I've got a fairly new machine which I used to sim race constantly on but i've pulled back on that habit and decided i'd give good ol FSX a whirl on here but every time, without fail, i'm about 10 seconds maybe 30 seconds into a flight my entire machine freezes. I can't ctrl-tab can ctrl-alt-del can't do anything but hold the power button and shut down the machine. This is mega-frustrating as i'm not exactly running an ancient machine here.

 

I've tried turning up and down the sliders, not running the game full screen, making sure the computer is nice and cool...nothing is overclocked or non standard I guess. I've looked in the event logs and have no idea what i'm looking for...seriously, this is frustrating.

 

I've been running iRacing and rFactor on this computer with fairly robust graphics with little if any freezing whatsoever so there is something in FSX that doens't like my machine...

 

I really have no idea where to go with this. I'm assuming I should be able to run FSX with some tweaking, but the sheer volume of problems I see posted in this forum are entirely overwhelming...i figured i'd see if anyone can get me started. I'm not even sure where i should begin as i've never had FSX running on this machine previously.

 

Here are my system specs

Windows 7 64bit- fully patched as of this morning, prior to even installing FSX

2 ATI Radeon 5700's, crossfire enabled, 12.3 drivers (I did roll this back from the 12.6 drivers already - the problem happens with both drivers)

FSX + Acceleration pack

CPU Type QuadCore Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550, 2833 MHz (8.5 x 333)

Motherboard Name Asus Rampage Formula (2 PCI, 3 PCI-E x1, 2 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Dual Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394

Motherboard Chipset Intel Beachwood X48

System Memory 8192 MB (DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM)

 

Can someone please just help me figure this out? Where on earth do I start to trouble shoot? It's a new install and a clean version of windows...i've no idea what to do.

 

Thanks.

You need to post the crash info from your Event Viewer. Every crash is recorded so Microsoft can troubleshoot. Go to the Start button, type Event Viewer in the Search bar then look up and click on Event Viewer. If you're not sure how to use the Event Viewer, in the Menu, click on Help and Support and search for Event Viewer. A lot of problems with fsx are fixed by renaming or deleting the fsx.cfg, restarting FSX and letting the config rebuild itself.

 

Best regards,

Jim

Jim, you are a legend in these parts so i'm extremely thankful you posted...otherwise I was gonna pm you :)

 

I've narrowed the problem down quite a bit now, but will find the event viewer entry asap.

 

The crashes only happen when I'm running in fullscreen mode...windowed mode it appears the problem doesn't happen. Well, let me put this in context...

 

I hit alt-enter to switch to windowed mode when i loaded one of the introductory flights. Each and every time prior to this, FSX would freeze within seconds but when in windowed mode I was able to tootle around for about 10 minutes.

 

When flying around confident FSX was working at the moment in windowed mode, I hit alt-ent to switch to full screen...within seconds i heard a short stutter and a slight freeze. It was that same sound that had FSX frozen, would have been repeating until I powered down. But as soon as I heard that slight stutter I swapped back to windowed mode and the problem went away.

 

I flew a few more minutes without a problem then decided to see if i could get it to freeze in in fullscreen. Sure enough, not more that 10-15 seconds after i switched to full screen, i heard that stuttery sound...it stopped for a second or two and then wham! Frozen.

 

The same behaviour occurred with both 3 different driver versions (8.6, 11.12 and the new 12.6).

 

Maybe that helps, but i'll get the event viewer log uploaded as it sounds like it may give better information.

@M06W41 (heck of a nickname) - do a search of the recent posts here for "UIAutomationCore.dll", or a search on my name, and you'll come up with lots of info on Win 7freezing and hanging... You If this is the culprit - it's the file below, that you need.

 

https://dl.dropbox.c...in_fsx_root.dll

 

Oh - and Welcome to the Avsim Fixit site.... :lol:

dial 911 and ask for Word Not Allowed :lol: the FS9/FSX JEDI

Word Not Allowed come in...you're our only hope!

 

Paul - got the UIAutomationCore.dll already installed in the main FSX directory.

 

Another thing i just noticed...i had crossfire enabled on my cards. Seems like turning it off helped but i'm flying more to test it out.

 

Maybe Crossfire was the problem, but here are the details I got when i had to reboot.

 

Problem signature:

Problem Event Name: BlueScreen

OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48

Locale ID: 1033

 

Additional information about the problem:

BCCode: 124

BCP1: 0000000000000000

BCP2: FFFFFA800837F8F8

BCP3: 0000000000000000

BCP4: 0000000000000000

OS Version: 6_1_7601

Service Pack: 1_0

Product: 256_1

FSX doesn't recognize Crossfire, and whereas it ignores it - the operating system doesn't, and so devotes some of its' time managing it. ...and FSX needs all the cpu cycles it can get!

The 124 code indicates insufficient vcore. Have you overclocked this beast?

Ok. I have unselected crossfire and flew a 30 minutes mission in full screen without a problem. So now that i've identified the problem i'll head over to the FSX tweaks and get the .cfg file updated.

 

I haven't touched the clock on the CPU nor GPUs on it. Does the vcore error point to not enough voltage or something on the CPU?

Sorry for late coming in... Crossfire is likely problem. FSX generally does like multiple cards or cards with multiple GPUs. Glad you solved it. With one card enabled only and UIAutomationcore.dll you should be solid. Make sure also that your drivers like chipset, motherboard, sound, GPU are all up to date.

 

Take a look at my tweaking guide, maybe there are some stuff in there for you, but be careful, as the guide has been optimized for i7 and Nvidia GPU.

 

Vcore would mean you don't have enough juice on the CPU - but why are you getting it if you are not overclocking?

BCCode: 124

 

This indicates a hardware problem - http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/35069-63-bsod-bccode. Most likely a wrong voltage setting for the CPU as Word Not Allowed indicated above. It could also be wrong memory frequency/timings/voltages in the BIOS. Get the freeware CPU-Z. It has the correct settings for your installed memory in the SPD Tab. Thanks for your kind 'legend' comments but I'm just here to help people like you. I have been where you are and I know how frustrating these crashes can become. I'm glad to see others have arrived to help you out too!

 

Best regards,

Jim