All production suddenly stopped - old question revisited

[hafox]

A while back I experienced this same, very perplexing problem. From one moment to the next, ALL production stops, nearly simultaneously. What I thought might have been a problem when it first happened, no longer seems probable. I say this because this time I realized that production has stopped in three completely separate factories each of which has its own dedicated power grid; no connection whatsoever between them. When I check the production screens for each power grid, there's loads (no pun) of megawatts available but none being used. I've been careful to keep power production and demand right around a 50/50 ration. Despite that being the case, every machine in all three factories is simply dormant. All factory life is completely still, unmoving, save for belts and the like. Every one of many dozens of boilers and steam engines puff out very small wisps of smoke; nothing like what gets produced when everything is at full tilt. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm accidentally issuing some obscure keyboard command that I don't know about which "pauses" all production while leaving the rest of the game to appear normal.

The first/only other time this happened, it somehow mystically fixed itself while offering no clue at all what might have been going on under the LUA covers. It might very well do the same again, but if anyone has any new ideas about what could cause this I'd sure like to hear it. The problem will most likely occur again and it'd be nice to be able to fix it pronto or maybe be able to prevent it.

Will appreciate any ideas, suggestions and comments. The issue is really very annoying.

[Awstrd]

I saw you posted this about 15 minutes ago, and it says you are online. If you want to load up your game as a multiplayer lobby, I could join and take a look. My steam friend code is 59872086.

Alternatively, I would suggest posting screenshots of your factory as those would help us identify the problem.

[Hurkyl]

In particular, obvious things to look at include one of your assemblers that isn't working (you want to be able to see the building, the tooltip on the side that shows stats and info, and the building's menu), the electric info at a nearby power pole, and the electric info for a power pole in your power plant. Maybe show a boiler too. And any alerts the game is showing.

And to list any mods you may be using.

[hafox]

Thanks for the quick replies. I really don't want to, but I suppose I have to confess. I must be the biggest Factorio idiot out there (and here) about now.

Dumbass me, I've been so focused for so long on science production that I didn't even notice when there was no science being produced. DUUUHHH! When all of one's machines have the sole purpose of feeding labs, and when nothing has been specified for those labs to produce, then no, and I do mean NO, products get consumed. Hence, everything, everywhere, just stops. It's as simple as that. I think maybe I need to take a long break from this quizzical little game. I appear to be losing the ability to perform intelligent, analytical thought. But... the FACTORIES MUST GROW!! Ugh! Sorry to have bothered anyone with this. :(

[puschit]

It's still strange that all three factories stop working entirely at the same time!
First, when there is nothing to research, it stops consuming science packs, yes, but how do you set it up that the entire factory stops working all at once? This could only be the case if every single machine, buffer, belt and incoming resource lane is 100% full at all times.
Secondly, you said that your three factories are totally independant. If that's true, how can they all stop working at the same time when research stops? They must be connected somehow, otherwise at least the ones that don't contain the labs would continue working to prepare the next trainload.

[brian_va]

^ it sounds like research wasn't queued up and the belts backed up as there was no consumption