Blue screen when I try to render large file

# 1 22-09-2006 , 02:58 AM

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I've finished a scene in Maya 8 and rendered it at 600x400 until now.

Now I need it rendered at 4500x3000 but every time I try my machine bluescreens. Any idea what might cause this? My machine is not very high-spec but I have over 3GB hard disk free and my PC has 1GB RAM.

If someone out there would like to render this one frame at production quality, that would be much appreciated.

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# 2 22-09-2006 , 05:41 AM

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Graphics Card Specs...

I bet theres a buffering issue and you have filled the cards RAM and therefore killed it and its crashed windows.

Can you see the BSOD? What message are you getting of the BSOD?

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# 3 22-09-2006 , 06:03 AM

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Hmm. I don't think it has anything to do with the video card's memory. If the video card is out of it, it should put the rest of the data in the hard drive.

BSoDs happen when Windows stuffs up on the memory management. It must be something to do with virtual memory or something, as foto-z's machine only has around 3 GB of free space.

But then every case is different and any error messages and logs would be useful.

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# 4 22-09-2006 , 06:25 AM

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well this question might be a little insulting, but are you leaving the computer the hell alone while it's rendering something that large, or are you playing video games and checking email and surfing online and downloading porn and all that other stuff at the same time?

a lot of people can't understand why their computer chugs (and eventually crashes) while they render, but then they don't want to wait for it and go use it for something else at the same time...

hell i'll admit i'm guilty of it all the time, but then again i'm usually rendering in 320X240 or 640X480... something small to give me an idea but not kill my computer...

Accept no substitutions.

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# 5 22-09-2006 , 06:35 AM

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I dont think its to do with the graphics card (unless you are hardware rendering??)

It might be that you have insufficent disk space (as the 3 GB HDD and the 1 GB RAM might not be enough if its a large scene with lots of lights/textures etc)

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# 6 22-09-2006 , 10:20 AM

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Thanks for the replies. I switched to another laptop (different design, with only 768 MB RAM) and it works.

I'm feeling reasonable positive that the video driver/card in my machine is somehow to blame. Perhaps it is a buffer overflow, as someone suggested.

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# 7 22-09-2006 , 11:11 AM

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I do say its a card issue, more than likely drivers based...

Also I would chk ur Pagefile.sys. Keep it to 1.5 times the amount of ram you have and dont allow it to be dynamic. set the limits to the same size, when Windows fills the page file and theres nowhere else to go then it tends to Blue Screen.

Not MS's fault, its just the nature of Windows and badly designed 3rd party drivers and apps.

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