I don´t have any problem with the B777, but I have come a cross some stuff that has been reported elsewhere (mainly from the Majestic forum):

 

FSUIPC -             Update to the latest

FSUIPC -             Disable the autosave feature

Graphics driver - Nvidia...Some drivers (301.xx - 314.xx) has been reported to cause freezes in FSX ( the latest version now: 340.52 - seems fine for me)

Sounddrivers -    Some Realtek soundrivers has caused pauses and stutters in the past.

CPU Core -         Affinitymask settings has been known to cause freezes with the Majestic Dash8-Q400 when set to 14 on quadcore CPU's, a setting of 7 has been reported to fix the issue.

 

Regarding affinitymask...

Personally I use 7 myself instead of 14, since I see no difference in FSX performance, while the Dash8-Q400 from Majestic seem to perform smoother.

 

From post on Majestics support forum:

Report from customer:  "Everytime i fly with my q400 it freezes at least once for 8 to 10 minutes exactly".

Answer from Majestic: "Being a multitasking application, Q400 is sensitive to the CPU cores loads".

Sounds very similar - or ?

 

 

As I say - I have no problems with the 777 on my system, but I also use the latest Nvidia driver, updated Realtek driver (though probably not the latest), using the latest FSUIPC version with "Autosafe" disabled, affinitymask=7 (on a quadcore system).

 

 

I hope this might help tose who have the freezing FSX issue.

 

 

FinnJ

Question...

 

I did a search of my FSX cfg file for "Affinitymask" and the sole match that came back was this:

 

[JOBSCHEDULER]

AffinityMask=84

 

Is this the section you refer to, and if so, is my setting (which I have not altered) way too high? If it is not the right section, can you point me toward it please?

It depends on how many cores Your CPU got.

 

 

For 2 (dual) cores it goes like this:

Core0=1 Core1=0

Thats= 10 binary => 2+0=2 => Affinitymask=2 (now FSX will use 1 core)

 

For 4 (quad) cores it goes like this:

Core0=1 Core1=1 Core2=1 Core3=0

Thats= 1110 binary => 8+4+2+0 => Affinitymask=2 (now FSX will use 3 cores)

 

For 6 cores it goes like this:

Core0=1 Core1=1 Core2=1 Core3=1 Core4=1 Core5=0

Thats= 111110 binary => 32+16+8+4+2+0 Affinitymask=62 (now FSX will use 5 cores)

 

For 8 cores it goes like this:

Core0=1 Core1=1 Core2=1 Core3=1 Core4=1 Core5=1 Core6=1 Core7=0

Thats= 11111110 binary => 128+64+32+16+8+4+2+0 Affinitymask=254 (now FSX will use 7 cores)

 

The idea is now spare the first core for the addon to use i.e:

 

2 Core CPU's => Affinitymask=1 (01)

4 Core CPU's => Affinitymask=7 (0111 binary)

6 Core CPU's => Affinitymask=31 (011111 binary)

8 Core CPU's => Affinitymask=127 (01111111 binary)

 

Just note that allthough Core0 seems not to be used, some FSX functions along with other apps's running in the background, will still use Core0, but many other FSX threads will now run on the selected Cores and thus free Core0 to do jobs from the addon.

 

 

Mathew Your setting does the following:

Binary= 01010100

As You can see only Core 2,3,5 are used by FSX (along some FSX functions and other app's on Core0).

 

Generaly it is also recommended to disable Hyperthreading in the Bios, since FSX cannot take advantage of it and rather get confused having it enabled.

This means that selection of affinity mask should reflect the physical amount of cores, rather than the physical+ virtual cores that Hyperthreading enables.

 

 

Finn Jacobsen

For 4 (quad) cores it goes like this:

 

Core0=1 Core1=1 Core2=1 Core3=0

 

Thats= 1110 binary => 8+4+2+0 => Affinitymask=2 (now FSX will use 3 cores)

Thanks for posting this info Finn, but I am rather confused. I am no expert on this kind of thing, but most who do know say to use AM=14 on a Quad core CPU ?  Is 14 wrong ?

 

Edit: Sorry, I missed the bit about the Dash 8. So using 7 will do no harm ?

Thanks for posting this info Finn, but I am rather confused. I am no expert on this kind of thing, but most who do know say to use AM=14 on a Quad core CPU ?  Is 14 wrong ?

 

Edit: Sorry, I missed the bit about the Dash 8. So using 7 will do no harm ?

 

Personally I have not been able to see any degradation of performance using 7 instead of 14.

Using affinitymask=7 with the Majestic Dash8-Q400, I don´t have pauses (which I had with affinitymask=14) and it overall seem to run smoother.

 

While the number of cores might have an impact on FPS, processor speed and videocard has far greater impact, since the main burden of FSX is on Core0 regardless of affinitymask setting.

 

 

Finn Jacobsen

*** EDIT ***

 

For 4 (quad) cores it goes like this:

Core0=1 Core1=1 Core2=1 Core3=0

Thats= 1110 binary => 8+4+2+0 => Affinitymask=2 (now FSX will use 3 cores)

 

Should have been: Affinitymask=14

 

Finn Jacobsen

Finally the affinitymask=7 seems to have solved it for me with my i7 processor.

 

Brilliant.

Happy to hear..

 

I hope other with the issue will try it and report back here.

 

The issue with th 777 sounds to equal that of the Majestic Dash -8 Q400.

 

Finn Jacobsen

I just checked my fsx.cfg file, and don't see "affinity mask" or "job scheduler" listed. Should I add these to the file, and if so is there any particular place I should add it?

Just put these lines at the end of Your FSX.cfg:

 

[JOBSCHEDULER]
AffinityMask=7

 

Note that without these lines FSX defaults to 15.

 

 

Finn Jacobsen

Just put these lines at the end of Your FSX.cfg:

 

[JOBSCHEDULER]

AffinityMask=7

 

Note that without these lines FSX defaults to 15.

 

 

Finn Jacobsen

Just to clarify.....I have an 8-core machine. Shouldn't the affinity mask be set to 127? (per your earlier post)?

Finally the affinitymask=7 seems to have solved it for me with my i7 processor.

 

Brilliant.

Just a quick follow up: I went out and just got back home and 10 hours 43 minutes into the flight and the UTC time is dead smack with the pc time where I left it. That means that no freezes happened since I left. This is happy new.

 

My understanding is that my i7 2.20Ghz processor is physically 4 cores but virtually 8 cores. How doea the affinitymask 7 work in this case?

I had lots of trouble with 10 min freezes with 777 after SP1 and found that it was time to replace my old 512Mb ATI video card. A new EVGA GeForce 750Ti 2Gb was all that was needed and it is priced nice for budget minded (or retired). Afterall, minimum system specs per product page is 1Gb so this upgrade was not unwarrented. Not a single freeze since!

Just to clarify.....I have an 8-core machine. Shouldn't the affinity mask be set to 127? (per your earlier post)?

Yes with a CPU with 8 physical cores You should use 127.

 

Just note that if You have hyperthreading enabled on an Intel i7 CPU with 4 physical cores , then it will be shown as 8 cores 4 physical and 4 virtual - it´s only the physical cores that count -better disable hyperthreading if You mainly use Your PC for FSX.

 

 

Finn Jacobsen

Just a sec. At the top of this topic Finn, you say the affinitymask should be set at 254 in your first post on this topic and then in another where you reply to RPRIEVER, who also has 8 cores like me, you say it should be set at 127. I am very confused now! I have 8 CPU cores according to the CPU usage history in the task manager. Should I be setting it at 254 or 127?