FSX...... pauses

[DaveB]

Hi Gang

I've been playing around in FSX of late (as you do with COD) and have managed, probably by accident, to get it running pretty much how I want to see it. None of this sliders maxed out lark either.. the only thing I've adjusted from a 'new make' config is the sea which seems to go a bit cranky unless I have a reasonable level of detail (only since GenXv2 I might add) and I've moved the frame lock from 20 to 25fps (it seemed to judder a little at 20).

Now.. I can poodle around for so long then I get hit by a 5 second pause. The sim doesn't judder.. it simply stops dead as if I'd hit the pause button. However, unlike hitting the pause button.. after the 5 seconds has passed it continues smoothly on it's way again, no catching up or anything like that. Is it because I've got a cr@p system or what??

Asus P5Q Deluxe
Intel P5 E8400
2 x SataII 500gb drives
Nvidia 8800GTX 768mb DDR3
2gb Crucial Ballistix
WinXP Home SP3

I know that 2gb of system ram is old hat these days but with a 32-bit O/S, going ludicrous is pointless. Crucial (in their wisdom and with a desire to sell me something) would recommend 3gb as they did with my XP3200 under WinXP but almost without exception, I read that less than 3gb is more stable and less prone to errors on a 32-bit O/S. I'd have thought a 768mb graphics card would be sufficient but in these days of 1TB+.. perhaps not. I see disc activity when the pauses happen but I see that in FSX/9 anyway. I'm guessing that it's a combination of all of the above that's causing the problem.. old, restrictive O/S.. lack of system ram e t c so the only way out is to go Win7 and throw a truck load of ram at it?? It looks for all the world like a bottleneck but I don't really know how to get out of it (or go around it) without doing something drastic
I don't think it's a video issue as such as I'm maintaining focus pretty much all the time.. certainly nowt like the opaque green goo for land as I've seen in FS9 flying DG's Hunters low over Wales Worth noting I suppose that DG's Auster will sit and run all day with hardly a murmur. The faster I fly.. the more pronounced the problem becomes.. like blasting around Wales at 1000ft/350+ knots in the Hawk.

Any ideas that don't require a lottery win??

ATB

DaveB

[TSR2]

Sounds like a memory limitation of some sort, the faster you fly, the more quickly it needs to load stuff to RAM. Might be worth getting an extra 2GB, even if the 32 bit OS won't address it all (it will give you 3 point something) and then if you do get a 64 bit OS later, you'll get the full benefit. Other thing it might be is disk, if its having to do a lot of page swaps to disk? How much space do you have free on you FS drive Dave? Also, worth doing a full defrag, disconnect from the net, shut down you AV etc and kick it off, it will probably run overnight.

[ianhind]

Dave

<<Ben's reply came in while writing this so might even be valid!>>

Off the top of my head, sounds like textures are loading while the pause happens. Probably not CPU related but disk intensive.

Some might suggest moving your virtual memory (paging file) to the disk that does not contain FSX/FS2004. With 2Gb Ram that might be a consideration.

But it all depends on how you have your Windows and FlightSim set up, ie which disks are used for each.

Now let's see what the others suggest is really the problem

Ian

[tonymadge]

Is it because I've got a cr@p system or what??

Asus P5Q Deluxe
Intel P5 E8400
2 x SataII 500gb drives
Nvidia 8800GTX 768mb DDR3
2gb Crucial Ballistix
WinXP Home SP3

No Dave the system is fine its the sim thats crap
from the FSX fans!!

[TSR2]

The tide is turning Tony

[tonymadge]

May be Ben but having my feet washed twice I have decided to keep dry this time, I will keep FS9 as we all loved it prior to the brainwashing that seems to have happened with FSX Some still love it, some even cant bear to leave FS9 although having FSX..which tells you something, somehow I dont recall many keeping FS2002 when FS2004 came along??
But to be fair a lot of folk kept FS98 even though they had FS2000...hmmmm thats sounds familiar

[DaveG]

No Dave the system is fine its the sim thats crap
from the FSX fans!!

Change the record Tony, it's getting very boring.

[DaveB]

Tks Tony.. I knew I could rely on you

I have the O/S on one drive along with FS9 in a partition and the FSX drive runs by itself on it's own physical drive. Having just checked.. of 465gb available (after formatting e t c) I still have 416gb free so 51gb is FSX and rubbish (that doesn't sound a lot does it) Setup like this, I guess my paging file isn't on the FSX drive anyway.. not that I'd know how to move it if it was

What else was said.. ah yes.. more memory. Well I could do down that route I suppose.. makes me wish I'd gone for WinXP 64 now I'll let it defrag first and see if that makes a difference. I'm sure I did it after installing FSX but that was so long ago now, I've forgotten I caught it giving the odd stutter just while doing a St Mawgan-Davidstow-St Mawgan.. like it was going to do one of it's 5sec jobbies but didn't.. and quickly looked down at the HD lamps. No more than normal really.. same as it's doing now in fact

OK.. I'll try the defrag and if it still happens, I'll go for a pair of 2gb dimms. Thanks for the input fellas

ATB

DaveB

[nigelb]

You don't have Pete Dowson's Autosave installed by any chance? It was for FS9 and earlier but just in case you installed it in FSX, I thought I would ask. I sometimes get short pauses when Autosave does it's thing in FS9. If you look in the modules folder there will be the file "AutoSave.dll" if it is installed.

Nigel²

[basys]

Hi Folks

Dave -
Your sliders are set too high for your PC's currently available resources.

There may be a number of underlying reasons -
- Overly high target-FPS, where intermittently the sim eventually runs out of resources.
- An O/S or background application kicking in, e.g. Network Status monitor, registry key diskseek, Antivirus, etc.

Reduce your slider settings, until your FPS variance is less than 1%.
To display the FPS variance data, please see -
FSDeveloper - Wiki - Problem Resolving (FSX) - Assessing Performance in FSX(A)

re: Pagefile
If dynamically sized, change to a static size, then defrag the pagefile.

I've moved the frame lock from 20 to 25fps (it seemed to judder a little at 20).

Sounds like non-optimal target FPS c/f your monitor's refresh rate.
If 60Hz refresh, set at 20, or 30.
If 75Hz, 25 or 50, (or even better reduce to 60Hz, and adjust as above).

HTH
ATB
Paul