Software Startup Issues

2021-02-08T18:29:37+00:00

Introduction

If the software no longer starts, there is little that can be done to troubleshoot the issue. Follow the steps below to manually change registry settings to get the software running again.

If the software starts, but takes longer than before or takes a long time, i.e. more than 5s to start, this almost always implies you have a corrupt file.
Run Microsoft's System File Checker on your hardrive to see if there are any damaged files. From command prompt, run "sfc/scannow"

If you are unfamiliar with Windows registry, this YouTube video should provide enough context to carry out actions below.

How to use this article

The Quick fixes section shares next steps if the software suddenly stopped working after a Windows update or BI update. A common cause is hardware acceleration incompatibility with a camera. Another common cause is a user was making setting changes and for some reason BI stops working. The Clear registry section explains how to quickly go back to previous settings. The Clear registry section is also an easy way to clear the registry temporarily just to confirm the executable on your computer is not corrupt.

The Troubleshooting Crashes section is the next course of action. If the Quick fixes do not get the software running, then you need to figure out which camera or feature within a camera is causing the issue. This section helps you do so.

Before starting

Before doing anything, make sure you have the below two pieces of information.
The worst feeling is when you start something and it breaks and there is no way to go back!

Your license key. The easiest way to store your license key is to mail your support info to yourself.
This way you will always have a copy of your license in your email.
Working registry settings.

If you routinely backup BI settings great! Find your backup and save it to a thumb drive (better safe than sorry).
If not, BI automatically saves your settings from the last 3 days. Go to your program installation directory, usually "C:\Program Files\Blue Iris 5". You will find 3 settings: backup.reg, backup2.reg and backup3.reg from newest to oldest. Hopefully, one of those will work.

Quick Fixes

This section has quick fixes to common tickets.

Hardware acceleration

Scenario: BI starts crashing immediately. But you have no idea why. All you did was update BI or just notice instability one day.

Frequent crashes usually mean the hardware decoding is not happy with one of your cameras. Easy fix is to go into the registry and turn off hardware acceleration globally.

Global hardware acceleration
How to turn HA off globally (for all cameras)
Find the below key in the Registry (Windows start button -> regedit):
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Perspective Software\Blue Iris\Options
Set hwaccel to 0.

Hardware acceleration per camera
How to turn off HA for each camera.
Find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Perspective Software\Blue Iris\Cameras
For each camera, set the value of ip_hwaccel to 2.

Other fixes:

Usual issue is the camera is set to H.265 encoding, but your QuickSync or hardware decoder does NOT support H.265.
See Processor section for details.
Simplify camera encoding to H.264. Camera setup article has details.
Update your hardware drivers.

Clear registry

Scenario: This seems like the solution of choice when you did something funky, e.g. resulting in the display or something else no longer working properly or the software will not start. You can either clear the registry and start over or load past settings.

Make sure you meet all the requirements in the Before Starting section ABOVE especially having a working backup of your BI settings. If not, you will be re-adding all your cameras.

Steps to clean out registry:

Stop BI
BI should not be running as a service or manually.
See Stop BI service section (below) on how to stop the BI service.

Registry
Run regedit and delete the following keys if they exist:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Perspective Software
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Perspective Software

Good to start the software here. If the program does not start with no settings, go to the website (blueirissoftware.com) and download/install the latest software. Start the software. If the software still does not start, you will need to examine the hardware or operating system.

Restore past settings
If you want to start from previously stable setting, import your registry settings. Global settings -> About tab -> Import settings.

Start or Reinstall BI
(optional) If reinstalling BI, temporarily disable antivirus software after installing BI.

Troubleshooting Crashes

Below is how users can isolate crashes using the registry. Another cool tool in the toolbox. If you don't want to start with past settings or start over and the above fixes do not work, this section explains how to turn off cameras using the registry until the software starts. If you prefer to watch the webinar associated with this article, checkout the Performance and Troubleshooting webinar.

Again, before doing anything with the registry, go through Before starting section ABOVE.
Stop the BI service (below) if not done so already.

Disconnect All your Cameras
This section explains how to disconnect all your cameras using the registry. It's an easy test to determine whether the startup issue lies with your cameras or some other functionality in BI. An example of isolating the issue.

First shutdown BI if it is running.
Type regedit in the Window search bar (lower left) and select Registry Editor
Search for the BI settings: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Perspective Software\Blue Iris (see image below)
Rename the Cameras key to CamerasX. This will immediately remove all your cameras from BI. If the software starts up, then you know there is an issue with one of your camera settings.

Once you know the issue lies with cameras, rename CamerasX back to Cameras. Proceed below to identify the offending camera(s).

Disabling a camera

This section explains how to disable a camera using the registry.

First shutdown BI if it is running.
Type regedit in the Window search bar (lower left) and select Registry Editor
Search for the BI settings: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Perspective Software\Blue Iris (see image below)
Go to a camera and change enabled to 0. This effectively disables the camera. (see image below)

Troubleshooting cameras strategy

Now you know how to disable cameras using the registry. You can now leverage the registry to identify the offending camera(s).

I prefer using the UI to troubleshoot instead of the registry. In order to get the software started as quickly as possible, I first turn off hardware acceleration globally. Hardware acceleration with a camera(s) is often the issue with software startup. Follow hardware acceleration steps above to turn off HA globally.

I then disable all the cameras. This usually gets the software running.

Disable all the cameras via the registry using technique above.
BI should start.
From the UI, you can now enable camera(s) one-by-one until software crashes.
Make note of offending camera and go back into registry and disable the camera.
Repeat steps and disable all offending camera(s).

If you have many cameras, users typically divide and conquer. Disable half your cameras and see if the other half crashes. If not, the disabled half of cameras has offending camera(s). If so, the current half of cameras has an offending camera(s). This logic applies to section below as well.

Identify Camera <> HA Conflicts

If the software starts with ALL the camera(s) enabled, it is very likely individual camera(s) incompatibility with HA is the reason for startup failures.

Turn HA off for each of the cameras via the registry. Follow hardware acceleration steps above to turn off HA for each camera.
Start the software.
Turn HA on globally. Global settings -> Cameras tab.
Software should still be running since HA is off for each camera. Camera settings -> Video tab.
Turn HA on for each camera. When the software crashes, you identified a camera with compatibility issues with HA.
Go back to registry and turn off HA for the offending camera. Repeat above until you identify all offending camera(s)

Troubleshoot offending camera(s)

Once you know the offending camera(s), revisit the Hardware decode section in the Video tab article for the offending camera(s).

Miscellaneous

Stop BI service

How to stop a BI service manually. Used frequently in tasks above before editing the registry.

To do so, in the Windows search bar, type services and bring up the services app.
Find the "Blue Iris Service" service.
Double-click the entry
Change Startup type from Automatic to Manual
Then stop the service.

Final thoughts
At this point, your BI server should be up and running. Below are other topics dealing with system stability.

Rolling back to previous BI settings

Rolling back to previous BI software versions

Windows Tools: Leveraging Windows capabilities to roll back Windows updates or Software Security updates and other topics.

Statistics: Posted by varghesesa — Mon Feb 08, 2021 6:29 pm