Hi,If you have the option I believe it is usually thought to be best to have the swap/paging file on a seperate HD from the one the OS is on. But since FS2004 is a very resource intensive program it is an interesting question as to whether or not it's a good idea to have the swap/paging file on it's drive! You could certainly try it out on your Windows OS drive(pretty easily I believe) and see if you notice which way is better. I don't think you will find the ATC wav's if they are what you're looking for as I beleive they are all contained in a large file named...X:Program FilesMicrosoft GamesFlight Simulator 9SoundUSEnglishBig.gvpThat is of course asumming that you are using the English version of MSFS. The file can be added to with a utilty called EditVoicepack v3.1. I use MyTraffic 2004 v2.1 which patches the USEnglishBig.gvp file to add Airlines and GA callsigns for aircraft that MyTraffic adds to the sim.I know the info above doesn't help you much with tracking down your problem but I thought you might find it of interest anyway.Regards,OneTinSoldier

Thanks OneTin--I will try the swap file on different drives and partitions. I also have MyTraffic and love it. When reinstalling, I flew the sim clean to make sure that addons were not causing the problem. I still had the microstutter with a clean install. Do you also get a microstutter with initial contact from a facility?Thanks

No, I don't. So I guess it must be something specific to your system. Sorry. I hope you can get it sorted out!

THanks-then at least there's hope!

So, Noel, how low did the Available physical Memory on task manager go when you were experiencing the problems? I am at 350,000 right now with 1 gig installed.JimCYWG

I installed a ramdisk and tried running with the USengbig file (might as well try everything) but not surprisingly no effect. If we could extract the wav files and put them in there, that might help. After all this experimenting, I am sure that the hd is being accessed every now and then for these files. For people not getting stutters, I guess that access doesn not cause everything else to stop?

When flying PMDG 747 free memory would go down to 50 or 60 or so, then CTD, when I had 1GB installed, but this is only when I had VM set to 2mb. At 1,500mb of VM, I was in the 300,000 available physical memory, hence never had a memory issue previously.

I just installed the new Creative Labs X-FI and it's certainly an improvement over the Audigy 2. I had the same issue and was able to eliminate it by using the Game MODE with the X-FI. This new audio card is so intelligent that it lowers the engines when you communicate with ATC. I picked it up mine for only $116 from Zipzoomfly.com. I strongly recommend this card and vendor.JoseAsus A8N SLI PremiumAMD FX 572 XFX 7800 GTX in SLI2 Raptors in RAID O1 GIG RAMAntec 550 True ControlAETI YOKE & Cirrus PedalsGOFlight Modules

Hi Jose, Which X-Fi did you buy as there are several. I saw none for $116 but the X-Fi XtremeMusic 8 (7.1) Channels PCI Interface Sound Card was $126. Noel

Thanks for the heads up Jose. I have a fatal1ty on the way and was greatly hoping that that would resolve the issue.

I've struggled with this problem in the past and after considerable experimentation, I concluded that the problem was basically one of resources. I noted that the ATC stutters occured mostly when the sim was very busy loading scenery or aircraft textures. The more complex the aircraft, the more stutters I got.Try flying in a simple aircraft in a small airfield away from large cities and with traffic reduced to a minimum. See if that helps.

>Thanks for the heads up Jose. I have a fatal1ty on the way>and was greatly hoping that that would resolve the issue.Ouch! Did you fork out $295 for that? I will be intrigued to see if there is any improvement in this issue for you. The fact that the second time thru you don't get pauses leaves me doubtful the cure will rest in this option. However, the proof is in the sound card. Good luck, and if it proves truly effective, I might consider an upgrade. $295 though is too much, so it would have to be a lesser version than the Fatal1ty which sports front drive bay yada yada. $126 I would do. I think I just answered my question, from Creative site:"Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic delivers the fastest gaming performance ever! A completely re-engineered game audio processing engine utilizing the Creative X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity audio processor allows Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic to deliver the fastest gaming performance ever seen, providing more than a 15% performance boost over motherboard audio solutions while simultaneously delivering full audio effects!"

I only bought the card for $116.99 with free shipping. I don't need the other accessories.Here's the link.http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...ductCode=290236Jose

It was steep, but I'm hoping I will get some mileage from the on-board ram with future titles. I will repost here with the results-I should get it towards the end of the week.

One more point:I do NOT recall this issue when I had the Sound Blaster Live. I had audio stutters in FS 2004, but not the initial PAUSE discussed previously. It's sad that we have to spend more money on new hardware, but as we all have noticed, the technology is in constant evolution and improvement. This new X-FI is another leap forward that should help us enjoy our sim even more.Jose