# Computer crashing during export



## meehow (Aug 18, 2021)

Hi, I wonder if anyone has come across a similar problem and found a solution?

My computer isn't new, I've had it for 5 years now but thought spec wise it is still ok to run Lightroom.

Windows 10, 32 GB Ram, Intel i7-5820 3.30 Ghz.

I keep the catalog and raw files on a MD.2 SSD drive that are supposed to be faster. Neither RAM or CPU max out during Lightroom work yet it became terribly slow recently, It starts ok and then slows down dramatically after few minutes. When exporting it takes ages and recently it started crashing. I get the so called blue screen of death saying that my computer ran into problems and it shuts down.

Any help will be much appreciated.


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## Replytoken (Aug 18, 2021)

Welcome to the forum.  Can you give any additional details about exporting?  How many files are you trying to export?  Which drive are you sending the exported files to be written?  Do you have free space on your primary drive?

--Ken


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## meehow (Aug 18, 2021)

Replytoken said:


> Welcome to the forum.  Can you give any additional details about exporting?  How many files are you trying to export?  Which drive are you sending the exported files to be written?  Do you have free space on your primary drive?
> 
> --Ken


Hi Ken,

Both the catalog and raw files are kept on a NMVe SSD drive and I'm exporting to the same drive. There is over 500GB of free space on that drive however my C drive is running short of space, about 7GB left. It's a 5 year old pc and I did a 90GB partition for windows at the time that quickly filled up.

I specified the mentioned SSD drive for Lightroom cache though. Would Lightroom still need to use C drive?

Another thing is that I am using a JPEGMini plugin for Lightroom but not sure if this can affect anything. My computer is slow and crashes if I export with and without that plugin.


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## meehow (Aug 18, 2021)

I used to do quite large exports before. I would select the whole wedding (typically 600-1000 files) and export them at once. It would run in the background until all have been exported. I could leave my PC for a few hours and it would export them all. Now it crashes whether I try to export the whole lot or a few photos at a time.


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## Hal P Anderson (Aug 18, 2021)

You need a lot of space for temporary files. I've heard a good rule of thumb is about 100 GB on the drive where your temp files are kept. You can have your temp folder on another drive.


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## Replytoken (Aug 18, 2021)

meehow said:


> There is over 500GB of free space on that drive however my C drive is running short of space, about 7GB left.


I agree with Hal that you need a lot of temporary space on your C: drive to avoid issues.  Windows needs to space to write and 7GB just seems way too small.  Can you free up some additional space and try a test export to see what happens?

--Ken


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## meehow (Aug 18, 2021)

Replytoken said:


> I agree with Hal that you need a lot of temporary space on your C: drive to avoid issues.  Windows needs to space to write and 7GB just seems way too small.  Can you free up some additional space and try a test export to see what happens?
> 
> --Ken


I have tried clearing it to free up more space but it's a small partition, just under 90GB and Windows takes most of the space. I'll have to try to extend that partition but worried about data loss.


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## Replytoken (Aug 19, 2021)

meehow said:


> I have tried clearing it to free up more space but it's a small partition, just under 90GB and Windows takes most of the space. I'll have to try to extend that partition but worried about data loss.


Wise to be cautious.  Do you have an effective backup program that you could run in case of any issues?  I have used Aomei Backupper with success, and I know a lot of folks like Macrium Reflect.

Good luck,

--Ken


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## meehow (Aug 19, 2021)

Replytoken said:


> Wise to be cautious.  Do you have an effective backup program that you could run in case of any issues?  I have used Aomei Backupper with success, and I know a lot of folks like Macrium Reflect.
> 
> Good luck,
> 
> --Ken


Hi, yes I've always used Cobian Backup and it works fine for me. All my raw files are backed up. I was more worried about my C drive data but since yesterday I deleted one of the partitions and extended my C drive. I how have over 130 GB free space on my C drive but this didn't speed Lightroom at all. Must be some other issue. Thank you anyway.


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## Replytoken (Aug 19, 2021)

meehow said:


> Hi, yes I've always used Cobian Backup and it works fine for me. All my raw files are backed up. I was more worried about my C drive data but since yesterday I deleted one of the partitions and extended my C drive. I how have over 130 GB free space on my C drive but this didn't speed Lightroom at all. Must be some other issue. Thank you anyway.


Yes, but did it crash?

--Ken


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## meehow (Aug 19, 2021)

Yes still crashing   I started to think It's a hardware issue and will probably need a new computer. I opened a new thread if anyone can recommend a good processor and a compatible motherboard to use with Lightroom. Not sure if I can fix my current machine but before I buy the new one I need to battle with this one and keep exporting files in small quantities between crashes as I have a few galleries to deliver to clients.


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## Replytoken (Aug 19, 2021)

meehow said:


> Yes still crashing I started to think It's a hardware issue and will probably need a new computer. I opened a new thread if anyone can recommend a good processor and a compatible motherboard to use with Lightroom. Not sure if I can fix my current machine but before I buy the new one I need to battle with this one and keep exporting files in small quantities between crashes as I have a few galleries to deliver to clients.


If you want to see if the issue is catalog-related, you could create a brand new catalog, populate it and then try to export.  If the problem shows, then it at least you know it is not a catalog-specific issue.

--Ken


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## meehow (Aug 19, 2021)

Thank you. I already created a new catalog and imported this wedding to the new catalog but it keeps crashing. Very frustrating. I can export about 10 images in one go before it crashes and then I have to reboot, launch Lightroom and export another 10 files. Lots of work and stress for a 700 file wedding. Really not sure what it is.  As someone suggested in the other thread, I'll diagnose my memory tomorrow to see if it's not one of the RAM sticks that is at fault.


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## Jim Wilde (Aug 19, 2021)

Have you considered or investigated overheating issues? Export is one of those functions that drive the CPU very hard, so highly possible to cause the system to crash if the cooling system is operating below par. Plenty of system monitors available to track the CPU temperature immediately prior to the crash.


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## meehow (Aug 19, 2021)

Thank you. I haven't thought about it but will give it a go. I ran Crystal Disc Info to check the discs and they seemed fine but I haven thought about the processor.


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## Hal P Anderson (Aug 19, 2021)

If you want to stress your CPU in a repeatable manner, Prime95 has a "torture test" mode. 
https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/prime95-download.html


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## meehow (Aug 19, 2021)

This could be it. Just installed NXZT Cam to monitor the temperature and it shows between 80-90 degree Celsius when not under load. I went and exported 5 files and the temperature of the CPU went to 100-104 degree Celsius. This seems too high. I'll clean it all from dust tomorrow, maybe it's too dusty. Also just read that you can reapply fresh thermal paste between your CPU and CPU cooler to help.


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## LRList001 (Aug 21, 2021)

Call me too cautious if you like, but I wouldn't leap in and re-seat the cpu's thermal compound until I had tried removing dust and checking that the whole cooling system is looking to be performing correctly.

For what its worth, this (W10) machine is currently mostly idling right now, the CPU is running around 35-40 degrees Celsius and the fans are near silent.  When working hard it reaches about 80 degrees Celsius and at that stage the fans are in noisy mode, however it doesn't throttle the frequency back.

The cooling system can sustain Prime95 indefinitely, which was my requirement, though more and more work is being off-loaded to the GPU these days.

Prime95 is an excellent test of CPU cooling performance BTW, don't know if it is Windows only.


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## meehow (Aug 22, 2021)

I went ahead and cleaned the old thermal paste that was dry now and reapplied the new paste.
I also fitted additional 2 brand new corsair fans to the bottom and front of the case to draw more air inside (it has 5 fans now)
I also cleaned all of the inside from dust using canned air.

This didn't really help.

My cpu starts at about 70 degrees Celsius and goes up to 100-105 degrees Celsius after a few minutes and starts throttling and eventually shuts down with a blue screen. Last few days it's done it without Lightroom or without any heavy apps running. Before it only used to crash during Lightroom export so I posted a question on this forum however now it seems to be an issue with some hardware.

Maybe it's the cpu cooler that isn't working properly. It's a corsair H60 water cooler. I've seen comments online that you should feel the pump going when you touch it and I can't feel anything. However at the same time if it hadn't been working then it would have fried my cpu already? I don't know.

I don't really want to spend £75 on a new water cooler it it turns out to be something else as I'm not sure I would be able to reuse it with a newer cpu if I have to build a new machine.

I don't really know. Thank you for all your help and suggestions.


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## PhilBurton (Aug 23, 2021)

meehow said:


> I went ahead and cleaned the old thermal paste that was dry now and reapplied the new paste.
> I also fitted additional 2 brand new corsair fans to the bottom and front of the case to draw more air inside (it has 5 fans now)
> I also cleaned all of the inside from dust using canned air.
> 
> ...


Can you feel the heat being exhausted from the cooler's radiator?  Are the radiator fans spinning?


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## Gnits (Aug 23, 2021)

Viewing the internal key components / plumbing with an infrared camera can be a good means to troubleshoot. However, most of us do not have such an item. 

The cheap alternative is an infrared thermometer.  They are approx 20stg on Amazon Uk. Just point it at the object to be measured and read the temp on the back. You should be able to trace the heat thru the water circuit and see if the heat is circulating to the radiator.  I got one to find air leaks in doors and windows in a friends new house and have used it since for lots of different tasks.


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## meehow (Aug 23, 2021)

PhilBurton said:


> Can you feel the heat being exhausted from the cooler's radiator?  Are the radiator fans spinning?


The fan is working pushing the air outside through the radiator. I cleaned the radiator as well.

I can't however see if the pump is working. I connected it to a different power supply on the motherboard to test with no effect. I can't really feel any water flow when touching the pipes. Both pipes are luke warm as well when I read comments that one should be noticeably warmer then the other one? Maybe it is the pump.


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## LRList001 (Aug 23, 2021)

meehow said:


> The fan is working pushing the air outside through the radiator. I cleaned the radiator as well.
> 
> I can't however see if the pump is working. I connected it to a different power supply on the motherboard to test with no effect. I can't really feel any water flow when touching the pipes. Both pipes are luke warm as well when I read comments that one should be noticeably warmer then the other one? Maybe it is the pump.


Do you have a cooler that came with the CPU (an air cooler)?  Those are less expensive than water coolers usually?  70 degrees at idle is far, far too high.  Try another cooler, something is very wrong.  You might have convection helping without a working pump.  The CPU will auto throttle back if it over-heats.  You might or might not have fried your CPU.  The latest thermal control tries to protect it from harm, so might have protected you from frying the CPU (yet), but even 100 degrees rapidly shortens the life of the CPU, hence I prefer to have cooling capable of keeping well below that.


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## meehow (Aug 24, 2021)

LRList001 said:


> Do you have a cooler that came with the CPU (an air cooler)?  Those are less expensive than water coolers usually?


No, this cpu did not come with a cooler. I ordered a replacement water cooler that is due to arrive today so fingers crossed!


LRList001 said:


> The CPU will auto throttle back if it over-heats.


It does throttle after a few minutes and then it shuts down with the blue screen of death.


LRList001 said:


> You might or might not have fried your CPU.  The latest thermal control tries to protect it from harm, so might have protected you from frying the CPU (yet), but even 100 degrees rapidly shortens the life of the CPU.


Fingers crossed it'll live with the new cooler.


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## meehow (Aug 24, 2021)

Fixed!

The new water cooler arrived today, I fitted it and applied a fresh thermal paste between the radiator and the cpu. Works beautifully. Idle at 30 degrees Celsius, exporting at a 40 degrees Celsius.

The cpu thermal control must have kicked in and saved it from getting fried which is great to know.

Thank you so much for all your input! I really appreciate the time you spent here! I posted it here as I thought it was Lightroom related as my computer kept crashing during export. In the process of elimination it turned out to be a hardware issue but nobody trolled me for posting on the wrong forums and you all came up with suggestions trying to help. A great place!

Thank you!


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## meehow (Aug 18, 2021)

Hi, I wonder if anyone has come across a similar problem and found a solution?

My computer isn't new, I've had it for 5 years now but thought spec wise it is still ok to run Lightroom.

Windows 10, 32 GB Ram, Intel i7-5820 3.30 Ghz.

I keep the catalog and raw files on a MD.2 SSD drive that are supposed to be faster. Neither RAM or CPU max out during Lightroom work yet it became terribly slow recently, It starts ok and then slows down dramatically after few minutes. When exporting it takes ages and recently it started crashing. I get the so called blue screen of death saying that my computer ran into problems and it shuts down.

Any help will be much appreciated.


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## LRList001 (Aug 24, 2021)

Good, I am glad it is fixed and thank you for your kind words too.


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## Billip (Sep 23, 2021)

Funnily enough, I've just browsed the forum for posts re "overheating", as my (quite new) laptop today started to make an alarming regular beeping noise as I was doing some work in LRC. So, I quit Lightroom whereupon the screen went black and the computer switched itself off.  A bit of googling led me to order a laptop cooling stand (GBP 20), and as an interim measure I have stood the laptop on four ceramic one inch square tiles (one at each corner). I'm sure that having recently covered my tabletop (on which the laptop sits) with a large acreage of mousemat-type material hasn't helped.

The fan now doesn't seem to be working as hard (hopefully not because the earlier cut-out meant it was damaged !), but to double check I will follow the suggestion above about running Prime 95.


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## Billip (Sep 23, 2021)

Gulp ! I've just reopened LRC and there is nothing there - no catalog, no folders; nothing.


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## meehow (Sep 23, 2021)

There are some great Lightroom experts here, I'm not one of them but my suggestion would be to try to find the location of your catalogue file and opening Lightroom by clicking on that file. If you're opening Lightroom via start menu or desktop icon then it may be defaulting to a different catalogue.


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## clee01l (Sep 23, 2021)

Billip said:


> Gulp ! I've just reopened LRC and there is nothing there - no catalog, no folders; nothing.



Most likely, you have opened Lightroom with a new empty catalog. Your master catalog is lurking in the shadows. From the [File] menu click on Open recent. Your good catalog should be #2 in the list, but certainly in the list.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## Billip (Sep 23, 2021)

Thanks. I have just clicked on File -> open recent -> , where Lightroom Catalog.lrcat is the only one showing and this is not the one I use (it's called Lightroom Catalog*ext*.lrcat).

The correct one is in my backups on my C-drive. I unzipped the latest backup, from just before my laptop blacked out, dragged the unzipped catalog file from Backups to Lightroom, (I moved it from the Backups folder to the Lightroom folder because it wouldn't open while it was in Backups) and then I went File -> Open -> and chose the one I'd just unzipped and moved. 

Thanks to your assistance, and the Missing FAQs Guide, and a bit of remembering from the last time I had to use a backup catalog, I seem to have resolved the issue.

Thanks for the support, much appreciated.


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