Over the past week my system has rebooted unexpectedly each night around 7:30pm PST (UTC -8) if MakeMKV is open. It has done this every one of the three nights MakeMKV has been open, and none of the other nights. Yesterday afternoon I explicitly closed other running apps, e.g. Steam, though I have not gone so far as to shut down everything in the system tray, try in Safe Mode, etc.
I've used MakeMKV for years and not seen this before, so I'm wondering if something in it is newly triggering a bug elsewhere, e.g. in a Windows driver. I have MakeMKV v1.18.2 win(x64-release) and Windows 11 25H2 (OS Build 26200.7623).
Event viewer on the system logs shows nothing useful -- no events for several hours and then suddenly a kernel event showing the system rebooted unexpectedly. I have not been physically present any of the three times, so I haven't been able to see if anything appears onscreen.
Does MakeMKV do anything automatically around this time, e.g. an update check? I've just enabled debug logging in MakeMKV in case that will let me capture something, but I didn't have that active for the three reboots I describe.
Windows 11 reboots ~7:30pm PST if MakeMKV is open
Re: Windows 11 reboots ~7:30pm PST if MakeMKV is open
To my knowledge, MakeMKV does an online check for updates when the program is started. That's where the version check comes from.
Additionally, if you load a disk that it cannot decode, it checks for an update of the decryption codes, but it won't do that if you've disabled it in the configuration.
As for "random" checks, that's not something MakeMKV does, in my experience. I run it for DAYS at a time, usually multiple copies (two drives ripping at the same time), without reboots.
Of course, I don't have Win11 running, so that's another factor; do you have automatic updates running on Win11? Those should happen around 2am, and CAN reboot a system.
Additionally, if you load a disk that it cannot decode, it checks for an update of the decryption codes, but it won't do that if you've disabled it in the configuration.
As for "random" checks, that's not something MakeMKV does, in my experience. I run it for DAYS at a time, usually multiple copies (two drives ripping at the same time), without reboots.
Of course, I don't have Win11 running, so that's another factor; do you have automatic updates running on Win11? Those should happen around 2am, and CAN reboot a system.
MakeMKV Frequently Asked Questions
FAQ about BETA and PERMANENT keys.
How to aid in finding the answer to your problem: Activating Debug Logging
FAQ about BETA and PERMANENT keys.
How to aid in finding the answer to your problem: Activating Debug Logging
Re: Windows 11 reboots ~7:30pm PST if MakeMKV is open
They can, but not in a way that leaves nothing in Event Viewer -- it should show a graceful shutdown in that case.
At the time the reboots have happened, the program has been opened for hours, with a disc finished ripping for hours, so neither of the checks you mention should be happening.
I definitely don't think MakeMKV is directly rebooting the system -- I suspect it's the interaction of it with something else on the system, likely in the kernel. It's probably tickling someone else's bug. But if Windows isn't logging anything, tracking this down is tricky.
Sitting here tonight watching it, since I've left it open and finished ripping on purpose, and it's about 7:30pm PST again.
At the time the reboots have happened, the program has been opened for hours, with a disc finished ripping for hours, so neither of the checks you mention should be happening.
I definitely don't think MakeMKV is directly rebooting the system -- I suspect it's the interaction of it with something else on the system, likely in the kernel. It's probably tickling someone else's bug. But if Windows isn't logging anything, tracking this down is tricky.
Sitting here tonight watching it, since I've left it open and finished ripping on purpose, and it's about 7:30pm PST again.
Re: Windows 11 reboots ~7:30pm PST if MakeMKV is open
I didn't get reboots around 7:30pm, but I have now had the machine reboot multiple times while ripping.
Yesterday it happened while I was watching; the mouse pointer was frozen but the keyboard LEDs were responsive, so the Windows kernel was hung. After a while the watchdog auto-rebooted. I assume this is what's happening every time.
Nothing useful in the debug logs. Ran memtest86 for 9 hours and found nothing, checked SMART data on my drives and found nothing. Tried two different Blu-Ray drives and had reboots using both. Tried running Windows in Safe Mode and still had the problem, so it's not some other random application.
At this point I'm wondering if Microsoft shipped some kind of kernel bug in a recent win 11 update. Unfortunately without any crash dump/stack to send them, nor a reliable repro, I don't have anything actionable to report. Maybe they have telemetry on unexpected reboots and would notice a spike? I'm not sure why MakeMKV specifically would tickle such a bug, nor why it is fickle about when it happens (race condition?).
Yesterday it happened while I was watching; the mouse pointer was frozen but the keyboard LEDs were responsive, so the Windows kernel was hung. After a while the watchdog auto-rebooted. I assume this is what's happening every time.
Nothing useful in the debug logs. Ran memtest86 for 9 hours and found nothing, checked SMART data on my drives and found nothing. Tried two different Blu-Ray drives and had reboots using both. Tried running Windows in Safe Mode and still had the problem, so it's not some other random application.
At this point I'm wondering if Microsoft shipped some kind of kernel bug in a recent win 11 update. Unfortunately without any crash dump/stack to send them, nor a reliable repro, I don't have anything actionable to report. Maybe they have telemetry on unexpected reboots and would notice a spike? I'm not sure why MakeMKV specifically would tickle such a bug, nor why it is fickle about when it happens (race condition?).
Re: Windows 11 reboots ~7:30pm PST if MakeMKV is open
Tried disabling PBO, downclocking my RAM, and disabling memory context restore just for kicks. Still reboots.
A couple times this morning as I reproduced the issue I noticed that the system wasn't actually hung, just very, very, very laggy -- like, thirty second waits to react to a mouse event. The lag would seem to be rapidly increasing until the reboot, also. I'm wondering if some kind of event queue is getting spammed.
The problem never occurs without MakeMKV, and I can get it to occur within a few minutes by attempting to rip One Battle After Another.
A couple times this morning as I reproduced the issue I noticed that the system wasn't actually hung, just very, very, very laggy -- like, thirty second waits to react to a mouse event. The lag would seem to be rapidly increasing until the reboot, also. I'm wondering if some kind of event queue is getting spammed.
The problem never occurs without MakeMKV, and I can get it to occur within a few minutes by attempting to rip One Battle After Another.
Re: Windows 11 reboots ~7:30pm PST if MakeMKV is open
I tried purchasing Leawo UHD Copy and ripping the same disc with the same drive. It also triggered a reboot.
This exonerates MakeMKV and casts more suspicion on something like the Windows disk subsystem. I have ripped many movies with this drive in the past without ever rebooting, so _something_ has changed.
This exonerates MakeMKV and casts more suspicion on something like the Windows disk subsystem. I have ripped many movies with this drive in the past without ever rebooting, so _something_ has changed.