Never had a problem with stuttering in FS2002 using Win XP until last week. I used the defrag program in XP and now I have very bad stutters. Frame rates stay at 17-20 during these stutters. Does this mean a reinstall? Has anyone else had this problem? What's the cure? BobAMD 2200+Epox 8HKA+512 megs Mushkin PC2100Maxtor 40gig 7200rpm ATA133 hard driveHercules Geforce 3 Video card

I've only used the Win98 defrag--no issues or problems... You may want to verify that WinXP hasn't loaded a monitoring utility as part of the defrag process. I somewhat recall being asked that by one MS app recently. The only other possibility is that the defrag utility has located your textures in a poor part of the HD, causing longer seek times. As I said, I didn't suffer that impact doing a defrag of my own.

Not to worry about XP or Defrag ... it's not DEFRAG that's causing it.When you ran DEFRG, however, did you have anything else running? Any antivirus software that's running while "defraffing" can be the start of a bigger problem, including some related to FS performance.I would do the following:1). Make certain all applications are stopped (use the Task Mgr ... Cntl/Alt/Del on the desktop, APPLICATIONS tab, and stop everything).2). Go to START/Control Panel/Perf and Maint/Free up Space ... and clean up all the junk that's out there.3). In the Control Panel, run the defragger again.After this, do a RESTART of your PC, and repeat all of the above. BE SURE TO STOP the ANTIVIRUS application (and other running applications) before doing so.4). Do another RESTART of your PC, then try Flight Sim out again.Hope this does the trick!I don't use any antivirus since building my newest system. This has made me much more discerning (sort of like abstinence) in my download sources and e-mail inspections (if I don't immediately recognize the sender, the mail is trashed ... why would I want to see something unexpectedly?).Everything operates like I dreamed it would years ago. Flight Sim is very smooth, and I'm very happy. I can't wait until 2004, when I can build another PC.+ P4/1.8(A)GHz - 400MHz FSB+ 1 GHz PC133SDRAM+ 60GB WD 7200rpm+ GF3 Ti200+ Creative Live!+ WinXP Pro+ NO Antivirus

"I don't use any antivirus since building my newest system."I've compromised. I am using AVG (freeware), but only the scanning portion. I've disabled the resident portion of the software. I scan all incoming files, but I'm very picky about what sites I DL from. I'd say this site, and one or two others... And for email, I use an old email client that is neither Java or HTML capable, keeping the risk down of auto executing attachments.FS2002 remains very fluid for me--and it seems the new FSDS 2 aircraft like Brian Gladden's 140 give it even better performance. I'm so impressed with the FSDS 2 work, I may get it myself so I can start adding to the Ultralight offerings in FS. Even with my limited CAD skills, I might be able to manage an Ultralight :)-John

I noticed that too. Will try your tips, thanks.

My OS is Win98, and I experience the same problem with stutters after I run defrag. I found that the DirectX sound acceleration slider was being reset from Basic to full acceleration after defrag. It happened again this evening.Launch DxDiag, the full application. Click the Sound Tab and check the acceleration slider. I move mine back to basic, and the problem is resolved.Hope this helps. Rick

Boy, that's an odd consequence of defrag! But I've been lucky--sound accel. has never produced a stutter for me in FS w/98SE. But I've heard of the issue with sound accel. before. Good tip...

Sim,Are you running a beta DirectX version? I know of a friend who is having settings changed since he installed DX9.0 Beta the other day.

NO I'm running version 8.1. I did check DXDIAG and found the sound accelerator back to full right. I moved it back but I don't have the time today to fly the sim. Just had a few minutes to check messages. Thanks for all the replies! Bob