I've been eavesdropping on your conversation re CTDs and am wondering how many of the MSEv2 states you load for your flights.

 

Hi Rick,

 

Thanks for your suggestions.  I only enable the addon scenery that I will be using during a particular flight plan.  I was the one who discovered that having all of your photoscenery enabled causes OOM's as photoscenery loads no matter whether you are using it or not.  I recommended everyone to download and run the utility SceneryConfigEditor as it allows you to enable and disable addon sceneries before you even start up FSX.  The StackHash CTD is not related to VAS or OOM's.  At least with an OOM, you know exactly what happened and what caused it.  With a StackHash, it could be anything.  It's an issue that is stuck in memory at a certain memory address.  You just have to figure out what happened at that particular memory address.

 

Best regards,

 

 

EGKK DVR UL9 KONAN UL607 KOK UM150 UTABA UL607 ELMEM UN606 GIRIS UZ905 VIC LIPZ

Dover SID and then 7DME from DIK is where it crashes for me.

 

Hi Ray,

 

I'll give that a try.  VIC (Vicenza) is where I was stationed for 3 years in the US Army back in the 70's.  Forced to go to Venice every weekend by visitors from higher headquarters to show them around.  It was ugly.... :lol: .  That sounds like one heck of a flight though!

 

Best regards,

I'll give that a try. VIC (Vicenza) is where I was stationed for 3 years in the US Army back in the 70's. Forced to go to Venice every weekend by visitors from higher headquarters to show them around. It was ugly.... :lol: . That sounds like one heck of a flight though!

Hi Jim,

 

Thanks. It is a nice flight over the Alps assuming you get that far. You pass over Dover (white cliffs) and then Dunkirk ( 1940 British evacuation from the beaches) before turning SE over Belgium. Venice is great with the Andreas Kozma scenery but concentrate on landing 'cos the weather at 14:00GMT today was low cloud and fog down to 100ft.

 

Reward yourself with a beer. :-)

 

I'm now without a flying PC for a week. It can't pass quick enough. Hopefully the new mobo - Gigabyte G1.Snyper M5 MATX format will solve my BIOS clock problems and everything else.

 

I hope to hear from Burkhard about the Ai thing tomorrow.

Hi Ray,

 

Okay.  Ran the flight and had no issues around DIK.  I went about 50 miles past DIK as I'm trying to watch Denver slaughter San Diego in NFL Football.... Pictures below:

 

 

 

 

 

Best regards,

Hi Jim-

I can't remember having a StackHash CTD - it must be one of those FSX things meant to drive us crazy or remind us that we're mere mortals - and pretty dumb ones at times. :unsure: I wish that someone would grab the MSFS brand by the horns and drag it into the 21st century -- you know, 64bit code, DXD11, stronger or more robust SDK etc, etc, etc. Trouble is though that even if they did, it would have to be backwards compatible to at least extend the investment in addons the community has put out.
 
I've spent alot of time as a developer in the architectural AutoCAD environment wading through the debris of short hardware half life and slloowww software development. It's a miracle that shops like PMDG and Vertical Reality Solutions come up with the products that they do. I appreciate the time that members of this forum put into solving arcane problems then sharing their discoveries openly with the community. I'll keep my eyes open and forward any info or suggestions I find on this topic.
 
Rick

 

 

Ran the flight and had no issues around DIK. I went about 50 miles past DIK as I'm trying to watch Denver slaughter San Diego in NFL Football.... Pictures below:

Thanks Jim. Can you please confirm if you have MyTraffic 5.4C installed. And that your Ai is 40%? If that's the case then it's back to the drawing board for me.

 

Hope you enjoyed your match. Nice photos. :smile: 

I can confirm I have MyTrafficX 5.4c w/the fix installed.  My AI is set at 40%.  BTW, when I was on that flight to Venice yesterday I originally had set my FL at 300 but the T7 said the optimal was 296 so I kept it at 296.  Enroute an aircraft coming toward me was at FL300.  Narrow miss in both situations! 

 

Best regards,

Hi Jim,

 

I haven't applied the fix so that's the first thing I'll do when I get my PC back. Still waiting for the courier though. :huh:

 

I use PFPX and with my 737-800 it gave me a cruise level of 410. Going eastwards you should have been assigned an odd FL. What flight planning software are you using or did you just use the recommended FL the 777 gave you?

Yes, I just went by the FL the 777 recommended.  I usually keep my flights around FL240 as the speed is reduced at higher altitudes. 

 

I had problems with PFPX and removed it from my HDD.  I made a flightplan for the 777 and while enroute, the aircraft went crazy as I think it also loaded passengers and fuel and the weights got all messed up.  I had FSBuild and will probably reinstall that but with the PMDG FMC, I can select a SID and then a STAR to get me to a destination.

 

On the way to the golf course.  Might be my only day to golf this week!

 

Best regards,

 

 

Yes, I just went by the FL the 777 recommended. I usually keep my flights around FL240 as the speed is reduced at higher altitudes.

Huh? At higher altitudes you switch to Mach speeds. A lightly loaded 777 would easily get to 410 with those Rolls-Royce engines and should cruise at M0.84. :biggrin:

 

I had problems with PFPX and removed it from my HDD. I made a flightplan for the 777 and while enroute, the aircraft went crazy as I think it also loaded passengers and fuel and the weights got all messed up. I had FSBuild and will probably reinstall that but with the PMDG FMC, I can select a SID and then a STAR to get me to a destination.

Are you sure the payload was correct? PFPX has a random option for that. Unless you enter the same value in the aircraft interface it will probably cause problems. Not had any problems here with it. Great piece of software.

 

On the way to the golf course. Might be my only day to golf this week!

 

Hope you won! It should have helped take your mind off StackHash for a while

 

I had a chat with Pete Dowson earlier and talked about StackHash problems. He asked what LOD value I was using and when I said 6.5 there was a sharp intake of breath. He sticks with the default of 4.5. When you think FSX forces anything higher back to 4.5 if you make any change in the settings interface it seems sensible not to exceed the default.

 

I will revert to 4.5 when I get the PC back. You might want to try it yourself.

Home from the golf course!  Long day!  Frost delay until 10 then got behind a slow group.  My group is normally first off every day but I was a little slow at the trigger a couple of weeks ago when I made the tee time and got the 2nd one.  Now I'm tired!  Fortunately it will be raining or in the 30's the rest of the week and I can stay home and rest!

 

I own the PFPX software and may reinstall it.  I probably didn't give it enough testing (only tried it one time).  When it brought down my 777 that was enough for me!

 

That's interesting regarding the information you got from Pete.  He may be right but you and I have both seen where the crash (or FSX lockup) happens about the same spot in a flightplan.  I don't tweak my fsx.cfg but I do have the LOD_Radius at 6.5 and the Texture_Max_Load at 2048.  LOD 6.5 is now the default for P3DV2.  I just looked and the default Texture_Max_Load for P3D is also 2048.  Cool!  I doubt we will ever find the real reason(s) for the StackHash errors but I'm going to start recommending those who get it rebuild their Fsx.cfg and see if that fixes the problem (even if only temporary).

 

I use photoscenery exclusively and one of the reasons I have my LOD set at 6.5.  The developers of MSE V2 recommend a LOD of 7.0 which could bring down a Sandy Bridge system pretty fast.  The graphics are extremely clear in most cases and I enjoy using the wing view frequently just to gawk at some of the mountains here in the USA.  It's another reason why I have set my FPS at unlimited (although the developer recommends a number between 30 and 40).  I have tried that and don't get a smooth performing flight.  I'm extremely excited by the fact that I can have my LOD at 6.5, TML at 2048, fly over hi res photoscenery in the PMDG 777 with real world weather and get fps from the wing view over 120 fps and VC fps mostly over 40 fps. 

 

Hopefully you will get your new system up and running soon.  I can say with almost certainty that you won't be seeing any StackHash or ntdll.dll errors for a while.  Enjoy while you can!

 

Best regards,

I own the PFPX software and may reinstall it. I probably didn't give it enough testing (only tried it one time). When it brought down my 777 that was enough for me!

That's interesting regarding the information you got from Pete. He may be right but you and I have both seen where the crash (or FSX lockup) happens about the same spot in a flightplan.

 

Crikey Jim. You need to spend a bit more time with it than that. It's a great piece of software. Even better if you add TopCat to it to work out all your take-off speeds etc.

 

Well it did for me but you couldn't replicate it. It's probably to do with what is stored in memory at the point of failure and as we have different aircraft, scenery etc.it's probably impossible for me to replicate your crashes and you mine. Hence why StackHash crashes haven't been resolved yet.

 

 

I don't tweak my fsx.cfg but I do have the LOD_Radius at 6.5 and the Texture_Max_Load at 2048. LOD 6.5 is now the default for P3DV2. I just looked and the default Texture_Max_Load for P3D is also 2048. Cool! I doubt we will ever find the real reason(s) for the StackHash errors but I'm going to start recommending those who get it rebuild their Fsx.cfg and see if that fixes the problem (even if only temporary).

 

Any changes are tweaking aren't they? :wink: P3D is a different executable but how different it is to FSX I haven't a clue. I'm definitely going to err on the side of caution when I get my machine back and stick to LOD 4.5.

 

I use photoscenery exclusively and one of the reasons I have my LOD set at 6.5. The developers of MSE V2 recommend a LOD of 7.0 which could bring down a Sandy Bridge system pretty fast. The graphics are extremely clear in most cases and I enjoy using the wing view frequently just to gawk at some of the mountains here in the USA. It's another reason why I have set my FPS at unlimited (although the developer recommends a number between 30 and 40). I have tried that and don't get a smooth performing flight.

 

 

And many others too I imagine. You do surprise me with that comment. I find everything very smooth at 30fps. But each to their own I suppose.

 

 

I'm extremely excited by the fact that I can have my LOD at 6.5, TML at 2048, fly over hi res photoscenery in the PMDG 777 with real world weather and get fps from the wing view over 120 fps and VC fps mostly over 40 fps.

 

But do you not think that hitting the system that hard will cause consequences?

 

Hopefully you will get your new system up and running soon. I can say with almost certainty that you won't be seeing any StackHash or ntdll.dll errors for a while. Enjoy while you can!

 

Well I'll be very disappointed if they continue but I'll worry about that whenit happens. At least I should be free of BIOS problems which was the reason for the return. Just need to find things to do for the next week.

 

Glad you enjoyed your golf. Doing something different is good for the mind and body. :smile:

 

 

I appreciate the time that members of this forum put into solving arcane problems then sharing their discoveries openly with the community. I'll keep my eyes open and forward any info or suggestions I find on this topic.

 

Hi Rick,

 

Yes, AVSIM is trying to make this the premier site for fixing your crashes and freezes.  I've gone to a lot of other sites and really do not like those who simply respond with "Google is your friend" or "search Google".  I think our membership deserves better than that.  I have found that there are many who are really good at conducting searches on the Internet and it is those types of searches we need to pinpoint solutions or possible solutions.  The enjoyment of learning the various aspects of flight simulation and aviation in general is sometimes rewarding and only spoiled when we get those dreaded unexplained crashes.  Thanks for your comments!

 

 

 

Any changes are tweaking aren't they? P3D is a different executable but how different it is to FSX I haven't a clue. I'm definitely going to err on the side of caution when I get my machine back and stick to LOD 4.5.

 

I expect I will remove my two tweaks if the StackHash errors continue.  So far the rebuilding of the fsx.cfg is working though.  I saw your comments about the flight planning program and will give it another go sometime soon.  I just need to get this small, tiny issue with StackHash CTD's fixed first.  I also own the Professional version of P3DV2 and awaiting a fix/update for that product and will be getting more and more into that when that happens.  I think P3D is the future as they have the capability to fix some of the bad coding in FSX (which really isn't too bad as it has lasted over 7 years and still counting).  Looking forward to hearing about your experiences with your new MB and system.

 

Best regards,

Hi Jim,

 

Back flying again after my PC was returned with a Gigabyte G1.Sniper M5 replacing the Asus.

 

I tried EGKK-LIPZ this afternoon and as the miles ticked down as I approached the DIK VOR I was getting very nervous. But the flight continued past the point at which it previously crashed and I landed successfully.

 

There are differences of course. I flew on a Monday but the crashes always occurred on a Sunday. I also reduced the LOD from 6.5 down to 4.5.

 

I'm cautiously optimistic. I was down at Pete Dowson's over the weekend and we completed 6 flights around the Med without a single problem. Pete has also switched from Asus to Gigabyte but it's a different board to mine.

 

It would be interesting to know how many people who get StackHash crashes have a Asus board and how many have a Gigabyte.

 

 

It would be interesting to know how many people who get StackHash crashes have a Asus board and how many have a Gigabyte.

 

There could be an issue with ASUS boards but, individuals like Nick Needham (who has the same exact system as mine) is not having any issues (or at least he's not reporting any).  I have pretty much narrowed the problem down to BIOS settings and think it's the C States settings.  We just have too many overclocked systems now and there are more and more people pushing the limits and so you see a lot more ntdll.dll and StackHash CTD's.  StackHash is related to memory though and that's why I think the C States settings (other than Auto) are the issue.  Trying to pin down the exact cause is killing me though.  I'm about ready to totally give up this hobby as it's wearing me down.  When I think I have found a solution, and FSX works great for a couple of flights, all of a sudden, crash/freeze/lockup (whatever you want to call it) happens.  Like you, I get extremely nervous when I arrive at a certain location in a flight where the crashes normally occur.  I just ordered three (3) books written by Mark E. Russinovich, David A. Solomon, and Alex Ionescu regarding memory management (Windows Internals).  They are the experts on memory management.  They arrive on Wednesday but already I know that they say the ntdll.dll is related to corrupted system memory.  I haven't seen their theories on StackHash but these are related to 'stuck' memory at a certain memory address (in our cases lately it has been memory address 7333 or the last four digits on the other side of StackHash.  These are three large books so it may take some time to find the answers.  I know they are not publishing details on the Internet as they want to sell books but they do have bits and pieces of their books scattered around the Internet to entice you to buy.  These are the guys who wrote Process Monitor and Process Explorer.  They also have details on debugging memory dumps.

 

Okay Ray, hopefully you can continue flying and enjoying your flights while I burn the midnight oil reading stuff probably way beyond my technical expertise.

 

Best regards,

Hi Jim,

 

You love FS too much to give it up. I'm the same. I suppose the simple answer is fly outside the areas that cause crashes. The world is a big place.

 

A different mobo will have a different BIOS which will handle memory differently. I, like you, have little understanding of how it all works but I admire your dedication in improving your knowledge of a difficult subject.

 

If these crashes occur in P3D then it may be possible to identify and eliminate the cause. FSX could then become a beneficiary of that. I remain optimistic and hope you do too.

 

Keep up the good work.