Jack, I've been reading through this but not gotten involved as I don't have anything useful to add. What I would say as commiseration is that I've had periods of completely  (apparently) non-sensical behaviour in the sim in the past. Issues that I've absolutely and most definitely been experiencing (stutters, bad visuals, pauses etc) and where I've posted here to mention it been told that I'm imagining it (or must be doing something stooopid). ANd in all cases it has been related to a SU (as I suspected each time) that obviously upset my system, but not everybody else's. I'm not claiming this is what's happening to you, but there may be things going on here that you (and nobody else) can see, and it is always possible that it may all sort itself out at some point if you can just live with it for a while.

I guess what I'm saying is along the lines of "don't throw the baby out with the bath water". Or at least, not yet.

Only possible actual suggestion I have is that you mentioned you moved to the Steam version because of the issues you had with the Store version and the community folder security stuff. I assume that means you still have a good licence for the store version? If so, maybe you should reinstall that and see if the problem persists. You should be able to simply point a new install of a store version to your existing community folder without having to reinstall anything major.

If the store version works without the pause, there are work-arounds for the community folder issues. I haven't used any MS file managers for decades, always use 3rd party stuff back since the days of PC Shell (if anybody remembers that). I have used a file manager called Directory Opus for the last twenty years, and with that, I can see, amend and do whatever I like with file permissions in any folder I want, and I have never had any sort of accessibility isses with MSFS. I move stuff in an out of the community and official folders and manage it all via the addons linker without any problems at all.

Edited February 9, 20233 yr by andy1252
typo

It may sound weird but sometimes it's better to wait and sit it out.. OK, wait for what? There would be a Windows update or the next MSFS update, for example, and then it suddenly works again - wouldn't be the first time like this..

cheers 😉

1 hour ago, Jack_Sawyer said:

Hi Tom and thanks.

I don’t use a screen saver, never have and energy saving settings are off.  I double checked these anyway the other day.

"energy saving settings are off" -- that isn't really the issue.  Make sure your current Windows Power Plan is not set to shut off/on certain devices (like USB ports etc.) -- this is a known pause or stutter -causing event.  If for example it's set to High Performance, get into the High Perf plan and make sure it doesn't have some time out set.  Or if it's set to "Balanced", again, check to see if some things are set to shut down.

35 minutes ago, Mace said:

"energy saving settings are off" -- that isn't really the issue.  Make sure your current Windows Power Plan is not set to shut off/on certain devices (like USB ports etc.) -- this is a known pause or stutter -causing event.  If for example it's set to High Performance, get into the High Perf plan and make sure it doesn't have some time out set.  Or if it's set to "Balanced", again, check to see if some things are set to shut down.

Yes, I did this last summer and checked it the other day.  I'm not using any power plan whatsoever.

1 hour ago, andy1252 said:

Jack, I've been reading through this but not gotten involved as I don't have anything useful to add. What I would say as commiseration is that I've had periods of completely  (apparently) non-sensical behaviour in the sim in the past. Issues that I've absolutely and most definitely been experiencing (stutters, bad visuals, pauses etc) and where I've posted here to mention it been told that I'm imagining it (or must be doing something stooopid). ANd in all cases it has been related to a SU (as I suspected each time) that obviously upset my system, but not everybody else's. I'm not claiming this is what's happening to you, but there may be things going on here that you (and nobody else) can see, and it is always possible that it may all sort itself out at some point if you can just live with it for a while.

I guess what I'm saying is along the lines of "don't throw the baby out with the bath water". Or at least, not yet.

Only possible actual suggestion I have is that you mentioned you moved to the Steam version because of the issues you had with the Store version and the community folder security stuff. I assume that means you still have a good licence for the store version? If so, maybe you should reinstall that and see if the problem persists. You should be able to simply point a new install of a store version to your existing community folder without having to reinstall anything major.

If the store version works without the pause, there are work-arounds for the community folder issues. I haven't used any MS file managers for decades, always use 3rd party stuff back since the days of PC Shell (if anybody remembers that). I have used a file manager called Directory Opus for the last twenty years, and with that, I can see, amend and do whatever I like with file permissions in any folder I want, and I have never had any sort of accessibility isses with MSFS. I move stuff in an out of the community and official folders and manage it all via the addons linker without any problems at all.

Thanks for your very kind words Andy.  I'm loathe to uninstall everything now until I can at least possibly see what's causing this.  But I don't really want to go through the permissions garbage I did with MSFS and the Community folder.  I even uninstalled it and tried to reinstall it to a different location but the non-Steam version has a mind of its own and simply wouldn't let me move anything out of that folder.  I could move stuf fin all day long but if I tried to delete it, heck no, hands off, you ain't allowed.

1 hour ago, pmplayer said:

It may sound weird but sometimes it's better to wait and sit it out.. OK, wait for what? There would be a Windows update or the next MSFS update, for example, and then it suddenly works again - wouldn't be the first time like this..

cheers 😉

You know something PM?  I was out in my wood shop all day and I had this exact same thought.  Brilliant.  Thanks.

1 hour ago, cavaricooper said:

…..and once again, Mr. Pieke is ever helpful and generous with his time and talent. I remain impressed and grateful.

C

Indeed and Bert will never know just how much I appreciate his help.  This world needs millions more like him.

Sounds like you are on the right track finally after 14 pages. 🫠

sp

Just now, Sky_Pilot071 said:

Sounds like you are on the right track finally after 14 pages. 🫠

sp

After making sawdust all day I'm a little more inclined to take it slowly.

2 hours ago, Bert Pieke said:

Hi Jack, I am not sure you have exhausted this option, however frustrating it may be.

You say that it happens too quickly for you to capture the event... so..

In Task Manager, viewing processes, sorted by CPU%, do you see anything happen every 60 secs, even if it is too fast to identify? 

Since you can see the pause in MSFS, in ProcMon with flight simulator excluded to cut down on the noise, do you see anything happen every 60 secs?  And since you know the exact moment, can you examine the events around that time?

Not sure what you have tried and how far you have gotten with this..

Will try this.

2 hours ago, Bert Pieke said:

For the ProcMon trace, we only need the few seconds that surround the event, not the entire 60 secs when nothing bad happens... If you can pinpoint it, I am sure we would love to see that section and attempt to identify.

And this...

2 hours ago, Bert Pieke said:

This may sound crazy, but enabling it again may actually help with troubleshooting.

Last time you had this happen, you disabled this and it was fixed, right?

What do things look like if you enable it again?  Once you have seen that, you can disable once more..

Good idea Bert!  I dunno why I didn't think of this.  I have a lot of real-world stuff to do tonight but I'll get to this as soon as I'm able.  I want you to know I appreciate your help, I mean really appreciate it.

It doesn't help to check or uncheck any box in Power Management of Windows Control Panel. You must uncheck the box for all of the dozens of listings in two sections (1 HID & 2 USB) of Windows Device Manager for "Allow the Computer to turn off the device to save power". Windows will check these devices on a schedule, perhaps every minute?

Every time Windows updates, or I swap USB connection sockets, some of these will reset. So they only stay unchecked in box for a while. It has cured a multitude of sins on my computer. Abrams_Tank was he who taught me to go do it again anytime issues reappear.

 

 

 

14 minutes ago, Fielder said:

It doesn't help to check or uncheck any box in Power Management of Windows Control Panel. You must uncheck the box for all of the dozens of listings in two sections (1 HID & 2 USB) of Windows Device Manager for "Allow the Computer to turn off the device to save power". Windows will check these devices on a schedule, perhaps every minute?

Every time Windows updates, or I swap USB connection sockets, some of these will reset. So they only stay unchecked in box for a while. It has cured a multitude of sins on my computer. Abrams_Tank was he who taught me to go do it again anytime issues reappear.

 

 

 

First thing I check after each windows update. 

Fielder: Your  post reiterated the one puzzling issue with Windows: Overriding customer selection. Previously I had no power plan selected and physically went to Dev Mgr and on the controllers I was using disabled power off feature. Using your suggestions, I found at least a dozen more USB devices that had the power management enabled even though I had opted for No Power Plan. Great tip. Thank you...

@Fielder you're knowledge is astonishing to me.  Thank you for this and it really helps me with your screenshots, I mean lot.  I wish I knew PC's like you guys do.

I just want to say thank you to all of ya'll, I appreciate your help so much.

I won't have time to look into any of these things tonight though because of wife and cat commitments 🤭.  Tomorrow will be better for me.  Again, many thanks.

One of the easiest ways to disable standby for your usb peripherals is to download the 14 day trial version of Spad Next and launch it in Admin mode.  

The first time you launch Spad Next without admin rights,   it will prompt you to relaunch Spad Next with admin rights so it can disable power management.