Are green video files a symptom of GPU failure?

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Hi,

I'm stumped and need some help.

I'm running a late 2015 iMac (Retina 5K, 27-in) 4GHz Intel Core i7 with a AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4096 MB graphics card. I recently upgraded the OS to Mohave 10.14.1. The most intensive work I use it for is amateur video editing. So I'm processing a lot of .mp4 files that range anywhere from 2GB to 7GB. I also may convert some of these videos from H.264 to H.265 using the Super265 app.

Everything's been going fine until a few weeks ago. In the middle of a batch file process, all the videos turned solid green. Both the original source video and the finished file. Audio remains, but the video that was there just moments before appears gone. The first time this happened, I thought my external HDD had failed. So I replaced it last week.

It happened again tonight, but this time even videos that had already been processed a few days ago were also effected. Even videos I'd previously converted with Super265 days ago. So both H.264 and H.265 files were effected this time. I plugged the drive into my media player connected to my TV, and the same videos looked fine. No green screen. Restarted the iMac, plugged the HDD back into the computer, and most of the files looked okay again. But some of the file sizes were really way off. Like 93MB on video files I know should have read 3GB. So I deleted them, processed one of the files again, and it seemed fine. Video showed up, and the file size was accurate. Tried a second file--great. Tried a third--Oops!--green video again.

So I know the problem is not my external HDD. And it's not my software, because even files done in other apps were affected this time.

From what I've read online tonight, it seems like a hardware failure of some kind. I hear the fan running very loudly when processing a video. And I noticed when I was upgrading to Mohave that the system reported "Machine thermal status is now fair," more often and for longer periods (30min to an hour) than "Machine thermal status is now normal" (only 2-5 min.).

Does anyone know if this sounds like a CPU or GPU failure? And if so, what remedies are advisable?

Thanks in advance!
 
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Are you restarting your iMac in between processing these files?

It does sound like something is being stressed? Maybe open Activity Monitor and see what it tells you?

Also, how much free space is available on your internal drive, and scratch disk, if they are used for video editing?
 
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I usually do not restart my iMac between processing the files. Last night, however, after all the files turned green, I shut down the iMac for a few minutes while testing the videos in my media player. Then I turned the iMac back on and the files seemed okay for a short time before turning green as described in my original post. Last night I shut down the Mac and let it rest/cool all night long. This morning I turned it back on and have successfully processed about 5-6 videos--one at a time, and letting the fan thoroughly go quiet and rest between files.

As you suggested, I opened Activity Monitor while processing a video this morning. Memory seems fine. Barely registers a green line at the bottom. CPU doesn't spike. Energy goes up to 2/3 or 3/4 of the graph. I'm not that familiar with reading these results, so am posting screen caps for reference. Maybe someone can see something I'm missing.

I'm using an external Samsung Portable SSD T5 (1TB) for the video editing. It's got about 400GB free space, and is only a week old.

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Letting it rest, seems like it worked or helped.

You could try, a fan monitor app, to see what they show? I use Macs Fan Control, https://www.crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control, only to monitor how much heat, I don't adjust the fans speed with it.

Is Game Capture HD what you use to make your videos?
 
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I've used Game Capture HD by Elgato for a couple years now without any problems. Simple capture and edit. Reliable. I have Wondershare Filmora for more detailed editing, but haven't had occasion to use it in the last couple weeks when this green video problem showed up.

Thanks for the link to the fan monitor. I downloaded it right away--and haven't heard the fan come on since, even when processing 4 files at once (I was trying to push it to make the fan come on like it was this morning with only 1 file). I didn't adjust any fan settings, just watching, and everything was minimum rpm. I think it's like going to the doctor. The problem plays hide and seek as soon you walk into the exam room.

So now I'm trying the Super265 app to convert a video from H.264 to H.265, and that immediately maxed out the fan and raised the temps on the cores. The fan rpm settled after a few minutes to around 2600 (1200 is min / 2800 is max), then climbed back to max. The cores hovered just under 100 Celsius with an ambient temp of 38 Celsius.

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