Hi All,This seems to be a strange one..I did notice this problem a while ago, but it seemed to 'correct' itself, but ever since installing SP2 it has re-immerged.Basically after about 60 secs from starting the sim, my framerate drops approx 7-8 fps, this occurs for about 10 secs, then climbs back up to what i normally expect. It then stays at my usual FPS for about 15 secs then drops again by 7-8 for 10 secs, then up again...& so on & so on.... cycling tp & down the framerates. - It's like the sim is trying to 'process' something every 15secs in the background, but not doing a very good job of keeping it a background process.?I've tried setting my traffic to 0% (both Airline & Ga), & whilst of course my frame rate jumps massively, i STILL see the 8 or so FPS drop off every 15secs for 10secs!What the Heck is causing this!??? - As i mentioned initially, i DID experience this a few months ago, long before installing SP2, but the prob seemed to correct itself.Answers on a postcard please ;-)Hyper

Addendum...I have uninstalled SP2 & the problem is still there... (which may mean the problem occuring again) may be purely coincidental to me installing SP2)Some of you with more powerful systems may think that having the FPS fluctuate as discribed above is no great issue, but if you are at a busy airport like Heathrow, normally getting only 8 FPS at best.... you can see the irritation of FSX becomming like a 'slide show' ever 15 secs, for 10 secs at a time...BTW, the drive that FSX is installed onto is fully defragged.Any ideas?Cheers

One likely cause of this is activity occuring outside of FSX on your computer which results in hits to your hard disk drive or CPU.FSX is CPU sensitive ... but is also IO sensitive. It is constantly reading from your hard drive. If, for example, you have forgotten to disable your virus scanning from scanning your FSX folders, the situation you describe could occur.There are other possible culprits (Google Desktop, for example, building caches) ... and so a little investigation is in order. I'd suggest that you run FSX in windowed mode (Alt-Enter) and also have Task Manager up and running so that you can watch processes to see if you can detect which one is either:a) stealing CPU resources:( stealing disk IOwhile you are trying to fly.Do this while flying in an area with little to no scenery, and turn all autogen off (trees, traffic, etc.)I'd suspect that some other program is hogging resources that you want devoted to FSX.

Hi there,Many thanks for the suggestion..I do actually 'stop' most tray & non-essential background process / progs etc..Basically, nothing is different system-wise now as when the Sim used to 'behave' itself.Very odd...I'll have a further look though.

Ok a little bit more info...I've run FSX in a window as suggested, so that i can also see the Task manager running..Even with ALL other programs halted (processes killed) - like all virus software etc.The SAME problem is occuring - However Task manager is reporting that the process that jumps to 2nd in the queue below FSX is the 'system' process, User 'SYSTEM' This process at ALL other times (i.e. when FSX is NOT running, idles at 100% ZERO with just a few hundred K allocated to it. with FSX running it jumps to 6MB or so... & displays this process hog every 15 secs. Given the fact that this is only hapenning when FSX is running, obviously suggests it 'IS' FSX that is causing the issue & making some system 'call'... so whats it doing? - WHY? & will it eventually pack it in???So has anyone else experienced this? - Any ideas?CheersAl

I have the FSX.cfg file changed to show AVG FPS and I've experienced this little drop in FPS by having FPS set to Unlimited. Changing it to 30 and my average numbers are rock steady. So I don't know what your's is set to, but if unlimited you might lock it down.

That must be the voltage fluctuations from the fans that generate a p-torque effect of flow around the CPU.Kidding aside: I have no idea, but I would check my power supply, because it seems like your GPU is drawing to much power or your CPU (overclocked?) might be getting to hot and throttles itself down (some mobos do that). It's hard to pinpoint, but that would be my first point of attack.Pat

That must be the voltage fluctuations from the fans that generate a p-torque effect of flow around the CPU.Kidding aside: I have no idea, but I would check my power supply, because it seems like your GPU is drawing to much power or your CPU (overclocked?) might be getting to hot and throttles itself down (some mobos do that). It's hard to pinpoint, but that would be my first point of attack.Pat

Just going over my old posts & spotted this..You were SPOT ON.. in so far that now i have a small additional fan blowing cool external air at the GPU & motherboard.. & the FPS is smoothed out now.. turn the fan off & the fram rate cycling starts again!Many thanks