For a couple of years I have been plagued with momentary pauses and I haven't been able to connect it with anything specific. I'm not talking stutters here. I can be in any configuration and the whole sim may stall for maybe a half second to one full second and then it goes on. On rare occasions it might lock up. I realize that no one can diagnose something like this specifically without knowing the whole set up. I'm just wondering if anyone has suggestions on something that may have worked for you or where you would suggest looking.I don't have a signature set up, but for what its worth, I have many addons including GEX,FEX (don't use), REX, lots of FTX stuff, ASX, way too many planes, no third party AI program, lots of things too numerous to remember or list right here. My system specs are low to mid ... three years old. E6700, NVidia Board, 8800GTX card, 4Gigs of Ram with XP 32 bit and the switch in use for more memory use, I think that's the important things. Thanks for any suggestions, Steve

Have you tried the FPS Limiter bat file?Without it, and even if I lock FPS I get nasty stutters and pauses.... maybe it would work for you?http://forum.avsim.net/topic/245251-dont-miss-this-one-a-new-fsx-optimizer/page__st__200__p__1561507__hl__fps+limiter+bat__fromsearch__1#entry1561507

Have you tried the FPS Limiter bat file?Without it, and even if I lock FPS I get nasty stutters and pauses.... maybe it would work for you?http://forum.avsim.net/topic/245251-dont-miss-this-one-a-new-fsx-optimizer/page__st__200__p__1561507__hl__fps+limiter+bat__fromsearch__1#entry1561507

Thank you very much for the reply Ryan...Yes, I use the frame limiter set at 30 fps.Any other ideas?

You can try to run the windows performance monitor or additional tools to see and monitor the files that get loaded and written in those stutter moments.Checking the way of the HDD access (driver and BIOS setting, meaning AHCI oder other modes) might also help.

Quite often those are caused by some other process 'phoning home'. Set up your system to do a clean boot with only those programs needed to run. No antivirus, spyware blockers, etc. Disable everything you can and start testing. Once you're satisied that it's working, start adding back programs until it fails.

Longer pauses rather than stutters can be page file access indicating insufficient memory. You have 4 gigs OK but do you have something else eating it?These tend to last several seconds though.More likely a background process auto defraqgger or antivirus cutting in.IAN

Thanks so much for some good suggestions, guys. CoolIP's suggestions look good ... but I don't know how to follow them. I can use the windows performance monitor, but not being a techie, I don't know how to follow the rest. I'm not afraid to go into the BIOS as when I overclocked, but I know nothing of HDD access and AHCI. Also don't know how to see which files are being written in the 1/2 to 2 second pauses.vgbaron's thoughts seem valid as well. I have about 20 things that are running on startup according to the msconfig program I'll work with that. I'd like to stop them all, but I'm not smart enough to know if there is anything on the startup that will cause the computer not to boot. I'll work on this one. I wouldn't think so. So far as services ... are services a potential issue here, or are they just memory eaters? I shut down about 11 as per NickN's instructions for tuning Windows XP ... mine professional version, 32bit. But there are still about 108 of those running. And I don't have a clue as to which are critical. I used to use FSAutostart in FS-9 to shut down applications and services. I downloaded a little program named "game booster" and it shuts down a mixture of about 25 aps and services.Ian'spoint about the page file is not an issue, I don't think. Of course XP32bit will not run more than about 2.75 gigs memory even with the "switch" activated. But I have never gotten "0ut of memory" error messages. I don't think it is going to the page file, but I will run the monitor while FSX is in window mode just to be sure.

Ian'spoint about the page file is not an issue, I don't think. Of course XP32bit will not run more than about 2.75 gigs memory even with the "switch" activated. But I have never gotten "0ut of memory" error messages. I don't think it is going to the page file, but I will run the monitor while FSX is in window mode just to be sure.

An out of memory error only occurs if FS tries to allocate more than the 2GB (or 4GB if the LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag is set) of user memory space FOR ITSELF.If FS asks for more RAM than is physically available, but less than the allowable amount of program memory space, then Windows will start paging parts of FS to disk--without an OOM--that's actually what VM is designed to do. That will cause pauses and slowdowns, but usually if that starts happening, it's not just a random pause, but a pronounced slowdown.That said, it's not necessarily the problem.Another possibility is that you have a "green" HDD and/or a disk controller that is configured to allow the FS disk to spin down after a period of nonuse, and when FS gets around to accessing a file it doesn't have already in the scenery cache, it has to wait for the disk to spin back up. Also, if you're on a network, it could be a hang as the network adapter waits for an answer from a PC that is either slow or not present on the LAN.RegardsBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

An out of memory error only occurs if FS tries to allocate more than the 2GB (or 4GB if the LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag is set) of user memory space FOR ITSELF.If FS asks for more RAM than is physically available, but less than the allowable amount of program memory space, then Windows will start paging parts of FS to disk--without an OOM--that's actually what VM is designed to do. That will cause pauses and slowdowns, but usually if that starts happening, it's not just a random pause, but a pronounced slowdown.That said, it's not necessarily the problem.Another possibility is that you have a "green" HDD and/or a disk controller that is configured to allow the FS disk to spin down after a period of nonuse, and when FS gets around to accessing a file it doesn't have already in the scenery cache, it has to wait for the disk to spin back up. Also, if you're on a network, it could be a hang as the network adapter waits for an answer from a PC that is either slow or not present on the LAN.RegardsBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

Hi Bob, Thanks for info. I wish I knew how to check my hard drive situation/controller etc. Yes, I was wondering if it was something mechanical with the dirve. I have FSX on its own drive, a basic 7200 Seagate 300 gig ... not a raptor or RAID or anything like that. Its about 3 years old. I've been having this problem for a long time ... like 2 years. I finally got fed up with it.Pretty impressive signature, you have. I am a real world little airplane pilot, but I earned an ATP one time from the director of the Purdue University Flight Program. That was just in a light twin, though. Also my amateur call is N4PP. I am near Indianapolis, and my wife and I are vacationing in Colorado for about 10 days after Sept. 18.Thanks again for your reply ... If there is a link anywhere to how to check out the drive situation, controller, etc. I'd appreciate it.

 My defragmentation application keeps my FSX hard drive automatically in good shape, and the automation ought to be disabled prior running the simulation in order to stop pauses. 

without reading everyones replies (busy finishing my thesis) ill chuck my thoughts inAlthough you have 4gigs or Ram your running a 32-bit OS and so i think it only sees 3 and a bit gigs - this may limit things a tad.Is your machine overclocked? this gave me the biggest performance boost of all.Defrag and perform general house keeping (i use auslogics disk defrag, its free)Was always told to keep at least half my HDD empty.do you have an older HDD with a smaller cache size?any tweaks used in your config? i think Bojotes latest offerings have made a huge difference.do you have any background applications running that may be resource hogs i.e. antivirus etc.hmm cant think of anything else

I turned off every other application (via msconfig) and still have the pauses. ... I regularly do a "name defrag" with O & O Defragmenter version 8.5. ... I have two drives, one reserved for FSX. It is a Seagate 300 gig 7200 rpm drive about 3 years old and am not able to quickly find further documentation on it. It is right at one half full. ... I am using and E6700 Core 2 Duo running at 3.6 ghz. ... I watch the performance monitor and never get close to using all the physical memory. I'm thinking my problem may be the drive itself. Where can I find information on how to adjust the BIOS settings for the drive if that is my problem? I've never done any work on the HDD in the BIOS. Thanks. Steve

Hi Bob, Thanks for info. I wish I knew how to check my hard drive situation/controller etc. Yes, I was wondering if it was something mechanical with the dirve. I have FSX on its own drive, a basic 7200 Seagate 300 gig ... not a raptor or RAID or anything like that. Its about 3 years old. I've been having this problem for a long time ... like 2 years. I finally got fed up with it.Pretty impressive signature, you have. I am a real world little airplane pilot, but I earned an ATP one time from the director of the Purdue University Flight Program. That was just in a light twin, though. Also my amateur call is N4PP. I am near Indianapolis, and my wife and I are vacationing in Colorado for about 10 days after Sept. 18.Thanks again for your reply ... If there is a link anywhere to how to check out the drive situation, controller, etc. I'd appreciate it.

The settings, at least in Vista 64, are in Control Panel -> Power OptionsSelect "Edit Plan Settings" for the active power management option (should usually be "High Performance" for FS)Click on "Advanced Power Settings"Open the "Hard Disk" subtree, and click on "Turn Off Hard Disk After" and set it to "Never" I think the default is something like 20 min.Click "Apply"Have fun vacationing in Colorado. Keep an eye on the weather--early, heavy fall snow is typical here in years like this where "El Niño" conditions exist.CheersBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

Hi Steve,Ive seen pauses like that from a bad CPU. If you have some time google for cpu stability testing and see what you can find.Also, i dont know if your aware of these tweaks for fsx, but if your bufferpools or texture bandwidth multiplier are too highthat can also cause pauses while it fills them up.David Ranieri.

I get the pauses every time I'm flying near large bodies of water (oceans in view) and the wave effect resets. Not sure if anyone else has this happen as well. Curious to know if I'm not alone.