Hi all.I also had lockups... and it seemed to do with using the 2D windows display after using the 3D sim display.My "cure" was to use SmartGart to force 4xAGP and FastWrites off. Dick

I have exactly the same problems as described in the first post of this thread for FS9 and IL2FB. I had tried everything like installing/unistalling cats 3.7/3.8, enabled/disabled VDU, run at AGP 4X/8x, disabled fast writes, updated my motherboard's AGP and sound drivers, no help.My observations:-I had my monitor refresh rate set at 85Hz, after the lock ups it defaults to 60Hz (VDU off),other custom settings do not change.-The ATI removal utility that come with cat 3.8 does not remove every thing. I was using DiverCleaner to remove drivers for some time. After removing 3.8's using the ATI utility and reinstalled I noticed a small drop to fps. I removed them again with the utility, rebooted to safe mode (this is the routine to use DiverCleaner) and run it. DriverCleaner found and deleted 6 entries. Maybe they are not so important but if you want a good cleaning dont rely to the ATI utility!-Is this problem common to people with Asus motherboards? My system:P4 2.53GHzAsus P4S8X motherboard (SIS chipset)1Gig pc2700 RAMATI Radeon 9800 12880Gig hard driveWin XP homeElias

Well thinking that I had my problems licked by disabling VPU recover, I ran into problems again late last night with large featureless textures popping in staying for a few seconds, dissappearing and coming back. So, this morning a ran a system restore to a date prior to my attempt to install the 3.8's (effectively going back to 3.7's) and reinstalled FS2004. I flew Kirk's F16 for about 30 mins and then bammo, the wild triangular artifacts, followed by "bzzzt sound" and re-boot....So, I went through the entire manual uninstall procedure for the video driver and reinstalled the 3.7's and decided to set the PMDG 737 on a long flight on auto pilot and left things in external view mode. One hour later, black screen, "send message to M$" box and re-start again...Before I saw these recent mails I then decided to disable fast writes. I have always left this enabled before. Set the 737 on auto pilot again with external view and three hours later landed, no problems!I think there's more than one issue at play here, but the fast writes may indeed be reponsible for the black screen-send to M$-restart issue at least. I have only encountered the texture corruptions and complete re-boots after updating to 3.8's and when flying Kirk's F16 and I have yet to take the F16 up again to see if I have got rid of that problem now or not. Will report.BTW, my chipset is the i875P (Asus P4C800 Deluxe), but it may be that it is new variant of the 7205 (Granite Bay) and may exhibit similar AGP issues?? In any case I am extremely wary of attempting to upgrade to the 3.8's again after this mess. I may go for the latest Omega's that have apparently resolved the menu flickering problem or wait for 3.9's.Would be interesting to hear from more people if they have had similar issues when updating to the 3.8's.Joe

After installing the latest Omega drivers:The flashing menu bug fixed, the lock up when trying to disconnect from multiplayer fixed, but still geting freezed screens after random periods of time. I disabled fastwrites from control panel and motherboard bios, disabled VDU, but freezes and flashing triangular artifacts appeared after about 2.5 hours. This happens with FS9 and IL2FB also.EliasMy system:P4 2.53GHzAsus P4S8X motherboard (SIS chipset)1Gig pc2700 RAMATI Radeon 9800 12880Gig hard driveDX 9.0bWin XP home

Hi all.Another approach might involve this:Turn off Write Combining...http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/42743.jpgDick

Hi Otis, let me just add one more caveat here for what it's worth. It's been mentioned above about heat being a possible issue. I did not notice if you had checked this or not, but the P4 3.06 DOES run hot if you give it a chance so you may want to re-check that one. When I intially built my system, I did not apply the thermal compound correctly ( used too much) and had idle temps in a 26oC room of high 40's to low 50's. FS9 pushed those temps to 85-90oC and I did notice instablility, slowdowns and lockups with FS9 only as the temps while the computer was doing other things were in the 70's ( still too high IMHO).Re-doing the Artic Silver Installation properly reduced the temps to 35o-40oC idle and FS9 temps to the mid 50o's. Lock-ups appear to be resolved, so was certainly worth doing in my case.The P4 seems to like good cooling and that can be an easy thing to overlook.Best Regards,

Roger that, Ed, thanks for the reminder. The Falcon guys used a coolermaster case and I checked to make sure ventilation was good and the airflow unobstructed. I will keep an eye on this, but I've done a couple of 2 hour flights with no freezes thus far on FS2004. The Lock-On demo has run well over an hour as well with no incident, but it's good to know the heat on the 3.06 runs high.Thanks much. Otis

How about memory leaks...bad memoryTry Sis Sandra.Troy

Thanks for the tip. I still haven't had the time to check if I still have triangular artifacts / hard crash issues when flying the F16. If I have then I'll give this a shot.What's really bugging me though is that the triangular artifacts and re-boot crash were never an issue until I installed the 3.8's. Therefore, fastwrites, write combining, etc. (all previously enabled) were also a non issue prior to the 3.8 install (apart from my occasional black screen episodes). Again, as I said in my previous posts, I think the black screen and the triangular artifacts are two separate cause and effect issues. The black screens quite likely being related to fast writes being enable. It's disabled now and about time. Damndest thing was the persistance of triangular artifact / hard crash problem even when going back to the older drivers that were previously problem free. I have gone back to CAT 3.7's, reinstalled FS2004, performed a system restore, clean reinstall of 3.7's again, reintsalled FS2004 again and have yet to test if the triangular death is still there or not! I would be very tempted to point the finger at the 3.8's and say that there is a serious and very stubborn stability issue induced by those drivers. Given Korbers continued problems (which sound similar to mine) I may opt to stick with the 3.7's to be on the safe side (assuming that I've managed to get rid of my problems, i.e.).One thing I haven't tried is reinstalling DirectX9.0b...I'll keep that in my back pocket.Thanks,Joe

Guys,Kind of replying to everyone in this sub-thread. Simple question. Why would changing to CAT 3.8 drivers cause thermal issues that Bambi evidently hasn't had an issue with before he updated to 3.8's? Answer. There is absolutely no reason that changing driver would cause thermal issues unless for some reason they make the VPU run hotter???Admittedly when investigating my own stability problems that started with the 3.8's I did check my front panel filter and airflow, etc. as it took time for the triangular artifact / hard re-boot crash (in my case) to occur so that did have a "thermal" clang to it. But, why didn't I have these problems prior to the 3.8's? That's the question. My CPU temps are 33C/50C at idle and load.Anyway, looks like he's got his problems licked. I think I have at least improved mine by doing a system restore, clean re-intsall of 3.7's and re-install of FS2004, but have yet to fully verify. Damn, I'm not going to go near the 3.8's with a barge pole.Regards,Joe

Well, did my test flight and no problems so far.In summary:Going to CAT 3.8's appeared to cause nasty triangular artifacts with hard crash as well as odd ground texture problems. Going back to 3.7's didn't resolve issues. Reinstalling FS2004 didn't resolve issues. Re-installing 3.8's and disabling VPU recover didn't resolve issues.Did following: -System restore to date prior to updating to CAT 3.8-Clean install of 3.7's using DriverCleaner and deleting all remaining ATI files manually-Disk defragment-Clean reinstall of FS2004-Disk defragment-Only remaining issue was occasional black screen which I have had problems with before-Disabled fast writesNo triangular artifact / hard crashes so far...(believe that this was induced by 3.8's)No black screens either (Looks like this was resolved by disabling fast writes. No sh*t, I hear you all say :-).Get the feeling that not so many people have encountered problems with the 3.8's, but if you have run into trouble this may help.PIV 2.4GHZ @ 2.96GHz (Temps idle/load = 33C/50C, Vcore=1.6V)ASUS P4C800, 2x512MB PC3500 RAMR9800 PROWinXPetc., etc.