Good day all,I have been experiencing system crahses for the past few months and I am out of ideas on how to get things stable again.Since this started I have gone through many threads regarding fixes, tuning etc. I have reinstalled my pc using NickN's guide and settings and have followed those step by step. The problems started when using Vista 64 and now seem to continue after I upgraded to Win7 64. My PC specs:2x 1TB WD 72001x 500GB WD 7200Evga 780i MainboardQ9450 (2.66GHz running at 3.4GHz)8Gb (4x2) Kingston HyperX running at 800GHzWin 7 Ultimate 64 bit8800GTX With lastest driversWhat I have been getting is that the MD-11 suddenly starts showing very colorful vertical lines in the displays (about 8 or 10 evenly spaced ones on each display) and shortly after that the system freezes. Can't get back to windows, can't exit FSX... Only remedy is to hit the reset button on the front of the PC... One thing I didn't do exactly like NickN's guide is to NOT overclock before going through all the setup and steps but to do so only after everything is running. So, my last option is to reinstall everything again. But before I do that (I just did it 2 weeks ago) I am posting this in the hopes that someone can help me out with another possible suggestion. Thanks!Edit: This crash happens anywhere between 30 minutes and 2.5 hours into the flight..

Wondering if it's a video card overheating issue there - I had issues with one ages ago and sounds similar.John Ellison

Good one.. I forgot to add that info, I'm running 8800GTX. I have been trying to find a way to monitor graphic card temps, but can't seem to find the right application. Any ideas?

GPU-ZMSI Afterburner

Thanks Dario, will try.. I read in the meantime that the 8800GTX should be able to manage up to 90C. I have my pc running at the moment in a cold room and I have removed the side panel from the pc. Lets see if I can finish the current flight (some 1700nM) without it crashing.

Thanks Dario, will try.. I read in the meantime that the 8800GTX should be able to manage up to 90C. I have my pc running at the moment in a cold room and I have removed the side panel from the pc. Lets see if I can finish the current flight (some 1700nM) without it crashing.

I have a 9800GTX and it's starts giving me issues at around 85C. But there is a program called rivatuner ( http://www.guru3d.com/rivatuner/ ) that will let you manually adjust the fan speed and of course OC the card. That has seemed to help me immensely with maintaining normal temps.

Hey, I don't usually post in the PMDG forums but I had this same exact problem and I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. I lowered my overclock on my 9800GTX+ and it seemed to occur less often which led me to believe it was a graphics card issue with maybe overheating? Anyways about a couple months after I experienced this problem (which continued to occcur but not as frequently as before) my graphics card just died one morning. :( I actually have a GTX 460 being shipped in right now but anyways, I just wanted to post because I never really found out what the specific cause was (graphics card was just dying, ran too hot, etc..) and hopefully you will post back if you figure it out!Also, another thing is that I'm positive it isn't PMDG's plane because I've had a couple crashes with default FSX planes (although for some reason it doesn't happen as often as the MD-11).

Graphical artifacts are almost always a result of overclocking. Turn everything back to stock speed, then gradually oc with stress testing, testing every little step up on the way.

Graphical artifacts are almost always a result of overclocking. Turn everything back to stock speed, then gradually oc with stress testing, testing every little step up on the way.

I agree with this - things can overheat even if you're not OCing - bad case ventilation, improper heatsink mounting, fans that have died etc...

Thanks all for the comments and suggestions. Ryan, I have recently installed a new CPU cooler and the temperatures have dropped significantly on the CPU. While installing that I took apart the entire system and made sure to clean all the fans. Judging from the noise they are all working ;-). I will reset the MOBO and start from scratch regarding the overclocking. Small steps. Regarding this, what should I use to do the stress testing? I used a program that runs Lucas Lehmer itterations (P2P?) and it ran that for over 8 hours without any problems. Of course the GPU isn't tested in those runs, but I don't have the graphics overclocked..Anyway, I will keep you posted on my progress.Thanks again!

Yeah Lucas Lehmer iterations is good, Prime95 for example is pretty good at that. You can get it from http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?t=14055. Even tho your GFX card is not overclocked it can still overheat from the reasons Ryan mentioned. Its pretty common that the cooler has been mounted wrongly, or is crammed full of dust, dead or dying fan etc. For stresstesting the GPU I like to use Furmark, its a small app capable of putting alot of heat into your gfx card! You can get it from http://downloads.guru3d.com/FurMark-1.8.2-download-2523.htmlMake sure you monitor your temperatures when youre running stress tests. If your chips starts to run too hot just shut down the stresser and figure out a way to deal with the heat in the future (for example clean out dust with compressed air, improve air flow in your case etc)

This is not overheating, not an overclocking side effect.It is a manufacturing defect out of the 750i and 780i series of motherboards: The infamous video corruption bug. There have been countless BIOS updates trying to fix it but its still there. I still get it rarely and it really ####### me off.The only two solutions you have is to update the BIOS or change boards.

Thanks Ioan,I'll look into that as well.. maybe time to upgrade....