Hi Richard. A couple of things that occur to me would be 1) is your system a little light on RAM? You've got a lot of stuff running there and it could help. 2) Which drivers are you using for the Radeon? 3) Do you have any way to measure ambient temperature inside the box; I know that you said that your CPU temp is <50oC, but do you have sufficient air circulation inside to make certain that some other components ( Videocard, HD etc) might be running warm. 4) you could also look for a bad memory stick, I think that there are some freeware programs out there that will check that for you.Anyone else have any ideas?Ed GreenKCLThttp://www.panelshop.com/DEV.jpg

"Anyone else have any ideas?"What clouds are you running? FSW has a great selection of framerate friendly options.Greg

Thanks for the suggestions:Ed1 - My thoughts also. Want to explore other options before I buy another 1/2 Gig. I'm in the UK so prices are double the US. :-(2 - Latest ATI Catalyst drivers 4.1.3 - The ambient temperature in the case runs in the low 20's C4 - I'll look into itGregThey're default clouds. Probably will try out the FSW clouds, but this should really work with default shouldn't it :-)

1. Use Ken Salter's FSAutoStart to shut down any unnecessary programs and Windows services.2. Use the Omega drivers for your Radeon card - www.omegadrivers.net3. Get a good defragger like Disk Keeper or O&O and make sure your drives are defragged frequently.

"2 - Latest ATI Catalyst drivers 4.1."The latest ATI Catalysts are the 4.12b (beta). The latest WHQL Cats are the 4.9. ATI should gain WHQL approval for the 4.12 some time next week."They're default clouds. Probably will try out the FSW clouds, but this should really work with default shouldn't it "With your system I would recommend finding a set of lower res cloud textures. Also, some of these low res packages offer textures in the DXT3 format which will ease the perf hit even more (you may have to enable Render to Texture in the sims Display properties).Hope this helps,Greg

I hope this isn't a daft suggestion, but maybe you need to defragment your hard drive, as i read somewhere that can make quite a difference to aspects of the computers running ability.

No joy at all gang.I've tried: * Omega drivers 2.5.9* FS AutoStart* FS Sky World 2004, with patch and with lowest level DXT3 texturesMy Hard disk is pretty new - shouldn't need defragging.My standard test flight is the Chipmunk at Seattle with the Building Storms weather theme. The best I got is a few seconds then a screen freeze.It's looking like memory. To test, I set it up at:800*600*16 - no problem800*600*32 - pas de probleme800*600*32, max cloud definition and Medium High Display settings - keine problem1024*768*32 and above - stutters, crashes, burns :-(Thing is - I just don't understand. Didn't have this problem until... oh yes until I upgraded to XP SP2...Given that SP2 has a lot good going for it (bye bye nasty trojans and worms) I will bite the bullet and buy the extra 1/2 mb RAM - hopefully Mrs H won't be looking.

Might be time to stand back and take stock of the situation.First, the chipset drivers you downloaded aren't going to make much difference. One of systems I manage uses the same AMD/VIA chipset config, and all that system uses is the standard XP drivers. They work best and offer no hassles.You wrote in your first post that you had checked for heat issues. How did you do that? Also, have you checked the fan on your video card to insure that it is functioning? The best way to rule out heat is to remove the left side of the case and stick an ordinary house fan in there.Finally, I believe we can't rule out a sound problem. The easiest way to do that is to disable the sound feature within Device Manager (don't remove the feature, just disable it and reboot if directed to do so).Curious too about the GPS you have connected. How is that done? Have you tested without the GPS connected?Thanks,GregP.S. Agree with lemonadedrinker about the HD defragging. Would be wise to give it a thorough clean up.

Yes it is time to take stock Greg :-),I'll do the defrag as a last shot (those things take time).I can't believe it's heat. I've got the case off, and Motherboard Monitor tells me that the CPU is in the mid 30's when not in FS, and in the mid 40's when running FS. Those aren't killer temperatures. Disabled the Aureal Vortex Soundcard as suggested. Fired up FS - got to where I was last time, and had a good 5 minutes with no problems. Decided to rack up the cloud factor (ie more layers of cloud) and cue immediate screen freeze.FSAutoStart seems to do a good job of increasing memory for me (c290 Mb before I kill the services, c370 Mb after), and I am putting that down as a major factor for the improvements, but so far, whenever I crank up the cloud detail/complexity/density, I crash at some point. In the old days the framerates would just crawl.As for the GPS - no I am not testing with it running. It's a Garmin Pilot 3 (I'm a real world PPL), and I hook it up to the PC with a serial cable. All you need is Pete Dowson's GPSOut, and set the GPS to simulator and the comms protocol to "Aviation In", and you're away. It really is very impressive, I'm getting to truly understand the beast in a inexpensive environment where I can press "P" :-).Done for today - I'll get the memory tomorrow.Richard

Quick Update.Did the Defrag. Surprised at how fragmentation there was on such a new system. Ran FS - cranked up the weather and...Crash and burn.I'm getting the memory, but have decided to get it over internet. FYI 512Mb of PC2100 DDR comes in at just under

Hi,I have been plages by this too, and its related to AMD more then its related to FS.I solved it by playing with the bios settings. Fast Writes disabled cured it all.Johan[A HREF=http://jdserver.no-ip.com]Personal Server /A]

Thanks for the tip Johan, tried it, but... crash and burnI've now got this to a fine art:Chippy at Seattle, 1280*960*32, Building Storms, Max Clouds, Med High detail everything else. No problems (certainly over 15mmins flying.Add one extra overcast cumulous cloud level and death. Only difference now is that I am getting CTD's as well as Screen Freezes.Still think it is a memory thing.Richard

You did try to reinstall FS didnt you? it might be a corrupt file in FS.Also, try to do a XP scandisk, might be a partition error too.Otherwise it looks indeed like hardware..Johan[A HREF=http://jdserver.no-ip.com]Personal Server[/A]

Reinstallation? I hadn't, and happily thinking that I had missed the obvious, I reinstalled, twice, in two different partitions (one of which is my spare and totally unused). No joy. I CTD'ed each time. Thanks for your patience anyway Johan.

Thanks Bobby. Never thought of that one. My mobo is an Epox 8K7A. So downloaded the latest video driver (2001 - so not too hopeful) and... the sim works! Sort of. I had a 15 minute flight at 1280*960*32, and max clouds etc, lovely - good framerates etc. - then... crash and burn.Big steps, but I'll still get the memory anyway.