I'm tearing my hair out...

[Guest pauliecec]

Thanks Egbert & Svenks for your help. I have tried running FS with minimal hardware.. I've taken out the sound card and disabled the onboard. Only a mouse/keyboard attached. still issue remainsChecked DX Diag (9.0C) no issues found. Installed the latest chipset drivers as well. Ive also tried checking MS knowledge base but theres nothing there that suggests any issues with the SYSTEM task and FS9 or any other pgm.Im at the moment trying a brand new hard drive (SATA) in the system. Loading it at the moment - I'll let you guys know how it goes, Thanks againpaul

[Earl_Buice 0]

Hi Paul,Wow, man, I'm sorry you're having such a problem! I know how frustrated you must be. Hang in there. There has to be an explanation.One thing I haven't seen in the posts here is the video card . Does it show up when you go to the "Hardware" screen? I had this problem when I installed FS9 several years ago. I would up having to go to display.cfg (I think) and enter the name of my video card manually. I had an old Nvidia card, GeForce 256 w/64M memory. I have a much older machine than you. Mine is PIII800, 512MDDR.Best wishes.God bless,Earl

[Guest pauliecec]

Thanks Earl,, I'll check that out when I get the machine reloaded, XP is installing at the moment. Im v impressed with the help on this board, it's second to none. Cheerspaul

[greeneg 0]

Paul, one thing that I didn't see mentioned, is don't have AA enabled in both the video card and the simulator settings.I've found that I get better performance with it turned OFF in the Simulation and On in the desktop ( video card) settings.Just a thought.Ed GreenKCLThttp://www.panelshop.com/Banners/DEV.jpg

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[Kosta 122]

I read everything in your post, and I noticed you didn't suspect one thing in your PC: your motherboard. I'm not an uber-expert on PC, but I have my share of experience, and this tells me: quality motherboard is the base for a stable computer. I don't know about the quality of Epox motherboards, I know a friend of mine has one and has problems with it. It's an older model though...I for once never had anything else but Asus and enough said that I never had any similar problems.In my humble opinion, you should really try another motherboard, before spending any more time on software basis, because I think your problem relates to hardware-windows compatibility.It's possibly true that there is a software solution to the problem, but how long are you prepared to search for it? The question is, does the solution even exist...Good luck!

[Guest pauliecec]

Thanks Greeneg & Word Not Allowed, I will try disabling AA,, if that fails Im inclined to go the route Word Not Allowed is suggesting.. replace the mobo. I am thinking that it is hardware related and this is the only component I have not tried replacing so far. cheerspaul

[psolk 3,037]

I am sure you have checked the obvious but here are some good resources and some other users that had the same thing...http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=188613(You can email the guys from that thread, perhaps someplace else to look for help)From other posts on the web here are some known issues, not my issues personally :)IRQ conflicts can cause this behaviour. From a user with the same problem:i just figured out what the probleem really was....i had a irq conflict....the irq assigned to one of the lan ports was the same as the one for the soundcard....i changed the pci slot and now its working properly.....learned soemthing new....but thanks for teh help anyway....I had the exact same problem with the Microsoft Security Update KB35732. System process consuming 100% of CPU. I've never had any serious problems with them prior to this. This user uninstalled this update and was fine (Numerous users reported this)Windows XP Service Pack 2 machines with critical patches and PC-cillin Internet Security 2005 starts to experience high CPU utilization after updating to Pattern 594Good luck, I will keep digging for you but I would be thinking the IRQ conflict (might not show up so make sure you manually check) Bad Hard Drive, USB conflict, disable all USB if your keyboard and mouse are ps/2 or even a security update from MS. Unfortunately, there seems to be numerous things that can cause this behaviour, without just replacing the motherboard, you will have to try and knock each culprit out one at a time...Good luck,sorry I couldn't be more help but this is one of those that has too many variables to just come along and say "This is the fix..."-Paul

[Guest pauliecec]

Fantastic.. I'll be sure to check the IRQ's out, and you know, im wondering if its an SP2 issue (or one of its components). I'll check out your link.. Thanks paul

[svenks 4]

Hi againJust a quick comment about shared IRQ's: If you find that you do have shared IRQ's don't panic, because most people do - and normally that is no problem. This dates back to the very olde PC's where it was decided that 16 interrupts would be enough for all eternity (just like 640k was enough memory) ... Unfortunately most of these IRQ's are already in use by the system, and so the PCI slots must share the IRQ's.That being said, psolk's suggestion of moving the sound card is a sound (HAHA) one: The sound card should not share IRQ with Graphics or disk controllers - and probably not LAN either. You probably can't fulfill all of the constraints, but just try to move the card and see if that helps.BRGDS & HTHSven Sorensen, EKCH

[Guest RonB49]

Hi Paul, I notice in your responce to Peter (Reply #11) that you use a force-feedback joystick. Haven't I heard that those JSs can cause this problem? Someone help me out here; I've never had a FFJS but I think that I recall reading this. At any rate, you could check easily by unplugging the JS. R-

[Guest Bob Z]

I had a similar expereience when FS9 first came out. I had a GEForce 2 at the time and I was hopelesly trying to get it to perform better. One of the things I tried was to change the disable= parameter in the display.cfg entry for that card. I do not remember what value it was, but one of the values I tried resulted in the behaviour that Paul describes.You may be onto something, possibly a mismatch between the card and the display.cfg.

[Guest sb55mv]

Hi Paul,just a couple of suggestions for you, you never know do you.a few have already been touched on, but I just wanted to clarify a couple of them.Firstly, make sure that before running FS you end anything thats not necessary, and if you need to, right click on them in the bottom right hand corner too (the system tray)Secondly, right click on your C drive (or whatever your HDD is) and select properties, and de select the check box for "allow indexing services to run" etc on this drive, it won't really effect you in any way thats really noticeable search wise.Thirdly, Please check and make sure that you have AA turned OFF in FS9's display settings, then try the setting to by-linear instead of tri-linear.Lastly, turn down your settings in the FS9 display settings, all of them, to about half way,[/b] then try the sim and see if there is any noticeable improvement.also experiment with your graphics card settings too, you might try them on a medium setting too.then, and hopefully, you can crank up some of the settings, but do it a couple at a time, this way, if anything goes south again, then you will know what you altered last.there is of course one last resort open for you, and that is to give the guy's over at FSGS a call.this is a system unification session, I have had two so far, and have had my sim running like never before, but I appreciate that you might not want to spend the money, it's up to you.on a plus side of this service, you don't pay unless you are happy.there will of course be some who state that there session did nothing for them, or that they thought it was over rated, but I can only gpo by my experience, and the three friends of mine that also had this done.and before anyone thinks it, no, I don't get any kick-backs from them, I just appreciated what they did for me, thats all.but do let us know what you find, and how you go, this is so that others can see what caused the problems for other people in the future.PS I take it your Direct X is up to date, and one last thing, try it without the joystick, just use the KB and see if that makes any difference too, there could be some cross talk somewhere between it and another device, it's not entirely un-heard of.all the best,

[stabell 0]

Hello!This means that you have closed down EVERY process in the task manager, except for the system user processes?Are you running Norton Internet Security? That program is a known troublemaker.Is there a process called "update.exe" running?Disable Norton real time protect, if you have it, and check for the "update.exe", which is the Windows update service. It is known to be a big processor user (system = 99 procent)Regards,Tore Stabell Kulo,Oslo

[delta november 0]

Paul: Please forgive me if I am mentioning some things you've already tried but..... Go to control panel. Open System. System Properties dialog box will show. Select advanced. Under performance,,,click the settings button. Performance options dialog box will appear. Select adjust for best performance. Click the advanced tab. Under processor scheduling make sure Programs is selected. Under memory usage..make sure Programs is selected. Also, since you have reformated, make sure you have current chipset drivers intalled. Also make sure you have a current version of Intel'sApplication Accelerator installed. Hope this of some value. Denny

[Guest av84fun]

Paul, I have no clue why your system bogs down but I am reasonably sure that the high cpu usage you mentioned is not the problem or a symptom of the problem.If you do a search on "cpu usage" you will find tons of comments that state clearly that high cpu usage is normal and ordinary with FS and all other high horsepower games.The above does not solve your problem, of course, but you can eliminate high cpu usage as the culprit...at least according to a whole bunch of posts.Regards,Jim