FSX Freezing Again and Again Mid Flight

[Shanbec 0]

So I was about two hours into my flight, about 160nm off of the top of descent, and my sim begins to freeze. I would freeze for about 30 seconds, continue for 5 seconds, freeze again for 30 seconds and so on... Even when in the menus such as the controls menu or the settings menu in flight it would freeze like this, the whole program just kept doing this cycle. I had to quit the simulation in the end. Please note, it never crashed, no matter what I tried to do, it never crashed, just froze. I have a feeling someone might mention VAS to me, but I'll wait for the replies. Is there anything I can configure to stop this from happening in the future? Do I need to further tone down my scenery and other settings to save on VAS? I don't use much scenery at all, only UK2000 for the departure airport on this occasion, using the PMDG 737NGX, FS2Crew, and PRO-ATC/X. My computer isn't fantastic, but I'm guessing it doesn't have much to do with the specs of my computer?

 

Anyway, thanks for your help/

[Bjoern 1,157]

It's probably VAS related. Normally, you'd also see a "Your computer has run out of available memory" popup.

Also check if any bad scenery add-on may have entered the player bubble (80nm around current position).

[vc10man 732]

Also check if you are using a registered FSUIPC that you have not set Auto-Save on.

[Bjoern 1,157]

Wouldn't FSUIPC's autosave manifest itself as regular stutters throughout the entire flight?

[vc10man 732]

It was only another suggestion. No harm in checking. If it is not that, then it's one less to eliminate. Not likely to be VAS as you have pointed out that message would have flagged up.

[coa1117 53]

Any other apps running concurrently, e.g., virus scanner, defragmenter, scheduled back-up, etc? Before I start FSX I reboot and then quit all background apps that could suck processor and/or memory resources while I'm flying.

 

[speedyTC 195]

Is your affinity mask set correctly for your cpu? Strangely enough, I had a similar issue and by using the Easy option from this site and transferring the corresponding value to my fsx.cfg file solved the problem. 

[Shanbec 0]

On 8/16/2017 at 9:28 PM, Bjoern said:

It's probably VAS related. Normally, you'd also see a "Your computer has run out of available memory" popup.

Also check if any bad scenery add-on may have entered the player bubble (80nm around current position).

No add-on scenery anywhere near the aircraft at the time.

On 8/16/2017 at 9:41 PM, vc10man said:

Also check if you are using a registered FSUIPC that you have not set Auto-Save on.

I'm using unregistered FSUIPC.

On 8/16/2017 at 11:26 PM, coa1117 said:

Any other apps running concurrently, e.g., virus scanner, defragmenter, scheduled back-up, etc? Before I start FSX I reboot and then quit all background apps that could suck processor and/or memory resources while I'm flying.

 

The only other things I had running was PRO-ATC/X and FSXWX. I feel like FSXWX (freeware weather engine) may have had something to do with it as when I looked at the log after the flight, there were many weird messages I'm not used to seeing after a flight.

 

On 8/17/2017 at 0:18 AM, speedyTC said:

Is your affinity mask set correctly for your cpu? Strangely enough, I had a similar issue and by using the Easy option from this site and transferring the corresponding value to my fsx.cfg file solved the problem. 

I'm not sure what this is.

[speedyTC 195]

10 hours ago, Shanbec said:

I'm not sure what this is.

 

From the website I linked:

"An affinity mask is a bit mask indicating which CPU Core a process should be run on by the scheduler of an operating system. Setting the affinity mask for FSX/P3D declassifies its default use of CPU cores, which can lead to better application performance."

If you read through the site you will get a better understanding as to how it all works. Check your .cfg file to see if Affinity is set, under [JobScheduler]. If there is no such entry you can easily create it and add the suggested mask for your CPU. Don't forget to make a back-up of your config file first before you make any changes!

[Jim Young 2,356]

First of all, I strongly recommend downloading and running the AVSIM FSX Configuration Guide.  Recently updated.  It has Affinity Mask information and I personally do not recommend this tweak.  It will not lead to better application performance and we have more CTD's in this forum related to the Affinity Mask than many other types of CTD's/Freezes.  The guide contains suggested settings.

Not sure why you have FSXWX installed.  The default program works just as well if not better.  It has been the cause of CTD's and freezes in the past.  Hopefully you removed it to see if it was the cause (part of your investigation as to the cause).

The AVSIM CTD Guide provides some suggested reasons for freezes while loading FSX and during the flight.  I found them across the Internet at various FS websites and they fixed the problem for some users.  The guide also has a section on page 10 on how to fix most CTD's and Freezes in FSX.

The links to the guides are in my signature or on the right sidebar under Hot Spots.

Best regards,

Jim

[Bjoern 1,157]

On 8/18/2017 at 3:28 PM, Shanbec said:

The only other things I had running was PRO-ATC/X and FSXWX. I feel like FSXWX (freeware weather engine) may have had something to do with it as when I looked at the log after the flight, there were many weird messages I'm not used to seeing after a flight.

Now that you throw FSXWX into the mix, I can confirm that I've experienced the same crashes.

I think they might be related to hiccups with the GRIB servers from which FSXWX is pulling its weather data. If FSXWX refuses to work, I use FSRealWX. It might be feature limited in the free version, but it's the only alternative.