Anyone found a solution for the stuttering/pause in 4.01?

[grajay 2]

There really doesn't seem to be any really simple answer (otherwise someone clever would have popped up with it). For example, I have quite a low grade spec pc AMD Athlon XP3000 2.17GHz - 1Gb RAM and I have nothing like the problems mentioned above. I guess one of the real difficulties as outlined by Ray above is that very few of the beta team (if any) have the stutters and so the 'fix' is difficult to nail.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

Hi Martin and all,We had a discussion amongst the beta testers and someone mentioned he was running RC4 on a separate hard drive to FS9 and he wasn't sufferring with pauses, stutters etc. Now it so happens that I am also running RC4 on a separate drive without problem so I wonder if this might be a factor. Given the number of times RC needs to access the drive if FS is also trying to access data at the same time then there are going to be delays whilst data is recovered.If you have a spare hard drive then try installing RC4 to that. I appreciate it's a pain because of the large number of files and you will need a new key of course but it could be the answer. It's certainly worth a try and more palatable perhaps than junking the Athlon for a Pentium ;-)Cheers,

[Darcy 63]

I don't think its the Athlon vs Pentium because I have a Pentium and have the problem. Do you think it could have anything to do with the "Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching"? This is under hard drive properties. I have this unchecked.Maybe those who are getting the stutter/pausing might let me know whether that is checked or unchecked? I hate to reinstall then uninstall then reinstall.Also if anyone tried putting RC4.01 on another drive and this corrected the problem could you let us know.Thanks

[Guest Dutch64]

HI, I have it installed on a seperate (almost dedicated ;) ) harddisk and it made no difference in the stutters. I was also thinking about the indexing service and just unchecked it to see if it would make a difference but according to your post i don't think so then ;)But i keep trying, i will now disable write caching on the disk ;)

[Peter Z KCLE_EDDN 336]

Hi there,I'm suffering from stutters as well, however I'm willing to do anything to help get this fixed as the faster voices made this program what I consider "the perfect ATC addon"!!!!Unfortunately I don't have a spare PC but I'm willing to try out anything. I am running FS9 from a clean boot (msconfig) and defrag once a week or after adding/removing software. I'm also using avast, which is turned off while simming though. I have a generic sound card with latest drivers but it sure is not a creative card ;-)See my sig for system info. Let me know if I should provide more detail.Cheers,Petehttp://members.aol.com/pzsoulman/myhomepage/logo.gifAMD64-3400,1GB/2700DDRAM,WinXP(SP2),DirectX9.0c,Geforce6800(128MB)(Det.71.89), CH Yoke/Pedals

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

Hi Darcy,I hope I wasn't suggesting Pentium = Good, Athlon = Bad. I just said that of those who had reported the problems more had Athlons than Pentiums.Good suggestion on the indexing service but mine is enabled and doesn't cause a problem. But try it - there's nothing to lose.Also, change one thing at a time. Try reverting from a PMDG737/747 panel to a default one for a single flight and see if that makes a difference. Try the default weather instead of AS6. Keep your hard drives defragmented. Shutdown anti-virus programs of course.I've just had a suggestion from JD. Try lowering your scenery complexity levels to medium adn see if that makes a difference. Anthing that takes some of the pressure off the CPU allowing it more cycles will help. You all know your systems better than us. If anyone on the team had this problem we'd be bombarding them with questions. If only...Cheers,

[Guest Dutch64]

Hi all again ;)Tried indexing on and off, write cache on and off, no difference. What i would like to try is a completely different harddisk, other brand, etc. Is there a way to move the installation to a different hd or do i have to reinstall it all then?Martin

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

Hi Martin,Once you introduce new hardware to your system you may require another key. But that won't be a problem. Just send the info to Rick.Copy the whole RC4 folder to the new drive and then open RegEdit and do a find and replace on Radar Contact replacing the old drive letter with the new one. That should work. You might post details of the old/new drives for info.Thanks,

[Guest IanPartridge]

Evening all.....I was lucky enough to help beta test the update and I have to say I found no problems as mentioned above. I use an AMD XP3700+ with 2GB PC3200 an GeForce 6600 and a Maxtor 7200 120GB disk. RC runs via WideFS. My guess would be that the issue has to be with CPU/hard drive access bottleneck. I've listed below a few of the tweaks that I use which have certainly helped my system run to the best of its ability, perhaps they may help some of you!I use systembooster xp which is free to try for 30 dayswww.systembooster.comThis tweak does not only apply to folders but also programs. Basically when you run a program it gets its own memory allocation. It also gives you a much more stable system. Programs run faster but it does also utilize more RAMUnder - My Computer/Tools/Folder Options/View - check "Launch folder windows in a seperate process" this allows each operation to have its own memory address rather that swapping out everytime some thing runs - should only be used with 1GB memory and above and will also increase stability.***WARNING - DO NOT USE THIS TWEAK IF YOU ARE USING AN ATI VIDEO CARD. IT COULD LEAVE YOUR SYSTEM UNBOOTABLE***Under - CONTROL PANEL/SYSTEM/ADVANCED/PERFORMANCE/SETTINGS/ADVANCED/MEMORY USAGE. Change the option from Programs to System Cache.

[Guest Dutch64]

Nice tips, i will try some out tonight. Ray, it's another existing hard disk which i will use so i think i won't need another key.This evening i will try out and if anything comes out i will post here ;)Martin

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

Hi Ian,Thanks for posting those tips but one that caught my eye could cause a problem...<

[Ckeatin 0]

I'm one of the few beta testers (the only one??) that is having the same problems as you unfortunately. Just didn't want you to think you were alone ;-)Currently I have an internal harddrive I'm running both FS9 and RC4 off of. I also have a Maxtor 200 gig external hd I use for backup only. I'm going to test running RC4 off of the external and see if it makes any difference. I'll report back.Thanks.

[Guest IanPartridge]

Hi Ray.....That very thought did cross my mind - the reason I included it was that although FS would be the main "foreground" program the majority of the time when RC rquires the CPU it should then put it ahead of other programs... but then hey if it don't work it can always be put back!! :)Happy flyin'Ian

[jd 57]

a high priority task will give less time to a lower priority task. let windows handle the processing allocation. it does a pretty good job.it would be interesting to see what would happen if fs9 was on one hyperthreaded cpu, and rc on the other.jd

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

Hi JD,<>I have the ability to do this. Currently I just leave FS9 and RC4 to share resources on my Hyperthreading P4 3.0 and they do a good job. It is possible to set the affinity for selected executables. Anyone who is suffering poor RC4 performance with a P4 with hyperthreading might like to try this...1. With FS9 and RC4 running right-click the taskbar and select Task Manager.2. Select the Processes tab, locate FS9.EXE and right-click the entry.3. From the popup menu select Set Affinity... and deselect CPU1 (leaving FS9 allocated to CPU0.4. Now select the RC4.EXE entry, right-click it and select Set Affinity... This time deselect CPU0 leaving RC4 allocated to CPU1.Run FS9/RC4 without doing this and then again after doing it and see if there's any difference in performance.Cheers,