Dell XPS 720 Problems

[Guest ajm254]

I am becoming increasingly disillusioned with this machine. I bought it to provide me with the ultimate FSX experience. Today I purchased PMDG 747-400X and I dont have enough memory to run it even at the most basic of airports.I have been reading the posts about memory issues with 32bit vista but have not yet made any changes. What I would like to know is how Dell could willingly sell me a machine which is incapable of using the 4gb memory that I have paid for or am I completely missing something?Any help would be greatly appreciatedRgdsAdrian

[Emerson67 248]

Well, you have already found the culprit: Vista 32. It's not suitable for memory demanding programs like current flight simulators or 3D games. Move to Vista 64. You'll certainly get a better experience. I run FSX on Vista 64 (4GB RAM PC) with very good results, better than XP 32.Why Dell sells Vista 32 for "gaming PCs" is a good question. Perhaps they like tech support calls...-Emerson

[Guest djt01]

>I am becoming increasingly disillusioned with this machine. I>bought it to provide me with the ultimate FSX experience.Did you wipe the drive with a fresh OS install after receiving it from Dell or are you still using the bloated OS install that Dell shipped your machine with? Nvidia Gaming:ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA (Intel X48 chipset) BIOS 408Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 w/Thermalright Ultra-120 ExtremeOCZ Titanium XTC 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)EVGA GTX 280 FTW (177.92 Drivers)Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty2x Western Digital Raptor 74GB (RAID 0) - Vista Ultimate 64 Bit/SP1SILVERSTONE 1200Watt DASILVERSTONE TJ09-BATI Gaming:ASUS Rampage Extreme BIOS 0501Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 w/Thermalright True Black Ultra-120 eXtremeOCZ Intel Extreme Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)ATI 4870X2 (Catalyst 8.8)Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty2x Western Digital Raptor 74GB (RAID 0) - Vista Ultimate 64 Bit/SP1LIAN LI PC-A70BPC Power & Cooling T1KWSR 1000WWork Laptop:Dell XPS M1710Intel Core 2 T7600G4GB DDR2 667Nvidia 7950GTX (512 Mb) 175.32 DriversX-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook160GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)Vista Ultimate/SP1

[Guest UlfB]

Adrian,You could try to remove the SLI config and run FSX with just one 8800GTX card.According to this benchmarking http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon...on,2007-18.html the SLI configurations are slower than the single card.Probably you have some unneeded services running in Vista. A lot of info available on the net regarding what services you might shut down in Vista.Your Antivirus program might slow FSX down. Try NOD32 and see if it makes any difference. Exclude FSX folder from realtime scanning.I've never had an OOM error in Vista32.Ulf BCore2Duo X6800 3.3GHz4GB RAM Corsair XMS2-8500C5BFG 8800GTX, Creative SB X-FiFSX Acc/SP2, Vista 32

[Guest djt01]

>You could try to remove the SLI config and run FSX with just>one 8800GTX card.This is true; I have seen SLI and even Cross Fire have a negative effect on performance with CPU bound applications. The extra overhead put on the CPU when using dual GPU

[Guest firehawk44]

Adrian,I thought everyone knew about OOM's by now but obviously the word has not got around to everyone. I have the XPS 720H2C and have had similar problems but it's NOT the fault of Dell but Vista32's problem with handling memory. You will need to run bcdedit to change your memory configuration. Do a search on the FSX Forum for OOM (Out of Memory). There's a couple of excellent posts that fully describe this problem and provides information on the exact procedures to fix this problem with 32 bit operating systems. You will still get OOM's after you repair your Operating System if you run your sliders all the way to the right. No current computer system is capable of successfully running all sliders to the right without getting occasional OOM's or CTD's. Your setup will provide outstanding graphics and FPS by reducing the sliders, especially when running a memory intensive program like the PMDG 747-400X. It's a killer on frame rates. I would recommend you set up a special FSX.cfg just for running the PMDG 747X, reducing most sliders drastically without eliminating all eye-candy. You have one other option -- install Vista 64bit. It does not have the memory issues that the 32 bit has but you still won't be able to run FSX or PMDG 747X with max sliders without having occasional CTD's.Jim

[Guest ajm254]

>Adrian,>I thought everyone knew about OOM's by now but obviously the>word has not got around to everyone. I have the XPS 720H2C>and have had similar problems but it's NOT the fault of Dell>but Vista32's problem with handling memory. You will need to>run bcdedit to change your memory configuration. Do a search>on the FSX Forum for OOM (Out of Memory). There's a couple of>excellent posts that fully describe this problem and provides>information on the exact procedures to fix this problem with>32 bit operating systems. You will still get OOM's after you>repair your Operating System if you run your sliders all the>way to the right. No current computer system is capable of>successfully running all sliders to the right without getting>occasional OOM's or CTD's. Your setup will provide>outstanding graphics and FPS by reducing the sliders,>especially when running a memory intensive program like the>PMDG 747-400X. It's a killer on frame rates. I would>recommend you set up a special FSX.cfg just for running the>PMDG 747X, reducing most sliders drastically without>eliminating all eye-candy. You have one other option -->install Vista 64bit. It does not have the memory issues that>the 32 bit has but you still won't be able to run FSX or PMDG>747X with max sliders without having occasional CTD's.>>JimJimThank you to you and everybody else for taking the time to reply.Could I ask you three questions?1. Where do you have your sliders and have you made any mods to the fsx.cfg file?2. Could you tell me where I would find instructions re bcdedit? I have searched the OOM articles and googled but I dont find specific instructions and Im sure I could really mess things up if I get it wrong.Thanks againAdrian

[Guest D17S]

4Gs oRam and Vista 32 is a deadly combo with FSX, but especially with the PMDG airplane. The op system keeps a "scratch pad" going to track projected ram requirements of each process or program that is running. Each has its own "scratch pad." If the op system sees you have 4Gs on board, it will schedule gobs of ram for FSX's future use as you are flyin' along. The problem is this: When this "scratch pad" number goes over 2G for the FSX program, the program shuts down with the dreaded OOM. A 64 bit op system raises this scratch pad limit to 4Gs. Or you can tweak the kernal of your 32bit system to allow the scratch pad to use 3Gs. Or you can - Remove - 2Gs of physical ram. If it's not there, the scratch pad will not schedule it. At altitude there's no problem, but below 10K the PMDG airplane requires autogen and all traffic totally OFF. At 3.2, that's all you're gonna get. At 3.6, I get one notch of AG. This is ALL about the CPU. A single, non-sli'd GTX is plenty of Vcard.

[Kosta 122]

>Well, you have already found the culprit: Vista 32. It's not>suitable for memory demanding programs like current flight>simulators or 3D games.That's such an uneducated statement.I have been testing Vista vs. XP in FS9, and it all proved wrong. Vista is managing memory MUCH better than XP, and yes, I am talking 32bit versions...That 64bit can use more than 2GBs, thats another story.

[Guest firehawk44]

"Could I ask you three questions?1. Where do you have your sliders and have you made any mods to the fsx.cfg file?2. Could you tell me where I would find instructions re bcdedit? I have searched the OOM articles and googled but I dont find specific instructions and Im sure I could really mess things up if I get it wrong."Hi Adrian,1. My sliders are set in the middle (mainly). Target frame rate is set at 38; Screen Resolution is set at 2560x1600x32; AF/AA turned on; Global texture resolution: Very high; Preview DX10 and Advanced animations checked; Scenery Level of Detail is set at Medium; Mesh complexity: 100; Mesh resolution: 38m; Texture resolution; 1m; Watch effects: High2.x; Land detail textures checked; Scenery complexity: Extremely dense; Autogen: none; Ground scenery shadows: unchecked; Special effects: High; Weather cloud draw distance: 60mi; Termals: none; Detailed clouds; Cloud coverage density: high; Sim settings Download winds and aloft data and Disable turbulence: Off (unchecked); Rate at which weather changes: Medium; Traffic - Airline density: 10%; General aviation: 21%; Airport vehicle: Minimum; Road vehicles, Ships and Leisure boats: 10%. With PMDG loaded, I turn ALL traffic off.2. Instructions for BCD Edit: Unfortunately I cannot link to another thread on the AVSIM forum. Sometimes I have been successful in doing so, most of the time NOT. Fellow simmers on this forum then get very upset with me when I fail and say mean things. Since I have a very thin skin, you'll have to do a search. Goto the Advanced Search function on any forum. Type in OOM in the search box and state you only want to search the FSX Forum only. Click okay. On the first page of the search results (as I write this), look for a thread entitled, ""OOM Error" explained in comprehensible English". This is the best thread on fixing OOM errors and you need to look for the Vista 32 section for the BCDEdit info. You must read this thread as it also explains memory issues. Like I said before, if you have a Vista64 system, you won't have to worry about memory issues, just Vista32 and XP systems. 3. Didn't see a third question. Hope this helps.Best regards,Jim