FSX Freezes (hangs) Mid-flight.

[Dasm 1]

Hey guys, I know I know for sure this has been brought up a million times- I know because I've googled it before- Yep, I googled my problem before coming here with it and I've done some digging over the past few days and the ONLY suggestions I've seen were the "uiautomationcore.dll" fix. Well, I tried it and it didn't work for me. So I ask you Mr./Ms. Avsim community- Before I go re-installing Windows and re-installing FSX and addons bit by bit, help me with the first tech support query I've had since I became a member 5 years ago (Yep, first problem I couldn't sort on my own with google research ).  I'll give you a rundown of the problem I'm having and all of the relevant information.  

 

I had FSX installed with a boatload of Addons- ORBX, FTX, PMDG stuff- install folder was something like 150GB- FSX started getting really screwy (losing textures, textures going black with only clouds visible it was a mess (especially happened when alt+tabbing)) - Couldn't come up with a solution online so I did a uninstall of FSX- BUT before I did that I made a mistake and I deleted the entire FSX folder first- So I had to repair FSX through the installer effectively re-installing it, and then I uninstalled it again before installing my current install.

 

   SO, what addons am I running now? I figured I would keep it lite, so I'm just running Air Hauler with FSUIPC, Captainsim's 727, MILVIS's 737-200, Ultimate Traffic 2, DBwalk and follow, and FSrecorder.

 

  So what triggers the hanging. Usually I'm an hour or so in flight before it happens, I'll be up at cruising altitude and boom- the sim freezes up and the sound keeps playing- Alt-tabbing or alt+enter doesn't work to bring me back to desktop, I have to ctrl+alt+delete.

 

  I've tried rebuilding fsx.cfg and several config edits including bufferpools, highmemfix, and affinity mask- no joy.

 

  Thanks for hearing me out, hopefully I can get some solid answers and maybe it will help someone like me in the future.

[charliearon 3,017]

Have you checked in your Windows Event Viewer for Errors?  Possibly Faulting Modules that may point to

 

something more definite?

[Dasm 1]

What do I look for and where? http://i.imgur.com/TMEakA5.png

[charliearon 3,017]

It would be in Administrative Events.

 

Control Panel-> Administrative Tools-> Event Viewer, select Custom Views-> Administrative Events.
One of the listed events will be for your CTD. The "Faulting Module" should point to the problem area.

Tell us what the Faulting Module is! That will point us in the direction of the proper error, aiding in troubleshooting.


BELOW IS A SAMPLE OF WHAT YOU MIGHT SEE!

General Tab:
Faulting application name: fsx.exe, version: 10.0.61637.0, time stamp: 0x46fadb14
Faulting module name: This is what we need to Know!<---------------------------------------------------------<<<
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0000ee3a
Faulting process id: 0x748
Faulting application start time: 0x01ce0253dc4b69d4
Faulting application path: R:\FSX\fsx.exe
Faulting module path: R:\FSX\window.dll
Report Id: 9caf77b4-6e50-11e2-8570-3085a99825d1

If there is not one listed:
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000,
you will need to do as previously noted


No Faulting Module? ->
Remove all of the add-ons, and test the sim. If it works OK, then reinstall them one at a time and test.
Be sure to test each thoroughly before moving on to the next


 

[Dazkent 113]

If you leave the sim for 8 mins does it come back to life?

[Dasm 1]

The only faulting modules I see are Schannel and Security-SPP- I'm not getting a CTD, it just stays frozen

And Dazkent, I will try it.

[Dasm 1]

If you leave the sim for 8 mins does it come back to life?

 

Hey! It did come back to life! it was 5-8 minutes after it froze too. For testing I was doing a flight in the default 747 from seattle to tokyo- and then 6 hours and 22 minutes into the flight it locked- then it came back.

EDIT- I just read that this problem may be remedied but limiting the FPS externally, I will attempt to accomplish this with nvidianspector, will update when the flight from Seattle to Tokyo is complete, watch this space.

EDIT EDIT- nope, that didn't work- digging deeper, going to attempt rolling back Nvidia driver version.

[d33my 0]

Before you go reinstalling, check out this thread

 

http://www.avsim.com/topic/432227-8-minute-freeze-in-777-possible-solution/

 

It is possibly a sound driver issue. If that thread doesn't help google fsx freeze sound driver and have a snoop around.

 

Sorry I can't be more specific - i had this problem a while ago and updating my sound driver did the trick. Of course different setups may require diffeent solutions but IMO a reinstall probably won't fix anything - but this might.

[Dasm 1]

Before you go reinstalling, check out this thread

 

http://www.avsim.com/topic/432227-8-minute-freeze-in-777-possible-solution/

 

It is possibly a sound driver issue. If that thread doesn't help google fsx freeze sound driver and have a snoop around.

 

Sorry I can't be more specific - i had this problem a while ago and updating my sound driver did the trick. Of course different setups may require diffeent solutions but IMO a reinstall probably won't fix anything - but this might.

I'm in the process of running tests- I'm suspecting UT2 so I'm testing a flight with it turned off. I rolled back my Nvidia driver and that didn't help with the freezes, but OHHH MY GOD! I got a %500 (not exaggerated) increase in performance- seriously, no .cfg tweak has ever worked as well as this older video driver has. 

[Dazkent 113]

Hey! It did come back to life! it was 5-8 minutes after it froze too. For testing I was doing a flight in the default 747 from seattle to tokyo- and then 6 hours and 22 minutes into the flight it locked- then it came back.

EDIT- I just read that this problem may be remedied but limiting the FPS externally, I will attempt to accomplish this with nvidianspector, will update when the flight from Seattle to Tokyo is complete, watch this space.

EDIT EDIT- nope, that didn't work- digging deeper, going to attempt rolling back Nvidia driver version.

 

Do you happen to use ASN for your weather?, i used to have this freeze issue but found having the affinity mask setting in the CFG file stopped the problem

[Dasm 1]

Do you happen to use ASN for your weather?, i used to have this freeze issue but found having the affinity mask setting in the CFG file stopped the problem

 

 I believe it may be UT2 traffic injection causing the freeze, I flew 2 flights with it disabled having no freezing incidents- one flight from Seattle to Tokyo and one from Auckland NZ to Brisbane AU

[Jim Young 2,356]

Sounds like you might have it fixed but according to the AVSIM CTD Guide (see link in my signature):

 

Freezes During Flight – Freezes are most commonly caused by –

• High application/display driver settings.  Check.
• High settings within commercial weather programs like REX, ASN, and OPUS.  Check. Some raise settings to the highest texture settings (4096 HD) within weather programs and/or texture programs like REX. This coupled with high applications LOD_Radius and Texture_Max_Load settings may take up too many resources and application will freeze.
• Complications with weather server updates.  Application may try to update the weather and the weather server is down or cannot comply with a request.
• Running out of Virtual Address Space (VAS) especially on one hour or longer flights (see VAS/OOM discussions).
• Bad tweaks.  BufferPools and or Affinity Mask are most often attributed to freezes. Rebuild the application configuration to see if this fixes the problem or disable the tweaks.
• ENBSeries Module – DirectX hack for better visuals.
• SweetFX Module – DirectX hack for better visuals.

Best regards,

[Dasm 1]

Strange, It happened to me again on a relatively short flight- I recently re-installed my windows operating system, this morning in fact. I am running no custom weather services, my graphics card is a pretty modern one with 4GB of GDDR5 memory (and I haven't installed any custom Nvidia setting), I have not applied any .cgf tweaks, and I have not added any graphics enhancement mods to my installation. Fun fact, when I checked processes, I noticed that during the freeze 3 of my 6 cores were pegged at 100% and the other 3 cores were being lazy with only ~15% utilization each.

 

Another person on these forums said this: 

"If your computer contains Realtek High Definition drivers (codecs) for a sound chip on your MB, your drivers may be corrupted.  This WILL cause the infamous FSX freeze.

 

If this applies to your situation, go to the Realtek website and download the applicable drivers for your system (for example: in my case, it is Win 7 64 bit). 

 

I can factually state that corrupted sound drivers were causing FSX to freeze every time I flew.   When I installed the updated, current drivers, the problem was fixed."

___________________________________________________________________

 

    I happen to have on board realtek audio, so I will go ahead and try this fix. 

[Jim Young 2,356]

Thanks for posting a possible solution for your problem.  Could help someone else.  So many variables with every computer because I use an external sound card (Creative) and never use the on-board sound and graphics device(s).  I do recommend in the AVSIM CTD Guide that everyone download a freeware driver download program that will scan your system for driver updates and, if it finds any, you can go and get the updates manually or register the program for a small annual fee and have the driver updater program do the updating.  This solution has worked fixing many FSX freezes and crashes but never knew specifically about the realtek codecs causing problems.  I use a driver updater and occasionally get pinged to download the update for Realtek but I don't do it as I use my own sound card. 

 

Best regards,

[Dasm 1]

So I don't forget, I'm using an ASUS motherboard that uses on board Realtek audio- I am currently updating to Revision 2.79 of the Realtek drivers. Will update this post in 2-ish days if no subsequent freezing occurs, or immediately if freezing persists. Side note, I use on board audio for communication devices and my sound card for speakers.

 

**EDIT** First flight and I got a freeze shortly after takeoff, and 2 of my CPU cores were pegged at 100% this time and the others were lower, around 15%- Further research is required.