yankee,as you can see i also installed XP64 for testing on another partition, solely for testing and seeing whether it improves. But the problem is the same.According to "LatencyMon" which is way better than DPC Checker, the issue *has* to do with graphics drivers/directx. So i am testing a whole range of Geforce drivers already, but still all having the same problem.There are about 100 Millions reasons given online what causes this, including CPU/Processor power management, GPU power management, Chipset/Hardware, Vista/Win7, drivers etc...but none i tried until now really showed that it improved. As a last resort i can flash a new Bios to my board and see whether it improves, respective experiment a bit more with the buffersize values. Otherwise, it is something caused solely by FSX and the ONLY solution would be setting autogen etc. all the way down.

I bought a laptop for my daughter and the crackling sound issue is there without FSX, even without any program running. Like you I read millions of posts about this issue and the cause has not been found. 51 pages on that here!!http://www.sevenforums.com/sound-audio/22369-realtek-windows-7-64rtm-crackle-static-popping-51.html It seems that my 6 year old computer is here to stay. I am afraid of having this problem with a new computer. Besides the latest rigs still struggle to run FSX, but it is another story...

I bought a laptop for my daughter and the crackling sound issue is there without FSX, even without any program running. Like you I read millions of posts about this issue and the cause has not been found. 51 pages on that here!!http://www.sevenforu...popping-51.html It seems that my 6 year old computer is here to stay. I am afraid of having this problem with a new computer. Besides the latest rigs still struggle to run FSX, but it is another story...

I think we have to differ here between two problems:1) Is a reported problem of certain (Gigabyte!!) motherboards w/ certain earlier chipsets, namely X38 and X48.As i understand, those boards HAD DPC latency issues by default - that is, they had DPC latency problems without anything running, while idle.I also read that the latest BIOS/boards apparently solved that issue.2) The other variant is the DPC latency problem observed while using FSX. Those two (1 + 2) might not even be related. Another question is whether the OBSERVED DPC latency is actually only a "result" of something else, eg. bad, inefficient code in FSX, PC too slow for the given settings etc... In other words: The "problem" would show up as high DPC latency spikes..but this doesnt mean that the drivers/hardware would necessarily have a problem (?). Mind you, in idle, while i am doing nothing on my PC i dont have any DPC lat. issues,neither in any other game. And most/all of the users who report that they dont have the problem do a simple test while idle on the desktop. Maybe certain latencies while playing FSX are actually normal?!

Maybe certain latencies while playing FSX are actually normal?!

Its a feature!! Sorry, couldn't resist.

Georg123,What sound chipset is on that DFI mobo? I've seen really bad DPC latency on certain boards with the "Sound Max" chipset.It might be worth a shot picking up a good PCIe sound card (ie Asus Xonar series) and see if that makes any difference. You might also try uninstalling the sound driver and then disabling the on board sound in the BIOS - if that solves the problem then you know it's somehow the sound chip or the way the mobo is allocating resources to it.I'd bet the problem lies in whatever that motherboard is doing though - tons of people have very similar systems, just with different mobos and everything works fine.

Its not sound related, the crackling sound is only a result of whatever is happening.I know since it also appears with all sound deactivated/disabled, i tested with my Audigy ZS as well as my onboard Realtek, and also with onboard sound disabled in Bios as well as different drivers.

Its not sound related, the crackling sound is only a result of whatever is happening.I know since it also appears with all sound deactivated/disabled, i tested with my Audigy ZS as well as my onboard Realtek, and also with onboard sound disabled in Bios as well as different drivers.

sounds like an RF problem, something not sheilded well...

sounds like an RF problem, something not sheilded well...

freebird,the latency (and therefore crackling) is directly related to the nr. of objects on the screen, especially the trees.PRELIMINARY findings:Experimenting with Poolsize (BUFFERPOOLS) shows that HIGH values, like 80000000 are bad, very high latency constantly, while no poolsize (== default 4MB or maybe 8MB) actually reduce the lag *as long as i dont pan around*.So, a buffersize of 4MB or 8MB is definitly some kind of improvement.Sadly, i get so much different and contradicting information in almost any "tweak" thread. It's like, one person claims that this or that setting helped them (with FPS, stutters etc.)..while in the next post i read the opposite, eg. small values, high values, buffers on, buffers off etc..etc... There is also confusing information about the real meaning of certain settings, eg. for the poolsize setting some say it allocates Video memory, others say it allocates system memory..etc..etc..To be honest, i think the only way to make reasonable assumptions in regards to the use of MANY tweaks would be to hear it right from the MS/FSX's developers mouth.(Also: In DX10 mode, the latency is pretty much reduced (while not panning)..although there are spikes again once i move and pan. But its generally better than in DX9 mode.)

George123,What works for one does not work for all. That is why it is called tweaking. Did you try using an extremely High BP setting as freebird77 previously suggested? This tweak, if it indeed will work for you, requires a 400MB or higher BP setting. You said 80MB does not work. It did not work for me either when I discovered this tweak. What did work was an extremly high poolsize. And, when I did discover it, setting the BP value to 400MB was against convetional thinking. However,the tweak works for many and it worked for me with my old hardware. I too had no problems with any other games/software. I only had issues with FSX running on a particular motherboard (soundcards and enabling/disabling onboard sound made no difference). FYI, Increasing the poolsize WILL also increase the use of your system RAM.Try a PoolSize=400000000 (which is five times larger than 80000000).Regards,Bob

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freebird,the latency (and therefore crackling) is directly related to the nr. of objects on the screen, especially the trees.

Yes, what I saw on the screen produced all kinds of noise, anything fed to the screen was making its way to some sensitive high powered precision Class A/B amplified speakers sitting on the desk which BTW are very well shielded, the cables however were not, When I switched to balanced XLR cables the problem went bye bye and all is silent now. Maybe not your problem but it was exactly related to what was seen on the screen.Mackie MR5Nothing wrong with backing up your cfg and thoroughly trying out the suggestions, hope you find the solution.