Blue Screen of Death BSOD After Effects Media Encoder

Report · Sep 27, 2022

Hi, I've been getting BSODs when rendering from After Effects in Media Encoder since around May/June.

When it happens: BSOD crashes on certain projects from After Effects, but not others. It only happens when actively rendering in Media Encoder, but mainly seems to happen while A) Scrubbing through the timeline, B) Opening a new file or C) Opening Blender, which I use often. It seems that more complex projects cause the crash, which simple video exports never do.

What happens: The error is VIDEO_MEMORY_MANAGEMENT_INTERNAL. The minidump file created during the crash indicates WATCHDOG.SYS as the problem. I would also add that the render times on certain projects is massive. I have records of a render from May 2022 taking two minutes, and the exact same render is currently taking two hours. Note: There's a specific After Effects project that causes the BSOD consistently, however I've had a co-worker run the renders on his computer with no issues.

My computer: Ryzen 3700X, RTX 2070 Super, Kingston 32GB 3000mhz, and it's happened on both Windows 10 and Windows 11

What's Been Tried Already:

Reinstalling GPU driver (game ready and studio)
Rolling back GPU to a driver from before the problem started (game ready and studio)
Reinstalling AE and ME
Rolling back AE and ME to a point before the problem started
Running scans on all hardware
Replacing GPU (tried out a 3700 ti)
Testing RAM one at a time
Replacing main C drive
Replacing CPU
Upgrade from Windows 10 to 11
Clean install of Windows 11
Disable Boosts in Bios
Update Asus Chipset Drivers
Turning on performance mode in Nvidia 3D settings
Turning off GPU hardware acceleration in Windows
Updating BIOS

The only thing left in the computer that hasn't been been tested with a replacement is the motherboard, so that's the next step. Animation is a big part of my job, and I've had to turn down several large animation projects over the past few months, not to mention the costs of having professionals look at my computer. It would be nice to know if anyone else has had this problem, and if there are any solutions out there.

Report · Jan 23, 2023

My only update is that I installed the newest NVIDIA driver the other day, tested it out, BSOD a few minutes into rendering in Media Encoder, and I reverted back to an old driver again (512.15).

Report · Jan 04, 2023

Going to give this a shot as well. After updating to a lot of the new software I have been encountering the same issues. When my PC loads back up I use a program called BlueScreenView that reports 2 files that caused the BSOD (listed in the screenshot). Maybe this will be some help, but it seems like you have a majority of it covered. Thanks for the help!

Report · Feb 16, 2023

I'm having the same issue now (also NVIDIA card). It started out as premiere pro project file not loading (just frozen at the loading bar) and I would have to force shut down with task manager. Then AME just would not render past a certain time in the video, freezing and I'd have to force shut down again. Now my entire computer bluescreens. Sometimes it works without crashing my entire pc and it's this inconsistency that is making me extra confused. I guess I could revert my drivers now but should I have to when this issue has been going on since october 2022?

Report · Feb 17, 2023

Adobe and NVIDIA must be high. They need to fix this issue. Divinci Resolve is just around the corner for me.

Report · Mar 04, 2023

Thank god I found this thread. I was also getting those BSOD's often at some random moments while using AE + AME, it didn't seem to follow a pattern so I couldnt identify what was causing it. I've been having this issue for more than 3 months, this was really harming my production as an editor. It came to a point where my Windows BSOD'd and got into a boot loop. I thought it was a faulty RAM but it looks like the problem was those insane random crashes. Just rolled back to 512.15, now i'm running some edits in order to see if it will happen again. I hope this temporary solution can last till NVIDIA release the fix.

Thanks for this thread, it helped me a lot understand what was happening.

Report · Mar 04, 2023

Yeah I also got the boot loop one time. I'm currently still running the old NVIDIA drivers with no BSOD Memory Management Internal crashes. And I'm also currently running an older version of After Effects because a little while ago it started crashing immediately upon opening...but I think that's a problem for a different thread!

Report · Mar 05, 2023

Thanks for sharing all of this. It helped me a ton

Report · Mar 14, 2023

I just get randomly crashes while editing in after effects. I figured out that it happens when I'm using the transform effect and do a zoom trough effect. When I don't use the "transform

effect" it's ok.. but when I start editing my Blackmagic footage, I get a notification that my vram is full and better switch to software encoding.. when I check my task manager I noticed, that the gpu usage is very low 5-10%).
I tried so many things, even I reinstalled windows but I didn't get any stable solution.. that's so frustrating to have this always in mind that there is the possibility that an GPU-Error message pops up, a bluescreen or a freeze can anytime happen.

Report · Mar 30, 2023

Hi, commenting to say that I am also experiencing this issue. I have a custom built PC for After Effects that I've been using in the same way for a couple years, and this just started happening consistently. I found it also happens when having Davinci Resolve and After Effects open simultaneously.

Report · Apr 14, 2023

Replying here to report my fix for this which was to downgrade my NVIDIA driver to the GeForce Studio Driver 512.96.

I'd love for Adobe and NVIDIA to actually work together and stop forcing their users discover these pitfalls on their own. I waste so much time figuring these issues out on a regular basis since updates seemingly get released in a vacuum and none of these companies want to commuinicate. Don't even get me started on Wacom....

Puget Systems released an article about this specific issue:

https://www.pugetsystems.com/support/guides/video-memory-bsod/

Report · Apr 14, 2023

Hey,

Are you still having this issue? I've had it a lot over the last few weeks. Two or three BSOD crashes per day, having recently done a full system reset, and gone through every step you mentioned in your original post.

Today is the first day that I've not had a BSOD, and what I did was go through all instances of Dynamic Link, render them from AE and replace them on the timeline, deleting the Dynamic Link clips entirely from my Premiere Project. I also reviewed all instances of any .mogrt graphics clips on my timeline, opened them in After Effects, and did the same. I had a few instances of 'Mister Horse Premiere Composer' .mogrt essential graphics text clips, and as soon as I replaced those with rendered AE media, my PC seemed way happier.

This has only been today, so I won't say it's 100% solved the problem. I'll check back in a few days and update you.

Report · Apr 14, 2023

Personally, I haven't used Dynamic Link or .mogrt clips in any projects that have caused rendering crashes, so I can't speak to that. But if the article that was mentioned earlier is correct, it may simply be a matter of VRAM reaching 100% usage. So if Dynamic Link uses VRAM, that would make sense, but I don't know if that's true or not.

Report · Apr 15, 2023

I have the same problem with my new PC

BSOD has been disrupting me many times a month. Every day every time when I'm using After Effects.

After I clean Install Windows 11 and update to the latest version of BIOS. The problem still happens.

Now, I'm mad. I might be going to the madhouse! Madhouse comes to pick me up, please. My life is in torment and miserable.

- Intel Core i7 13700KF

-64 GB RAM G.Skill Trident Z Neo 64 GB BUS3600

- GPU Nvidia RTX 3070 Asus Dual

-Motherboard ASUS Prime B760-Plus D4

-SSD WD Black SN770 NVMe M.2 500 GB Gen 4

-SSD Transcend SATA 1024 GB

- Power Supply FSP Aurum1200 Watts 80+ Platinum (PT-1200FM)

Report · Apr 21, 2023

I found this cause of problem and solution

Video Memory BSOD Causing Issues in Rendering Workflows | Puget Systems

Report · Apr 21, 2023

Hey! Yeah someone already posted that article, and it's essentially giving the same workaround I ended up with, which was rolling back the NVIDIA drivers. But the article gives additional things to try and other information, so thanks for posting again, hopefully other people see it too. But of course my biggest hope is that NVIDIA/Adobe do something about the problem. I've been running old drivers for 9 months now.

Report · Apr 22, 2023

Yesterday, I chatted with Nvidia But they acted like they never knew they had this problem before.

If there is a new stable version of Nvidia Driver please tell us too, Thanks.

Report · Jun 12, 2023

Just popping in here to say that I still get the same BSOD, at least when I've upgraded to the most recent drivers. It's extremely unfortunate that Adobe and/or Nvidia haven't fixed this problem yet. It's been a year now.

Report · Aug 16, 2023

This problem has been happening to me for a while now, I think a year maybe, on both my laptop and my desktop, on many different projects. What I notice is that it happens when I've been working for a while, never on the first render of the day. After the "VIDEO_MEMORY_MANAGEMENT_INTERNAL" BSOD, which usually happens in the first few seconds of the render, the computer restarts and then the render happens normally. I'm even thinking about learning nodes.

Report · Nov 04, 2024

Hello from 11-2024) I have BSOD during render 6-8min byAE2022 (4k, 60fps) or AME2020. During working with project, prewieving - not have BSOD. Render in quarter quality succesfuly. Project have duration 5min30sec - expected render time 26-32 hours (in full quality)(( CPU - Ryzen9 7900x, GPU - nvidia 4070ti super. By sensor panel AIDA64, GPU not load and not heating (CUDA enabled in AE), but CPU have 85-98% loading, but not critical temperature (only 86 max). I want say, that on new series GPU and drivers, haven't fixed this problem yet ((