will be fixed?

 



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This bug is really affecting use of my computer. Please provide an ETA.

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Originally posted by: MicahVillmow rorirub, I wish I could, our driver release process can take up to 3 months depending on the severity of the issue. I'm not 100% sure the fix has been implemented yet, but we do know what is causing it, and once that fix is implemented it most likely will go out in the next release.


I see. Nothing to do but wait, then. I wish there was a way to test it that does not involve locking up the computer, though.

Out of interest, can you share what caused it - in the hardware or driver side I mean. If you can share that kind of information, of course.

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rorirub,
There is a conflict in programming the hardware between OpenCL and hardware accelerated video where the video driver changes some state in the hardware that OpenCL relies on. This hang should not occur if you disable hardware accelerated video.
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I wish there was a global setting for hardware accelerated video, I don't know of a way to turn it off in windows media centre.

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Is there no chance whatsoever of a specific ETA?

SmoothVideo Project is completely broken in OpenCL mode (which is pretty much required for 1080p without a decent CPU), as it runs OpenCL and DirectX together by design.

Disabling hardware acceleration is an acceptable workaround for standard OpenCL applications like folding@home or Bitcoin miners, since they make anything more than Flash video unusable anyway due to resource consumption, but SVP requires a proper fix.

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Darkimmortal,
We are working on the proper fix, when it is fixed and I find out what catalyst it will be released in, I will post here if allowed.
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Micah, same issue, looking for a different workaround.

So here is a bit of newbie question:
Is there a way to (programmatically) reset the GPU after it froze?

Say I want to setup a hotkey which would run a custom tool in case of that OpenCL/video lockup to unlock the GPU - is there a way to do so without rebooting OS?

A bit of background:

My OpenCL app (bitcoin miner) automatically shutdowns in case of user activity (and resumes in case of no activity), but unless I can reset the GPU the OS has to be restarted (which is painful since I have a RAID and other fun things).

I was thinking about putting OS to sleep, but didn't try that yet (had problems with hibernation in the past)...

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I don't think there is a workaround as of now, but i am not sure.

You can use watchdog timer to set a time limit for which if GPU does not respond, after which the GPU restarts automatically.

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Yeah, after posting the question I've tryied to set a hotkey to put computer to sleep (which would presumably reset the GPU after waking up). Unfotunately after the GPU lockup the hotkey does not function any more, nor I can remotely mstsc into machine or anything.

From that I assume that the lockup happens in the OS as well, such as in drivers/elsewhere. At least that's waht seems to be happening in Windows 7 64-bit.

Himanshu: I'll try your watchdog suggestion, thank you.

To AMD folks: isn't this lock up considered a security vulnerability, which should bump up the priority?

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One thing I noticed is Mumble VOIP continues working, but for outgoing audio only.

This means at least some part of the OS continues functioning, at least enough to acknowledge a PTT key, as well as sound (partially) and networking.

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Originally posted by: himanshu.gautamYou can use watchdog timer to set a time limit for which if GPU does not respond, after which the GPU restarts automatically.

 

how to set the watchdog timer in Windows 7?



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Xenogears
Journeyman III

Does anyone know how to globally disable GPU acceleration in Windows 7 while keeping OpenCL accessible? I have a mobo-CPU combo the Z68 chipset and i7 with on-CPU graphics so I could enable video-out on the onboard video if necessary to achieve this. 

 

Until the bug mentioned in this thread is fixed I want to be able to run my OpenCL app 24/7 without interrupting my computing which consists of watching videos of different formats and different players. 

 

Thanks. 

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Originally posted by: MicahVillmow Xenogears, Try this: http://answers.yahoo.com/quest...=20090625093503AAjQNpS


Thanks but the button is grayed out. I tried switching to the Windows Classic GDI based theme but its still grayed. 

Like this (not my screenshot) http://windows7themes.net/pics/nvidia-disable-hardware-acceleration.JPG

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This might require registry changing. There is this one here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa970912.aspx
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This issue has been fixed internally and I will confirm on Monday what release it will be going into.
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Originally posted by: MicahVillmow This issue has been fixed internally and I will confirm on Monday what release it will be going into.


 

Thank you Micah, we are all eagerly awaiting your reply when it would be fixed (any chance of an out-of-bound hotfix maybe ?).

It is really a pain to use OpenCL software in its current state on HD69xx boards.

Even some D3D-related activity can cause a GPU crash (not only video acceleration).

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It looks like the 11.8 driver will have this fixed.
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