FSX freezes randomly

[Guest abulaafia]

i7 975 w/ no Jobscheduler or Affinitymask set. MB has hyper threading turned off. My only config edit is disable preload.

interesting. I have the same processor and no hanging since I put Affinitymask=15. But it may be too early to tell, I've only done 20 hours of flying since the change. But I do think the minute-long hangs have something to do with tread collisions, since I have pretty much ruled out everything else. The problem only seems to occur on quadcores.

[ahuimanu 50]

Hi Guys,After updating the Bios, setting ACPI in the Bios (P6T Deluxe V2) and also upping the speed on my video card's fan, I didn't see it again until last night.Same CPU as you both: i7 975I'll try the Affinity Mask bit next.Still trying to solve this problem. I always know when I've suffered a freeze as Flight Sim Commander will have been disconnected when FSX freezes. This is unfortunate as long-haul/heavy metal is my preferred use of the sim.

[JohnE 0]

Well I was doing ok with Affinitymask set at 15 until tonight :( I'm gonna try to sit through it and see if it will resume.I waited 12 minutes it never came back. I did notice all 4 cores were pinned @100% I tried to disable core 0 but it made no difference.

[Guest abulaafia]

ah, shame. there goes another theory. I have not had any freezes in over 50 hours now, but I have only done JS41 1-3 hour hops. The freezes are much more likely at high altitude and long flights. I've never had it happen in VFR below 10'000 for example. It might just be a glitch in the FSX engine that asserts itself on quadcores. Has anyone with dual cores experienced the freezing?What about seeting the Affinitymask to use fewer than 4 cores. Does it occur then?

[ahuimanu 50]

Yeah,I got it with AffinityMask = 15 again last night. My habit, for years now, was to set a flight up, go to bed, and then wake up and finish the flight. I know I'm getting these freezes pauses becuase FlightSim Commander will have disconnected and the time in the sim will be between 5 and 10 minutes off. I never had this on Vista 64 bit, but I sure do on Windows 7 64 bit. So, I've had this behavior since October. Sure wish I knew where to start. I have a theory that it might be a saturated PCI-E bus, but I guess I'd have to do quite a bit more measuring to see.Also, I notice John and I both run UT2. Now, I didn't have problems with a dual-core, vista 64 and UT2 on a previous machine (Intel X6800, ASUS P5W DH Deluxe Mobo, 4 Gigs RAM, various vid cards), nor did I have a problem running quad-core, vista 64 and UT2 on a machine I've had since August (Intel i7 975, P6T Deluxe V2 Mobo, 6 Gigs RAM, nVidia 285 GTX). However, since I've put Windows 7 on this machine (fresh install), there's been trouble. Bios is up-to-date, I have ACPI turned on, I have hyperthreading turned off.Dunno.

[Guest abulaafia]

Yeah,I got it with AffinityMask = 15 again last night. My habit, for years now, was to set a flight up, go to bed, and then wake up and finish the flight. I know I'm getting these freezes pauses becuase FlightSim Commander will have disconnected and the time in the sim will be between 5 and 10 minutes off. I never had this on Vista 64 bit, but I sure do on Windows 7 64 bit. So, I've had this behavior since October. Sure wish I knew where to start. I have a theory that it might be a saturated PCI-E bus, but I guess I'd have to do quite a bit more measuring to see.Also, I notice John and I both run UT2. Now, I didn't have problems with a dual-core, vista 64 and UT2 on a previous machine (Intel X6800, ASUS P5W DH Deluxe Mobo, 4 Gigs RAM, various vid cards), nor did I have a problem running quad-core, vista 64 and UT2 on a machine I've had since August (Intel i7 975, P6T Deluxe V2 Mobo, 6 Gigs RAM, nVidia 285 GTX). However, since I've put Windows 7 on this machine (fresh install), there's been trouble. Bios is up-to-date, I have ACPI turned on, I have hyperthreading turned off.Dunno.

I have your exact setup with the P6T, but I also had the freezing on my old machine and Vista 64. If anything I have it less now with Win7. Can you try Affinitymask 14 or 7 to leave a core free and see if that makes a difference. I don't see PCI-E bus load as a factor, because it happens often over water at night, with nothing to load for the bus. I have ruled out BIOS, ACPI, Hyperthreading, and hardware in general. Here is another lead; Do you guys use input devices such as yokes and rudders. If yes, which?

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

I have to stand on the soapbox..and yell that this club is not exclusive. I have had three episodes of what everybody here is describing. You are going along, and all of a sudden, the screen freezes. You check it out, and find that your O.S. (system) has NOT had any BSOD, or fatal errors. If you close FSX down with Task Manager, you can start right up again, or use your system for anything else. FSX seems to be only affected. As others have reported, while the screen is frozen, your sound of engines, whatever is running as normal, and not looping.Totally weird. Of course, this is not happening (well, with me anyway...) with FS9.xI hope that we all nail it down, soon.On the hunch of someone, I just downloaded and installed the latest (posted Jan 10/2010) FSUIPC from Pete's site. Someone postulated that it might be all that it takes...running the latest. I let you all know if that was/is the case.Mitch

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

I think that I have it! Until I took a user's suggestion the other day (about two days ago...) and stopped using the FSP Limiter Software (which I have set to the default 30 FPS limit), I had never had a freeze. I have ONLY had the freeze when having set FSX internally to 30 fps, and NOT HAVING USED THE LIMTER SOFTWARE. I just took a 20 minute flight with FSX set to unlimited inside, and the FPS Limiter running the limit show. Guess what?No freezes! I think that everybody is right that there is a thread collision problem, that is alleviated (that is why the software was created in the first place...) by using the software to limit to 30 fps, but leaving FSX itself..as unlimited.All of you...please run the limiter with FSX as unlimited in graphics display...and then go for your normal flight where you have had freezing issues. See if they have 'thawed'....Post Edit: GOOD NEWS! Freezing issue gone with using FSX at unlimited and FPS Software Limiter v2.0 at 30 FPS. I just flew a flight from Sedona, AZ to Phoenix, AZ where yesterday under just FSX set to 30 FPS internally, I had a freeze halfway between departing and destination. Everything this morning was the same except for now having run FPS Limiter. Hopefully, this will end the symptom until someone perhaps can come up with a in-game solution.MitchMitch

[McCrash 3]

Assuming no hardware and driver problems you could try working backwards by removing add-ons one at a time and then testing and see what happens.If you have a 32bit O/S then you could be running out of system resources.Get rid of the tweaks you are using too, they are not always the answer and they could be outdated.ORRe-install everything one at a time and test each step.If you have an O/S with UAC, then turn it off.Test your memory modules one at a time using memtest86. Get the free Windows download and following the instructions. http://www.memtest86.com/You could check for errors listed under Computer Management Windows Logs.

[JohnE 0]

I use a Saitek yoke w/2 throttles and just added Saitek pedals, I had CH ones prior. I've gone 20 hours+ between freezes the most recent was KSLC-KDEN. Afterwords I installed the UT2 beta and disabled ASA then reloaded FSX and the same flight and completed it on the next go, I also did the return flight with no trouble. I'm not gonna say this is my solution until I hit at least 25 hours at which point I will add ASA back into the mix. I've wondered about UT2 only because it seems to keep running when the freeze happens despite RC4 & FSX both showing 'not responding' and all four cores are pegged @ 100%. I also suspect ASA a little because this was an issue prior to SP1. In all the cases I never receive any errors in the event logs, believe me I've checked long and hard!I do use the in sim FPS limiter and have it set @60, If I don't limit it I get horrible stutters when panning, FPS limiter couldn't hurt to try. The only config tweak I use is disable preload and I left the affinitymask=15 in.

[McCrash 3]

I use a Saitek yoke w/2 throttles and just added Saitek pedals, I had CH ones prior. I've gone 20 hours+ between freezes the most recent was KSLC-KDEN. Afterwords I installed the UT2 beta and disabled ASA then reloaded FSX and the same flight and completed it on the next go, I also did the return flight with no trouble. I'm not gonna say this is my solution until I hit at least 25 hours at which point I will add ASA back into the mix. I've wondered about UT2 only because it seems to keep running when the freeze happens despite RC4 & FSX both showing 'not responding' and all four cores are pegged @ 100%. I also suspect ASA a little because this was an issue prior to SP1. In all the cases I never receive any errors in the event logs, believe me I've checked long and hard!I do use the in sim FPS limiter and have it set @60, If I don't limit it I get horrible stutters when panning, FPS limiter couldn't hurt to try. The only config tweak I use is disable preload and I left the affinitymask=15 in.

Are you using FSX SP2? It not try it.If you suspect ASA then un-install it. Also the panning rate in FSX is rather fast so you could adjust it down some.I suggest not using the frame rate limiter and setting your FSX frame rate at 20 and the affinitymask at 3 with no other tweaks.Then use Nick's tuning guide http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=29041 and the nHancer settings if you are using nVidia video card.

[JohnE 0]

Are you using FSX SP2? It not try it.If you suspect ASA then un-install it. Also the panning rate in FSX is rather fast so you could adjust it down some.I suggest not using the frame rate limiter and setting your FSX frame rate at 20 and the affinitymask at 3 with no other tweaks.Then use Nick's tuning guide http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=29041 and the nHancer settings if you are using nVidia video card.

Thanks for your response McCrash :( I should have mentioned I use TH2Go across 3x 25.5" monitors so its a lot of real estate to load when looking around! I have TiR4 and slowed it considerably but still get the effect. I have limited FPS to 20, 22, 30 & now 60 and it really doesn't seem to matter each setting cures my stutters. Why no to the FPS limiter? I will try the affinitymask=3 and possibly a few other affinitymask settings as well and see how it goes. I have used Nick's guide and I've found it extremely helpful! I have not however had much luck with nHancer, even when I was using Vista64 and before that XP64. I think this may be a setting that doesn't get along well with Matrox's TH2Go. It does work wonders on my second CPU which is only 1 monitor and has the same video card. Finally I do suspect ASA but I can't prove it and I'd rather not make a fuss on their forums with a theory. So as I said if I can get through a 20-25 hour stretch (8 hours so far) and then reintroduce it and receive the freeze again I at least have a little something to go on, right?

[Guest abulaafia]

Interesting JohnE that you are using the Saitek yoke. You are the forth user reporting freezing with the yoke. IT's not ASA, because people have the freeze who never used ASA.We have long ago established that it happens at any FPS limit setting, including Unlimted. Nevertheless, lets try this: who out there freezes and doesn't have Saitek yoke?Who has experienced the freeze with unlimited frames?pls. report your other hardware and settings if convenient

[McCrash 3]

Thanks for your response McCrash :( I should have mentioned I use TH2Go across 3x 25.5" monitors so its a lot of real estate to load when looking around! I have TiR4 and slowed it considerably but still get the effect. I have limited FPS to 20, 22, 30 & now 60 and it really doesn't seem to matter each setting cures my stutters. Why no to the FPS limiter? I will try the affinitymask=3 and possibly a few other affinitymask settings as well and see how it goes. I have used Nick's guide and I've found it extremely helpful! I have not however had much luck with nHancer, even when I was using Vista64 and before that XP64. I think this may be a setting that doesn't get along well with Matrox's TH2Go. It does work wonders on my second CPU which is only 1 monitor and has the same video card. Finally I do suspect ASA but I can't prove it and I'd rather not make a fuss on their forums with a theory. So as I said if I can get through a 20-25 hour stretch (8 hours so far) and then reintroduce it and receive the freeze again I at least have a little something to go on, right?

I don't have a TH2Go so I was wondering if it has it's own software to install? If your video card has two outputs then try removing the TH2Go and use two monitors and see if the freezing goes away. Freezing could also be due to heat or a loss in resources.What O/S are you using and is it 32bit or 64bit?

[Guest Netexpode]

I have serious frame rate issues with FSX. Even with the games default settings or lower i only manage to get 6.5 at most. You can see my system specs at the bottom of here. Someone told me this is because i am using a 64bit OS.I dont have DX10 enabled in the game and the Nvidia control panel is set for FSX if this helps.All other games run maxed out with no trouble so what does anyone think the problem might be??Thanks.