Help Me, Please, Before I Shoot My Notebook!!!

[Guest brad_s]

I was pretty excited when FSX came out. Although my old desktop would not operate it too well, I had a master plan that frankly, has blown up in my face.I purchased a new custom notebook that I figured would get me through the next couple of years and even maybe beyond, but now I realize I may be just kidding myself!The notebook is equipped with an Intel T7400 at 2.16 GHZ OC'd to 2.5. I'm pushing 3 GB's of RAM and have a NVidia GEforce Go 7950 GTX video card. The driver version is 6.14.11.6751, which is the newest I have found without being a Beta version.FSX and FSX with SP1 was pretty fair, but I wanted it all. I purchased and installed FSX Acceleration, kept everything defragged and not installed any tweaks and have installed ASX and X Graphics. I have installed a couple of add on aircraft but little else.Both programs (FSX as well as ASX and Graphics X)crash, FSX being the worse, of course.Can anyone out there with a similiar set-up please provide any insight for me? I'm about ready to give up on FSX and revert to FS2004. I know this computer will make 2004 really sing, although I would really prefer to stay with FSX.

[GHarrall 494]

Laptop + FSX = bad newsSorry, but I would go to FS9 on any laptop.Another 1000mhz CPU speed might have got you there but I don't think such a figure is remotely possible on a laptop.Take a look at my desktop specs below. I can get 24-30FPS in a typical scence with an addon such as the Dreamfleet Dakota running.

[mjrhealth 820]

I still havnt figured out why people put FSX on laptops, Laptops are good for intenet and playing DVDS but when it comes to gaming, a pc is really the only way to go. If my monitor dies , i repalce it, if my videocard dies i replace it etc etc etc , if anything dies on a laptop, off to the shop it goes in the hope that it can be repaired, not only that but they dont have very good cooling and flight sims tend to stress everything and makes most things run hot , which in a laptop can reduce its life quiet dramaticallly. ANd yes i do have a laptop, only used when im away, for surfing net and playing videos.

[Guest jimcooper1]

I have a DELL XPS M1730 with a T9500 (2.6 GHz) CPU, and an 8700GT graphics card. I can only run FSX and get FPS above 20 with sliders on Low or Medium at best. As I develop add-ons for FSX I need to be able to test they work and I need to work away from home and office, so a laptop is essential. If I turn all the environment variables down to Min but keep the aircraft variables at Med/High (which is all I'm intertested in for testing purposes)I can get FPS over 100. Back to the original posters problem I can't offer any logical reason why Acceleration has caused your crashes. Most crashes are down to Out Of Memory errors or overheating. Knock all the sliders down to minimum and see if it still happens. Gradually crank them up until the visuals are acceptable or until it crashes again. If it crashes notch the last slider moved back down one.RegardsJim

[Guest brad_s]

>I still havnt figured out why people put FSX on laptops,>Laptops are good for intenet and playing DVDS but when it>comes to gaming, a pc is really the only way to go. If my>monitor dies , i repalce it, if my videocard dies i replace it>etc etc etc , if anything dies on a laptop, off to the shop it>goes in the hope that it can be repaired, not only that but>they dont have very good cooling and flight sims tend to>stress everything and makes most things run hot , which in a>laptop can reduce its life quiet dramaticallly. ANd yes i do>have a laptop, only used when im away, for surfing net and>playing videos.I guess I should be more specific when I say crash. Most uninformed people see "notebook" and automatically think the problem is heat related, notebooks are only good for searching the net, etc.With all due respect, I don't need someone to tell me I purchased a computer that would only do this, not that, etc. Take a look at killernotebooks.com, look at an Executioner, and inform yourself as to cooling problems, etc.Now that I'm off my bandwagon, the problem seems to reside when I go from full screen to windowed mode when I hit the alt button. As I remember, when releasing SP2, a good many people were having the problem I am having now. ACES stated the problem was because of video card drivers, hence the installation of this newest driver, as stated in my first query.BTW, on a new install of FSX with SP1 and the sliders on mostly medium to medium high, I get frame rates of 20-40 FPS and down to the teens at airports like KORD, KATL, KJFK, etc. That is with Traffic 2007 running at about 73%,ASX and GraphicsX, LDS 767. I'm quite happy with the way this notebook runs. The issue comes in when installing SP2 or Acceleration.I'm pretty sure the issue may be with the video card driver. I will step back and uninstall Acceleration and everything will be happy again.My major issue is with SP2 specific add-ons. I don't believe they are fully backward compatible with earlier versions. Can anyone out there help me, preferably without snide comments??Jim, thanks for the comments. I think that the problem is with SP2 (Acceleration) and my current drivers.

[GHarrall 494]

Brad,The original wording in your post implied you were unhappy with the performance of FSX on the laptop AND you were having a crash issue.Now we know that is not what you were trying to say we can move on.SP2 most certainly does affect backwards compatability with some addons most notably those that were originally made for FS9 and don't comply with the FSX SP2 SDK.Also, yes there are stories of people with nvidia drivers both new and old causing isssues with SP2.I think a lot of the problems have been with the 7000 series cards like the one in your laptop, although there have been lots of posts regarding the 8000 series as well.Unfortunatley, Nvidia don't seem that interested in helping us flightsim folk as all the efforts are apparently directed at increasing the FPS in Crysis or whichever shooter is the current flavour of the month.Sorry I can't be of more help.

[ryanbatc 12,775]

>>Now that I'm off my bandwagon, the problem seems to reside>when I go from full screen to windowed mode when I hit the alt>button. As I remember, when releasing SP2, a good many people>were having the problem I am having now. I still have those problems, it's mainly a driver problem, I guess, at least that's what they say...That's precisely why I fly in windowed mode. For me, it yields the most FPS, is more stable than full screen, and I know this is totally different from person to person. Try disabling Tooltips as well.What driver ver are you running?

[Guest brad_s]

Glenn, I should have been clearer stating my current issue with my notebook and FSX. Ryan, I am running 167.51, which is the newest version driver available. I have disabled Tooltips, as I was having an issue with an add-on aircraft with Tooltips enabled.I have cleaned up everything I can think of. I ran Registry Wizard and defragged with Diskeeper Pro.I was hoping the new driver would take care of the issues with Acceleration/SP2, as I have had Acceleration on and off my machine a number of times. I'm sure the issue with ASX is not connected with the video driver. I know that Microsoft updated their .Net software (V2)and it affected Quickbooks Pro, used by our accounting people at work. It almost appears to be a like issue with ASX. The fix is to uninstall, then reinstall the .Net software, although I haven't tried that yet.I'm just trying to solve one issue at a time.My thanks to you that are trying to help, and I really appreciate your suggestions. I'm somewhat stymied as to why this driver issue wasn't a problem with the original version of FSX and SP1.Regards,Brad