Diagnosis of a GREAT MACHINE that sputters after only 20 minutes.

[ABE 0]

I have the I7 975 Extreme, GTX285, 6GIGS of DDR3, Asus P6T.When I run FSX for the first 20 minutes or so, it's almost like HEAVEN. Nice, smooth, great frames, very enjoyable, trouble free. Then all heck breaks loose.I monitored my memory, it shows that I have 4gigs not 6 gigs. It starts off with a usage of about 2 gigs, it inches up gradually to 3gigs and beyond. When it approaches 4 gigs, slightly short off, FSX becomes practically unflyable. Not a crash to the desktop, but jerkiness and stopping. I tried it with the Enhancer 2.5.3 beta. Then I turned off the enhancer, the result was practically the same. The result is the same with XP-sp2 32bit and Windows 7,64bit. I do not remember getting that with my ATI 2900XT and 4gigs of DDR2 ram.Hope somebody can come up with an explanation and a SOLUTION. Nick, Mitch and all of you out there. Help!!Thanks.Abe

[Guest UlfB]

Does this also happen if you disable all add ons (including all enries in your dll.xml and exe.xml) and fly with a FSX default aircraft?

[jwenham 1]

I have the I7 975 Extreme, GTX285, 6GIGS of DDR3, Asus P6T.When I run FSX for the first 20 minutes or so, it's almost like HEAVEN. Nice, smooth, great frames, very enjoyable, trouble free. Then all heck breaks loose.I monitored my memory, it shows that I have 4gigs not 6 gigs. It starts off with a usage of about 2 gigs, it inches up gradually to 3gigs and beyond. When it approaches 4 gigs, slightly short off, FSX becomes practically unflyable. Not a crash to the desktop, but jerkiness and stopping. I tried it with the Enhancer 2.5.3 beta. Then I turned off the enhancer, the result was practically the same. The result is the same with XP-sp2 32bit and Windows 7,64bit. I do not remember getting that with my ATI 2900XT and 4gigs of DDR2 ram.Hope somebody can come up with an explanation and a SOLUTION. Nick, Mitch and all of you out there. Help!!Thanks.Abe

You say it only is showing 4 gigs and you have 6? The easiest thing to do would first reseat all your ram, then see what happens. I would also run memtest and see if you get any errors. See if you show 6 gigs after the reseat.Jim

[ABE 0]

You say it only is showing 4 gigs and you have 6? The easiest thing to do would first reseat all your ram, then see what happens. I would also run memtest and see if you get any errors. See if you show 6 gigs after the reseat.Jim

Does this also happen if you disable all add ons (including all enries in your dll.xml and exe.xml) and fly with a FSX default aircraftDid not try that, Ulf. And Jim, I ran CPU-Z, and as far as I know, all numbers seem to be okTYPE DDR3 CHANNELS TRIPLESIZE 6144 MBYTES NB FREQUENCY 2677.7 MHZDRAM FREQ 535.5 MHZFSB DRAM 2:8CAS# LATENCY 7CLOCKSRAS#TO CAS# DELAY 7CLOCKSRAS # PRECHARGE 7 CLOCKSCYCLE TIME 20 CLOCKSCOMMAND RATE (CR) 1T SPDSLOTS #1, #2, #32048 MBYTESPC3-8500F (533 MHZ)OCZOCZ3B1600LV2GFREQ 381MHZ 457 533 610CAS LATENCY 5 6 7 8VOLTAGE 1.5V............. 1.5VDoes this help? Does it indicate a healthy ram?Thanks.Abe

[Guest UlfB]

Does this also happen if you disable all add ons (including all enries in your dll.xml and exe.xml) and fly with a FSX default aircraftDid not try that, Ulf. And Jim, I ran CPU-Z, and as far as I know, all numbers seem to be ok

Abe,When having a potential hardware issue the way to identify the cause(es) is to rule possible causes out. One by one. It pays off to work systematically.Follow Jim's advice and run memtest and OCCT to make sure you have a stable system. Run the OCCT test for at leas an hour. Monitor your temps carefully.If you do have a stable system. Disable all FSX add ons (including entries in dll.xml and exe.xml) and make a test flight in FSX with a default aircraft.Do these tests and then come back and give us feedback on the outcome. Some additional info on PSU and the memory sticks (manufacturer and model) would be nice. Thanks

[CFIJose 5,485]

Update to latest BIOS.Then check RAM as suggested.

[Bob Scott 7,743]

I see two problems potentially at work here...first, what sure appears to be a software-driven memory leak--and if ANY 32-bit program approaches 4 GB of allocated memory it'll do what you describe no matter how much physical RAM is installed. 4GB is an absolute wall for 32 bit software because that's the max memory addressable in 32 bits.Second, the system is only recognizing 4GB of RAM with 6GB installed. I'd run Memtest 86+ and see if it's seeing/testing all 6 GB. If you're overclocking, I'd also slow to stock CPU speed and 1066 or 1333 MHz on the memory clock and see if that causes the system to see the RAM. You might try adding .05v to your RAM voltage to see if that changes things (sometimes voltage droop can drop the Vdimm just enough to cause one or more DIMMs to misbehave, especially when running over the 1333 MHz design speed of the chips on the DIMM).Good luckBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

[ABE 0]

I see two problems potentially at work here...first, what sure appears to be a software-driven memory leak--and if ANY 32-bit program approaches 4 GB of allocated memory it'll do what you describe no matter how much physical RAM is installed. 4GB is an absolute wall for 32 bit software because that's the max memory addressable in 32 bits.Second, the system is only recognizing 4GB of RAM with 6GB installed. I'd run Memtest 86+ and see if it's seeing/testing all 6 GB. If you're overclocking, I'd also slow to stock CPU speed and 1066 or 1333 MHz on the memory clock and see if that causes the system to see the RAM. You might try adding .05v to your RAM voltage to see if that changes things (sometimes voltage droop can drop the Vdimm just enough to cause one or more DIMMs to misbehave, especially when running over the 1333 MHz design speed of the chips on the DIMM).Good luckBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

Thanks everybody.I reseated the ram. Ran MEMTEST and OCCT. Everything was give a clean bill of health. My system is NOT overclocked. Was able to run OK on an XP 64 which shows the whole 6gigs of ram. Windows7 64bit and XP-SP2 32-bit still the same . UNSTABLE after 20 minutes or so. It looks I do have an out, a solution, XP64. But still I would you like to know more about a possible solution. As always, I am open for any suggestion and a possible cure.Thanks again.Abe

[wiler 394]

Upgrade to win 7 64bit, i dont think you will be disappointed!

[jwenham 1]

Thanks everybody.I reseated the ram. Ran MEMTEST and OCCT. Everything was give a clean bill of health. My system is NOT overclocked. Was able to run OK on an XP 64 which shows the whole 6gigs of ram. Windows7 64bit and XP-SP2 32-bit still the same . UNSTABLE after 20 minutes or so. It looks I do have an out, a solution, XP64. But still I would you like to know more about a possible solution. As always, I am open for any suggestion and a possible cure.Thanks again.Abe

You need a 64 bit OS if you have a i7, I learned that the hard way as when I built my system I said well.. I will just throw on my 32 bit OS and it will save me some money. i7 can do more than so your OS must also be able to handle more in this case it is memory. Yes a 32 bit OS will NOT show that you have 6 gigs but x64 will. Get yourself a OEM system builders copy of x64 XP or Vista (I would get XP) and your problem will be solved.

[ryanbatc 12,972]

Upgrade to win 7 64bit, i dont think you will be disappointed!

LOL"Windows7 64bit and XP-SP2 32-bit still the same "

[tfm 184]

This does sound odd. Win7 64bit should certainly show all 6GB of RAM: the missing 2GB suggests that something's amiss with your hardware. On the other hand, degraded performance after 20 minutes of activity might conceivably indicate that something's getting too hot (not necessarily the CPU: I had to RTM an Asus motherboard because the Southbridge started getting so hot that it tripped the emergency shutdown on the MB), or that you're running out of power (ie, need a bigger PSU), or both.But before tearing the whole thing apart, re-assembling it and doing a fresh install of Win7 - and grasping at straws here - here are some other things to try:1. You say you've noticed that the problems occur when RAM useage reaches a particular level. RAM depletion is unlikely but just to be sure, make sure you choose "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives" in the System properties > Performance options > Advanced tab.2. Is it possible that the CPU's thermal management is kicking in? It SHOULD be no different from XP, but you never know - the Win7 setup just might be doing a little extra in the background and making the CPU "trip". Might be worth double-checking in BIOS that you've disabled SpeedStep, Turbo mode, C1E support, CPU TM function and anything of that sort.3. Another possibility is that your GPU is overheating. Again, I know it shouldn't be different from XP, but it might be worth checking. Using the Nvidia control panel, try forcing the fan to run at 100% all the time and see if that helps.4. Otherwise, presumably you've already tried (i) deleting the FSX.CFG file and letting FSX build a new one, (ii) cleaning out the video drivers and installing different versions and (iii) installing the latest Win7-compatible drivers for your chipset (and everything else).5. Download Everest (I think there's still a trial version, but the pay-for-it version is a small price to pay IMHO) or some other suitable tool, and keep an eye on all your temperatures and voltages: see if you can spot anything out of the ordinary which might be causing things to play up. But I admit that none of those things SHOULD make a difference. The "missing" 2GB sounds a bit worrying to me.Tim