I have a self-built, 8-year-old rig that I built for gaming, but, at the time, I didn’t have much knowledge of what best suits FSX. Here are the specs:

Windows 7 Home Premium Service Pack 1 64 bit

WDC WD1001FALS-00JB1 HDD

AMD Phenom II x 4 9555 3.20 GHz

MSI NF750-G55 Motherboard

8 GB RAM

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti

Creative SB X-FI

TripleHead2Go Digital Edition with three 27 in Dell monitors (VGA)

 

I have Orbx Global, Open LC NA, Global Trees HD

REX weather textures, but use AS16 as weather engine

Spad.Next for Saitek radio and autopilot panels

MCE installed but use it sporadically

Some Caranado add on planes

Captain Sim 737-200

David Maltby’s Bac-1-11

Most often I fly the Caranado or the default Baron.

 

All of this seemed to be doing well until I decided to try overclocking the CPU with the mother board “easy overclock” switch. Ran great for a while. I watched the temps with Core Temp. Never seemed to overheat. I started getting some crashes, so I backed down the overclock to default. Now I get regular crashes with various module failures in event viewer (panels.dll, nvd3dum.dll, terrain.dll). Sometimes just the sim gets “fatal error” and quits. Other times I get a freezup with a loud, buzzing noise and need to shut down the pc. Sometimes it’s a BSOD. Happens with various aircraft, default or addon.

 

I have no idea where to even start diagnosing these crashes because they are different each time. I can fly for two hours or 20 minutes before a crash. I’m afraid I really messed something up by using that overclock switch. I’ve tried different drivers.

 

I’m at the point where I’m trying to decide if I should just do a whole new build or if I should just do a clean OS install and start from scratch with everything. Don’t really want to spend a bunch of money if I don’t absolutely have to. If I messed up my hardware, a clean install won’t help, but I don’t really know how to isolate which hardware might have been harmed (if at all) by the OC. Would really rather fly than diagnose and troubleshoot my days away.

 

I’m open to suggestions. The pc is 8 years old, but it has been good to me until this happened.

(Hope I gave enough info, I rarely make a post)

The problem with many of the auto-overclock motherboards is that they can set crazy-high voltages to establish the overclock.  Usually, that'll drive temps up to the point where you'll notice a problem if it's high enough to damage the hardware, but not always.  The more likely scenario is that an unstable overclock caused your hard drive to become corrupted over time.

I'd start with a progressive reinstall from the ground up...start with a fresh OS install and run a stress test on it with a program like OCCT and/or Prime95.  Also, download MemTest86+ and run a memory test for a good 6+ hours to make sure you don't have a RAM module going bad.  Then, once the hardware with OS has been tested, install FSX and a few add-ons and see if the crashes reoccur.  If the hardware is hosed, you should see crashes early in this process.  If you can run without issues, then start adding your other add-ons to the mix.

Good luck

Thank you, that sounds like a decent plan of attack. Would it be reasonable in your mind to get an SSD and do the new install on it? That way, if I decide I do need a new build I would just use it there. If I get the current rig going again I'll then have two drives I can use (assuming the HDD is still okay). The HDD can be for storage perhaps.

You can go with an SSD, but it's not necessary.  An SSD will improve loading times somewhat, but will not affect frame rates.  If it were me, I'd hold off until the next rig rebuild and get what makes the most sense with that configuration in mind.  You might want an M.2 onboard SSD in a new build rather than a SATA drive that would work with the current rig, for example.

Regards

Good, I see what you mean. Thanks much for your advice.

I am well aware of the high costs involved in building a new computer, especially today with the bit mining madness going on. However, and this is just my personal opinion (and keep in mind that I too still run FSX), I would be seriously contemplating a new build.

Hardware has improved by leaps and bounds and with the advent of 64bit simming platforms and add-on development gearing towards that almost exclusively (which makes sense from a developers point of view) us old timers on FSX will be left in the dust of the 64bit juggernaut. 

If you can, bite the bullet and go for a new rig.

8 hours ago, SirTommy said:

I have no idea where to even start diagnosing these crashes because they are different each time.

Sounds like has you up and running but if you have problems in the future, see the AVSIM CTD Guide (link in my signature).

Thanks for the tip, Jim.

Speedy, I probably will save up for a new rig. Meanwhile, I'm going to see how this clean install pans out.

Just to update:

I did a clean install on OS and FSX. Went into the BIOS and got everything set back to default that the "easy overclock switch" changed around. No more crashing so far. Sim is much smoother, too. More FPS. That OS clean up was way overdue anyway, so I'm glad I did it. Ready to enjoy some flying without all the tinkering  .