Hi guys Been simming on this new system (laptop - HP Pavilion) of mine for about a year and a half with no problems. I average about 25-40 FPS at busy airports with add-ons (scenery, ai, the whole package). Lately though my experience has been hampered by these sudden inexplicable FPS drops. They would occur for about 40 or so seconds then return to a more stable reading. I'd taxi around more then frame-rates would plummet once again to about 10 fps for another 40 seconds and once again return to normal (30-40 fps). It's spoiling the experience quite significantly and I know for a fact that this wasn't an issue about a month ago. I've asked my brother for advice and he seems to think it's my graphics card overheating and getting 'lazy', but I refuse to believe that due to the fact that it's still a reasonably new system. I've done all the adequate driver updates and still get the same problem.Any ideas? Thanks in advancePat

If this occures again, just check via the taskmanager whether an process is using abnormaly much CPU power and try shutting it down. Maybe you got an virus or another kind of malware.

If this occures again, just check via the taskmanager whether an process is using abnormaly much CPU power and try shutting it down. Maybe you got an virus or another kind of malware.

There's a tool called gamebooster that you run befor FS. It shuts down (selected) unneeded tasks.But when taxiing and turning, where quite often new scenery comes into view, it's unavoidable the fps drop! Also approaching an airport (especially non-default) will cause a drop in fps until it's loaded.Check out the tweaks that are around this and other forums to improve your fps.

Thanks ti and superpilot for your replies. I've tried anti-virus and anti-malware aplications but still get the same problem. I also have game booster installed with no luck. ti_dabbelju i know what you mean about the fps drops when loading scenery etc... but those usually only last about a second or two. In my case All the scenery is already loaded but the framerates hover at about 10 fps until returning to the normal 30 or 40fps and then again back to 10 for half a minute and then back to normal. Strange really. I'm starting to get a feelign it's my graphics card??

Hello,

Strange really. I'm starting to get a feelign it's my graphics card??

Really I don't have this feeling .... as the FPS is result (for a great portion) of the CPU work ....I have more the feeling .. that a application (likely those who access files and folders) is running hidden in background.Also .. you can test with all the FS2004 graphic options sliders to left and also disable AA of your graphic card .. and see if drop disappears ...Regards.Gus.

With Gamebooster make sure to hit "show all" and select all tasks for deactivationOne more shot in the dark, but do you have Microsoft indexing service running (I'm not sure what it's called in English)? It improves searches but takes a lot of cpu time.