P3D V5.3 Random Freezes and Slowdown at loading terrain data

[FSXCYYZEGLL 7]

Hi all.

So I updated GSX via the live update, and had a problem immediately after. First my sim takes much longer to load (anywhere from 30seconds to 2 minutes) whereas before it was 20 seconds TOP. This is predominantly caused by the sim getting stuck at "loading terrain data" around 21%, and then around 40ish %. Also of note is that my computer fans go through the roof when trying to load that portion, though the GPU/CPU usage stays pretty consistent.

The second issues is that when flying the program undergoes random freezes. They are very frequent (anywhere from once per few minutes to multiple times per minute) and they can either be a few seconds or as long as 30. Also during these freezes sometimes the screen flashes to the desktop and then back to the sim. Also during these freezes the fans again go extremely loud and then quiet down after the freeze ends.

I'm not sure what's causing this or what I can do to locate the issue. I tried live update again but that didn't fix the issue. I've tried adding windows anti-virus exclusions, which didn't work. I tried removing the windows anti virus exclusions, which didn't help. And I also tried just turning windows live protection off entirely for the test. Which changed nothing. I've also rebooted my system many times and ran P3D repair.

My specs: 12th Gen Intel Core i9-12900KF processor (16-Core, 30MB Cache, 3.2GHz to 5.2GHz), 2TB NVMe M.2 PCIe SSD, 64GB Dual Channel DDR5 at 4400MHz, NVIDIA(R) GeForce RTX(TM) 3090 24GB GDDR6X

Signed Jon.

Edited January 15 by FSXCYYZEGLL

[787flyer 633]

Jon,

 

What if you remove the GSX/Add-on Manager from loading. My GSX loads up via the Addon Manager add-on xml so I would just move this specific addon xml out of the P3D discovery folders and let the sim rebuild the scenery cache. See if that improves the situation and whether its GSX related.

 

Note: I did see a GSX update come in recently at the weekend but decide to decline it and my sim is working OK. Perhaps this is an issue with the latest GSX update??

 

[FSXCYYZEGLL 7]

Removed the addon XML and it was a bit faster in load up, although the fans still went harder at the 21% and it did stick a bit there.

Forgive me as I really don't have a lot of experience with P3D fixing. How do you rebuild the scenery cache in P3D?

As to whether it's a GSX thing, it could be. The only other thing it could be was I had ATC API but removed it due to FPS loss (even with taxi settings turned off). But when I removed it initially I didn't turn it off in P3D addon settings, just took it out of the folder. But I question why that would cause an issue.

As to whether it's GSX, the one thing I can't explain is why no one else on the GSX forums are reporting problems.

Signed Jon.

Edited January 15 by FSXCYYZEGLL

[FSXCYYZEGLL 7]

On 1/15/2024 at 3:56 AM, 787flyer said:

Jon,

 

What if you remove the GSX/Add-on Manager from loading. My GSX loads up via the Addon Manager add-on xml so I would just move this specific addon xml out of the P3D discovery folders and let the sim rebuild the scenery cache. See if that improves the situation and whether its GSX related.

 

Note: I did see a GSX update come in recently at the weekend but decide to decline it and my sim is working OK. Perhaps this is an issue with the latest GSX update??

 

Oh a curiosity since we're on different GSX versions. Does your GSX version have an option to enable/disable GSX at cruise? Apparently one other person on the GSX forums has had issues, and I'm wondering if that's the cause.

Never mind. Took the addon XML out so GSX wasn't running as you said (I assume that the scenery cache automatically resets after reloading the sim?). And the freezes are there again. What's odd is that when the freeze occurs CPU usage spikes and hits peak on multiple cores and then goes back to normal.

Signed Jon.

Edited January 16 by FSXCYYZEGLL

[Ray Proudfoot 8,999]

Jon, by eliminating GSX / Couatl from the problem that's progress. Have you any terrain addons like Orbx Landclass? If so try disabling those and see if it improves things.

These problems can be irritating and it's just a case of trial and error until the reason is discovered. Are they specific to one area or not? Do they occur when on the ground or only when airborne.

Do you have any Ai traffic package like AIG? I was getting random freezes with that and 5.4. Reverting to 5.3HF2 cured them.

To rebuild the scenery cache this can be done with Addon Organizer on the Settings tab. I have the option to do it automatically. Just temporarily disable one scenery package and choose Save and then Exit. The cache will be built automatically with that option selected in Addon Organizer.

[FSXCYYZEGLL 7]

55 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Jon, by eliminating GSX / Couatl from the problem that's progress. Have you any terrain addons like Orbx Landclass? If so try disabling those and see if it improves things.

These problems can be irritating and it's just a case of trial and error until the reason is discovered. Are they specific to one area or not? Do they occur when on the ground or only when airborne.

Do you have any Ai traffic package like AIG? I was getting random freezes with that and 5.4. Reverting to 5.3HF2 cured them.

To rebuild the scenery cache this can be done with Addon Organizer on the Settings tab. I have the option to do it automatically. Just temporarily disable one scenery package and choose Save and then Exit. The cache will be built automatically with that option selected in Addon Organizer.

Hi Ray.

I don't have any terrain addons, only airport BGL files but those are all freeware and I didn't make any changes between stable flying and arctic circle FPS .

I do have AIG. But I only use P3D V5.3. I noticed that one file of mine appears to be AIGFP whereas the rest are BGL. But there was never a difference before and I'm not sure why there would be now.

It does occur on the ground but is far less frequent. It gets more frequent the faster my aircraft was going. What's causing it likely occurs everywhere (judging from the fact that the terrain data gets stuck and the fans go into overdrive at 21%). It occurred on a flight from Heathrow in the PMDG, I have the flight saved and have been reloading the save to test whether it's been fixed.

Is addon organizer mandatory for rebuilding the cache, or can I simply disable and re-enable scenery in scenery library in P3D?

Signed Jon.

Edited January 16 by FSXCYYZEGLL

[Ray Proudfoot 8,999]

16 minutes ago, FSXCYYZEGLL said:

Is addon organizer mandatory for rebuilding the cache, or can I simply disable and re-enable scenery in scenery library in P3D?

I'm not sure but if you have Addon Organizer it's an easy way to rebuild it.

Can you list your hardware. CPU/GPU/RAM. Where is P3D situated? Root C drive or within Program Files? SSD I assume.

Try a default aircraft. Does the problem persist? It's all about eliminating possibilities and once that's been done whatever remains, however unlikely, is probably going to be the cause.

[FSXCYYZEGLL 7]

25 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I'm not sure but if you have Addon Organizer it's an easy way to rebuild it.

Can you list your hardware. CPU/GPU/RAM. Where is P3D situated? Root C drive or within Program Files? SSD I assume.

Try a default aircraft. Does the problem persist? It's all about eliminating possibilities and once that's been done whatever remains, however unlikely, is probably going to be the cause.

Used addon organizer to rebuild the scenery cache.

My specs are a 12th Gen Intel Core i9-12900KF processor (16-Core, 30MB Cache, 3.2GHz to 5.2GHz), 2TB NVMe M.2 PCIe SSD, 64GB Dual Channel DDR5 at 4400MHz, NVIDIA(R) GeForce RTX(TM) 3090 24GB GDDR6X.

P3D is located in Program files. Yeah it's an SSD.

I tried updating my NVIDA drivers. Whilst there was a pause and some fan activity on the 21% terrain data loading. It loaded. I then loaded up the save from heathrow and flew for 5 minutes and there were no freezes (I turned it off there).

I hadn't updated my NVIDIA driver after doing a fresh install to fix a dll crash that kept occurring as suggested by an AVSIM post.

I'll do some more testing later today on the PMDG first just to see if the drivers fixed the issue, and go from there.

Signed Jon.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,999]

Hi Jon,

That's a decent system although installing P3D inside Program Files can cause issues. If you don't have many third party addons I'd suggest uninstalling and install to C:\P3Dv5. I've done that for years with no issues.

Windows can get very protective with Program Files.

For uninstalling and resinstalling Nvidia drivers I recommend DDU and NVCleanstall. The minimum of software is installed.

Maybe it's just a driver issue. A few days of testing will confirm.

[IanHarrison 522]

After a few weeks of problem free flying, I had a CTD caused by a VCRuntime140.dll error. It came about 9 hours into a 12 hour flight. Not looking forward to having to do it all again, when I can. First time I have had this error. It said Access violation. Anyone any ideas as to what could cause a VC runtime error in P3D v5.4?   I see lots of programs that run in the background use it but when it happened I wasn't looking at anything else, just P3D

Ian

[FSXCYYZEGLL 7]

On 1/16/2024 at 9:31 AM, Ray Proudfoot said:

Hi Jon,

That's a decent system although installing P3D inside Program Files can cause issues. If you don't have many third party addons I'd suggest uninstalling and install to C:\P3Dv5. I've done that for years with no issues.

Windows can get very protective with Program Files.

For uninstalling and resinstalling Nvidia drivers I recommend DDU and NVCleanstall. The minimum of software is installed.

Maybe it's just a driver issue. A few days of testing will confirm.

Hi all.

Thought I'd update what's been going on. haven't reinstalled P3D yet (it feels like too much of a hassle but I'm gonna guess its easier than it sounds).

On the DDU techinque, yes I used that a while ago, though the update was just via NVIDIA. I think I used your advice for that one on a guide you'd written to fix dll crashes (though I may be wrong).

My P3D is installed in program files. As of now I've done several flights, one successfully between LHR and YYZ. Another between YYZ-YVR, and a pair between YVR-VTBS-YVR. No freezes for the period of time though a few stutters here and there. Which I've grown to expect of P3D.

The one thing I am concerned about is that the CPU activity is still peaking at certain points causing high fan activity. This doesn't occur too much in the PMDG 777, but it does happen wiith the QW787. Also my FPS whilst landing at YYZ was around 25FPS which is a bit low I think for my system, but I did have 140 AI planes so maybe that's normal with that many planes.

Will do further testing and maybe reinstall P3D, it's been about a year since I installed it anyways, so clearing out some of the gunk and older files wouldn't hurt I suppose.

Signed Jon.

Edited January 23 by FSXCYYZEGLL

[FSXCYYZEGLL 7]

On 1/19/2024 at 8:34 AM, IanHarrison said:

After a few weeks of problem free flying, I had a CTD caused by a VCRuntime140.dll error. It came about 9 hours into a 12 hour flight. Not looking forward to having to do it all again, when I can. First time I have had this error. It said Access violation. Anyone any ideas as to what could cause a VC runtime error in P3D v5.4?   I see lots of programs that run in the background use it but when it happened I wasn't looking at anything else, just P3D

Ian

Hi Ian. Not sure myself.

But my personal recommendation if it still occurs would be to start a seperate forum post. My post specifically states V5.3, so you're unlikely to as much help as you need on this post. All the best and hope it resolves.

Signed Jon.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,999]

12 hours ago, FSXCYYZEGLL said:

Thought I'd update what's been going on. haven't reinstalled P3D yet (it feels like too much of a hassle but I'm gonna guess its easier than it sounds).

It’s not difficult by any means. Uninstall in this order…

Scenery then Content and finally Client. Always opt to keep your licence activated.

Reboot and then install into C:\P3Dv5. Client first followed by Content then Scenery. Scenery is the longest to install. Nice short path and not affected by protectionism by Windows.

Your addons should be untouched by this. That’s why they’re separated from the parent program. Anything installed as a scenery layer will need editing but that can be done with a copy and paste in scenery.cfg.

Regarding CPU activity my own system runs hotter with Concorde than the PMDG737. No throttling fortunately. More complex aircraft = more work.

[FSXCYYZEGLL 7]

On 1/24/2024 at 4:42 AM, Ray Proudfoot said:

It’s not difficult by any means. Uninstall in this order…

Scenery then Content and finally Client. Always opt to keep your licence activated.

Reboot and then install into C:\P3Dv5. Client first followed by Content then Scenery. Scenery is the longest to install. Nice short path and not affected by protectionism by Windows.

Your addons should be untouched by this. That’s why they’re separated from the parent program. Anything installed as a scenery layer will need editing but that can be done with a copy and paste in scenery.cfg.

Regarding CPU activity my own system runs hotter with Concorde than the PMDG737. No throttling fortunately. More complex aircraft = more work.

Forgive me Ray but I'm a bit confused and I want to be certain before starting for obvious reasons.

When you mean scenery I assume you mean the scenery folder in P3D. But what do you mean Content? Furthermore, why not just use the default P3D uninstall system or via Windows Control Panel?

I don't have many addons installed in the simulator. Just the PMDG 737, 777, QW 787, RC4, GSX, and AIG (and I think the last 2 are in the addons folder anyways). Do I need to uninstall the 737,777,787 and RC4, GSX etc first. Or are they just deleted whilst deleting "content".

I also reinstalled NVidia drivers via DDU and it seems the FPS is a bit better, (though hard to gauge). However I had an Acontain DLL crash with code 0X000005. Which I assume is caused by having it in the program files (at least a cursory search reveals that as the cause).

Signed Jon.

Edited February 8 by FSXCYYZEGLL

[Ray Proudfoot 8,999]

7 hours ago, FSXCYYZEGLL said:

Forgive me Ray but I'm a bit confused and I want to be certain before starting for obvious reasons.

When you mean scenery I assume you mean the scenery folder in P3D. But what do you mean Content? Furthermore, why not just use the default P3D uninstall system or via Windows Control Panel?

Hi Jon. All uninstalls must be via the Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs. Don’t manually delete anything.

Client, Content and Scenery each have their own uninstallers.

7 hours ago, FSXCYYZEGLL said:

Do I need to uninstall the 737,777,787 and RC4, GSX etc first. Or are they just deleted whilst deleting "content".

As you’re installing to a new location the process is more involved. Probably best to uninstall your Boeing aircraft and reinstall. RC4 should be okay as will GSX.