Video corruption after an hour or so

[nandrews 4]

I have a hi-spec PC with 9800GTX (3 actually, tho' I know the 2 extra don't benefit FSX yet)The corruption I get, about every 15 flights (but more frequently just lately) occurs in the same place on the panel and after a minute or so leads to a program crash and then the PC crashes and sometimes reboots.The effect occurs just on the video monitors in the cockpit, the stand-by instruments, cockpit fittings and out of the window view all continue to run OK (until it all crashes). Just the 'glass cockpit' displays go and with a number of vertical 'saw tooth' lines down each display (the 2 screens in the case of the Mooney or all 6 iin the MD11).I am thinking there must be something special that just these parts of the display are being corrupted. Tho' I am not suggesting that the whole thing woudn't have crashed anyway.Could anyone suggest what might be going on?The video card temps all indicate they are not getting anywhere near the max.ThanksNigel

[Guest UlfB]

Nigel,I've got no idea what's going on. I'm in no way expert on hardware problems, but if you post more info about your hardware, such as what mobo, BIOS version and such, maybe you'll get some response.Do you have this problem with other games or when you run graphic benchmark programs? Or is it only with FS?Do you get this problem if you use only one graphics card in PCI-e slot 1?Hope you get your problem solved!

[McCrash 3]

I have a hi-spec PC with 9800GTX (3 actually, tho' I know the 2 extra don't benefit FSX yet)The corruption I get, about every 15 flights (but more frequently just lately) occurs in the same place on the panel and after a minute or so leads to a program crash and then the PC crashes and sometimes reboots.The effect occurs just on the video monitors in the cockpit, the stand-by instruments, cockpit fittings and out of the window view all continue to run OK (until it all crashes). Just the 'glass cockpit' displays go and with a number of vertical 'saw tooth' lines down each display (the 2 screens in the case of the Mooney or all 6 iin the MD11).I am thinking there must be something special that just these parts of the display are being corrupted. Tho' I am not suggesting that the whole thing woudn't have crashed anyway.Could anyone suggest what might be going on?The video card temps all indicate they are not getting anywhere near the max.ThanksNigel

Try turning off SLI.

[nandrews 4]

Thanks for the suggestion, tho' not sure where I will find that option, but I guess in the graphic card set-up.I assume you think by disabling the other two video cards it may get around the problem.The 3 cards were as supplied with the PC and I naively thought that 3 cards would be 3 times better with FSX - not so! But my next hope is soon I will be able to drive FSX onto 3 monitors each from it's own card!ThanksNigel

Try turning off SLI.

[Chock 17,769]

There are a few things worth trying, assuming it is not a hardware fault.One, make sure that all the connectors and even the cards themselves have not worked loose, push all the connectors fully home and make sure the graphics cards are fully seated in their slots. Try to avoid touching the components on the card as much as possible when you do that. While you're at it, make sure the RAM has not worked loose either. (before messing with any of that, earth yourself by touching a radiator or water pipe or something of that nature, to discharge the static electricity from your body, and unplug the power lead on the computer too, to avoid risks of electric shocks, touch things as little as possible and be firm but not overly so when testing to see things are properly seated, don't force things). If any components have latches which hold them in place (such as how RAM is often held in place), make sure those are fully seated too.Two, try clearing any dust build up from your fans, vents and cooling heatsink fins to ensure things are getting a good airflow to assist cooling. Your system may be reporting no temperature problems, but the accuracy of such reports can depend on where the sensors are located and how clean they are, so they're not always 100 percent reliable, and from your description of the problem it sounds like an overheat to me more than anything else.Check the heatsink and fan arrangement over your CPU to see if it is securely in place, these get hot and that can make the plastic securing pins which clamp the arrangement to the motherboard go brittle (especially on cheap fans), which can then make the plastic crack and lift the heatsink away from the mating surface of the processor if things are not properly clamped to the motherboard. If that happens your processor can overheat and start losing data integrity.Overheating can cause intermitent problems, usually for one of two reasons, the first is that connectors can begin expanding in their tracks and cause enough movement of a component to make it disconnect briefly, you switch off, it cools down, reseats itself as it contracts, you switch back on and the process repeats. The second is when things get so hot that data starts skipping through insulators (aka quantum mechanic tunnelling), this can cause data corruption and hence freaked out displays and system crashes.Also make sure your PC case is properly fastened up; contrary to popular belief where case cooling is concerned, most PC cases need to be properly sealed in order to allow the airflow to move efficiently over the cooling fins and to the extractors.There is the slim possibility that it may be the RAM exhibiting the first signs of something going awry, not hugely likely, but certainly not impossible. Another remote possibility is your power supply unit giving up the ghost, it's quite common for a PSU which is preparing to expire to be the cause behind the signs you described as they deliver unstable voltages to the cards, although normally they begin to emit a bit of a burning smell if that's starting to happen. It's also not unknown for computers with a lot of power-hungry cards installed to be specced with an inadequate power supply which gets overtaxed and has a short life as a consequence. Similarly, some computers have been designed which simply have not got enough cooling power for the equipment they are running. Even big companies such as Alienware and Apple have made mistakes of that nature with some of their past computer designs. Fitting an auxillliary fan to the case can sometimes solve that problem, and most motherboards have enough spare power take off pins to allow you to do that.It may be none of these things of course (that's always the fun part of trying to determine what a problem is with a computer), but it won't do any harm to check those things (at least it won't if you are careful).Al

[nandrews 4]

Chock,Thanks for that, I will get to check those things.The problem has occured randomly almost since I bought it and they took it back and said they swapped out the 3 graphics cards and checked it all over and found no problem.But every so often I get the crash (in FSX nothing else), which it seems, can occur either early or late in a flight.I hoped that that the specific indications the problem displays might be a clue, since it is not the whole screen that goes corrupt.Thanks againNigel

[Lincolnshire Poacher 7]

This sounds similar to my problem, see here http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtopic=244984

[nandrews 4]

Similar maybe, but not the same I think. Pity nobody had answered your thread.What warnng do you get that suggests it is a graphic card issue?Nigel

This sounds similar to my problem, see here http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtopic=244984

[Dondo 0]

Thought I would chime in and say that your problem sounds almost exactly like the issues I have been having. Sometimes FSX crashes right out of the bucket, other times it might take 3 or 4 hours. Occasionally, I will get a BSOD and a reboot, other times I'm just back to the desktop. Might happen 3 or 4 times a week, sometimes I can go for weeks without a problem. I've checked the RAM using memtest 86, don't get a problem, check it again, and it shows errors. Tried different sockets even ordered a brand new stick of ram, showed an error, ran it again, no error. CPU and video card temps are in normal range, fan speeds all showing normal.I have been having this since I had the PC built about 6 months ago. The shop that built it doesn't believe me. I keep trying to show them the Event Viewer and all of the WMI/Print Spooler/KERNAL/Win32KS.sys and nvgdll.dll error, as well as some little "Media Sharing Service had Quit Working" error that I get 5 or 6 times an hour....even when the service has been shut off and nothing is shared anywhere....Anyway, you can see how frustrating this has been. Anyone have any experience running FSX on a Mac?.......I'm seriously thinking about it.Good luck to all of us.....remember, you're not alone.Dondo

[nandrews 4]

I am slowly getting to work through the helpful answer here.McCrashI have checked the nVidia control panel and it shows (in SLI configuration) that 3 way SLI is not enabled.I assume that is the setting you were suggesting I use.Thanks, but it seems to be already set and crashes are happening more frequently.The room temperature maybe a tad higher now than when the crashes were less frequent.I am not sure the other problems mentioned here are that close to mine.Just to repeat, each time it crashes it is preceeded by vertical sawtooth lines appearing on the cockpit 'LCD' displays, but nothing else is effected. I have flown both he Mooney and the MD11 and in each it is the same effect.Once the lines are there I may still be able to switch views, but if I go back to the cockpit those corrupt 'glass cockpit' displays are still showing. Evetually the sim will lock up with the sound continuing. If I switch to the Desktop during all this the wallpaper has taken on some rainbow colours! There after I usually can do nothing except power down or reset the PC.Thanks for the advice so farNigel

[nooon 21]

Evetually the sim will lock up with the sound continuing

Im (and others) are having a very similar problem, if not the same problemhttp://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtopic=244300

[jaybird1nyc 24]

Wow, it sure sounds like the same problem I'm having, as outlined in the original thread, except that FSX doesn't *actually* crash. You can still hear the sounds, and if I hit ESC it'll ask if I want to end flight, continue flying, etc. However, once I get this video corruption, there is no known recovery that I'm aware of, you're DONE flying.Jay

[nooon 21]

Wow, it sure sounds like the same problem I'm having, as outlined in the original thread, except that FSX doesn't *actually* crash. You can still hear the sounds, and if I hit ESC it'll ask if I want to end flight, continue flying, etc. However, once I get this video corruption, there is no known recovery that I'm aware of, you're DONE flying.Jay

Same for me jay, same for me. I said "recovery" because, once, it recovered after video freeze (1 min freeze). But re freeze some 40 minutes later....and this time it was the last one. BTW. Do you have two screens ? I noticed something during a test flight 1 hour ago. When I opened FSCommander, it opened on my second screen, but my second screen wasn't enabled in Windows. At this exact time, the FPS decreased by 25% and I experienced a short freeze in FSX....Im wondering if it could be somehow related....

[jaybird1nyc 24]

Same for me jay, same for me. I said "recovery" because, once, it recovered after video freeze (1 min freeze). But re freeze some 40 minutes later....and this time it was the last one. BTW. Do you have two screens ? I noticed something during a test flight 1 hour ago. When I opened FSCommander, it opened on my second screen, but my second screen wasn't enabled in Windows. At this exact time, the FPS decreased by 25% and I experienced a short freeze in FSX....Im wondering if it could be somehow related....

Jerome,I only have one screen, so I don't think it could be that. I've also tried opening other programs, switching between full and windowed mode, etc. I did notice that it seems to happen only after some time, like 20-30 min, and only after I go up to the menu bar and choose an item that takes over the display, like instant replay, map, weather, or switch between full and windowed mode. Upon returning to the flight that's when I get the corruption. But, as I said, it only happens after about 20-30 min of flight time when using the PMDG 747 or MD-11.Gonna try de-activating UTX, and also see if it happens with the Eaglesoft SR-22, because it doesn't happen with the Wilco PIC 737.Oh, and you are right, it did 'recover' a couple of times, only to go out totally a short time later. I think I did mention that neither Windows nor FSX actually crashes. I'm able to end the flight, return to the opening screen, and return to Windows as if nothing happened.Jay

[nooon 21]

don't bother removing UTX.I had it, I reinstalled FSX completely, did NOT install UTX a second time... and here I am, still problems.UTX is harmless here.I just re-installed FS9 ;) Because Im in need of a FIX called ACTUALLY FLYING :)