Does the 3GB switch successfully eliminate crashes?

[Guest Nealoc187]

I'm really starting to get frustrated with my FS9 crashes. My system has the horsepower to run tons of PAI traffic on 100% at the countries busiest airports with acceptable frame rates but I still get crashes, sometimes with an OOM error box, but usually just a straight up freeze and crash to desktop (I'd say 80% of the time it just freezes and then goes to desktop, 20% of the time I get an actual OOM message).System specs are:Intel C2D E4400 @ overclocked and verified stable at 2.92GHz2GB Corsair ramATI X850XT 256mb vid card22" wide flat panel @ 1680x1050I run FS9.1 with all the bells and whistles:AS6.5RC4.3Flight EnvironmentGE ProUltimate Terrain USA/CanadaTons of custom AI traffic set at 100% (I like my airports busy)I shut everything that I can down in the background to free up as many system resources as possible. I don't load any custom airports except the one I'm flying from and too. I use high end aircraft like the Maddog2006 and Flight1 ATR. I've checked every single addon scenery folder for empty folders which I hear can sometimes cause memory leaks, there are no empty folders. Basically I've tried everything I've read on these forums but the 3GB switch and throwing the kitchen sink at my computer. I usually get the freeze or OOM message when getting very close to my destination airport, usually on final or just after touchdown where system resources are being taxed the most. It's supremely annoying. Something's got to fix this crap.Thanks,NC

[dolph98 24]

Hi Neal,What does "verified stable" mean? Does it include other games besides FS9? Just wondering. When you overclock, you stress and heat up your processor and other system components such as the PCI bridge. Of course you know that and have probably taken precautions against that by improving your processor and case cooling.I have removed the side cover of my Dell XPS 420 to allow for better cooling even without overclocking. This did seem to help my OOMs.Have you tried the 3GB switch thing? Your post doesn't say you did or didn't.

[thomamaxi 0]

HI Neal, My advice to you is simple - do it! I shared your frustrations: I fly real time, often 10hr flights only to be on final approach and puff- blue screen or more often OOM error. The PC has almost gone threw the kitchen window many times. I urge you to try it. I am no rocket scientist and at first I was skeptical but I have had no OOM since, a very very very very slight decrease in frame rates , very hardly noticeable but apart from that she flies like a dream now. The nice thing of course is knowing that you can do all those long haul flights with the peace of mind you are going to get there!Paul

[Mike T 208]

NC.First there is no such thing as a "verified stable" overclock. Just because your overclock works in one program doesn't necessarily mean it will work in another. Case in point. I've got my QX9650 OC'd stable at 4.5Ghz which is a whopping 1.5ghz overclock over the stock 3.0ghz. It works fine in Crysis and COD 4, but in FS9 I get a hard lockup at random times during FS9. It could be 1 hour or 5 hours. I throttled back to 4.0ghz and I can do a 15 hour KEWR-RJAA flight in the PSS777 and not bat an eye. Heat is not since I'm never gone over 51c during full load on all cores. It just is the way FS9 is. Pull back your overclock to stock and start your troubleshooting there.Second. Fly your flight with AI set to ZERO and see what happens.Third. Fly your flight with UT USA/CANADA off and see what happens.The 3GB switch has not been verfied one way or another. For some it is the holy grail and for others it does absolutely nothing. So before you mess around with that, to your basic troubleshooting and let us know what happens.Mike T.

[Guest Nealoc187]

I'll see what happens at stock processor settings I guess. "verified stable" meant that I've run Orthos Prime and other stress tests on the CPU for over 36 hours without any errors. I'll see how the sim behaves at lower clock speeds.

[dolph98 24]

Right on! Thanks for not being an overclock zealot who takes offense at the very notion that it could be your overclocking causing issues.I was an overclocker before I bought the Dell and I had to turn it down for FS9. It ran fine for all other programs. Go figure.D.

[Guest cypher]

hey i had the same problems as u with CTDs and OOM errors. my problem was that in: FS9Textures folder some aircraft from the main aircraft directory placed their files. E.g. CLS A330 has installed some files to that location and that was causing the crashes.once i cut and pasted these files to its Aircaft folders it worked fine.no more CTDS and OOM errors.and if u really ran a 36h prime test without errors its "99.9%" stable. another thing u "might" have a look at would be ur ram. depending on the timings and Ramspeed u used.give Memtest a try and see what happens.cause overstressed ram can cause oom errors too.happened to me a few times. after overclocking and retweaking the system.hope i could help.gl solving ur problems.

[ghiom 2]

Thanks for sharing your experience.I think we all have addon aircrafts' common texture files located in FS9Textures. Though some don't have any problem.I am glad it fixed it for you but I sincerely cannot understand why...Maybe others can give their opinions?RegardsGhiom

[Mike T 208]

D.It goes to show something about the programming of FS9 (or FSX). I have to turn down my overclocks ONLY for Flight Simulator also, so I am glad to hear that this is not a one off experience.Without cryo cooling I can easily run at a tad over 4.3Ghz. WITH cryo cooling (still experimenting) I've recently reached a POST and boot into windows at 4.9Ghz! I ran 3DMark 2006 and scored 43,751, Ran Crysis at Ultra Detailed at ungodly framerates and then exitedly booted up FS9 and FSX and they both crashed after less than 20 minutes :-lolI think that with cryo I can easily push my QX9650 past the 5Ghz mark, but what good is it if I only use my uberrig for FS9 :-(, I don't really care if anything else runs. I'll probably dump the ole QX9650 and move to Skulltrail this week and dump the OCZ Platinum for Dominator's @ 5-5-5-16 native 1800Mhz DD3 and see if that helps .Regards,Mike T.

[Kosta 122]

"overclock zealot who takes offense at the very notion that it could be your overclocking causing issues."Proud to be one :DOne the other side, I have tested my system also thoroughly. I was long time flying OK, then for some reason, I checked my fs9.exe, and it was 1,5mb opposed to 500k original size. I can't remember though, but I think I tried this 3GB switch, and after that, some flights used to have the OOM... I was getting very frustrated, but luckily, I restored the original fs9.exe and voila... finishing all flights lately.I think the worst problems in a FS are afcad files, fsnav datebase (should be updated regularly if you are using fsnav), and possibly some sceneries, but those crashes usually happen always on the same place.And mostly important, a clean system. Monitor your memory usage (I am using MemStatus 2.50), and if you notice a climb, do a research :-)