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Guest Chief1942

random freeze/stutter: diagnosis help

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Guest abulaafia

This may be a post for the hardware form but I can't be quite sure. Guys I need some help diagnosing a weird problem I have had with FSX (SP2) on a brand new Vista-64 machine ever so often, FSX stops responding for 3-4 seconds, sound stutters, then everything resumeshere are the facts so far: it happens with one out of 10 flights, regardless of area, time of day, a/c. it happens in FSX missionsit happens with different slider settings (tried all), with or without AI or autogen (although it seems to happen less the lower I put settings). when I use ProcessMonitor, it logs nothing during the event. absolutely nothing. there is a 3 second pause in the log. no disk access happens. the events immediately before the event are always different.I can't seee CPU usage during the event, as the CPU meter simply stops. The entire PC is unresponsive. Other than that, the sim runs fantastic (specs below), high fps with all sliders maxed, no other issues whatsoever. I have elimited all possibilities I am aware of, and tried different drivers for the Nvidia card. But I don't know what to try next. (What game should I compare to check if it is a FSX problem or not)Its a negligable problem, but the fact that it happens so randomly intrigues me. I am now suspecting it has something to do with the video driver though.

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Guest Chief1942

Might I add that I too have recently begun having the same situation. Am fixing to explore Nvidia drivers changes to see what effect it has on this issue. Not a show stopper but it does detract from the enjoyment when your view simply stops and then begins again in a couple of seconds as the aircraft is still progressing in it's flight during the "stutter". Going to try the drivers Nick N. is using and see if the problem goes away.

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Hello Marten,Sorry if my questions are so basic but who knows? :--)- Have you tried limiting the fps to 20?- What about your soundcard drivers?- What happens with DX10 preview checked?- Do you follow the cleaning rules when changing drivers?- Have you tried stopping services and programs such as antivirus, firewall etc...


Best regards,
David Roch

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Guest Nick_N

HmmmmmmmmIn this case it does sound like something is either accessing and creating a very large drain on resources, such as AV or other security software, or, the system has reached it limits on memory and may be accessing the page file... but, if it only happens once or twice, then does not happen again during the same flight, I would say the problem is probably not page file related.At the same time, FSX is in fact a file access monster and it can as you cross sectors of scenery, start accessing huge numbers of files and in that moment, and, until the files are loaded, it can result in a massive pause that is not seen again until another sector is crossedCase in point... fly out of KSEA, 34R and head strait out past Seattle @ 3000ft. About 5-10 miles after you pass the end of Lake Washington (which is the huge lake on your right) you will enter another scenery sector and your disk access will go sky high in which if the disk is slow, full (over 75%) or fragmented, and, your system may not be tuned for 100% performance, that sector cross can invoke such stutters and pauses.I really need to get my Vista list finished and get it posted. I do not use Vista for FSX and one of the major reasons is the lack of good disk defrag support, in which O&O Defrag and a method I have for using it will reduce those sector stutters to a minimum if not completely remove them in XP.Anyway, this does sound like either a massive disk access taking place where the resources drop like a rock for a few seconds, or, something is using system cycles, a background program running or other.

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Guest Chief1942

OK. I installed the 169.13 beta drivers NickN recommends. I generally fly out of the same area so any issues will be "region" specific. If an issue occurs and I make changes to try to deal with it I tend to use the same area as a test bed to make sure I have that commonality. Seems that the driver change helped to a degree. The pause/stutter did not occur as often. It's still there and as random as ever and may be due to what Nick mentioned about crossing scenery sectors. I fly out of Winslow, Arizona which is desert terrain and either go West to Prescott ( a mixture of desert and forest) or go South to Payson which is primarily forest. I'll pay attention and see if the issue occurs when I transition from the desert terrain around Winslow into the forest regions around Payson and Flagstaff.My system specs:AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6400+ 4 GB RAM Nvidia 8800Gt 512MB DDR3 WinXP Home SP2 WD 150GB 10krpm HD+ WD 75GB 10K rpm HD (not RAID config'd)My FSX: SP2 (no Acceleration) GEX enhanced UTX Ultimate Traffic Mega scenery Phoenix Settings as close to those NickN recommended Have SceneryTech's NorthAmerican landclass but have it turned off in the FSX Scenery Library (too many structures displayed in a very sparsly populated rural region). Am currently awaiting FSGenesis bundle to give that a try. All in all am really pleased with the smoothness of the sim at the current settings and the great visuals provided by GEXe and UTX. The pauses and stutters are incidental but would like to nail down the cause and a possible fix if possible.

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Guest Nick_N

Good hunting Chief1942Hopefully you can get some clues going if you see it again. Those drivers are still doing well for me but like many things in computers, what works best in driver revisions can vary from system to system.post back the findings

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Guest Chief1942

Have done some more flights trying to pin this down. Would like to ask the original poster if they use TIR-4. I use this and on one of my test flights while in an outside view with the pan controlled by the Track IR, I kept getting the stutters/pause at random intervals. Not so in the VC with the TIR as best I could tell. Was thinking perhaps it is the computer trying to keep up with the graphics display demands made by the rapidly and constantly changing views presented via TIR. Will continue the quest. Love a challenge but am not that computer savvy that I can put a technical description to the possible causes. Onward and upward.

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Guest Chief1942

Well I think I have eliminated the TIR as the source of my stutters/pauses. The issue is so random that I can't really get a handle on what might be causing it. Been adjusting sliders(Practically wore out my slider screen)and trying various Nvidia drivers and all I've noticed is sometimes the stutters are severe and then they simply disappear not to be seen until the next time I start FSX. Throwing in the towel on this as I find myself doing more tinkering than flying and that is really why I do flight sims in the first palce. Hope someone much more talented in this area than I stumbles over the solution. In the meantime, upward and onward.

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Guest abulaafia

Thanks for the input everyone. Although I am no closer to finding the source. :(I do use Track IR, yes, but the stutter occurs without it too. Thank you David for the check-list, but that was a bit too basic:) Tried all that. I am taking notes now and it seems it - only occurs on the ground or close to ground. - occurs more often with full autogen and full AI. I spoke to a GPU tech wizzard at Asustek who assures me that based on my process logs, no files are being accessed during the stutter. That means it's got nothing to do with hard disk load. He assures me that it is most likely a video memory issue, and he went on to vent his anger over bad nvidia drivers and their lack of tech skills, bad cooperation with motherboard manufactures since they brought out there own, and what not. Didn't help me much though :) I have removed all add-ons and anti-virus software and made a clean install of FSX only. See how that goes.

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Guest abulaafia

same here. a bit frustrating, but not really a major issue.which OS are you running?

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Guest Chief1942

Would certainly be interested in your efforts to pin down the problem. Although there are a lot more powerful machines than mine out there, I am inclined to believe it is not associated with any particular hardware deficiency. As matter of fact, I didn't have any of the pauses/stutters on my original installation of FSX with SP1 & 2. It seems to have started after I began adding additional upgrades in aircraft ( 737PIC, Shockwaves P40, P-53) and the very desirous eye candy that comes in the form of GEXn, UTX, FSGenesis,and Ultimate Traffic). If the core of the problem lies within any of those acquisitions, it is waaay beyond me to ascertain and I certainly do not want to do a complete delete and re-install of FSX as it works now. I'm sure to make a bigger problem than the ones with the stutters/pauses. By the way, I am running WinXP Home SP2.Good luck.

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Guest Chief1942

>do you use 1 or 2 monitors ?Using 1 Viewsonic LCD monitor 1280X1024 native resolution.

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Guest abulaafia

well, I don't want to jinx it, but since removing all anti-virus software and upgrading to Vista SP1, the problem hasn't reappeared. Need a few more days though to verify.

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