MD-11 Blue screen of death

[kfreire 0]

Hi there:Since I bought the new MD-11 , I've been having problems with the simulator crashing and giving me the blue screen.It all starts around 15 to 30 minutes of running the simulator, always with MD-11. (I also have the 747-400 and nothing like this happens.)I'm running the pre-flight check list when, boom , screen goes black , sound stops and computer crashes. I've had yet to taxi with this aircraft!!!This is a new system (4 months old). Im running FSX version 10.0, Nvidia GeForce GTX 280, 12Gb of RAM, Intel Core i7 CPU 965 @3.20 (8 CPUs), Vista x64 Ultimate, with Direct X 10 enable.Latest PMDG updates.What do you think it could be? Any help will be appreciated. I love this aircraft, but what good it is if I can't get it up in the air? :( Kaue Freire.

[downscc 1,327]

There are a few reports of FSX lockups (no response) and some OOM errors, but the latter should never occur in your system and the former is usually caused by something else like an add-on (I suspected ASX of one that happened to me); however, yours is the first report of a blue screen crash. This points to a catastrophic failure that Vista is unable to handle, and I have not seen one myself in five months of using Vista64.I'm not a hardware expert (in fact I am the opposite) but I would suspect something in the video card/driver area such as version (there are complaints in the past week on various driver versions for the GTX280) or heating.I didn't know the i7 had an 8-core version available.. interesting.Bottom line, the MD11X has been tested and in use for months without reports of a blue screen failure so please look towards something in your system. I wish I could be of more assistance. Maybe a hardware expert will add insight.

[MrSpeaker 122]

Sounds weird that it only happens with the MD 11, you may have to do a full uninstall and reinstall of the product. I was getting the blue screen the other day,(I do not own the md11) but it was my RAM. I have 6gb 2x 2gb and 2x1gb. They were the same running at 800mhz but this was causing serious problems, so I took out the 1gb sticks and it works fine now. Is all your memory identical???? Also do you have up to date drivers for your video card and sound drivers. I noticed when did a fresh install of vista for the first time the windows update installed the nvidia drivers for me but they were quite dated. But again if your only getting this with the MD11 and nothing else I would reinstall the product again and start from there. Im sure others will chime in with advice aswell. Good luck.Ian

[rservice 4]

Sounds weird that it only happens with the MD 11, you may have to do a full uninstall and reinstall of the product. I was getting the blue screen the other day,(I do not own the md11) but it was my RAM. I have 6gb 2x 2gb and 2x1gb. They were the same running at 800mhz but this was causing serious problems, so I took out the 1gb sticks and it works fine now. Is all your memory identical???? Also do you have up to date drivers for your video card and sound drivers. I noticed when did a fresh install of vista for the first time the windows update installed the nvidia drivers for me but they were quite dated. But again if your only getting this with the MD11 and nothing else I would reinstall the product again and start from there. Im sure others will chime in with advice aswell. Good luck.Ian

I don't know what diagnostic tools you have for system and hardware,but most manufacturers supply something like PC tools to check out all your hardware just in case.Also,have you tried reducing your sliders for test purposes.How about background programs and processes,and other addonsIt is usually a process of elimination.Unfortunately there are so many combinations of hardware out there,that it is impossible to find a one size fits all solution. My hardware is over two years old now but still works fairly well with Vista 32 and FSX.I've started using FPS limiter,a freebe on Avsimm for FSX to smoth things out.It sometimes takes patience to find the problem.Good luckRon

[tfm 169]

Hi there:Since I bought the new MD-11 , I've been having problems with the simulator crashing and giving me the blue screen.It all starts around 15 to 30 minutes of running the simulator, always with MD-11. (I also have the 747-400 and nothing like this happens.)I'm running the pre-flight check list when, boom , screen goes black , sound stops and computer crashes. I've had yet to taxi with this aircraft!!!This is a new system (4 months old). Im running FSX version 10.0, Nvidia GeForce GTX 280, 12Gb of RAM, Intel Core i7 CPU 965 @3.20 (8 CPUs), Vista x64 Ultimate, with Direct X 10 enable.Latest PMDG updates.What do you think it could be? Any help will be appreciated. I love this aircraft, but what good it is if I can't get it up in the air? :( Kaue Freire.

I'm sorry you're having trouble. These things can be very difficult to track down. Here are a couple of suggestions that you've probably tried for yourself already:1. Are you choosing "Run as Administrator" to launch FSX? This is necessary under Vista.2. Presumably you've installed the FSX service packs. But just check that you've installed both SP1 and SP2. 3. Have you installed the MS Acceleration add-on? If so, it might be worth uninstalling it and then installing SP1 followed by SP2 instead.4. As Dan said, check your drivers. Try the Nvidia 182.08 drivers.5. If your i7 965 is showing 8 cores then you're using hyperthreading (or whatever new trade name Intel has invented for this feature). This should not cause CTDs, but on the other hand FSX was designed NOT to use hyper-threading (I think because of thread collisions). So try turning it off (from the BIOS) and see if it helps.6. Are you absolutely sure the components in your PC are set up properly? Have you got a big enough power supply? I can see that you have not attempted to overclock the CPU. But have you got the RAM timings correct? I'm no expert, but with as much as 12Gb on board I would expect you might need to loosen the settings.Tim

[MELKOR 5]

What do you think it could be? Any help will be appreciated. I love this aircraft, but what good it is if I can't get it up in the air? :(

Fact: A blue screen of death (BSOD) occurs when an uncaught exception (i.e. fault, crash, hang, abend, whatever you want to call it) occurs while the CPU is executing instructions in the Kernel.Fact: Applications run in Application space, not Kernel space.Therefore: Applications cannot, I repeat CANNOT, directly cause a BSOD. They can, of course, INdirectly cause BSODs, since they make calls into the Kernel to access the services that are supplied by the Operating System. Hence, reinstalling FSX plus all your addons is not a likely solution to your problem.That said: the likely cause of your BSOD is a buggy driver (drivers run in the Kernel in Windows). Given the nature of FSX, the prime suspect would be your video driver. Next suspect would be the sound driver.Less common causes of BSODs are hardware issues (primarily buggy RAM sticks, but sometimes the motherboard itself).Hope that sheds some light.- Bill

[kfreire 0]

Hi all, and thanks for the replies:I'm sure I have all the latest Nvidia drivers (182.08).And FSX is under administratorBut like Bill said , it could be a bad GPU board (I will try to take it out and put back in). Also the RAM sticks could be a good possibility . Or a bad motherboard. One think came to mind is that I have FSCrew for the MD-11 , I'll unnistall that and see what happens...I won't have much time this week but I'll keep you informed anyway, thanks for the help.Kaue Freire.