Recently, I have experience the following problem:On approach to any airport (within 1-5 nm) with the plane is locked on the localizer and following the glide slope (ILS landing) the frame rates drop from 30 fps (2D cockpit) to 1-1.5 fps for the 2D cockpit view and 50 fps to 1-2 fps for spot view - no matter which plane (FS9 default type or Add-on)is used in the landing scenario. The same thing happens even if a manual VFR landing is also carried out. One the plane has landed then normal frame rates resume.I have tried the following:(1) removed the FS9.1 upgrade - no improvement(2) removed some recently installed add-on programs (pre-problem) - no improvement(3) rebuilt the FS9.cfg file from scratch - no improvement(4) tried different settings in FS9.cfg which maximize frame rates in flight and on take off (behaviour not seen on take off) - no improvement(5) varied level of autogen slider between normal and none - no improvement(6) ran without any add-ons active - no improvementI'm really puzzled by this! I seems that I can no longer land a plane in real time, only in 1 fps stutters. My system did not display this behaviour prior to installing some add-ons..which I uninstalled in subsequent tests. I still believe that somehow a setting has been changed in the FS9.cfg that kicks in on landings.Any suggestions or help or advice would be greatly appreciated!!!JimASUS P4P800 motherboardATI AIW 9800 PRO graphics3.2 GHz Pentium 4 processorCreative Live! Soundcard

Do you have a Forcefeedback joystick? Some threads have surfaced linking this type of problem to a FFB joystick being enabled. Wish I had a link available, but I think someone will recall the issue more clearly when my reply bumps up the thread...-John

No - I have been using an e-Dimension Joystick for several years now and have never had any software related problems - certainly of this type.In addition to that stated in my original question..I have also used both FSUIPC 3.4 and 3.411 licensed (of course!).Thanks for your comment.J

Thanks, and I'm sorry I didn't note that your problem was on approach and improved on landing. The FFB issue only happened on the ground, I believe.Just out of curiosity, try an approach and use the "W" key command to hide the panel--see if the same thing happens. I don't run FSUIPC so I really can't offer advice there. I know there are some settings FSUIPC manages by default, but I the only fps issue I ever recall was an issue where logging was turned on in FSUIPC, and that issue was present throughout a flight.-John

Is it only one airport, or any? You briefly mentioned problems with an addon, without knowing more, it might seem to be the place to start. When FS has problems, you have to look at everything you have added starting with the newest to the oldest. Texture upgrades? Traffic? Framerate slowdowns generally are caused by whatever is on screen at the time of the slowdown.

Here are some drastic diagnostic changes to make:Turn off your AI Traffic.Use only default planes and default airports.Check your modules folder for any non-default that may have been left in there by add-ons.Remember that if FSUIPC being removed speeds things up, it is likely the process calling it results in a slowdown.Fly in clear weather only to exclude cloud textures. While you may be OK enroute, adding any cloud performance slowdowns to other slowdown causes may worsen the situation.I assume you have checked for any unnecessary background processes that may be consuming RAM. Maybe sometrhing new was added. Make sure your AV is disabled during flights as well as any other scanners. I also shut down my firewall since I'm a dial-up user and don't fly on-line. I predownload weather and save it.Check your DX performance settings. With the number of objects added in approach and landing (AI concentration and airport scenery objects) in these last stages of flight these are critical. You should know that even some objects that are not seen are still rendered but masked such as ground AI objects while you are in the approach vicinity of the airport.These are not fixes but just an attempt to locate what changed.I installed an incorrect set of cloud textures that either crashed my system or slowed it to a halt. I have my render to texture off and I was not aware the clouds were DXT types.In your BIOS and video drivers, make sure you are set for the correct amount of your card's video buffering RAM.Maybe one of these ideas might help you narrow down your difficulty.

I had something similar that appears to be relates to AI. If you are only using stock AI then it's a conflict happening elsewhere. What were the last things you installed or changed since you began seeing this happen and start back-tracking.If you have custom AI try:1. Turn off all AI and reboot system2. Remove (don't delete, just move them somewhere) all your Traffic.bgl's and reboot and fly your approach without them to see any difference.3. You may have some FPS "unfriendly" modeled GA aircraft if you are using the utilty GA-Traffic.I think my problem is #3 but I haven't had time to investigate further. I have like 50 GA aircraft and I am sure several may be my issue. Maybe yours?

John - the loss is in every view (2D cockpit, Spot view and Virtual cockpit view) that you can switch too...believe me I have tried that one...Thanks though..Craig - The point is that I have removed all the software that was present when this situation started to happen, and it still reacts the same way. The piece of software was the FS9 upgrade (to FS9.1). It was removed and the same problem existed. The other was the PMDG updates for the 737NG 800/900 series add-ons. I reverted back to a previous snapshot (using WindowsXP restore program) that did not contain these upgrades...same result.Also, I failed to mention that the operating system if WindowsXP Pro with no service packs installed (I cannot install these because of the drive assignments which exist in my operating systems; no way to manually install any SPs as far as I know...but that is not an authoritative statement by any means!!).Thanks again for your comments.Jim

ponyboyz-If you have custom AI try:1. Turn off all AI and reboot system ****I will try this - I was running at 40% - when I didn't have the problem I ran at 80-85% with no problem****2. Remove (don't delete, just move them somewhere) all your Traffic.bgl's and reboot and fly your approach without them to see any difference. ****I am using MYTRAFFIC for AI; but have never had a problem with this program slowing things down*****3. You may have some FPS "unfriendly" modeled GA aircraft if you are using the utilty GA-Traffic.****I do not use the GA-Traffic utility - but I have many 'hungry' FPS add-ons - the usuals - Captain Sim, Pushback Next Generation, all PSS's...all PDMGs...Wilco CJ's..etc..etc...***** All are working fine in flight...but landing well...I think I've said enough about that!ronzie - Turn off your AI Traffic. *****will try this one..but I was running at a low AI to start with on my tests*****Use only default planes and default airports ***** I used these for all tests..in addition to some FPS killers****Check your modules folder for any non-default that may have been left in there by add-ons.****done this..including the all proper versions of the dlls for 9.1*****Remember that if FSUIPC being removed speeds things up ** I would not be able to fly in the manner I am accustomed too if I remove this...I use a lot of applications with WIDEFS (which I obviously wouldn't use during my bug tests*****Fly in clear weather only to exclude cloud textures. ***this scenario was tried...the scenery in flight can be very complex on descent from 8,000 -> 3,000 feet which is about the same amount of graphically intense scenery that is experienced on approach landing***I assume you have checked for any unnecessary background processes that may be consuming RAM. ****yes to all other questions - video or bios drivers/peripherals/ were not changed (and are the most current)in going from proper landing to stuttere 1 fps landing..flying with on-line weather has never been a problem for me -I usually turn it off (at least in the tests I described) before approach****Check your DX performance settings. ***The Catalyst settings (v 4.7) were actually reduced from 6XAA and 16XXAF (which worked perfectly well in flights and before this happened) to 2xAA and 2XAF with Max Performance settings...this boosted my frame rate from 12-20 to 50 or 60 fps in Spot View - but nevertheless resulted in 1 fps just prior to landing (within 2 nm or so)...yes I am puzzled by this!!*****P.S. your definitely right about details...details...

I would like to thank everyone for their comments. As suggested by several people I tried the flight with the AI traffic turned off...and just as predicted...the landing went OK with no studder. I then cracked up the AI Traffic and was OK at 45% in an airport that had sparse ground traffic and no planes circling or taking off from the airport. As soon as I changed the airport to a very busy one with more than two or three aircraft present then the 1.5 fps stuttering started. In each of these instances, when I backed off the AI Traffic to zero, a smooth approach and landing was achieved. I always assumed (you know the acroynm) that MyTraffic wasn't a great fps drain. It looks like my system/graphics can't take a serious load of air traffic around a busy airport using MyTraffic application..i.e., KLAX or EDDF etc..I now set the traffic to 40% and on approach, when I first see the 1 fps stuttering, switch to zero AI Traffic - that is until I invest in another card (ie. X800XT-PE) to improve this situation. Thanks for you interest in my problem.Jim

Your system (like other) can take much of traffic anywhere, the biggest problem with AI traffic is the use of very detailed plane with few LOD. A single plane 10 miles off your airport, can really kill the FPS if it has no LOD coded - because it will still be drawn as if it was just in front of you. Take a look at the AAdvark site, it does explain the LOD facts (much better than me ;-) ) and how a plane can kill or save your FPS.

Here's an FSUIPC trick you can use to implement an AI traffic congestion. I also use to refresh traffic and ATIS at the end of external initial weather writes since ATIS does not catch up right away.There is a keyboard assignment available in FSUIPC that is not available in FS9. It is called AI traffic toggle. Assuming your AI is not set at 0%, hitting the assigned key will turn off AI. Hitting it agsain will reload it (pausing the sim during the reload).I unassigned ctrl-t from an FS9 normal assignment and assigned it to the AI toggle function in FSUIPC (get it? control-traffic). TCAS displays show the almost immediate shut down.You might find this easier to use in your various AI and airport tests.If you are convinced AI is the problem, you might use a utility to see which AI flight plans are turned on above the percent of AI that gives you a problem. I use AITM2 to decompile and display the trafficxxx.bgls.If you can figure out the flight-plan causing the problem, you can check out the aircraft number used and then the from aircraft.txt the model used, which id the same as the title= line in aircraft.cfg. Perhaps somehow a detailed aircraft got into an AI flight plan.Maybe your MyTraffic2004 has this kind of report available.

Not familiar with that site...do you have the url.Thanks for the tip...Jim

Great tip ronzie...will do..Thanks again,Jim

Try a defrag!Also, check your memory usage. You might have a memory leak which is starving the sim. If you are at the end of your flight (the approach and landing phase), you could well be into one to three hours of running the sim...and your resources could be strained. Also there could be file corruption that came about as a result of a power-spike while turning off or on in one session.Something is in combination to 'break the back' of computer resources.Hope that helps a little,Cheers!Mitch R.