Strange memory/handles leak with Nvidia and 29/59 content

[th83]

I don't see that issue either, it might be related to something else. GeForce GT610... last driver from nVidia. I don't think a Media Center needs anything more than a GT610...

Are you running 340.52?

Yes, in 32 bit Win7 with the Intel on-board deactivated (it has the well known intel OpenGL bug). GeForce GT 610 is a repackaged GT 520 (Fermi core) with 48 CUDA cores and an 29-watt power draw.

I tried a GT610 and had the same 'handles leak', so not sure if maybe it's also a 64 vs 32 bit issue as well with the drivers. NVidia is working on a fix and has been able to replicate the bug on their end.

[th83]

We will never ever get rid of the "bouncing text and pixelization of text/logos in 29/59 content" (in WMC). Other players/decoders can be setup to solve the symptoms,

What version nvidia driver are you using? Do you really have to use the latest driver? Most people here find a version that works (has the least bugs on their system) and stick with it. I personally use v332.21 WMC never crashes for me, and I have A LOT of 29/59 content.

Anything is possible! While I was working with NVidia support, I've explained the 29/59 issue to one of their senior techs, and he is submitting a 'feature request' to add a 29/59 detection option to the drivers (similar to how you can turn inverse telecine on/off). They are at least looking into it.

[webminster]

What version nvidia driver are you using? Do you really have to use the latest driver? Most people here find a version that works (has the least bugs on their system) and stick with it. I personally use v332.21 WMC never crashes for me, and I have A LOT of 29/59 content.

Depends on the card, of course... I have a newer GTX-750Ti replacing an older GT430... the compatible driver history on the 750 is pretty short. Not found much that is compatible that's great - good enough for use, yes, WAF OK, but not great enough. 340.52 seemed to have the best picture yet (but the driver is unstable). May just be me, but I haven't found one yet that (for me) works good enough, so ...

[newfiend]

I also have the GTX 750Ti (EVGA) and have been plagued with WMC crashing with eshell errors. On the latest drivers as well. I suspect I am having the same issues as you. WAF is in the toilet right now. This happens on live TV as well as recorded TV for me. It works fine for quite some time then WMC crashes. (ticks off the wife and me both actually) I like to keep the system up to date as I also use the video card to game on Steam big picture mode. Glad to hear nvidia is looking into this issue, hope the next driver update fixes this issue!!! Great find btw.. I was about to format and reinstall windows to see if that fixed it but glad I read this post. Guess we're stuck waiting on NVIDIA.

[webminster]

What version have you installed at the moment? 337 and above are complete disasters at this time, for many on the Nvidia forums. Back up to a clean install of the 334 or 335 drivers if you haven't already. They may not be perfect, but they're stable for me.

[newfiend]

Got up early today to verify that this is in fact my issue and it is this exactly. I was able to verify by using 411 info and task manager/handles view. I downloaded nvidia driver 335 whql and installed that with the clean install method. The handles leak decreased dramatically.. Thanks for letting me know what drivers work best for now. I'll definitely update to the next driver release and test with the above methods again to see if it still exists. Thanks for finding this issue, it saved me a lot of time reinstalling/reconfiguring my HTPC! Bravo th83 for finding this and webminster for the temp working driver(s).

[th83]

Anybody having the same issue, please use the link below to submit a bug report. Also mention the pixelating/bouncing text and maybe we can get them to include a method to 'fix' that as well!

http://nvidia-submit.custhelp.com/app/answers/list

[Mystic95Z]

I put a EVGA GT610 in my HTPC the other day to fix issues I was having with the integrated R7 graphics in my AMD APU (choppy playback and slight pulsing of light / dark in the picture). I've been running for 2 days now with the latest non beta nvidia drivers with no issue.

[th83]

I put a EVGA GT610 in my HTPC the other day to fix issues I was having with the integrated R7 graphics in my AMD APU (choppy playback and slight pulsing of light / dark in the picture). I've been running for 2 days now with the latest non beta nvidia drivers with no issue.

32 or 64 bit?

[th83]

Just got this email from NVidia today!

"We released our latest 344.11 driver yesterday and that should help with this issue. If you haven't already updated then please give the new driver a try and see if that helps. You can download the new driver here: http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/77837. When installing the new driver please select the "Custom (Advanced)" install option and then put a checkmark in the "Perform clean install" option. This will help insure a clean install. Let me know if you have any further questions."

I have tested this, and the handles leak is gone! 29/59 content does also seem to display a bit better. Still not perfect, but at least it's not crashing now.

[newfiend]

Just got this email from NVidia today!

"We released our latest 344.11 driver yesterday and that should help with this issue. If you haven't already updated then please give the new driver a try and see if that helps. You can download the new driver here: http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/77837. When installing the new driver please select the "Custom (Advanced)" install option and then put a checkmark in the "Perform clean install" option. This will help insure a clean install. Let me know if you have any further questions."

I have tested this, and the handles leak is gone! 29/59 content does also seem to display a bit better. Still not perfect, but at least it's not crashing now.

Thank You for posting this,.. I have been watching for the latest Nvidia Driver update (it's been awhile since the last WHQL) and was pleased to see that there was a new Driver available today so I came here to see if you had any news on the issue and am very glad you had already tested to verify.. Thanks for your help on this issue.. Updating now..
newfiend~

[th83]

Just got this email from NVidia today!

"We released our latest 344.11 driver yesterday and that should help with this issue. If you haven't already updated then please give the new driver a try and see if that helps. You can download the new driver here: http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/77837. When installing the new driver please select the "Custom (Advanced)" install option and then put a checkmark in the "Perform clean install" option. This will help insure a clean install. Let me know if you have any further questions."

I have tested this, and the handles leak is gone! 29/59 content does also seem to display a bit better. Still not perfect, but at least it's not crashing now.

Thank You for posting this,.. I have been watching for the latest Nvidia Driver update (it's been awhile since the last WHQL) and was pleased to see that there was a new Driver available today so I came here to see if you had any news on the issue and am very glad you had already tested to verify.. Thanks for your help on this issue.. Updating now..
newfiend~

After 2 hours of 29/59 content, handles count was at 1380 (a big improvement over 12,000,000 or so) and no issues at all. I'm pleased. That was a very fast turnaround from NVidia, very impressed (though I'm sure I helped them out, they'd been working on a 'crash' issue and I helped them link it to the handles leak as the cause).

[newfiend]

Just got this email from NVidia today!

"We released our latest 344.11 driver yesterday and that should help with this issue. If you haven't already updated then please give the new driver a try and see if that helps. You can download the new driver here: http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/77837. When installing the new driver please select the "Custom (Advanced)" install option and then put a checkmark in the "Perform clean install" option. This will help insure a clean install. Let me know if you have any further questions."

I have tested this, and the handles leak is gone! 29/59 content does also seem to display a bit better. Still not perfect, but at least it's not crashing now.

Thank You for posting this,.. I have been watching for the latest Nvidia Driver update (it's been awhile since the last WHQL) and was pleased to see that there was a new Driver available today so I came here to see if you had any news on the issue and am very glad you had already tested to verify.. Thanks for your help on this issue.. Updating now..
newfiend~

After 2 hours of 29/59 content, handles count was at 1380 (a big improvement over 12,000,000 or so) and no issues at all. I'm pleased. That was a very fast turnaround from NVidia, very impressed (though I'm sure I helped them out, they'd been working on a 'crash' issue and I helped them link it to the handles leak as the cause).

Yeah I'm very happy you tracked this down.. I had a NVidia GTX 650Ti and a GTX 750Ti (currently using) and just had stability problems with WMC off and on.. (makes sense now that it was linked to 29/59) as only some of my content has that issue. (My Wife's favorite show House Hunters is wicked bad with 29/59) and it would always crash during her show.. Talk about WAF going in the toilet...lol
Anyway you saved me from wiping the SSD and reinstalling Windows fresh as I thought it might be an issue with WMC just having corrupt files...
So Thank You very much for finding/helping get this sorted!!
Bravo
newfiend~

[christoph86]

Great news and thanks for contacting nvidia about this. Switched to Nvidia card a couple months ago do to constant flickering on my AMD card that couldn't be fixed, but have been having the random crashes from WMC since switching. Will be updating it when I get home.

[newfiend]

Just played a known 29/59 show and checked the handle leaks.. MUCH improved as th83 reported and now seems under control.. Definitely worth updating to WHQL 344.11.
newfiend~

[SoNic67]

Just got this email from NVidia today!

"We released our latest 344.11 driver yesterday and that should help with this issue. If you haven't already updated then please give the new driver a try and see if that helps. You can download the new driver here: http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/77837. When installing the new driver please select the "Custom (Advanced)" install option and then put a checkmark in the "Perform clean install" option. This will help insure a clean install. Let me know if you have any further questions."

I have tested this, and the handles leak is gone! 29/59 content does also seem to display a bit better. Still not perfect, but at least it's not crashing now.

Thanks for your insistence in dealing with this issue! Even if I wasn't affected now, it was bugging me the idea that drivers can have memory leaks in certain conditions...

[bob_p]

I switched from an ATI to NVidia card this week - and battled the 29/59 bug with the latest nVidia driver, and was able to get things working by using an older driver.

Updated to the latest 344 driver - and the video is working great!

Now, if I can just figure out how to get Dolby Digital Plus audio that's being listed by WMC for program sent over HDMI to my AVR...

[webminster]

So, the most common things to check for this is:
* Make sure that "auto volume" is not turned on in the Audio settings for WMC.
* Make sure you've selected Stereo (not any 5.1 or 7.1 options) in Windows Sound configuration (Control Panel)
* Go into WMC settings for setting up your speakers, and select 5.1 or 7.1 as appropriate.

Missetting any of the above can cause WMC or Windows to decode the streams itself, and you won't get a DD bitstream to the AVR.
If you're using say Shark007 codecs for other formats (such as MKV), there's another batch of settings there to configure bitstreaming for those formats. But for live/recorded TV, the above is what you need first...

Hope this helps.
-Alan

[SoNic67]

So, the most common things to check for this is:
* Make sure that "auto volume" is not turned on in the Audio settings for WMC.

That's the first step to check. If WMC remote can control the sound volume (not the TV remote itself), then WMC it will transcode any signal to do the volume adjustment.

But this is already off-topic, a new thread would be appropriate.

[webminster]

Seems likely the handles leak is back,,, on the 347, 352 series at least. Haven't done much debugging yet, but starting to see video errors after running a while on those, requiring restarting the WMC shell.