FSX freezes for 10 seconds every minute or so

[kaspern83 77]

Just did a fresh install of FSX, along with pmdg 777 which is the only addon aircraft I have installed ATM. I installed REX, FSX Global with the newest patch, along with Opus, atc pro X and fsdt jfk, lax, dfw, gsx, phnl. Latin VFR miami v2. I just tried doing a flight from KMIA to KBOS and as soon as I took off I noticed that the whole system freezes for about 10 seconds. Then runs fine for about a minute then freezes again. This happened for the whole entire flight. After I completed the flight I restarted the sim, loaded up at fsdt jfk airport, took off and problem still persisted. I was using kostas guide for fsx tweaks. I also tried changing my fsx.cfg to venetube automatic one just to try and problem still there. Not sure what to do or if this is a pmdg issue. I guess I will attempt to install Ifly 737 and try it with that to see if problem persists there too. Also the whole entire time I am running at 20FPS+ steady. Thanks for any help.

[Guest]

You didn't mention it but maybe you have FSUIPC installed and have the autosave feature set to saving the game once every minute...?

[Jim Young 2,356]

Think about it.  Let's be logical.  If this is a PMDG issue, then everyone would be having the same problem.  Right?  I've had freezes in mid-flight before.  I investigated and found out it was my weather program trying to contact the weather server.  Maybe it couldn't get the weather info and download it or maybe there was an issue getting to the server.  In any case, I shut down the weather program, used the default, and the problem went away.  There are a lot of reasons for freezes during a flight.  One other reason might be your scenery still trying to load in the background and that takes up a lot of resources when it does that.  When it finally finishes loading [whatever], then the flight continues. 

 

If you are using Word Not Allowed's guide for tweaks, then you will probably have several freezes.  Those settings are not for everyone.  Those settings have brought down my previous system (an i7 2600K overclocked at 4.4GHz and a 680GTX video card).  If you really want some good advice, try the following link - http://www.simforums.com/forums/drivers-nv-inspector-fsxcfg-complete-guide_topic36586.html. 

 

Your system is overclocked to 4.8GHz.  That's certainly high for an i5 2500K.  Lower the overclock back to the optimized default settings for your BIOS.  FSX does not need a system running at 4.8GHz.  A system running between 4.2 and 4.4GHz does just as well and your system stays more stable.  Make sure your memory modules were installed properly.  A lot of people rely on the MB manufacturer to set up their memory settings via the BIOS.  Don't.  Look for your SPD settings in the CPU-Z and manually set those settings in the BIOS (frequency/timings and voltages).  I had mine set to auto when I first overclocked by old system (an i7 2600K) and ran all the memory benchmark and stress test programs and they all passed the tests.  Then I ran FSX and FSX would freeze up or I would crash. After I manually changed the memory settings, the freezes stopped.  

 

If your CPU voltage is set too high or too low, you will have issues too but most of the time those result in BSOD's. 

 

Too many tweaks, or improperly employed tweaks (Bufferpools is messed up more than the other tweaks) constrain FSX from running properly.  Don't believe all of those so-called "tweaks".  Know exactly what that tweak is going to do to your system.  The guide I linked to will provide you more information about this.  In my past and current systems, I had NO tweaks except that I raised the LOD_Radius to 6.5 and Texture_Max_Load to 2048 (for HD).  Other than that, my settings are at or near the default and I get crystal clear graphics and I get mostly 60-90 fps while flying the PMDG 737 or 777.

 

As I mentioned in another a couple of other threads, I did get a couple of CTD's while flying the 777 but I did some investigating and found out my dll.xml was corrupted with old software entries that I had uninstalled a long time ago.  I downloaded and ran Notepad++ and edited those entries out of the dll.xml and I have not seen a CTD since then.  Before I found the problem though, I could replicate the crash 100% of the time. 

 

There are a lot of other reasons for AppHangs or freezes and there really is no known solution for the problems other than running an investigation and trying to find out a cause.  If you look up in the CTD Forum here, there are hundreds of similar freezes, apphangs, and ctd's and some were simple to fix and some people are still investigating.  Just remember. When you first installed fsx, it rang almost perfectly with great fps then you started moving those sliders up and tweaking your fsx.cfg to get even more fps.  When you added commercial addons, things slowed down even further and you had to do some more tweaking.  Now you are having problems and you cannot figure out why (and blame one of your addons).

 

Hope this helps.

 

Best regards,

Jim

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[Jim Young 2,356]

Jeroen  has a good point.  Check your fsuipc log (if you have fsuipc installed) and see if any warnings were given about running out of memory.

 

Best regards,

Jim

[kaspern83 77]

Think about it.  Let's be logical.  If this is a PMDG issue, then everyone would be having the same problem.  Right?  I've had freezes in mid-flight before.  I investigated and found out it was my weather program trying to contact the weather server.  Maybe it couldn't get the weather info and download it or maybe there was an issue getting to the server.  In any case, I shut down the weather program, used the default, and the problem went away.  There are a lot of reasons for freezes during a flight.  One other reason might be your scenery still trying to load in the background and that takes up a lot of resources when it does that.  When it finally finishes loading [whatever], then the flight continues. 

 

If you are using Word Not Allowed's guide for tweaks, then you will probably have several freezes.  Those settings are not for everyone.  Those settings have brought down my previous system (an i7 2600K overclocked at 4.4GHz and a 680GTX video card).  If you really want some good advice, try the following link - http://www.simforums.com/forums/drivers-nv-inspector-fsxcfg-complete-guide_topic36586.html. 

 

Your system is overclocked to 4.8GHz.  That's certainly high for an i5 2500K.  Lower the overclock back to the optimized default settings for your BIOS.  FSX does not need a system running at 4.8GHz.  A system running between 4.2 and 4.4GHz does just as well and your system stays more stable.  Make sure your memory modules were installed properly.  A lot of people rely on the MB manufacturer to set up their memory settings via the BIOS.  Don't.  Look for your SPD settings in the CPU-Z and manually set those settings in the BIOS (frequency/timings and voltages).  I had mine set to auto when I first overclocked by old system (an i7 2600K) and ran all the memory benchmark and stress test programs and they all passed the tests.  Then I ran FSX and FSX would freeze up or I would crash. After I manually changed the memory settings, the freezes stopped.  

 

If your CPU voltage is set too high or too low, you will have issues too but most of the time those result in BSOD's. 

 

Too many tweaks, or improperly employed tweaks (Bufferpools is messed up more than the other tweaks) constrain FSX from running properly.  Don't believe all of those so-called "tweaks".  Know exactly what that tweak is going to do to your system.  The guide I linked to will provide you more information about this.  In my past and current systems, I had NO tweaks except that I raised the LOD_Radius to 6.5 and Texture_Max_Load to 2048 (for HD).  Other than that, my settings are at or near the default and I get crystal clear graphics and I get mostly 60-90 fps while flying the PMDG 737 or 777.

 

As I mentioned in another a couple of other threads, I did get a couple of CTD's while flying the 777 but I did some investigating and found out my dll.xml was corrupted with old software entries that I had uninstalled a long time ago.  I downloaded and ran Notepad++ and edited those entries out of the dll.xml and I have not seen a CTD since then.  Before I found the problem though, I could replicate the crash 100% of the time. 

 

There are a lot of other reasons for AppHangs or freezes and there really is no known solution for the problems other than running an investigation and trying to find out a cause.  If you look up in the CTD Forum here, there are hundreds of similar freezes, apphangs, and ctd's and some were simple to fix and some people are still investigating.  Just remember. When you first installed fsx, it rang almost perfectly with great fps then you started moving those sliders up and tweaking your fsx.cfg to get even more fps.  When you added commercial addons, things slowed down even further and you had to do some more tweaking.  Now you are having problems and you cannot figure out why (and blame one of your addons).

 

Hope this helps.

 

Best regards,

Jim

Thanks for your reply, I do have registered version of fsuipc installed and autosave. I will check that out. I do not think it is the opus program since I ran fsx without opus and it kept freezing randomly. Ive had this setup for awhile now and didnt have this problem. It only started after I reinstalled windows. I did install windows on a new solid state and I have noticed how the mouse lags once inawhile while opening windows within the OS. So I am going to do another reinstall on the origional solid state and see what happens.

 

Also not sure why this got moved to ctd forum when I am mot receiving any ctd errors. Fsuipc is not alerting me of any vas issues either. I have heard those bells before once lol. Thanks in advance.

[Jim Young 2,356]

 

 

Also not sure why this got moved to ctd forum when I am mot receiving any ctd errors. Fsuipc is not alerting me of any vas issues either. I have heard those bells before once lol. Thanks in advance.

 

CTD's, AppHangs, Freezes, etc., all go to this forum.  I forgot to mention one other reason I've seen relating to periodic freezes.... scenery loading in the background.  FSX will freeze up occasionally during a flight when FSX scenery is loading in the background.  You can hear this happening if you hear thrashing in the background (you may not hear thrashing as you have 3 SSD's for drives).  How can you tell then if scenery is loading in the background?  Run Process Monitor in the background while running FSX.  When FSX stops and freezes, you can see what processes are running in the background that could be causing your issue.  I ran into this problem myself when I installed every State photoscenery from MegaSceneryEarth V2.  There are many others who have experienced this problem too.  I resolved my problem by shutting down addon scenery that I would not be using during a flightplan.  Unfortunately FSX does not load just the scenery around you during a flight.  If you're flying in NYC, any California addon scenery will be loading too.  When running Process Monitor in the background and you FSX freezes up, click on Process Monitor (to make it active) and then Ctrl+E.  This will capture everything happening up to the time of the freeze and you can take a look at the processes that were happening about that time (make sure you check the time the freeze took place as that will help you pinpoint the program or programs that might have started running and caused fsx to freeze up for a few moments).  Of course you can leave it running even during the freeze and see what happened when the freeze stopped and fsx continued.  A very good investigative tool.

 

Best regards,

Jim

[kaspern83 77]

With my previous fsx install I did not have these issues. I had alot more addons and airports installed and I had autosave enabled. Luckly I made a acronis image before I did a clean install. Lucky me. Wanted to start with new slate for the pmdg 777.

[Jim Young 2,356]

Before you go back to your installation, you should try uninstalling/reinstalling FSX - http://support.precisionmanuals.com/KB/a87/how-to-uninstall-and-reinstall-fsx.aspx.  Make sure you do not bring back into the new installation any previous configurations such as your fsx.cfg or dll.xml.  You'll just have problems.

 

A lot of times in new Windows installations, Windows will schedule certain things and go on the Internet during your flightsim session and that takes up resources.  I found this out recently with my new Windows 7 install.  I had previously turned off all scheduling as I like to update manually.  It's not just Windows but also any software program you install.  Some are scheduled to call home to verify the product is authentic and/or look for updates.

 

If you are going back to your previous image and installation, be aware that FSX and all FSX addons install the appropriate version of Microsoft Visuals C++ 2005, 2008, and 2010 (PMDG uses 2010).  These are used by addon developers to make sure your product was installed properly as they intended.  There redistributables are not backward compatible.  FSX and addon developers also install Microsoft.net (dotnet) programs that are compatible with the installation of their products.  You should have dotnet versions 1.1 thru the latest (4.5) installed.  Dotnet's are used by developers to make sure their product runs properly as they intended including managing memory for the program.  You can check the versions you have installed by looking in C:\Windows\Microsoft.net\Framework\ then the version folders.  Of course, since FSX and FSX addons are 32 bit programs operating in a 64 bit environment, you must have the 32 bit (x86) versions installed.  These are all updated quite frequently so you want to run Windows update to keep up with the latest for each version.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Best regards,

Jim

 

Best regards,

Jim

[kaspern83 77]

Well after few attempts and trying different things, I am going to reinstall windows and fsx once again to the origional ssd. I dont have many addons installed so I am going for another clean fsx install. If that all fails then ill try revering back to the acronis image. thanks ill keep you guys in the loop.

 

Another thing.. Is the avsim software and hard ware guide pointed mostly at dx10 config? thanks

[Jim Young 2,356]

 

 

Another thing.. Is the avsim software and hard ware guide pointed mostly at dx10 config? thanks

 

Sorry nothing worked for you.  Just make sure you do a clean uninstall as recommended by the link I provided.  Once everything is uninstalled, run a registry cleaner like CCleaner before reinstalling.

 

You can use the same settings you use for DX9 for DX10.  You just need to enable DX10.  But, yes, the author, PaulJ, has a lot of interest in DX10 and moderates the DX10 Forum.  You might be interested in another guide I like done recently by NickN - http://www.simforums.com/forums/drivers-nv-inspector-fsxcfg-complete-guide_topic36586.html.

 

Best regards,

Jim

[lodestar 186]

this freezing seems to be common issue with 777 http://forum.avsim.net/topic/419195-short-pauses-and-occasional-ctd-with-no-error-message-possible-fix/#entry2785860

 

Mine is gone after i uninstalled realtek audio driver - i found some negative reports about this driver on many windows 7 related forums. Still not confirmed

[kaspern83 77]

Hmm you know what, I did install the audio driver from the cd last time... I just did complete reinstall of windows and right it seems to be working well. Did night flight last night from juneau to vancouver in the T7 and I was pretty satisfied. Another thing was with my previous install I never installed the marvell controller drivers and thats where my ssd with fsx is connected to.. so that could of been culprit. Either was thanks for everyones siggestions!

[Jim Young 2,356]

 

 

never installed the marvell controller drivers and thats where my ssd with fsx is connected to.. so that could of been culprit.

 

Don't get too excited with the Marvell Controller Drivers.  There are a lot of people who have problems with them.  You might also download and run a driver update program off the Internet.  I use a program called Driver Scanner and it is freeware to run it to see if all of my drivers are up-to-date.  If I want to have the program update the old drivers though, I have to register the product and pay.  But some are savvy with the Internet and can see what drivers are found to be out-of-date and go on the Internet and search for the updated drivers, download them, and manually install them.

 

I hope you have your fsx fixed and working with the reinstall.  Just be careful tweaking.  I think it can get most people into a lot of trouble as they employ tweaks they really do not need and they only slow down the system further.

 

Best regards,

Jim

[kaspern83 77]

Don't get too excited with the Marvell Controller Drivers.  There are a lot of people who have problems with them.  You might also download and run a driver update program off the Internet.  I use a program called Driver Scanner and it is freeware to run it to see if all of my drivers are up-to-date.  If I want to have the program update the old drivers though, I have to register the product and pay.  But some are savvy with the Internet and can see what drivers are found to be out-of-date and go on the Internet and search for the updated drivers, download them, and manually install them.

 

I hope you have your fsx fixed and working with the reinstall.  Just be careful tweaking.  I think it can get most people into a lot of trouble as they employ tweaks they really do not need and they only slow down the system further.

 

Best regards,

Jim

 

I did a whole complete wipe and reinstall of the OS + FSX. I used Nick N's guide to tweak fsx.cfg and nvidia inspector. Everything seems to be running pretty well as of right now. I will do little bit more testing tonight, As of right now I have minimmal addons installed. Only the airports that I will fly to the most. Thanks! I will post in here if I come up with any addditional issues.