FS performance now sucks big time...help please...

[Guest abent]

I've posted about this before plus done a large amount of reading on the subject. My latest plan is to reformat, reinstall windows without SP2 (since this seems to be the only thing that is different as of my new hard drive installation). I am completing a few scenery projects before I do the re-install however.Now on to my question...Since SP2 was installed before all my other applications were loaded, can I remove SP2 without having a pre-SP2 restore point? Before sp2 my fps were very fluid and steady. I had my fr lock at 34 and rarely did it drop below 30 even in reasonably highly detailed areas. On average most of my sliders are at 80%. With exactly the same drivers for all hardware and exact settings, I'm getting 18 fps where before I got 30. Turns in flight result in the sim pausing for very briefly every few seconds and I'm getting very regular hdd access. This was not at all the case before. Also, I notice that when my system has no applications running my hdd light seems to be constantly blinking about once every second.I don't necessarily want to blame sp2 for this problem but I can't think of anything else. Getting very frustrated...and tempted to try out those flight sim tweaking guys.Any suggestion would be really appreciated.Thanks, AdamSys specs:p4 2.8msi 648max moboti4200 128 mb512 pc2700 ddr333All latest drivers

[garydpoole 183]

AdamJust a suggestion, but you may be able to track down the hdd activity every second using windows task manager - look at both the CPU and Mem Usage figures and see if the figures are jumping in sync with the hdd activity. If so, end the task.This has happened to me before and the culprit was findfast.exe.One other thing, if you're not using one already, running a program like end-it-all before starting fs can help.Gary

[normada 0]

>Before sp2 my fps were very fluid and steady. I had my fr lock>at 34 and rarely did it drop below 30 even in reasonably>highly detailed areas. On average most of my sliders are at>80%. With exactly the same drivers for all hardware and exact>settings, I'm getting 18 fps where before I got 30. Turns in>flight result in the sim pausing for very briefly every few>seconds and I'm getting very regular hdd access. This was not>at all the case before. Also, I notice that when my system has>no applications running my hdd light seems to be constantly>blinking about once every second.adam,some suggestions from my side:- if you

[kerosene31 349]

FSAutostart + regular hard drive defragmentation is a great place to start. Also run the usual Spyware checks.

[Guest ThrottleUp]

Im not a techy but I hear that for people who know how to interpret it; running performance monitor can help you in these matters.Start-->Run & type: perfmonNow run FS9 and view the logged readings on perfmon.

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

Adam, my experience is that the "latest drivers" are not the best for the Ti4200 video card.Based on posts in this forum, I went back from the 6X.XX drivers that I was using to the 56.72 series that were recommended for this card.All the stuttering disappeared...www.guru3d.com for the drivers.I also added 256 Megs of memory and have a much smoother flying experience..System: p4-2.8, 768 Meg PC2700 memory, Ti4200-128 with 56.72 drivers at 1280x1024x32 and 2XAA and 4XAF. WinXP Pro without SP2.

[Guest abent]

Thanks very much gents! And sorry for the delay in responding - was away for a bit. There are some very promising suggestions in here that I have not tried. I will give these a go and see if things improve. I will post back with my findings. Cheers,Adam

[Noel 4,487]

Adam, BE SURE to re run DX installation. This is a common cause of sudden and very significant deterioration when other big areas of the OS are altered (as in SP2).Noel

[Guest abent]

Hi Noel,Can you enlighten me on what DX installation is please?Sounds promising.Thanks,Adam

[Noel 4,487]

DirectX installation. You should be running DirectX 9.0c, and even if you had it installed before, re-run the executable: dxdiag.exe. It will be stored on your PC from when you installed DirectX before. If per chance you have never installed this latest version, go to here and follow instructions to install:http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...&displaylang=enBe sure to defrag after SP2.Good Luck

[Guest draky]

The only way is to invest in a really huge video card - go for the top of the market, 1GB SDRAM with your 2.8MHz processing power that should give you great frame rates. I just chucked my Radeon 9800Pro for an Nvidia 6800GT video card and have seen rates jump from 15 to 20 to the 40's and even 70's - most sliders maxed out as well and traffic at 100%.Now for a less costly tip..... :))If you have XP try to open up a new user account just for the simulator and delete EVERYTHING from the msconfig start up menu for that user.... more power then available for your simulator mate. :)