Having suffered with frequent lockups in P3D v5.4 unlike anything I’ve had before I was at a loss what was causing them. I suspected the overly aggressive virus protection in Windows 11 which seems very different to W10.

Having found out how to turn it off permanently I’ve now completed 3 flights of over an hour each with no issues. Everything points to the Virus Protection being the issue.

I have excluded Prepar3D.exe, several folders and even file extensions but to no avail. I suspect every executable you run needs excluding. I’d rather trust my own judgement.

As the sole user of my PC I trust myself not to need this protection and have turned it off permanently. I’m wondering if others feel the same irrespective of the sim you run.

After disabling only the scheduling part, it works perfectly on my end.

 

https://support.kaspersky.com/common/windows/13341

35 minutes ago, LRBS said:

After disabling only the scheduling part, it works perfectly on my end.

I followed the instructions here.

https://news.trendmicro.com/2022/12/14/how-to-turn-off-windows-defender/#

Have you turned off just the real-time protection. That runs continuously I reckon. Hence the lockups  I experienced.

40 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I followed the instructions here.

https://news.trendmicro.com/2022/12/14/how-to-turn-off-windows-defender/#

Have you turned off just the real-time protection. That runs continuously I reckon. Hence the lockups  I experienced.

Interesting, yes indeed it is more aggressive than win10 but with exclusions shouldn't give any headache at all. Unfortunately, it depends from PC to PC and what additional software you have. Initially, I had it off, later I switched only to scheduling. To be honest, before I noticed your post I was entertaining the idea of going back to completely off, even if it is working ok. There might be an issue with exclusion part, if you have another add-on (fsuipc or wx) you have to include those too. 

Something else worth mentioning: MSI has a dragon center similar to the ASUS armory crate. If you have it running in the background it will also potentially trigger based on what is doing some intermittent stutters during scanning, or other software for that matter; it is a good idea to be part of exclusions. I don't know what is actually running that might create your issue. I would recommend to look and see. 

@LRBS, Firstly, I need to prove beyond all doubt that turning it off definitely resolves the lockups. They were really weird. P3D stopped working for over 3 minutes in one situation and even getting Task Manager to come up was problematic.

As usual Event Viewer was bloody useless at identifying where the problem lay. 🤨

You have to ask yourself if that computer is used exclusively for flying why is protection needed? It surely has an overhead. I trust myself to not do any web browsing on that computer that could cause an issue. No kids either so it’s all down to me.

That process must be running all the time and it’s weird that things can be fine for up to 30 mins but then something happens that causes these locks. No clues whatsoever. So frustrating.

If I go a week flying every day with no issues that will prove Virus Protection is the culprit. I could then add the executables I run to the exclusion list and monitor behaviour very closely.

I do run MSI Afterburner and Riva Tuner SS to monitor performance. Neither exe is excluded. But I’m still inclined to leave it off. Microsoft don’t make it easy to find out how to do it but I know now.

It is very difficult to assess this issue; first, please try to see in the device manager if, under the network, the ethernet power manager needs the power option to be turned off.

The afterburner and RTSS are known on some systems to create some bottlenecks and stutters. It might be the issue in your case. I'm wondering if you disconnected from the internet and if this issue is still there. Is it an overheating issue? It can overheat for many reasons, overclock, CPU, GPU, SSD, memory, and so many variables. Try to monitor with CPUID monitor free software. I'll be away for about 20 hrs.; meanwhile, somebody else has better ideas on narrowing down the issue. Sorry. 

Edited December 8, 20232 yr by LRBS

LOL, didn't even installed it with costume iso

8 hours ago, LRBS said:

The afterburner and RTSS are known on some systems to create some bottlenecks and stutters. It might be the issue in your case. I'm wondering if you disconnected from the internet and if this issue is still there. Is it an overheating issue? It can overheat for many reasons, overclock, CPU, GPU, SSD, memory, and so many variables. Try to monitor with CPUID monitor free software.

They were stable under windows 10 with no exclusions necessary. It’s not practical to disconnect from the internet as I have two other computers running flight sim software. If it was overheating why would turning off Virus Protection apparently cure the problem?

I have monitored temps with HWInfo and they’re fine. See here for evidence.

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/630612-13900ks-rtx4090-build-notes/?do=findComment&comment=5037726

2 hours ago, C2615 said:

LOL, didn't even installed it with costume iso

I have no idea what that means.

To those who prefer to keep Virus Protection on I'm interested in knowing why you chose that option. Is it because your computer is used by others than yourself and it's a safeguard?

Or perhaps you don't know how to turn it off? I'm convinced it imposes an overhead when running flight sim and for me that is undesirable and unnecessary since I know the dangers of the web.

I run it with exclusions for the P3D / MSFS folders and any other add-ons.  I'm the sole user of the PC.  Why do I leave it on?  Because in this day and age there is an increased risk of malicious code, hackers attempting to get on your systems, etc...  the little bit of overhead it causes is worth it in my opinion and I've been an IT Director for over 25 years now.

@jlohrenz, do you have any PMDG aircraft for either sim? And FSUIPC too for Autosaves?

I ask because the stutters and pause was unacceptable to me before I added a load of exclusions to keep the Virus protector happy.

If it’s checking a standard save call by a third party utility and causing that much disruption I would suggest it’s more than a little intrusive.

Would never deactivate anti-virus, that is completely unnecessary. Only thing I've done with Microsoft's anti-virus is turn off memory integrity, because it has been known to cause performance loss and issues in some titles. Plus, I add a manual exclusion to every game to disable CFG (Control Flow Guard) as that is also known for creating stuttering and performance degradation for some users. Just don't turn off CFG globally, do it for a specific .exe 

@Sethos, when you turn it off and then have 5 successsful flights I tend to think the two are linked. That was until yesterday when I had my first hang since turning it off so I've decided it isn't the solution. It's now back on with extra exclusions.

I have a separate topic on the P3D forum which will save me having to repeat myself here. Thanks for the tip about memory integrity but a quick search didn't reveal how ti disable it.