Strange Happening Shutting Down FSX

[BonanzaDude 3]

I installed FSX last night. After a flight when I go to quit the simulator, I get an hour glass and a black screen. I let it sit like this for about 15 minutes the first time before forcing a restart. I then started up FSX again and the same thing happened. I let the computer sit overnight and checked this morning when I got up. The hour glass and black screen still. I had to do a hard reboot. Cntl-Alt-Del did nothing either time.I am having no problems flying the plane after default install. I am getting 15-25 fps (locked at 25) while flying and 7-15 fps while taxiing.JohnDell 4550 2.8GHz 1G RAM nVidia 6200 256MB AGP (2) 40G drives. WinXP Pro SP2 on Drive C. FS9 and FSX on drive D.

[Jay R 0]

Hi John,And welcome to Avsim!!To me it sounds it may, and I say MAY be a video card/device driver issue. Do you have the most recent Nvidia drivers for your card? Also you may try seeing if there are any Windows updates that have been recently installed. Did you allow FSX to install the Directx 9c during installtion? Do you have an antivirus program running in the background, try disabling this while running FSX.And as always, I reccomend a defragment of the drive FSX is on. It may not be a cause of this issue, but it wouldn't hurt.Let us know if you get any further.[hr color=#00000]http://forefrontgrp.com/MyLogo.JPGJason[br /]General Aviation Fan[br][/b]

[Guest firehawk44]

You might check Windows XP Event Viewer for an error message related to the event. If there is an error msg, it should give you a hint or reason for the freeze and/or crash. Many computer systems have problems shutting down programs, software, services, etc. properly and there's a software program that will help shut down these programs or services. If you don't have it installed already, I suggest installing "UPHCLEAN" (do a google search) and that may resolve this problem. Hope this helps.Best regards, Jim

[BonanzaDude 3]

Jason,Thanks for the quick reply. I had just installed the nVidia card and software from their website Monday evening. I am really questioning my purchase of this card as it has the nVidia chipset, but is manufactured by someone else. I'm also having issues with display things when running FSCopilot and FSInn. There is an ATI 9550 card that I can get for an additional $5 and I'm thinking about taking this one back.I did a default installation with the exception of installing FSX to my D: drive. No antivirus, only Microsoft Firewall from SP2. I defragged both C: and D: prior to installing FSX.John

[rservice 4]

Its possible you may have a bad video card or incompatible drivers> I know there are many different drivers for Nvidia, and the latest may not be the best for your card. I don't know what you want to spend money wise on upgrades, but I think if you're considering ATI, you may want to look at a Radeon X1600 Pro 512 meg, and also possibly adding another gig of memory. I would say that the 9550 card is a bit dated now. Check around for pricing with Circuit City, Best Buy, Newegg etc.There are overclocking tools available for the ATI cards as well. Hope this helps.Ron

[BonanzaDude 3]

I am maxed out with my RAM at 1G. I also cannot do anything other than PCI or AGP. The board doesn't have PCI-e connectivity. I am upgrading from my original 128MB video card. I'll take a look at Best Buy tonight and see what they have in stock.John

[Jay R 0]

Hey John,Your very welcome. If possible if you are on a limited budget? Look to get an Nvidia 6800GS. I looked around and found it at www.tigerdirect.ca (there is a .com too).I have a similar setup to you, and also have 1GB of memory, but see very good performance. The ATI 9550 is a bit dated, and you might not see any improvement. Look around and see what you can find in the 6800 card type.[hr color=#00000]http://forefrontgrp.com/MyLogo.JPGJason[br /]General Aviation Fan[br][/b]

[BonanzaDude 3]

Well, I decided to take the nVidia card back and get the ATI 256 MB 9550 AGP. Everything worked fine after that. But now for the real happenings from last night. As I was flying from KCLE to KEWR I was thumbing through the Ad Sheet. I ran across a Dell Dimension 9100 with a Intel Pentium 4 w/HT, 1G ram upgradeable to 4G, 256MB ATI PCIe graphics card and a 80G SATA drive. All for the low low price of $300. I am going to pick it up after work tonight. 8^)JohnP.S. Thanks again for all of your help.