Source of random intermittent video freezes found ;o)

I started this discussion in the hopes of finding a solution in another thread but thought it best to post the discovery here in case anyone else is having issues w/ this. In a nutshell, for several months I would experience hard freezes--sudden stops & starts lasting maybe 1/2 a second or so--in the video displaying during flying FSX. Not to be confused w/ stutters/microstutters! I thought initially it had to do w/ the Virtuali Addon Manager, or the software it supports since this began around the time I had installed some addon airports and what have you. It was very random--sometimes I'd get none, others flights I'd get these every 5-10 seconds, especially around some of the add on airports. I tried using procmon to monitor where these were coming from, but to no avail.

After reasonably extensive testing the problem appears to lay in my running GameBooster, the application that shuts down [allegedly] unnecessary processes/services, prior to my flights. Not sure which particular service/process that is shutdown when GameBooster runs that is the culprit, but I can say w/ 100% certainty since I've NOT run Game Booster prior to flights I've had no freezes. I've tested this w/ ORBX scenery, around the add on airports, etc, and no more freezes! I think the randomness issue came from the fact I was not always running GameBooster, and also perhaps the issue it apparently causes is manifested more around complex scenery as you might find at an addon airport, hence it was hard to put 2n2 together easily. Also, not seeing any issues from NOT running GameBooster.

I hope this helps others w/ the same issue. Of note, I'm running Vista64, which perhaps may have issues w/ Game Booster that Win7 or XP don't.

Noel