Can anyone help?

[paulhigg]

Can anyone help me with a problem? I have gauge flickering, GPS flickering, and in the default Airbus I cannot have the engine/hydraulic/ etc. screen on without it going nuts, it will show the screen but it will flicker to show the analog gauges behind it very fast and it is driving me crazy. It is very distracting. It does it on all planes. Here are my computer specs and settings:

Vista Home Premium 32 bit
Base board ASUSTek Computer Inc.
Chipset Intel i945P/G
4 GB Crucial DDR2 PC2-4200 RAM
Dual core 3.0 GHz Intel processors
250 GB Hard drive
NVIDIA XFX 8800 GTX 768MB DDR3
OCZ Game X Stream 700W
Saitek X52 controller & throttle
Acceleration Pack

Video driver: 175.16
Card settings for FSX

Anisotropic filtering - 16x
Antialiasing - Gamma correction - On
Antialiasing - Mode - Enhance the application setting
Antialiasing - Setting - Application controlled
Antialiasing - Transparency - Supersampling
Conformant texture clamp - Use hardware
Extension limit - Off
Force mipmaps - Trilinear
Maximum pre-rendered frames - Use global setting (3)
Multi display - Single display performance mode
Texture filtering - Anisotropic sample optimization - Grayed out
Texture filtering - Negative LOD bias - Allow
Texture filtering quality - High quality
Texture filtering - Trilinear optimization - Grayed out
Triple buffering - Off
Vertical sync - Use the 3D application setting

FSX settings:
Target frame rate - Unlimited
1440 x 900 x 32
Filtering - Anisotropic
Anti-aliasing
Global texture slider - Very high
DX-10 preview off
Advanced animations
Aircraft - Ultra high
High resolution 3-D virtual cockpit
Aircraft casts shadows on the ground
Aircraft casts shadows on itself
Aircraft landing lights illuminate ground
Terrain sliders:
Level of detail radius - Medium
Mesh complexity - 63
Mesh resolution - 10 m
Texture resolution - 1m
Water effects - Max 2.x
Land detail textures selected
Scenery complexity - Extremely dense
Autogen density - Normal
Special effects detail - High
Weather:
Global settings - Medium high
Visual settings - Cloud draw - 80 mi
Cloud detail - Detailed clouds
Cloud coverage density - High
Download winds aloft
Aviation traffic density - 100
General aviation traffic density - 50
Airport vehicle density - low
Road vehicles - 4
Ships and ferries - 45
Leisure boats - 18

I know this is a LOT to ask and a lot of information but you guys are very smart, I read your posts all the time. I would really appreciate any help to make this more enjoyable.

Thanks.

[paulhigg]

I know you guys are geniuses when it comes to settings. Could anyone give me SOME advice?

[Captain America]

I'm no expert, but I'll pretend to be one until someone smarter comes along.

The flickering could be an Anti-Aliasing problem?
Are you using Nhancer for your video card settings? You should be.

This post over at simforums.com helped me a great deal with the video card settings;
http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=25186&PID=142399

Also, do a Google search for (Nhancer Settings FSX) and for a guy named NickN. He posts
a lot of good info on other Flight Sim websites and is considered the expert on Nhancer settings.

I would definately back off some on the following settings:

Aircraft casts shadows on the ground
Aircraft casts shadows on itself
Aircraft landing lights illuminate ground
Scenery complexity - Extremely dense
Autogen density - Normal
Cloud detail - Detailed clouds
Cloud coverage density - High
Download winds aloft
Aviation traffic density - 100
General aviation traffic density - 50
Airport vehicle density - low
Road vehicles - 4
Ships and ferries - 45
Leisure boats - 18

It's a difficult problem to fix without seeing exactly what is going on?

I hope this helped, some?

[paulhigg]

Captain, thank you. What is Nhancer? Where would I get it and how do I use it?

This is what is happening. When I have the GPS screens up, or I'm in the default Airbus and I have the screen that has the electrical/hydraulic/flight control/pneumatic etc. screen, it flickers and I can see the analog gauges behind it. The GPS screen will flicker too. Or if I'm in the Baron and have the throttle window open, it will flicker too.

I really appreciate your help.

Paul

[Captain America]

You've got me on the flickering, I don't have a clue.
The only thing I can think of is your Video Card settings.
Our computers are similiar, except I'm using Windows XP and I
don't have that problem.

Nhancer is a free product that allows you to override the Nvidia Control Panel
settings for your Video Card. It gives you a broader range of settings and
elimanates some of the problems caused by Nvidia with FSX.

Google Nhancer and download it.

In the link I posted before there's a section where NickN explains how to set up
Nhancer. Follow his advice to the letter.

Setting up Nhancer has been discussed on this forum also. Do a search for those
threads.

[paulhigg]

Thanks. I have already found that thread you send me and I have printed it all out, like 32 pages! I will follow it like you said. I REALLY appreciate the help. It is good to know there are others out there smarter than me when it comes to these settings and are willing to help fellow simmers.

Paul

[NikeHerk67]

I know you guys are geniuses when it comes to settings. Could anyone give me SOME advice?

Paul,

Just some very generic thoughts.
Perhaps the ''w" key on the keyboard going bad? (the key used to change panel views).
When I have problems like this, I always suspect something is loose, like the graphics card not seated in the slot properly, or a loose connection of some kind.
The next thing I suspect is heat.

I was actually getting graphics spikes shooting across my screen and discovered the video card was overheating. I did a complete cleaning, including taking the cover off the video card, and the CPU fan off the mother board, and cleaning the gunk that had built up on the heat sinks of both. I was amazed the difference it made. Before cleaning the video card it would burn my fingers just to touch it. Afterwards, I could hold my finger on and it just feels warm.

There is now a great tool from NVIDIA that monitors the heat and also the output of just about every thing you have in your computer found here. http://www.nvidia.com/object/system_monitor.html

Before you take drastic steps, like completely reloading FSX, you can uninstall the SP's then do a repair in FSX. Repair only worked in FSX original (out of the box) version.
http://www.fsinsider.com/downloads/Pages/SP2-EN-ReadMe.aspx

Other than that I'm probably not much help. Intermittent problems are the worst.

[paulhigg]

Thanks Herk.

It is a brand new card and I already cleaned out the dust, not much there. I get the feeling it has to do with the video settings. I am going to try to tweak then with Nhancer. Otherwise I guess I can live with it. The view outside is rock solid, the 3-D cockpit view is rock solid. It's just open windows in 2-D. I think the system is working so fast the graphics done have time to keep up. This will be fun trying the tweaks offered by Captain.

Paul

[NikeHerk67]

Thanks Herk.

It is a brand new card and I already cleaned out the dust, not much there. I get the feeling it has to do with the video settings. I am going to try to tweak then with Nhancer. Otherwise I guess I can live with it. The view outside is rock solid, the 3-D cockpit view is rock solid. It's just open windows in 2-D. I think the system is working so fast the graphics done have time to keep up. This will be fun trying the tweaks offered by Captain.

Paul

Paul,

Yes, I agree, Captain's advice is alwasy very good.
Mine was just a first things first thought, if you know what I mean.
Kinda like when the IT askes the customer. Is your computer plugged in? :D

BTW, I copied the description of your computer. I've never seen anything here that was broken down in such detail
When I order mine it has to be very simular.

Thanks for the reply!
Regards,

[vanmulken]

I miss the 2D Panel Transparency slider setting in your listing, Paul!
But I suppose that's all the way left; at zero, right?
Stupid question really...
Bruno

[Pete1_leeds]

my guess is graphics driver or card issue

try reinstalling graphics driver, is your card overclocked? try underclocking for a while and see if resolved.. is graphics card overheating?? try upping your fan speed

not sure about the 8800gtx but the 8800gts have issues with the fans running very slow and thus tending to overheat

i had a similar problem with graphics flashing when my card was overclocked but the fan was only running at 20%. I used rivatuner to force the fan on at a higher speed and things seem ok. I only had this problem when my system was taxed though on approach to major airports/cities and not all the time (it didnt seem to effect guages either) so might be a differing problem

[paulhigg]

Right.

Thanks.

[Captain America]

I have the same video card. If it's not overheating then it might be the driver.
Install the latest Nvidia driver and follow these instructions to the letter:
http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?t=160827

I'm using Nvidia driver 175.19 (for Windows XP) and I'm getting great results.

At least it's a place to start? Then we can try other things.

[paulhigg]

Thanks Captain. I went to the link and man is that a lot of information. I have to learn a LOT! It will take me a long time to get through all of it. I have tried the Nhancer but it made things worse! So I uninstalled it and went back to my original settings. I can live with the flicker in the panels for now. It is funny how it only flickers when the panels are open like when you have the electrical or engine panel on the screen. Otherwise it won't flicker. And it doesn't flicker in 3-D mode either even though I am looking at the same information! I wish I knew more about why but it is not my strong suit.

Thanks.


Paul

[Captain America]

... I have tried the Nhancer but it made things worse!...



Nhancer cannot make it worse, only better.

Pay very close attention to this part of the previous link.

"Scroll down the profile list until you find the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 (or) Microsoft Flight Simulator X profile. Click on it once to highlight it. Once it is highlighted, click the DUPLICATE button. You will get a message, select YES to complete the duplication. What that will do is DEACTIVATE the Nvidia profile and ACTIVATE your new duplicate."

Once you've activated the new duplicate, then proceed to install the suggested
settings. I assure you Nhancer will make a difference.

[paulhigg]

I did all that, I followed that guy Nick's advice. I made a duplicate, then activated it. When I ran FSX it stuttered real bad when I panned around and what's worse, when I panned I saw spikes all around. These spikes went from the ground up to the sky and they were everywhere. I said to heck with this and went back to the way things were.

I don't understand it.