I few days ago my FPS suddenly dropped. I have FPS locked at 25. But now I am getting anywhere from 1- 12. The only thing I know I did was to add a couple of repaints to a freeware aircraft. Added manually... I deleted those..no change.I am not sure what other info to include to help provide more info except my System info which is--Dell 8400Windows XP with SP32Gb RAMPentium 3.4nVidia GeForce 7300 GS146 GB HD with 86 GB free space (that's after deleting a bunch of junk)Pretty old, eh. :( In the task manager this is the heaviest looking stuff running--RUNDLL32 13,000EXPLORER 29,000 ( i DON'T KNOW WHY IT IS RUNNING AS IT IS NOT OPEN)AVGCSRUX 15,000SVCHOST 25,000FIREFOX 109,000 (USING IT NOW BUT IS CLOSED WHEN FLYING)TEA TIMER 35,000 ( WHAT IS THAT?)SYSTEM 88,000I did a couple of defrags--using the Windows defragger... no help.I don't know if it matters what addons I have as nothing changed before/after the slow down.. Sliders are the same as always...I ran SPYBOT and ADAWARE--- nothing serious..I saw another thread where someone had occasional slow downs, but this is constant-- all the time..Any suggestions greatly appreciated...

I don't know why your frames are dropping , but I can tell you that the Tea Timer that is running is from Spybot and at times it can really get busy :( , Try turning it off and see what happens Mark

I don't know why your frames are dropping , but I can tell you that the Tea Timer that is running is from Spybot and at times it can really get busy :( , Try turning it off and see what happens Mark

I don't see how to turn it off. But it has always been there, anyway...

Hello,

I don't see how to turn it off.

This is a service...Check here how disable a service ....http://www.blackviper.com/AskBV/XP1.htmAnyways take care what you stopIt's very good explainations on the site about the services.http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/service411.htmBTW your FPS drop had certainly nothing to do with FS2004.Rather a service running in background ... those who scan the files on regular basis like (realtime scanning) antimalware and antivirus can be bad on FPS and also produce stutters.

The only thing I know I did was to add a couple of repaints to a freeware aircraft. Added manually... I deleted those..no change.

So .. you know it's not a FS2004 problem ....

EXPLORER 29,000 ( i DON'T KNOW WHY IT IS RUNNING AS IT IS NOT OPEN)

This service must ALWAYS run.You can stop it .. and you will lost your desktop (icons .. etc...) :)It's also happend some time after a application hang .. (like IE)So you have a empty desktopJust make CTRL-ALT-DEL and you are in the task manager.There you can choice to run a application..Just browse in Windows folder to find EXPLORER.EXE and run .. and your desktop it's there again ! :)Note:From the task manager you can also stop a sercice (right mouse clik on) .. but this service will start again when you will reboot your PC .. but it's nice for perform some tests :)Regards.Gus.

Check in Spybot - expert mode - tools. According to Sybot help docs; "You can find the Resident TeaTimer in the tools section."Have you made any recent changes that might have affected your graphic card drivers. And also, how long has it been since you defragmented your HD? How long have you had AVG installed / updated? I read somewhere that a particular 'older' version was really a resource hog and that their latest version fixed that somewhat. (( I removed AVG from my wife's computer and installed the Microsoft Free one. ) I use NOD232 )) Any or all of the above could be contributing to your problem. One last thought, does all of your other software that you have installed seem to be running normally, or is your computer running sluggish in general ie. boot time and XP load time?Regards,Mel

I few days ago my FPS suddenly dropped. I have FPS locked at 25. But now I am getting anywhere from 1- 12. The only thing I know I did was to add a couple of repaints to a freeware aircraft. Added manually... I deleted those..no change.I am not sure what other info to include to help provide more info except my System info which is--Dell 8400Windows XP with SP32Gb RAMPentium 3.4nVidia GeForce 7300 GS146 GB HD with 86 GB free space (that's after deleting a bunch of junk)Pretty old, eh. :( In the task manager this is the heaviest looking stuff running--RUNDLL32 13,000EXPLORER 29,000 ( i DON'T KNOW WHY IT IS RUNNING AS IT IS NOT OPEN)AVGCSRUX 15,000SVCHOST 25,000FIREFOX 109,000 (USING IT NOW BUT IS CLOSED WHEN FLYING)TEA TIMER 35,000 ( WHAT IS THAT?)SYSTEM 88,000I did a couple of defrags--using the Windows defragger... no help.I don't know if it matters what addons I have as nothing changed before/after the slow down.. Sliders are the same as always...I ran SPYBOT and ADAWARE--- nothing serious..I saw another thread where someone had occasional slow downs, but this is constant-- all the time..Any suggestions greatly appreciated...

Hey there. You might have seen my post. In my case, the frames were dropping and rising constantly i.e. my sim was locked at 20fps, and it would hold it - for about a minute, then drop to 3-4fps for about 3 minutes, then go back up to 20fps for another 3 mins, and that would continue until I got frustrated and turned off the sim (usually with some unsavory language LOL). As it turned out in my case (I had an NVIDEA GeForce 9400GT), the video card may have been defective, but apparently the fan was never working, and it caused the fan to melt off of its support structure on the card itself.I figured it had to be the video card because eventually, the problem got to the point where my monitor stopped working (it would go into power save mode and never come out of it). If any of this sounds like it may pertain to you, I'd strongly suggest taking a hard look at your video card.Good luck!George

I few days ago my FPS suddenly dropped. I have FPS locked at 25. But now I am getting anywhere from 1- 12. The only thing I know I did was to add a couple of repaints to a freeware aircraft. Added manually... I deleted those..no change.I am not sure what other info to include to help provide more info except my System info which is--Dell 8400Windows XP with SP32Gb RAMPentium 3.4nVidia GeForce 7300 GS146 GB HD with 86 GB free space (that's after deleting a bunch of junk)Pretty old, eh. :( In the task manager this is the heaviest looking stuff running--RUNDLL32 13,000EXPLORER 29,000 ( i DON'T KNOW WHY IT IS RUNNING AS IT IS NOT OPEN)AVGCSRUX 15,000SVCHOST 25,000FIREFOX 109,000 (USING IT NOW BUT IS CLOSED WHEN FLYING)TEA TIMER 35,000 ( WHAT IS THAT?)SYSTEM 88,000I did a couple of defrags--using the Windows defragger... no help.I don't know if it matters what addons I have as nothing changed before/after the slow down.. Sliders are the same as always...I ran SPYBOT and ADAWARE--- nothing serious..I saw another thread where someone had occasional slow downs, but this is constant-- all the time..Any suggestions greatly appreciated...

HelloI am a professional DELL 8400 sucker. No offense to you, only to DELL. I have had three DELL 8400's. I have 7 different computers for other uses, but the DELL 8400's I had were dedicated flight sim computers.The 8400 is a crappy computer. It runs hot all the time, poor air flow, no case fans.I built my present flight sim computer after messing with those 8400's and never looked back. I kept one 8400, sold the others.The one I kept I use for burning DVD's and other non-flight simulator stuff.They are not made for it.The complaint list is a large one for the 8400.I wish I had some other advise, but I never figured out how to get that junk DELL 8400 to work right in FS8 or FS9.Edit: Oh, I forgot to mention. The DELL 8400 was notorious for having bad capacitors that are still being used today. Get a flash light, open the case and check firstly, the capacitors around the processor.Look at the tops for bulging or leaking.Also note the bottoms of the capacitors. The tops may look fine, but the bottoms may have blown.Sencondly, check for bulging capacitor, the one directly behind the video card along and to the back of the memory rails.Also, check the power supply for bad caps.DELL shipped out all, or almost all 8400's with defective caps.Also the GX and SX series.Heat build up in the case was the biggest culprit, but, if you will google this issue, you will find that between the years of 2005-2006-2007, bad caps and a stolen solution were being bought by DELL to save money.DELL of course claimed to have no knowledge of buying cheaply and poorly made caps.In defense of DELL, allot of computer manufacturers were hit with bad capacitors.It is still going on to this day.badcaps.com is a good place to learn about this.When and if you build your own computer, there are now solid capacitor boards being made, Rubicon is the best.The vented caps are the worst.Also, look out for knock offs.

Thank you all for your generous help. I've been very busy for a few days-still am -- not much time. ..Plus my work computer got hacked yesterday. :>)) I hope things don't run in 3's...I will try to answer briefly here-GEORGE-- Yes I saw your post..and read everything.. everything else seems to be running ok...GUS--Black Viper.. I have gone to the links but must study them more as I do not understand the info very well yet. Technical stuff is over my head, but I will keep at it.Also-in the task manager, I was confusing IE with explorer. Thought it was the same.BUT-- I did install IE about a week ago for a particular reason -but now do not need it. HOWEVER, I can not see how to uninstall it. It appears in START/ ALL PROGRAMS but is NOT in the ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS list. There is a desktop shortcut called."iexplorer.exe" which works. How can I uninstall IE, then?MAGNUM FORCE.. No offense,. :>) I bought this DELL in 2004 so maybe I missed the bad caps period...-- Sounds like I should be surprised it still runs. but it seems generally ok.. I will take your advice and check inside...MEL.. computer seems to run about the same as usual...I defragged early last week and then again last night --windows defragger...( have never used ULTIMATE DEFRAG, though... Thurs I had to add Active X to run a program.??? but FS had slowed down before then. So-- I don't think any changes before the slow down-- but I do belong to AARP so,,, :>)Just checked the TASK MANAGER-- with just this browser open in FIREFOX.just sitting here.. CPU Usage is 0% to9%(when typing) That's about it for now.. Until I figure out the Black Viper business I don't want to go messing with the Task Manager...Many thanks again...Bill