Hey guys,

 

It pains me to ask this, but I will anyway. For the last week or so, fsx has been hit with incredibly heavy stutters. Their random and weirdly, seem worse on aircraft that don't stress the system. Ok, here's my system stats.

 

Core i5 2500k o/c to 4.6ghz

16gb 1866mhz ram

Nvidia 680gtx 4gb factory o/c'd

Fsx stored on 1tb western digital caviar black drive.

3 x 27" screens.

 

So far I've unchecked all addon scenery -stutter still there

Fresh fsx.cfg file. - stutter still there.

Turned the sliders down -stutters still there.

Rolled back gpu driver to 314.22. -stutter remains

Swapped gpu -stutters still there.

Returned the CPU to factory - stutter still there.

Checked all drives with WD lifesaver - no problems reported.

 

I'm at my wits end. Now my only option is a reinstall, which could take all weekend.

 

I'm holding off however, because weirdly, I have P3D installed and its showing the same stutter issue there with p3d being virtually stock.

 

So I'm concerned now that my CPU, after nearly 2 years of running, may be failing. I'll admit though this is a hell mary pass. The only reason I'm thinking it is because I know the CPU Is responsible for sending the textures to the gpu. If its failing, then the gpu is getting incomplete data.

 

So anyone got some helpful advice, or am I shopping for a new board and CPU

 

Best wishes,

Jess B

Run Prime95 Blend for at least 1 hour with no OC on anything to make sure your hardware at stock setting is working. Then do the same with your OC setting. Make sure you can pass a Prime95 Blend for AT LEAST 1 hour (preferably 12 hours). If you fail, get an error, or BSOD at stock then you do have a Hardware issue. If you fail, get an error, of BSOD with your OC then you need to up your voltage, or lower your OC. 

 

Also, check and make sure you do not get any WHEA Parity error in your Windows Logs during these tests.  

too many possibilities... i would re-install everything, folowing some guides very carefully.

- windows 7 / 64 bit fresh install
- install latest drivers starting with the chipset
- windows 7 tuning http://www.tweakhound.com/tweaking-windows-7/
- some good FSX guide, i prefer Word Not Allowed's guide, we can't do more then this for performance and smoothnest.
Bad tweaks and settings can give heavy stuttering too. Realy too many possibilities Stay away from venetubo, it was great some time ago, but can induce stutters on modern hardware.

This will be time consuming but is not waste of time anyway. Make a backup - Acronis True image 2011 will put whole system back in about 30min. It is free for 30 days, more then enough to fix the problem and put everything back very fast. Be aware, Acronis 2013 had some problems with Windows 7, i don't know if they fixed that.

Then check hardware - i would check memory first, BTW how many stick's of RAM you have for 16GB?
Clean up PC - http://www.wikihow.com/Clean-the-Inside-of-a-Computer

Hey guys. Thanks for the replies.

 

Memory could be an issue I guess. It's two sticks of 8gb ram by ocz iirc. It's new, just 4 months old, but I'm wondering if one stick has worked loose. My rig gets dragged to shows and back so it's possible a bump has dislodged a stick. I'll investigate tomorrow. My rig is unavailable due to guests. Grrrrf

Jessica, do you see anything abnormal on the CPU load in windows task manager? Is there anything causing a sudden spike in CPU load every now and again that could cause the stutters, or even worse, anything using quite a bit of CPU running all the time?

 

As has been said before. Run Prime95 for a while at stock. If it fails you have a problem with either CPU or RAM. I doubt the RAM is at fault because every time RAM has failed on me windows has bluescreened a lot.

When was the last time you removed the cpu and re-applied the thermal paste, I would try that before any new installs of fsx - lot of work if its only a re-installation of that cpu.

good call Rich. the cpu will slow down right away it gets too hot. Mostly RAM that fails simply wont allow the mobo to work until it's removed/replaced.

Thanks again guys. I'll run prime95 in the morning and I'll check to see what's happening with the CPU loads. It's a strange fault. Fps is actually skittle constant at 30 locked, but the stutters remain. Occasionally fps nosedives to the mid teens for a second then back. There's no pattern at all. Grrrrr.

 

X-plane is fine though. Lol

 

 

X-plane is fine though. Lol

 

 

I highly doubt that you are experiencing a hardware issue then. I recommend clean installing GPU drivers, re-tweaking your FSX.CFG, and then testing things out again.

Hey guys. First some good news. I ran prime95 this morning and at stock and at 4.6ghz, my setup remained stable with temps just touching 70°c on 2 cores.

 

The bad news is I'm back to square 1.

 

Ben, I already rolled back the driver, performing a clean install and no joy. Even resetting my fsx.cfg file didn't help.

 

When I get home this evening I'll see what's happening with the CPU load and as saab340 asked, I'll keep an eye out for spikes. But for now I'm relieved I'm not looking for a new mobo and CPU.

 

Best wishes,

Jess B

Perplexing.

 

Only other suggestions I have are

 

Check background programs/services that may be interfering

Disk de frag

Check virus scan activity

 

I've heard of simconnect causing problems if it gets corrupt but I can't confirm that.

Disk drive is fairly new, defrag reports 0% fragmentation.

I ran game booster to close unwanted background apps and closed as many as I could with no result.

And I'm only using ms defender and I don't think it can run without my say so.

 

As you say, perplexing indeed.

Ok, update time. Tonight I took saab340's advice and looked at the CPU load over the cores for spikes. I think I've found my stutter issue. Once I'm in flight, fsx is loading everything it seems onto cores 3 & 4. 4 is running at nearly 100% all the time whist 3 runs at 100% for a little, then dropping back to say 60 to 70% for a moment then back to 100%. Tis corresponsed with the big stutters with the smaller stutters seeming to come as core 4 intermittently hits full load.

 

Adjusting the affinity mask does nothing to help. Even removing it failed to do anything. Adjusting the affinity does seem to shift it around, but only between two cores. Never the full four.

 

So what's causing this then. Hmmmmm. I'm feeling a 'windows screwed up' bug coming.

Cores 3 and 4 are typically used for scenery loading.

 

Every minute or so, you should see heavy activity as the scenery is re-lit..

 

With no Affinity Mask, you should expect the first core to run at 100% with the FSX load,

and the other cores varying..

 

With Affinity Mask = 14, you should expect the second core to run FSX, and the first core to be lightly loaded.

 

What happens if you cut back on scenery settings and LOD radius?

Hey burt,

 

Turning the sliders down didn't help at all. Cores 3 & 4 still max out, although core 3 is still intermittent. Core 1 cranks up on starts up but once I'm into an aircraft, it falls back whist 4 maxes out.

 

In contrast p3d spreads nicely across the 4 cores although it still causes a stutter if cores 3 and 4 hit 100%. X plane doesn't seem to bother any of the cores sufficiently though.

 

What's going on I wonder