Jack - a simple search shows that the Steam overlay will pause a game when a configured key press like shift+tab, alt+tab is pressed.  Were you aware of this?

sp

14 hours ago, Bobsk8 said:

I have been reading this thread, and if this problem is occuring every 60 seconds, it is obvious that some program is trying to do something at that exact interval. It's not a bug in MSFS.

Oops that went by me, I understand now.

 

7 hours ago, Jack_Sawyer said:

Hi Throttle, I checked the RAM, the 3080, Windows is always up to date, I check it daily, I do not overclock it, I have no AV on this PC, never have.  Thanks, I appreciate it.

Just twigged that some program is calling every 60 sec.

Out of curiosity - is this happening while playing other games?

Does it happen even when you're not doing any tasks? Is that 60 sec call appearing when the computer is idle?

31 minutes ago, ThrottleUp said:

Oops that went by me, I understand now.

 

Just twigged that some program is calling every 60 sec.

Out of curiosity - is this happening while playing other games?

Does it happen even when you're not doing any tasks? Is that 60 sec call appearing when the computer is idle?

Hi Throttle.  I can’t do much right now because our Internet is still out.  But to answer your questions, I don’t use the PC to play games but last July I installed Skyrim on Steam and I didn’t get any pauses.  But someone here said this game doesn’t task the PC like MSFS.

I honestly don’t know if it is doing it when it’s idle, that’s a good question and it would help a lot if I knew it was. 
 

I agree.  Since it’s happening it means something is doing it.

One clue I’ve discovered that might help though is it doesn’t do it immediately.  I can reproduce it every time but it only starts somewhere between 10 and fifteen minutes after I’m say, taxiing.  Or flying.  Say I’m taxiing, it doesn’t start 60 seconds later, like I said maybe ten minutes later.  Dunno if this helps but it’s all I have right now.

Many thanks. 

1 hour ago, Jack_Sawyer said:

Hi Throttle.  I can’t do much right now because our Internet is still out.  But to answer your questions, I don’t use the PC to play games but last July I installed Skyrim on Steam and I didn’t get any pauses.  But someone here said this game doesn’t task the PC like MSFS.

I honestly don’t know if it is doing it when it’s idle, that’s a good question and it would help a lot if I knew it was. 
 

I agree.  Since it’s happening it means something is doing it.

One clue I’ve discovered that might help though is it doesn’t do it immediately.  I can reproduce it every time but it only starts somewhere between 10 and fifteen minutes after I’m say, taxiing.  Or flying.  Say I’m taxiing, it doesn’t start 60 seconds later, like I said maybe ten minutes later.  Dunno if this helps but it’s all I have right now.

Many thanks. 

 

Yea when you get a chance see if anythings happening when its on idle. Also see if it appears when youre using a browser, watching YT or using MS Office etc.

What are your PC specs? Are you on an nVidia graphics card and if so are you running GeForce Experience?

One other option is that you can try to stress your PC are  one of the many free PC benchmark apps out there. I use Heaven and Cinebench. See if the 60 second call appears.

https://benchmark.unigine.com/heaven

https://www.maxon.net/en/cinebench

 

 

5 hours ago, ThrottleUp said:

 

Yea when you get a chance see if anythings happening when its on idle. Also see if it appears when youre using a browser, watching YT or using MS Office etc.

What are your PC specs? Are you on an nVidia graphics card and if so are you running GeForce Experience?

One other option is that you can try to stress your PC are  one of the many free PC benchmark apps out there. I use Heaven and Cinebench. See if the 60 second call appears.

https://benchmark.unigine.com/heaven

https://www.maxon.net/en/cinebench

 

 

Hi Throttle.  Thanks for helping.  As I type this I’m waiting for an AT&T tech to come out late this afternoon and try to restore my internet.  It’s been intermittent for three days now and as I type this it’s totally out.  

I wonder if this could be part of the problem.  No idea.

Anyway, on this PC I never browse or even email, it’s not even set up for email.  I can try a YT when I have internet restored.

Also, I have no applications installed besides MSFS, Navigraph and Orbx Direct.

I’m not using GeForce Experience.

I’ve run those benchmark apps before but will have to download them and run them again when I get my internet restored.

My specs are: 

Windows 10 Professional

Chassis: NZXT s340 Elite, White

Motherboard: Gigabyte Gaming 5, Intel z370, ATX

Processor: Intel 8th Gen Core i7 8700K (4.8 GHz Turbo) Six Core

CPU Cooling: Corsair H100 Dual Stage CPU Liquid Cooling

System Memory: 32GB Corsair DDR4 SDRAM 3000MHz

EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 FTW3 Ultra Gaming 08G-P5-3767-KL 8GB GDDR6 iCX3

System Power: 850 Watt EVGA Power Supply

Sound Card: High Definition Integrated Audio

Primary Data Drive: 1 TB Samsung 860 EVO (SSD)

Secondary P3D Drive: 2TB Samsung 860 EVO (SSD)

Third SSD -2TB Samsung 860 EVO (SSD)

EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 FTW3 Ultra Gaming 08G-P5-3767-KL 8GB GDDR6 iCX3

System Power: 850 Watt EVGA Power Supply

Sound Card: High Definition Integrated Audio

Primary Data Drive: 1 TB Samsung 860 EVO (SSD)

Secondary P3D Drive: 2TB Samsung 860 EVO (SSD)

Third SSD -2TB Samsung 860 EVO (SSD)

Many thanks.

Jack

Perhaps you know someone else with internet who could host you for a few hours?  If you take your PC to their place and run MSFS, you could see if the same thing happens.  If not, then it's somehow related to your internet.  BTW Skyrim is standalone and doesn't use the internet (other than Steam initiation), so it shouldn't display such problems.  Have you any other games that do use the internet?

1 minute ago, JabbleWok said:

Perhaps you know someone else with internet who could host you for a few hours?  If you take your PC to their place and run MSFS, you could see if the same thing happens.  If not, then it's somehow related to your internet.  BTW Skyrim is standalone and doesn't use the internet (other than Steam initiation), so it shouldn't display such problems.  Have you any other games that do use the internet?

Hi.  Sadly I don’t know anyone to be able to do this.  I have no other games.  I don’t play games on a PC but do have a PS5.  I’ll have to wait until very late this afternoon, 1600 EST for them to come out.  It’s very difficult to type on my iPhone 😞 Many thanks kind sir, I appreciate your help.

Another thing to try if your phone has data - use it to create a WiFi hotspot (look in connection/network settings) and connect your PC to that.  Run MSFS as before and see if the same thing happens.

Don't do it too much though, as MSFS is data-hungry (prob turn off photogrammetry) and phone contracts tend to have limited data.

9 minutes ago, JabbleWok said:

Another thing to try if your phone has data - use it to create a WiFi hotspot (look in connection/network settings) and connect your PC to that.  Run MSFS as before and see if the same thing happens.

Don't do it too much though, as MSFS is data-hungry (prob turn off photogrammetry) and phone contracts tend to have limited data.

I thought of that.  I used it on the iPad but don’t want to do it on the PC, it would be prohibitively expensive.

Fair enough!  Having said which I'm not convinced it's an internet issue anyway, as that should pop up an "offline" or "bandwidth" warning in MSFS.

Another possibility is that your SSD is misbehaving while under load - it should be possible to check that.  I used to use the Perfmon utility to test disc performance, but long ago so I'm not familiar with it just now.

However therer's a wee article here that might be useful:

https://woshub.com/how-to-measure-disk-iops-using-powershell/

If you run it in the background and play MSFS until the problem occurs, it may reveal such a storage problem.

There are other tools out there to test SSD performance too.

 

A long shot, but not impossible, is that there's a problem with your RAM.  Maybe MSFS periodically demands more RAM, but part of it is faulty so it has to 'reorganise' what it can use.

There's a Windows diagnostic tool you can use, as described here:

https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/how-to-test-ram

5 minutes ago, JabbleWok said:

Fair enough!  Having said which I'm not convinced it's an internet issue anyway, as that should pop up an "offline" or "bandwidth" warning in MSFS.

Another possibility is that your SSD is misbehaving while under load - it should be possible to check that.  I used to use the Perfmon utility to test disc performance, but long ago so I'm not familiar with it just now.

However therer's a wee article here that might be useful:

https://woshub.com/how-to-measure-disk-iops-using-powershell/

If you run it in the background and play MSFS until the problem occurs, it may reveal such a storage problem.

There are other tools out there to test SSD performance too.

 

A long shot, but not impossible, is that there's a problem with your RAM.  Maybe MSFS periodically demands more RAM, but part of it is faulty so it has to 'reorganise' what it can use.

There's a Windows diagnostic tool you can use, as described here:

https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/how-to-test-ram

This is much appreciated.  I’ll add this to my growing list of things to try.  I didn’t know these two tools existed and am looking forward to trying them.

Cheers, Jack

Those utils are both built in to Windows, so you don't have to pay for anything or dice with death in malware country. 😉

On 2/8/2023 at 4:26 PM, Jack_Sawyer said:

Thanks man.  That's out of the question.  I have the sim working again except for FlyTampa which I think is their problem because two from them are not installing when every other airport and plane is installing.  

As for the OS, no other problems noted.

And with that amount of work involved I honestly would rather just quit desktop simulation as I have my woodworking shop and hiking and writing to do.  This is not my main hobby so despite my pleas for help I really don't want to go through all that work because desktop simulation can be fun but it's just digital pixels on a screen when it's all said and done.  Just my opinion for what it's worth.  Sorry if that came across as offensive .

but if this is the case why not get a console? you cant debug there hehe  heaven    i can live with its limitations.

19 minutes ago, wim123 said:

but if this is the case why not get a console? you cant debug there hehe  heaven    i can live with its limitations.

I was just extremely frustrated when I posted this, sorry.  I have a PS5 so I don’t really want an Xbox.  Besides, I don’t think I could connect my flight controlled to it.

Hi fellas.  After three days of no Internet AT&T came out today and replaced the cable outside, the fiber connector outside was damage so he replaced the drop.

Here's what I've done so far tonight.

11 February 2023

 

1. Tested sim after new AT&T drop cable outside.  Still pausing.
2. It takes 9:00 minutes for the pauses to actually start after placing the 152 on the runway at KATL.
3. Then exactly 60 seconds thereafter.

 

4. Disabled the WiFi modem in the Control Panel > Network & Internet > Network Connections- Disable - Still pausing.

 

5. Ran Services and disabled these, thought it would help:

Certificate Propagation was Manual - was (Trigger Start)

Connected User Experiences and Telemetry - was Automatic

File History Service - was Manual (Trigger Start)

Power - was Automatic

Rebooted

Still pausing.

 

6. Ran Terminal in Admin mode:

Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /checkhealth - No corruption detected.

Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /scanhealth Ran successfully.

Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /Restorehealthsfc /scannow ERROR 87

Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore - Ran successfully.

Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup - Ran successfully.

Still pausing.