47 minutes ago, Jack_Sawyer said:

And you’re right.  I think I have steam and MSFS files across several drives.  C drive, F, and I think K.  I’m not at the PC right now but I could give paths later.

I don't see your system specs but if you have a motherboard that accommodates m.2 NVMe drives pick up a nice fat 2Gb drive and put EVERYTHING on one drive.  KISS works very well for MSFS when it comes to installation and back ups/clones.  Yes: SIMPLICITY is your friend wherever possible.

7 minutes ago, Noel said:

I don't see your system specs but if you have a motherboard that accommodates m.2 NVMe drives pick up a nice fat 2Gb drive and put EVERYTHING on one drive.  KISS works very well for MSFS when it comes to installation and back ups/clones.  Yes: SIMPLICITY is your friend wherever possible.

I support this. Either a clean drive for Windows and one clean drive for MSFS.

Or like Noel says, a fresh larger 2 TB M.2 SSD where you install everything on that drive. Windows, games, MSFS, all of it. Just install things where it suggests when you do an installation. The drives these days are extremely fast, so it's not going to be a problem accessing different things simultaneously. 
If in the future, you need more space for games, add one of your older SSDs for that. 

Something like this M.2 SSD would be perfect and futureproof. It's PCI-4.0 x4 with up to 7000/7000 read write. You could carry that one with you when you upgrade your rig later down the line. 

https://www.newegg.com/western-digital-2tb-black-sn850x-nvme/p/N82E16820250247?Description=2 tb m.2 ssd&cm_re=2_tb m.2 ssd-_-20-250-247-_-Product&quicklink=true

3 minutes ago, Republic3D said:

I support this. Either a clean drive for Windows and one clean drive for MSFS.

Or like Noel says, a fresh larger 2 TB M.2 SSD where you install everything on that drive. Windows, games, MSFS, all of it. Just install things where it suggests when you do an installation. The drives these days are extremely fast, so it's not going to be a problem accessing different things simultaneously. 
If in the future, you need more space for games, add one of your older SSDs for that. 

Something like this M.2 SSD would be perfect and futureproof. It's PCI-4.0 x4 with up to 7000/7000 read write. You could carry that one with you when you upgrade your rig later down the line. 

https://www.newegg.com/western-digital-2tb-black-sn850x-nvme/p/N82E16820250247?Description=2 tb m.2 ssd&cm_re=2_tb m.2 ssd-_-20-250-247-_-Product&quicklink=true

Thanks.  I just looked at it.  Will it work with my PC?  It would be an internal drive?

Holy cow, 29 pages and now we are down to buying a new m.2 SSD? I bet a million that with a simple clean full install, the issue is solved. No need to take money in your fingers, no need to spend another 29 pages of "problem solving", just for god sakes go ahead, take those three hours and reinstall everything from scratch. I bet you spent more time already in this thread than a full reinstall would have taken like suggested on page one of the thread...

4 minutes ago, AnkH said:

Holy cow, 29 pages and now we are down to buying a new m.2 SSD? I bet a million that with a simple clean full install, the issue is solved. No need to take money in your fingers, no need to spend another 29 pages of "problem solving", just for god sakes go ahead, take those three hours and reinstall everything from scratch. I bet you spent more time already in this thread than a full reinstall would have taken like suggested on page one of the thread...

Again, another one complaining about how many pages there are.  Is this really that important to you, how many pages?  If so, why?

Can't I troubleshoot this the way I want to?  A lot of people here would like to see what's actually causing it.  And as someone pointed out, after a complete reinstall and it happens again, what then?  More troubleshooting.

Do you really care how much time I spent in this thread?  Is this so bothersome to you?  If so why?  AVSIM said it was ok so why do you care?  I'll do with my time as I want.  I think you would be insulted and horrified if someone said the same words to you as you just said to me.

Please do not confuse "complaining" with a simple, rather surprised recognition of a mere fact...

Besides that, you are NOT troubleshooting, you are desperately waiting and waiting for the one 100% solution/fix that can be implemented without much effort (like the last time you miracously found a "fix"). 

If you run into the same issues after a complete re-installation you will then be able to rule out so many things you can not NOW, it is already worth trying even IF it happens again. 

But then, you make the statement that you have no other apps installed than MSFS and it turns out to be plain wrong in many aspects, why should you potentially understand that a full re-install IS indeed one of the most effective troubleshooting steps, because you can simply not know what potential remnants of your "not installed other apps" might cause some issues here. 

He (AnkH) makes a very valid point that I can relate to when I spent hours trying to troubleshoot:  sometimes it's far more efficient/satisfying to just bite the bullet and do a complete new install of OS and MSFS.   You get to r/o a whole bunch of issues in doing so.  I did this a few months ago and initially ended up with your issue, post-reinstalls!:  60 sec pauses!  Fortunately as you may have read I fairly quickly discovered the source which was the blithering desktop picture slide show freqency set at every 60 seconds.  That being solved I ended up discovering a method which I've posted on ad nauseum that generates liquid smooth frame rates, stutter-free, w/ incredibly excellent frame time variance at frame rates easily managed by my hardware.   But prior to the resinstall I struggled as you are picking brains and not getting real far.

Edited February 15, 20233 yr by Noel

1 minute ago, AnkH said:

Besides that, you are NOT troubleshooting, you are desperately waiting and waiting for the one 100% solution/fix that can be implemented without much effort (like the last time you miracously found a "fix").

Have you even looked at the list of things I've tried?  It's quite extensive and all good suggestions people have provided.  How is that not troubleshooting?  I think it's been very methodical.  If you disagree then I'm sorry.

If you don't like the way I'm doing things then please refrain from posting.  I'm not you, I do things differently.

And if you've read my posts you would have indeed seen that the last resort is to restore the PC and start from scratch.  Myself and may others are simply curious to see if we can discover exactly what is causing this.

2 minutes ago, Noel said:

He (AnkH) makes a very valid point that I can relate to when I spent hours trying to troubleshoot:  sometimes it's far more efficient/satisfying to just bite the bullet and do a complete new install of OS and MSFS.   I did this a few months ago and initially ended up with your issue, post-reinstalls!:  60 sec pauses!  Fortunately as you may have read I fairly quickly discovered the source which was the blithering desktop picture slide show freqency set at every 60 seconds.  That being solved I ended up discovering a method which I've posted on ad nauseum that generates liquid smooth frame rates, stutter-free, w/ incredibly excellent frame time variance at frame rates easily managed by my hardware.   But prior to the resinstall I struggled as you are picking brains and not getting real far.

All very good Noel but seriously, what's wrong with typing to pin it down?  I have plenty of time, more than enough time.  I'm in no rush, I was trained to troubleshoot to find the source of the problem, not to just fix it but to discover the cause.  I don't know why this seems to irritate people.  I asked for help and I'm grateful a lot of people provided a lot of good ideas.

That desktop picture slide show was one idea someone posted.  I've never used a screensaver or a desktop picture slideshow ever.  And I have checked it many times to make sure Windows didn't turn it on after an update.

Hi Jack,

I don't want to push you into anything, it's just a tip on my part, but do it as you like it for you.

I would probably reinstall the system and then flash MSFS from the store, that might be worth considering if you ask me..

But as already mentioned, whatever suits to you.

I'm "really sorry" for you that this has become such a disaster and apparently no solution really works - i think i would go crazy with that..🤪

 

cheers 😉

 

Just now, pmplayer said:

Hi Jack,

I don't want to push you into anything, it's just a tip on my part, but do it as you like it for you.

I would probably reinstall the system and then flash MSFS from the store, that might be worth considering if you ask me..

But as already mentioned, whatever suits to you.

I'm "really sorry" for you that this has become such a disaster and apparently no solution really works - i think i would go crazy with that..🤪

 

cheers 😉

 

Thanks PM!

37 minutes ago, Jack_Sawyer said:

Again, another one complaining about how many pages there are.  Is this really that important to you, how many pages?  If so, why?

Can't I troubleshoot this the way I want to?  A lot of people here would like to see what's actually causing it.  And as someone pointed out, after a complete reinstall and it happens again, what then?  More troubleshooting.

A reinstall would eliminate a lot of unknown variables. If the 60 second pause returns at some point, the reason for it will be a lot easier to diagnose. 

That's why I suggested earlier today that it might be worth a try to free one of your SSDs and install Windows and MSFS there. The Windows install will take 30-60 minutes (mostly unattended), a few basic drivers require manual installation, and in a first attempt, you could reuse the existing MSFS directory without going through a full download again. 2-3 hours tops. 

Edited February 15, 20233 yr by pstrub

7 minutes ago, Jack_Sawyer said:

All very good Noel but seriously, what's wrong with typing to pin it down?  

As stated, it can often be more satisfying and effective.  From your response it seems you're doing this for the social interaction as much or more than solving the problem, or so it appears from the outside....

1 minute ago, pstrub said:

A reinstall would eliminate a lot of unknown variables. If the 60 second pause returns at some point, the reason for it will be a lot easier to diagnose. 

That's why I suggested earlier today that it might be worth a try to free one of your SSDs and install Windows and MSFS there. The Windows install will take 30-60 minutes (mostly unattended), a few basic drivers require manual installation, and in a first attempt, you could reuse the existing MSFS directory without going through a full download again. 2-3 hours tops. 

Yes, but I'm using Steam.

Just now, Noel said:

As stated, it can often be more satisfying and effective.  From your response it seems you're doing this for the social interaction as much or more than solving the problem, or so it appears from the outside....

Social interaction?  Are you joking?  You honestly think that?  If so then you do not know me.

I've taken 99% of people's suggestions and applied them and have documented the results.

I have a hierarchal list of things to do which is constantly evolving.

This list begins with the most simple and fastest things things to try all the way up to and including a full reinstall.

I'm not there yet, I still want to try ProcMon but it's not easy for me to learn.