FSX goes 'Not responding' for 7 minutes and then resumes?!

[A36 Apache 0]

Precisely what I meant!After this discussion I can see that I will be taking up with IVAO. I am betting, since you say thousands, not many are Vista users with the latest technologies and your type of sound system, but I could very well be wrong.

[WebMaximus 372]

Maybe you're right it's not that strange after all since like you say many of those flying aren't using Vista etc.I wish I had one of those sound cards you recommended above just to try if it would do any difference. Like I said I would be more than willing to pay those $ for such a sound card if I knew that would solve this problem but likewise I'm not that tempted to spend those $ if nothing changes and the problem remains.

[Guest ziporama]

I suspect the issue is more driver related. The hourglass (circle) in Vista only indicates that the process is either waiting or stuck.Things I would check:- Make sure your video card isn't resetting itself in the middle of the FSX session. It could be caused by overheating and the symptoms you describe could well be explained by this. I would monitor the stats of your video card using ATI Tools (works with ATI or Nvidia and all flavors of Windows XP or Vista, including Vista 64). This will let you verify that the video system is working properly.- The issue can also be caused by a read error on the disk, which may or may not give you an event log. Procmon from SysInternals would let you know if your application is waiting on an IO read. This can happen if your system is configured to use the auto-correct features of some of the newer drives.- If I read correctly, a post in this threads mentions FSX is not multi-CPU able. FSX is in fact multi-threaded except for the main rendering pipeline, and can use up to 3 cores on my system. The affinity can be set to a single processor as well in the CFG file. - A network I/O may be the issue, but in most cases, network clients will have a timeout on packets and you would get some kind of connection error. Just to throw this out, ensure your ISP is not blocking you, a subject of recent lawsuits on the subject. A year ago playing Battlefield Europe, people in Sweden would get blocked because of a dispute between ISPs. The symptoms were random delays and occasional little or no connectivity, yet few errors reported on the client. Again, unlikely that your PC would go out to lunch for 7 minutes, some kind of error should pop up on connection with FSX online clients (IVAO or VATSIM).- just for grins and giggles, try FSX without sound. Do you still have the problem?Cheers,Etienne

[WebMaximus 372]

Thanks for your input Etienne, I'll keep troubleshooting this issue and keep you all posted on my progress.As for the temperatures I don't think that should be an issue here since I have both my CPU, GPU and Northbridge water-cooled. Haven't checked the temps for a while now though so might be worth a try just to make sure everything still is fine in those areas.Doing a flight without sound is also a good idea I might try on some of my next flights.

[Guest Seadog]

Richard - Two things. Have you gone into Device Manager and to each USB port - or at least to the one used by the speakers if you can identify it - and unchecked the option to allow the computer to turn off power to the port? And, don't you have integrated onboard sound that you could use as a cross check to see if using the USB port is the source of the problem, avoiding for now having to buy a separate sound card? Hope you solve it.-Doug

[WebMaximus 372]

Hi Doug!As for disable the power consumption for the USB root HUBs I've already done that but thanks anyway.It's true I also have a built-in soundcard I could try but if my memory serves me right I belive I noticed this problem also before getting my USB speakers so I honestly still doubt the sound devices are really the problem here but rather the IvAp client...especially now after others have reported the same problem and with the same experience as me that the problem will only exist when you have IvAp running.Anyways I've done some changes to my system making use of many of the tips in this thread (thanks again to all for that!) and tomorrow I hope I will find some time for experimenting and do some flying and see what happens. What I've done so far is to create a page file also on my system partition making it 1.5 times my RAM which is what is recommended and I have also disabled some more programs that I had running but that really don't need to be running all the time. Then if these thing don't do any difference and I still have the problem I will try to disable the sound all together in FSX on a flight and/or try to only use my built-in sound card and see what that will do to the problem. I will also have my Data Collector set collecting performance info plus using both Process Explorer and Process Monitor in the background so...I hope all this logging will not kill FSX now instead ;-)Will keep you posted...

[A36 Apache 0]

Unfortunately, I have already run into the same problem with on board sound and USB myself. I'm totally against using both at the same time by the way. I had a similar issue myself. Not in FSX but another online game that hits the CPU just as hard. It's the very reason I went to a sound card that uses very little, if any, CPU. Network traffic is a lot heavier in that program, so perhaps it isn't your problem.Once again, page file initial size should be 1.5 times your RAM and maximum size 3 times your RAM (although for maximum you can go higher). You could also remove drivers for both sound systems, clean your system of sound drivers and turn off on board sound within the BIOS as a final test, but hopefully before you get to that point your data collection approach will reveal the problem nicely.

[WebMaximus 372]

So...just ended a test flight and nothing has changed...experienced the problem maybe half an hour into the flight and like so many times before it happened when I switched out to the Desktop for a while and then when I tried switching back to FSX it went 'Not responding' and this time for 4 minutes until it resumed again.For some reason my data collector set only ran for a couple of minutes and then it stopped for some reason so I wasn't able to check what things looked like when the problem occured. When FSX was in it's 'Not responding' state I checked in both Process Monitor and Process Explorer but wasn't sure exactly what to look for and couldn't see anything special - all the FSX related processes were still there just like before the problem occured including IvAp and well...like I said I couldn't see anything special. Did notice (like I already have done before) that FSX didn't use up any CPU time compared to when it's running normally when it usually is in the range between 50-80% CPU time. Also looked while FSX was running normally how the load was spread over the cores and one core was almost at 100% constantly where the other 3 cores were somewhere between 50-60%.I'm getting real sick of this problem, maybe I should join my son and have a good time in front of our PS3 instead...less problems there ;-)If I find the time for it I will give this one more shot tomorrow with no sound devices enabled at all and if that would make the problem go away maybe I'll then pay a visit to our local PC store and invest in a new sound card. I checked their range of sound cards and they seem to have a number of different brands and models to choose from, what would you recommend that won't burden the CPU but still not cost a fortune?Also since I like to have the ATC communication in my headset rather than having that sound mixed up with all other sounds in FSX I guess I would also need to buy two sound cards or is there a better solution how to separate the ATC comm from the other FSX sounds? For ATC when flying online I use TeamSpeak where I can choose what sound device should be used both for input and output. Thinking about it I'm not even sure if I have two free PCI-E slots in my PC so if that is the case I will have to find another solution and hope there is one...how do you guys handle your sound when flying online with voice ATC in FSX?

[Guest abulaafia]

Just to let you know I am never flying online and I have had the exact same problem you describe on my PC since day one. Very infrequent it is, sometimes I fly a month without it occurring, but once in a while it happens. I have had FSX be "not responding" for more than 15 minutes though, and as little as 20 seconds. I reinstalled everything 4 times, switching from 32 bit to 64 bit twice, no luck. I have no clue what to try next ... the sound issue recommendations mentioned above seem very far fetched to me. It only happens with SP2 installed, not SP1, so I guess its the usual: a Microsoft bug.

[WebMaximus 372]

Thanks for your input and letting me know.Yes, this indeed is one tricky problem to solve and must say I'm also running out of ideas...which is too bad since I really want to be able to fly again without having the fun spoiled by this annoying bug!!

[Guest abulaafia]

let's help each other thenI have confirmed that is has nothing to do with any add-on, the Vista version, or FSX configuration.Have you ever tried different core settings (e.g. using only 3 cores rather than all 4?

[WebMaximus 372]

Hi Marten,When you say you have confirmed that the problem has nothing to do with any add-on...how can you be so sure about that? In my case for instance I have not seen this problem ONCE when flying offline, I only see it when flying online and have IvAp running. On my last flight yesterday I didn't even connect to IVAO but just started IvAp and that was enough to trigger the problem.No, I haven't tried changing what cores FSX runs on but don't you think there would be LOTS of people having this problem if that was the culprit considering the amount of people who have QUAD CPUs?What I've done now is to make 100% sure I don't have any old or corrupt drivers laying around in my setup. I've done this by first unplugging my USB sound system and then carried on by uninstalling both my graphics and onboard sound device under Control Panel->Program and Features, then removing the devices in Device Manager and after that disabling my onboard sound card in BIOS, then booted into Safe Mode to run a tool called Driver Sweeper and finally went through both my system partition on a file level but also thoroughly went through the Registry to manually delete any left-overs.Guess next step will now be to try FSX again and this first time without any sound at all (even though I still find it hard to belive that would be the culprit) and then if that goes well I will maybe take my chances and by a good sound card that uses as little CPU as possible. My thinking is that even if that is not what is causing this particular problem it will still be a good investment since I have learned both from here but after reading in other forums that having a good soundcard which doesn't load your CPU will in most cases increase your FPS regardless of what simulation/game you're using...makes sense and unfortunately I didn't think about that when I bought my USB sound system...at that time the only thing I had in mind was how convenient it was to avoid having a separate sound card installed...how naive I was thinking there is such a thing as a free lunch...;-)

[Guest abulaafia]

I said its not add-on related because I have had it happen on a clean FSX installation, with absolutely nothing installed.Nevertheless, I have a brand new hard disk and some time this weekend hopefully to make a complete fresh install of Vista 64 + FSX. I will also install the motherboard vendors sound drivers for the first time (used Vista default so far). I'll let you know how it goes.

[WebMaximus 372]

Sounds like you'll have your schedule full this weekend, good luck and looking forward to hear your results!What I find so strange with this problem is why we are so few having it because I don't think my setup is special in any way and running FSX with SP2 on Vista can't be that unique...I think the best way to really track this problem down would be with help from Microsoft and maybe some kind of debug tool or similar that would clearly show what exactly is going on "behind the scenes" when this problem occur and of course what causes it in the first place but guess you need to be a programmer to understand that...which I'm not.Keep us posted!

[WebMaximus 372]

>Also since I like to have the ATC communication in my headset>rather than having that sound mixed up with all other sounds>in FSX I guess I would also need to buy two sound cards or is>there a better solution how to separate the ATC comm from the>other FSX sounds? For ATC when flying online I use TeamSpeak>where I can choose what sound device should be used both for>input and output. Thinking about it I'm not even sure if I>have two free PCI-E slots in my PC so if that is the case I>will have to find another solution and hope there is one...how>do you guys handle your sound when flying online with voice>ATC in FSX?I'm still hoping for a reply to this, what is the best way to separate the ATC sound (TeamSpeak) from the in-game sounds