Sim version 1.4.14.0  nVidia Driver 576.20  Win 11 23H2 current

I enjoyed several extended sim sessions since Steam upgraded my Beta to 1.4.14.0.  Rock steady 60 FPS (capped)  High and Ultra settings  LODs>200.  Lots of detailed airports and scenery. Long flights in the Honda Jet at altitude and low level brush runs in the C182.  All was good yesterday and today.

Then, this evening, the sim started "freezing" and would not recognize any input from any device.  The sounds coming out were a blurpy static burst of about 1/2 second every three or so seconds.   Once that started I could only kill the sim with Task Manager or Alt+F4.  The first time it happened was 30-minutes into a flight, the next time 5-minutes in, then several sim sessions froze when I clicked on Ready with the plane cold and dark on the ramp.  Then several sessions went several minutes  to 10 minutes before they froze.  

I retreated to an empty community folder but the sim still freezes.

The RTX 4070S is only about 70% busy, only 9 of 12 GB VRAM is in use, and the CPU/GPU temperatures are both relatively cool.  

What the heck happened and how do I unhappen it?

If you mean driver 576.02, that driver is bugged (temp sensor). Your GPU is probably overheating. Install the hotfix driver 576.15 and it will most likely solve your problems.

I had a similar experience on two occasions, with the sim freezing as soon as the main menu appeared. This is what I did:

Deleted all Nvidia caches, also DirectX cache

Community folder is empty

in C:\Users-user-\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 I deleted Content.xml, exe.xml, UserCfg.opt, FlightSimulator2024.CFG

in C:\Users-user-\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 I deleted Cache, SceneryIndexes, SimObjects\Airplanes, WASM\MSFS2024 folders

deleted ROLLINGCACHE.CCC

And this was the solution (advice from the official forum):

"Try to delete your cloud save files in Steam.
First turn off the cloud save funcionality in Steam, the navigate to your C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\50622762\2537590 folder:
Here try delete first the remotecache.vdf file and try to load the game. If it still not working, go in the remote subfolder and delete the datausage, localprofile and profile_00 files.
For me it solved it, but if you delete all 4 files, you’ll lose some settings. At least your inputprofiles will stay, just have to reselect them."

Good luck!

EIDT: it could be Nvidia drivers, tho! I had nothing but trouble with the latest, so I am still on 566.36

Edited April 28, 20251 yr by Jure
Added information

10 hours ago, TacomaSailor said:

Sim version 1.4.14.0  nVidia Driver 576.20  Win 11 23H2 current

I enjoyed several extended sim sessions since Steam upgraded my Beta to 1.4.14.0.  Rock steady 60 FPS (capped)  High and Ultra settings  LODs>200.  Lots of detailed airports and scenery. Long flights in the Honda Jet at altitude and low level brush runs in the C182.  All was good yesterday and today.

Then, this evening, the sim started "freezing" and would not recognize any input from any device.  The sounds coming out were a blurpy static burst of about 1/2 second every three or so seconds.   Once that started I could only kill the sim with Task Manager or Alt+F4.  The first time it happened was 30-minutes into a flight, the next time 5-minutes in, then several sim sessions froze when I clicked on Ready with the plane cold and dark on the ramp.  Then several sessions went several minutes  to 10 minutes before they froze.  

I retreated to an empty community folder but the sim still freezes.

The RTX 4070S is only about 70% busy, only 9 of 12 GB VRAM is in use, and the CPU/GPU temperatures are both relatively cool.  

What the heck happened and how do I unhappen it?

Can you confirm it does not „unfreeze“ once you open (only open) the task manager?

EDIT: And you do not use the A350, right? Because that one creates CTD en masse at the moment.

Edited April 28, 20251 yr by Fiorentoni

Not sure. As this happens in 2024 as well ( I assume you're mentioning 2020 since there is nothing indicated) and that was regardless of nvidia drivers or fixes.

When you have a Streaming Architecture it's only time before something breaks.

Then you get Freezes, CTD's or BSOD's.

Dumbest idea.

Edited April 28, 20251 yr by Greazer

The streaming must end.

Edited April 28, 20251 yr by Greazer

1 hour ago, Greazer said:

The streaming must end.

Well, it would be good to have some choice at least. 

I believe Asobo said that they will look at having the choice for more stuff being able to be downloaded rather than streamed. 
Although as usual with Asobo, I won't hold my breath waiting for a decision on this.

Thanks for all the good ideas.

The GPU was running in the low 70°C range - I keep that temp display on the screen all the time.

I did verify the freeze remains when I activate Task Manager.  In several of the freezes Terminate in Task Manager did not rid the system of the sim.  I had to go back into Steam and click on STOP.

Interesting suggestions about the clouds.  I did recently start using Active Sky and a couple other cloud/weather presets.  My first freeze occurred when I tried to make an airport approach with a light thunderstorm on the departure end of the runway.  Subsequent freezes occurred with heavy winds/fast dense clouds as a preset and the freeze at Ready was when I switched from live weather to Heavy TS while sitting on the runway. 

I will deactive Active Sky and delete the cloud/weather presets and then if necessary found the steps described by Jure.