PMDG-747 half of it despaired ????

[bgps 0]

I too am experiencing this problem. However this time I left the dome lights off and half way through the flight the gauges went all distorted. Then when I attempted to open the Overhead panel the entire flight crashed. I must say that since owning the 747x it has been a struggle, no other programme do I have these problems with I am running: Intel Core 2 e8400geforce 9800 GTX4GB RAMVista Home PremiumMatrox triple head to goFSX add ons:747xLDS 767Wilco A320xUltimate TrafficRadar ContactHeathrow xI certainly hope PMDG fixes this problem. Seems that a number of people are experiencing difficulties. IMHO telling people to reinstall FSX is not an option. Many people have spent hours configuring their systems to run (and they do run fine) with other add ons. Bruce

[Guest sanal]

Bruce,I made a test flight again from JFK to Montreal. FL260 time 7:30PM.747 in full view. I turned panel lights and PMDG-747 half disappeared.I am glad we finally pin point the original point of problem.We should get some HELP from PMDG crew.Lets keep rising our voice...Hopefully they will come with solution .ThanksSanal

[stevenp 1]

I have this problem sometimes. At the end of my 9 hour flight from denver to frankfurt the plane did this at immediate final and the model became distorted with the engines in the wrong place w/o textures. Also during the flight when it is dark outside and I have the glareshield and the overhead light on the gauges freeze. Actually it always happens when it is dark outside. To solve this I figured out that I have to put it in 2d then change it back. Do you all have any fixes for this pmdg.

[Guest sanal]

Steven,Pete Sterling from PMDG asked me to send all info to PMDG technical support. I did not find any solution, but what I found when ever I turn on panel light, PMDG half of body disappearing.If I turn-off the panel lights, body of plane is full size again. Then FSX freezes and screen goes black.Did you notice,if your problem started when you turn-on your panel lights ? Sanal

[stevenp 1]

Actually it did not for me. I do not know why, but I think it is a memory issue and pmdg textures. but I dont know?

[zap737 1]

Hi All,Good to see some ideas bouncing around.I have not tested the panel light theory but will do so and report back.Come to think of it my problems have occured in the evening or at night as well.Can you tell me precisely which switch/panel light you are refering to?Is it on the overhead panel?Is it the Storm, CKT BKR OVHD Panel, Glareshield Panel/Flood or the Dome?Thanks,Pete

[zap737 1]

There seems to be a number of users affected by this problem. We should probably all email:support@precisionmanuals.comwith a description of the problem and a link to this thread.Rgds,Pete

[Tigh 6]

Perhaps it is still down to a corrupt file in FSX but at least we can all reproduce the problem.I can say it wasn't the Dome lighting, I never use it. I'll try and do a bit of a test over the next day or so and see if there's a specific light that affects the model. I have to say that I'm not getting the black screen issue, or any problems with dials, just problems with the VC and external model (using an official PMDG scheme).

[Guest sanal]

I contacted PMDG- Technical Support Team and received an e-mail from"Paul GollnickManager Technical and Customer SupportPrecision Manuals Development Groupwww.precisionmanuals.com"They are willing to help. Any member having problem as we described above, take an action as Pete suggested, "send an e-mail to support@precisionmanuals.com with a description of the problem and link to this thread."PMDG support can analyze the problem and can find origin how this problem developed .Best regardsSanal

[rsrandazzo 6,353]

Sanal-Asking people to link to this thread is not necessary. If you spent some time reading this forum, you'll notice that we spend quite a bit of time here.The problem you describe is VERY likely to be cause by memory leaking in FSX. That does NOT imply that the problem is caused by the 400X, only that you are noticing it with the 400X because this aircraft requires a very heavy memory utilization.I saw a rather significant list of addons installed earlier in the thread. We have seen problems reported with a few of those addons, and a few have had to be updated in order to eliminate everything from memory leaks to data corruption.So while we appreciate that you'd like our assistance in solving the issue for you- you must bear in mind that with many many many thousands of users flying our products- having even a dozen folks report a particular problem to us does not make it statistically significant enough for us to assume the problem is with our product.(We've had nasty problems buried in our airplanes before- and I assure you the data from problem reports makes it VERY obvious VERY quickly...)Paul has provided some feedback to a few users on things we'd like them to accomplish to help us trouble shoot further. When those folks respond with answers we'll review the data and see where the research takes us.FWIW: We had one of our beta testers experience this problem one time- but it was about 18 months ago and nobody on the team (including the beta testers) recalls what it was that solved the problem... This also tells me it was external to the 400X, because we'd likely remember if we had to fix something in the airplane....At any rate- we are here to help- but please do not incite people to badger support. That isn't the proper method to get help!

[Guest sanal]

Robert, I know that PMDFG-747X is a quality product and the most enjoyable SIM flying I have achieved, close to real world flying.I almost feel its my obligation as a customer to give my support and concern about the product, in appreciation for the dedication and effort that went into developing 747 and NG-737 for us.I asked members if they are having similar problems. Your Technical Support management offered their help and asked me to supply more info regarding my PC/addons. I informed other members in order to keep the issue focused so that the support team could benefit from wider experience rather than an isolated case.I think you already pinpointed possible cause of this problem: "The problem you describe is VERY likely to be cause by memory leaking in FSX. That does NOT imply that the problem is caused by the 400X, only that you are noticing it with the 400X because this aircraft requires a very heavy memory utilization"I want to continue to fly PMDG-747X like most of your customers but not with half of the plane is missing. If this problem is caused by leak memory and some problem through FSX/MY PC, then I will park at 747 in hanger and purchase MD-11XI'm hoping MD-11X will put this kind of problem in the past. Good Luck and best wishes to PMDG for developing MD-11X for sim-Pilots.Sanal

[tfm 169]

I believe that the symptoms described in this thread are the same as those I suffer with the MD-11. Since installing the MD-11 I've also noticed the same problem with the 747X - but as I only rarely use that model I do not know whether its symptoms are new.For a while I thought I had solved the problem by relaxing my memory settings. But it turns out that this just postpones the inevitable or makes it more unpredictable. Eventually, both with the 747X and the MD-11X, flying at dusk or night is almost certain to create a problem. Using the Level-D 767X in the same circumstances does not create a problem. I have concentrated on trying to fix the problem I encounter most, so I cannot say whether the problem also occurs using daylight textures.In my case, a sure-fire way to trigger this problem is the following: 1. Start at EGCC gate 10 on 26/9/08 at about 1735z with a BA livery or an American Airlines livery. Enter a flightplan to EGLL. The only waypoint you need is HON.2. Start up FSInn or Squawkbox: it makes no difference in my case.3. Depart on a HON1Y from 23L to FL190. Arrive at EGLL on a BNN4A with BNN transition to 27L.4. During the flight, look around using all the external and internal views. Make some switches from full screen to windowed mode. 5. Land.In my case, I can always get a "black screen" / disappearing textures crash this way. It doesn't always happen at the same point. It seldom happens further than about 15nm from EGLL. Sometimes it's during the approach. Sometimes it's on finals. Sometimes it only happens after landing. Sometimes I think I've managed to get away with it. But even when I'm on the ground at EGLL, if I look around from some external view points and make some windowed/full screen swaps - and I'm sure to get the same crash. The problem does not arise the other way around: ie, if I start at EGLL I cannot get a crash this way. Someone in one of the many posts I've looked at has suggested that this suggests that the problem is to do with the aeroplane model, not the scenery. To a layman that sounds logical because the obvious difference between the two situations is the WAY the aeroplane came to be where it is - but I've no idea whether it makes sense from a programming point of view.My installed add-ons are the PMDG MD-11X and 747X, Level-D 767X, FSInn/FSCopilot, Squawkbox, MyTrafficX 5.1, UTX, GEX USA, FEX, Activesky X, Jeppesen SimCharts, Vroute Premium, Aerosoft EGLL, Aerosoft EDDF and Kai Tak Hong Kong. All are the most up-to-date versions. The hardware is E8600@4.33GHz on 480MHz FSB; Asus Rampage Extreme; 4Gb DDR3-1600 7-7-7-20 Corsair RAM running at those settings; 3ware 9690SA SAS RAID controller; 1x Seagate 15k 300Gb SAS drive for the o/s etc; 1x or 2x or 3x Hitachi Ultrastar 15k 300Gb SAS drives in RAID0 (I've tried various combinations: the larger RAIDS DO seem to help a little with the problem for some reason). I have tried with and without FSInn, with and without Squawkbox, with and without UTX, with and without traffic and with and without the Heathrow EGLL. I have tried just about every combination of settings in the FSX.CFG file and the "Display" menu that I can think of, including deleting the FSX.CFG and allowing FSX to build a new one. I have tried almost every version of the Nvidia drivers. I have installed the latest DirectX - and older versions. The "Display" settings in FSX make no difference that I can tell. But fiddling around with the other stuff DOES make a difference in terms of the time taken for the problem to arise (which seems to relate most directly to the number of swaps between different views and between full screen/windowed mode). The best results I have obtained are with Nvidia 169.25 drivers, the DirectX March 2008 release (ie, NOT the latest one), Texture_Bandwidth_Multi at 400, Bufferpools at 10000000 and FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION at 0.2. By "best results" I mean that I must USUALLY swap between different views and between windowed/full screen mode more often with these settings than others before I get a crash. But not ALWAYS: which is why the problem is quite a serious one.Why not stop swapping between full screen and windowed mode? Because turning on and off the FSInn panels (and, I think, accessing Squawkbox) seems to be the "equivalent" of going to and from full screen mode; and anyway, I need to get at things on my desktop such at Vroute and Jeppesen SimCharts. Why not stop using external views? Because they're pretty!Realistically I have no idea what's causing this. But after a period of blaming my own setup, I have come back to the suspicion - and it is only a hunch - that something is not quite right with the PMDG models. I have convinced myself that it is not my hardware, because everything else works so well, including the MD-11 in most situations. And in the end I am not prepared to compromise performance even for the sake of running the very good MD-11X. I admit that these are pretty much complete guesses but for my money, the problem is likely to turn out to be memory-related in one of four places: (i) the way the PMDG models handle the approach and/or landing and/or ground "modes" in areas of dense scenery (London is dense even without the Aerosoft Heathrow); and/or (ii) the exterior model; (iii) the modelling of the lights and/or (iv) some glitch with the anti-aliasing. However, if I still can't get it to work after another few days, I am going to bite the bullet and do a full re-install.Tim

[Qatsimo 7]

The problems i read about in this post do sound very familiar. I also had these with both, the MD11 and the 747. Dissapearing parts from the external model and VC, the plane completely dissapearing when switching views, and a black screen while the sim was still running. I hope the cure i found for it will help some of you here. I leaned my CPU overclock settings a bit, from 3.5 GHz to 3.4 GHz. And second, i think the most important part, i changed memory speed from manual multiplier to auto. That did the trick. Both, MD11 and 747 now run rocksolid and verrry smooooothhh. And also, all of a sudden the left side elevator does show up now on the MD11 config page :)Hope this helps.Regards, Gerrit

[tfm 169]

I also blamed my overclock for a while, but this thread (for example) -http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...d=159560&page=4- shows that the problem is not confined to overclocked PCs.Furthermore, reducing my RAM speed to as slow as it will go did not cure the problem (although it helped).Crashes experienced while using some add-ons but not others call for an explanation, IMHO. Where a system is stable under all other conditions, it seems logical (and I have to say, reasonable) to suspect the add-on rather than the system. I also see that someone from PMDG has admitted that one of the beta testers reported similar symptoms a while ago, but apparently without any solution being documented.I've been thinking about this a little bit. It is all very well saying that the MD-11 "stretches the envelope" or "exposes latent instabilities". That may be so, to a degree (although I notice that it delivers a framerate very similar to, or better than, the Level-D 767). But even assuming the MD-11 "stretches the envelope", surely that just begs the questions: why? and in what sense? What exactly is it doing differently from other add-ons that might make it sensitive to this kind of crash? It would be a pity if the tendency to heap (mostly justified) praise on the MD-11 becomes an excuse for refusing to consider the possibility that the code might contain an error - possibly some tiny slip which would be trivial to fix, once identified. Still, I may be ahead of myself here. I fully accept that it might be a problem with my settings. I'll continue to fiddle with them for the next couple of days and if I get no joy I'll do a complete reinstall.Tim

[Qatsimo 7]

Hi Tim,What i read in the other post (freezing sim) seems to point to OOM or indeed scenery problems. In this post it seems more like if the video part of Memory can't keep up with the overall processing (black screen, sim still running). I'm not that technical, so it's more from intuition ;) If i may suggest: Load BIOS Defaults, at least on the Performance tab and try the sim with PMDG aircraft. If it runs well, you could start to increase CPU core speed while leaving all other performance options (for now) to AUTO or Standard. Personally i never OC the videocard, so i would suggest that to Default too.Regards, Gerrit