777 freezing

[B777300 1]

My previously stated fix for FSX Freezes will not fix CTDs only FSX Freezes.

[777simmer 117]

My previously stated fix for FSX Freezes will not fix CTDs only FSX Freezes.

Ok, thx.

 

Well, I got all problems you can think of, so who knows.

 

I just reinstalled from a backup image.

So things are back as they were a few months ago.

Except that I have Capt displays on now.

 

And guess what, left KIAD, and everything froozen but sounds continues climbing through 23000ft. Looking and waiting to see what happens as we speak.

 

Next up will be a flight with the CAPT displays turned off.

(Just two days ago I started flying with the Capt side on.)

I will revert back to flying from the FO side with Capt displays blank because I never had any freezes with that config.

[777simmer 117]

Boom fatal error upon reaching cruize FL330.

 

So the Capt displays are not the problem.

 

Next up, new FSX.cfg (even though I just installed from an image).

[ZKOKQ 984]

Rob,

How old is your Motherboard ? Recent ? This may sound way off, but was reading a post by Pete Dowson on his forum, ( cannot find the post now) and he was having CTD issues and swapped his ASUS  for a Gigabyye MB and all is good.

I am only guessing that a particular model was problematic. But I could be completely wrong. Maybe you could contact him to see why he swapped to a Gigabyte.

I use to be a dedicated Asus user, for many years, then started getting failures, too many for my liking, then switched to Gigabyte myself, and for the last 21/2 years I have had no issues. I have never had lockups, freezing or CTD with the T7 or NGX.

The question I suppose remains, why do some have freezing issues, and some do not. You have been very helpful in this thread, and I wish there was some logical explanation, but  my comments regarding Asus MB does not imply they are rubbish, but they are not immune from spitting faulty main boards out the door. Your particular MB revision could have undocumented faults, dodgy chipset etc. But the next revision could be trouble free. Been there, done that.

I have even heard of USB ports causing problems, and resetting them has fixed issues. There is a tool you can download that does just that. Every few months I reset all my USB ports, just to be sure.

[777simmer 117]

Hi Julian.

 

If you can click on "my PC" under my avatar you can see my PC specs.

 

It is pretty high performance and not old.

I have not had problems with anything.

Not the 777 since it came out either.

Which makes me believe it is not a MB or hardware failure.

But you are right, it might just as well be the case, so thx for the heads up!

 

Just since yesterday I started getting CTDs and Freezes.

No idea why ofcourse.

 

For what it is worth, a fresh/new FSX.cfg and all FSX controll settings (keyboard and joysticks) back to default allowed me a two hour problem free flight.

 

Still testing, will keep you posted.

 

 

EDIT: that USB reset tool might be worth a try though, can you post a link please?

I have some problems with disconnecting USB devices (I think it is my rudder but not 100% sure) sometimes.

What exectly does that do?

Do I have to set everything up again in FSX as far as controllers go?

[ZKOKQ 984]

 

 

Still testing, will keep you posted

Yes, keep us posted Rob. I read your specs, and it is a lean mean fighting machine. I only threw the MB into the mix in case it was the issue that Pete Dowson had with a new Asus board.In case you had the same revision.

[ZKOKQ 984]

EDIT: that USB reset tool might be worth a try though, can you post a link please?

I have some problems with disconnecting USB devices (I think it is my rudder but not 100% sure) sometimes.

What exectly does that do?

Do I have to set everything up again in FSX as far as controllers go?

What it does, is re sets USB ports to default. Sort of like they are after installing windows. I think after a while, they get messed up in the registry.

 

Ok, here it is Rob. You need to rename the ext to exe. With this tool, you can delete USB ports. Hope it is useful.

USBDeview.txt

[ZKOKQ 984]

Just since yesterday I started getting CTDs and Freezes.

No idea why ofcourse.

Check this out Rob. Ray has the same MB. Read it just in case.

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/431688-multiple-ctds-new-fsx-pc-going-back-for-mobo-change/

 

The thread is primarily about what lengths we flight simmers go to when trouble shooting.

 

Hopefully, there is something in there that will stand out, weather it is hardware or software related.

[777simmer 117]

AVSIM back online and so is my 777 :-)

 

But boy oh boy, that was the most time intensive trouble shooting I have ever had to do.

(with a PC).

 

Fact is that even my backup Image was corrupted because I still had CTDs (and all kinds of .dll crash reports) and freezes.

(my images are made of C: which has Win7 and FSX on it, so an all in one image so to speak).

The backup Image set me back by:

-a whole bunch of Windows updates

-Aerosoft Nice Cote d Azur

-Aerosoft Anchorage

-Aerosoft Corfu

-Aerosoft Paris Orly

That helped somewhat, but I still had FSX crash each time I would close it :-(

Most of the times by PMDG_777X.dll

(you could even see something had been corrupted because in the FSX preview window, the 777 engines were hollow...no fan blades!)

 

So, I started deinstalling some more things:

-UIAUTOMATIONCORE

-AirTrackapp

-OPUS FSX

-TrackIR

-Nvidia Inspector (so no 1/2 Vsync in use at the moment)

 

But not surprising that did not help either.

Corrupted software does not get "healed" by deinstalling more stuff ofcourse.

 

So, as a last resort I deleted the complete "Flightsimulator X" folder and dropped a backup copy in, that was just slightly older than the deleted one.

 

The difference is that this "Flightsimulator X" folder has Mytaffic 2013 ver 5.4b in it and the deleted one had ver 5.4c in it.

 

And now all seems fine :-)

 

So my Flightsimulator X folder was corrupted somewhere.

Possibly by Mytraffic (since I am running a different version now), but it could have been anything in there really.

 

 

What caused my corrupted install?....I am not sure.

After having wrongly blamed the Nvidia HD Audio driver and maybe some other things, I am going to be carefull with that now.

 

One things that for sure is a good candidate is...USB disconnects!

My USB disconnect problem is not the same as others here have suggested, but thx for the links and advice in that direction guys!

I have USB disconnects that disconnect the CHpro yoke and rudder when somebody hits a light switch in the bedroom or bathroom. But it also happens at Random when nobody in our appartement touches anything. Maybe its the neighbours!

Sometimes those USB disconnects do nothing to FSX and other times it would freeze for a second or two. The CTDs I had were NEVER accompanied by an AUDIBLE USB disconnect.....FSX would just freeze and CDT.

Was the cause a USB disconnect?

I dont know, but it is the only hardware problem I know I have, so it is verry possible.

Was the cause for a corrupted FSX install those CDTs?

I dont know, but it is possible.

We shall see as I reinstall things slowly and one by one in a few days.

 

The reason for all these disconnects by the way, is bad electrical grounding in our appartement I think.

But to be sure I have to call an electrician, and I will.

(My laptop also has USB disconnect problems so I dont think it is an ASUS MB problem.)

 

 

I have done a couple of flights now (up to 2 hrs) without ANY problems while still having the electrical ground problem!

How?

Well, I used to have all my controllers (yoke, throttles, rudder) setup throught the FSX controller interface because PMDG adviced not to use FSUIPC for this.

Now however I am using FSUIPC again for my CHpro yoke and rudder (not for my Saitek throttles), and it seems that FSUIPC is "absorbing" those USB disconnects.

[Tabs 2,790]

We are strongly of the opinion that AI traffic is involved in at least some percentage of these pause/freeze things. The MyTraffic issue Rob reports above has been reported by others at support as well. We've been able to reproduce it a few times in debug and it's not the 777 dll infinite looping, it's the FSX acontain.dll - aircraft container, which is what's called when aircraft or other AI objects are spawned into the sim. We're still investigating other causes...

[777simmer 117]

Hi Ryan, thx for your reply (and that you took the time to read my long post).

 

I have OPUS FSX and Nvidia inspector back in my install.

The effect of Nvidia Inspector was instant visual improvement in the form of way less scenery shimmering (Aerosoft Manhattan) and a huge increase on sharpness for distant scenery tiles (kind of like increasing LOD).

 

No Problems so far (knock on wood!)

 

 

Here is something for fellow freeze suffering simmers!

(the info below did not fix my CTDs but maybe it will fix yours!)

 

While going through my trouble shooting, I read somewhere that the Nvidia Inspector 1/2Vsync mode many of us use today, is actually an advance Nvidia Inspector mode.

And that this mode can cause problems (crashes and freezes) when used with complex aircraft addons. Especially when flying with time compression!!

+

Verry often the 1/2Vsync mode is used together with FFTF in the FSX.cfg and with Bufferpools.

 

If you are having problems, then try without using those .cfg entries and without the Nvidia Inspector 1/2Vsync mode.

Use Vsync "force on" instead of 1/2Vsync.

(best is ofcourse to have FSX build a new .cfg and edit only Highmemfix and Wideviewaspect=true in it)

 

I am currently testing with exactly that and even with Vsync "force on" I still get pretty smooth flight.

[ZKOKQ 984]

We are strongly of the opinion that AI traffic is involved in at least some percentage of these pause/freeze things. The MyTraffic issue Rob reports above has been reported by others at support as well. We've been able to reproduce it a few times in debug and it's not the 777 dll infinite looping, it's the FSX acontain.dll - aircraft container, which is what's called when aircraft or other AI objects are spawned into the sim. We're still investigating other causes...

I thought the problem with MTX is Stack/Hash CTD due to dodgy aircraft texture in the latest schedule 54C ?

 

Some have UT2 with the freezing etc, so it does not seem that MTX can be singled out.

 

I am using MTX, and have had trouble free flights with the T7 since release. Just finding the common denominator I suppose.

 

For those using MTX 54C shedule, they should use the 2012 schedule and see if the Freezing is eliminated.

I have stayed with 54B, as when 54C was released ntdll errors popped up, so I stayed with 54B. So I think your onto something there Ryan.

[highways1 5]

One question I would have is does this happen with custom AI? I had UT2 and switched to adding all of the models and flightplans myself with AI Flightplanner 2. I've not had a chance to try it yet on the 777 but previous to this I would have occasional freezes on long flights in the 7-8 hour range.

[dashcapt 0]

I would also agree with the traffic prob. I also have my traffic 5.4b and if I set it above 15% i get the dreaded freezing. Also turned my PDF ect frames down to 8 in the performance and now see virtually no long pauses and only a very few short pauses. I can also recommend only haveing the addon airports you are using for your particular flight active. I don't get any VAS issues at all.

[PerWel 23]

My hangs/freezes even with UT2 disabled. No AI at all, all sliders in FSX own Traffic panel is to the very far left.

Also Labels is turned off, known to create trouble.

 

The only thing that made the freezes happen less often is: reduced Mesh Res from 38 to 76 meters and install 256 clouds,

lower the cloud density to one notch below max, =High. I have 7-800 Mb free VAS and FPS is around 25-30 when it freezes.

I use FSUIPC VAS monitor on the title bar. And no AI at all.

 

I thought that 256 clouds would look terrible but it really looks OK. Hard to see the difference, maybe look even more natural.

 

So to me it looks like when the graphic module in FSX is pushed to hard it goes into some loop. The memcard mem is only around 400 Mb in a freeze, normaly

it is around 6-700 Mb on a flight. Using GPU-Z. So it looks like something stops shipping data to the card.

 

That maybe explains why the sim still responds in the background, sound is still there and it reacts on inputs.

I also run T7 with NO tick in the High Res VC. Still looks OK not big difference, except gaining some VAS.

 

I also make sure that I have only the Dep and Dest + some scenery i fly over in the scenery.cfg.

 

I use Junction Link Magic to spread my whole installation over 2 SSDs from Intel.

 

/Per

Sweden