Fsx Freezes and Cannot Shutdown Computer!

[michaelvvmm]

Hello,
I have flight simulator x gold for a while. This started this week, when I play flight simulator for 10 minutes or so it just freezes and I press ctrl+shift+esc the task manager wont open up, and when I press the button on my computer to turn it off it wont turn off! So I have to pull out the power cord on my computer. I have installed Real environment x 2.0 this week also is this causing the problem? And the add-ons button has dissapered in the top area. What can I do to fix this?

[bkeske]

First thing I would do is remove that program, then check out FS and see if it still freezes. If it does not, perhaps try reinstalling REX. You may also want to consider removing (back it up first) you FSX.cfg, and let FSX rebuild a new one even before that.

Not knowing much about that program, perhaps someone else can help, or see if they have a help forum if it turns out to be the culprit.

Bottom line, it seems likely that it may be something you recently installed.

[michaelvvmm]

okay ill try that.

[Ragtopjohnny]

REX does have a support forum. I don't see how the issues would be Rex, especially turning off the Computer part. I'd say do a THOROUGH Virus scan first to make sure there are no viruses on your computer. Sounds like something got into your system sorry to say....:(

John Thuot II
Team Lead/Founder/Texture Artist
http://www.captainjohnfsx.net

[Paxx]

Pressing and holding the system power button for seven seconds should power your computer off even if task manager and the like are not responding.

Please list your system specifications (CPU, RAM, Video Card etc.) and operating system. We may be able to help you further.

[jima7011]

I had issues like this when I reinstalled FSX. Something was looking for the SDK that comes with Service Pack 2--Once I installed that, the issue went away.

[michaelvvmm]

REX does have a support forum. I don't see how the issues would be Rex, especially turning off the Computer part. I'd say do a THOROUGH Virus scan first to make sure there are no viruses on your computer. Sounds like something got into your system sorry to say....:(

John Thuot II
Team Lead/Founder/Texture Artist
http://www.captainjohnfsx.net

I have norton 360 3.0 and I did a full scan and I didnt get anything.

[Irocx]

I have norton 360 3.0 and I did a full scan and I didnt get anything.


Sounds like a hardware issue. Check your temps and see if anything is overheating when you run the sim - CPU,VC etc... a good cleaning might be in order or a cooling fan has failed. Could also point to a weak PSU.

Edit: I'd also do yourself a favor and lose every norton product you have.

[mcarvela]

I agree it sounds like a hardware issue. I had the same problem about 9 months ago and it turned out to be a bad memory stick. Dell sent me a new one and problem solved.

[michaelvvmm]

I have a 550w psu and a 8600gt so the psu isnt having problems ill try to play mw2 and see if it freezes on that. If mw2 doesnt freeze that means it is just fsx.

[michaelvvmm]

I played two missions in mw2 and it didnt freeze and didnt have any problems. I guess it is just fsx that is having the problems.

[Skelly]

I just had a recent issue with fsx freezing and having to hard boot the computer to get restarted .. it turned out to be a bad scenery file. If it crashes alot in the same area when flying this could be the problem. If you have addon sceneries I would look into this also if you have made changes to any config files this could also be a problem.

[michaelvvmm]

I was able to fix the problem! All I needed to do was to repair REX. Sadly I got a new problem. I usually have the traffic slider all the way to the left, but today I felt like having a lot of airplanes and cars on the road so I move the traffic slider all the way to the right, but when I play the game there is no traffic at all!

[Fraggle]

Your traffic BGLs might be bad too then.

Id be tempted to do a disk scan and see if your HD is going bad.
How old is the HD your using?.

It might be prudent to just do a clean freash install of FSX.

[michaelvvmm]

I think around 2-3 years old, I will check my hdd tomorrow to see when it was made.

[michaelvvmm]

I checked it today, it was made october 2006. I have reinstalled xp about 3 times and then I did a clean install of windows 7 twice (because I had a virus) on this hdd. Since I have formatted so much is this making my hdd have problems?

[Ragtopjohnny]

It shouldn't cause problems. I suggest taht you run disk checker with windows (not sure where it would be in Windows 7) Did you format using your windows install disk? Also, when you formatted, did you delete the old partition before doing it? That might be giving your problems.

Good luck, let me know how you make out! :D

John Thuot II
Team Lead/Founder/Texture Artist
http://www.captainjohnfsx.net

[michaelvvmm]

Yes I did delete the old partition with the install disc, but I created a new partition. I ran the disc checker and now its done.

[Ragtopjohnny]

That is weird. Did it say any problems with bad sectors at all on the disk or anything? I'm stumped on this one myself....

John Thuot II
Team Lead/Founder/Texture Artist
http://www.captainjohnfsx.net

[michaelvvmm]

That is weird. Did it say any problems with bad sectors at all on the disk or anything? I'm stumped on this one myself....

John Thuot II
Team Lead/Founder/Texture Artist
http://www.captainjohnfsx.net

I left it when it was doing it so I didnt see if there were any bad sectors,where can I find the log to it?

[maxc]

One of the biggest problems I see with computers is not enough memory,

Probably adding more memory may fix it.

[michaelvvmm]

One of the biggest problems I see with computers is not enough memory,

Probably adding more memory may fix it.

I have 1.5 gb of memory then I have 2 gigs of virtual memory. Is this enough? How do I repair fsx because when I try through add or remove programs it just says to remove acceleration, it doesnt show fsx. How can I repair fsx without removing acceleration?

[bkeske]

1.5 is a bit short IMO. I have 4, but run 32 bit XP, so only utliize 3.25 GB of it (with the 'switch), but runs much better than when I ran only 2. I never use VM when running FS, which is good.

Also, I believe if you remove Acceleration, FSX will then show itself. To repair FSX I believe you must remove SP2/Acceleration first, then SP1, then repair, then reinstall SP1 and then SP2 or Acceleration.

[michaelvvmm]

I have total of 3.5 gb of memory because I have virtual memory so its the exact same thing as having physical memory, so thats not the problem.

[bkeske]

Well, I believe for FS, usage of physical memory is far more desirable than virtual memory. Looking at the REX web site, it recommends 2 GB of memory, and they are speaking of physical RAM.

Anyway, if memory was an issue when your computer froze, it would have *probably* given you a memory error mesage.

Are you still having the problem?

[michaelvvmm]

I did stop having the freezing problem after I repaired REX but then the ai traffic wasnt showing so I uninstalled fsx then reinstalled it and it fixed the traffic problem but im back with the freezing problem and I didnt even install REX!

[michaelvvmm]

Nevermind I was playing mw2 and it did the samething, it froze too. I have a single core amd 2.16 processor would it stop freezing if I upgrade to a 2.5ghz tri core processor?

[bkeske]

I'll be very honest with you. I do not believe you computer specs can handle FSX adequatley, especially with complex add-ons. And as it must be a few years old, I'm enclined to agree with some earlier posts about this being a hardware issue, but your biggest hurdle is overall 'power' and RAM.

I would not spend much money on a processor, as your mother board is probably a candiate for upgrading as well.

[michaelvvmm]

I'll be very honest with you. I do not believe you computer specs can handle FSX adequatley, especially with complex add-ons. And as it must be a few years old, I'm enclined to agree with some earlier posts about this being a hardware issue, but your biggest hurdle is overall 'power' and RAM.

I would not spend much money on a processor, as your mother board is probably a candiate for upgrading as well.

My board can handle 65w processors and im going to get a amd phenom II X3 705e it is a 65w processor. The weird thig is that I have had fsx for 6 months or so. This problem just started a week ago, I usually run fsx at around 20-40 fps and at KLAX I get 10-20 fps. Is the graphics card driver having problems?

[Jun aka Pekto]

I have total of 3.5 gb of memory because I have virtual memory so its the exact same thing as having physical memory, so thats not the problem.

Virtual memory is hard drive space being utilized as RAM. It's a heck of a lot slower than real ram. I'd guess if data was being written to virtual Memory and then flushed out repeatedly, your hard drive can fragment awfully quick and possibly some stored data corrupted.

I'd suggest at least to make Virtual Memory or Page File permanent (Lo and Hi the same size). That way, virtual ram data will always go to the same chunk of allocated space in the drive.

But, the best solution is get more ram (4gb should be plenty). It's better for FSX. It's better for your hard drive. If your hard drive can talk, it'll thank you for it.

Add:

It might be a good idea to have your complete pc/software specs handy. I keep mine as my signature. That way if a problem occurred, the hardware gurus could easily figure out possible causes.

[michaelvvmm]

What should I do, it just started to freeze last week.

[Jun aka Pekto]

What should I do, it just started to freeze last week.

If I was in your place, I'd have to suck it up and try to backtrack and remember any updates I or Windows Update made, driver upgrades, software/hardware installs.

I had something similar happen to Pacific Fighters with Windows 7 RC1. Pacific Fighters didn't just freeze. It quit to the desktop, period. I couldn't nail down what I did prior. So, I rolled back the Windows Profile to the last good working Profile. I obviously lost some installs. But, Pacific Fighters started working again until a couple of days later. Apparently, whatever was affecting Pacific Fighters came through Windows Update and I was able to isolate that particular KBxxxx file and keep it from being installed.

My advice would be if at all possible, try to remember what you did within the week before the freezes started. It was a pain in the butt for me and probably the same for you. If you can't remember, then roll back to the last good profile and see if that fixes FSX. Then you can work towards isolating the problem.

The above is for a software problem.

When the motherboard capacitors in my previous pc started going bad, I also got random freezes with some games. But it got steadily worse until Windows itself would spontaneously quit and reboot.

I don't think you have a hardware problem just yet (your pc seems new --->2.8ghz Athlon X2). But, if the freezes starts to get worse, then you might want to consider it.

[michaelvvmm]

If I was in your place, I'd have to suck it up and try to backtrack and remember any updates I or Windows Update made, driver upgrades, software/hardware installs.

I had something similar happen to Pacific Fighters with Windows 7 RC1. Pacific Fighters didn't just freeze. It quit to the desktop, period. I couldn't nail down what I did prior. So, I rolled back the Windows Profile to the last good working Profile. I obviously lost some installs. But, Pacific Fighters started working again until a couple of days later. Apparently, whatever was affecting Pacific Fighters came through Windows Update and I was able to isolate that particular KBxxxx file and keep it from being installed.

My advice would be if at all possible, try to remember what you did within the week before the freezes started. It was a pain in the butt for me and probably the same for you. If you can't remember, then roll back to the last good profile and see if that fixes FSX. Then you can work towards isolating the problem.

The above is for a software problem.

When the motherboard capacitors in my previous pc started going bad, I also got random freezes with some games. But it got steadily worse until Windows itself would spontaneously quit and reboot.

I don't think you have a hardware problem just yet (your pc seems new --->2.8ghz Athlon X2). But, if the freezes starts to get worse, then you might want to consider it.

I installed REX that week but then I uninstalled but im still having problems. My motherboard is only 4 months old so that isnt the problem. I will try to uninstall my graphics card drivers and reinstall them, ill see if that works.

[Jun aka Pekto]

I installed REX that week but then I uninstalled but im still having problems. My motherboard is only 4 months old so that isnt the problem. I will try to uninstall my graphics card drivers and reinstall them, ill see if that works.

I don't have REX (yet). Maybe someone here is experienced in REX-specific issues.

But, I'd start with REX first since the freezes are internal to FSX. Even if REX was uninstalled, some settings made to FSX may not have been changed back be it in the Registry or a config file somewhere. I'd exhaust that perspective first.

If it's external to FSX then it really becomes a pain.

Looking back at your original post...... I'd have to consider a hardware problem as well especially when it wouldn't turn off when the power button was pressed and held down.

I've had the power button problem happen 3X in my lifetime:
1. The third time was recently with that bad motherboard. The power button problem was one of the later symptoms.
2. The second time it happened was two years ago when my Antec Truepower II 480 PSU went bad.
3. The first time was with a P3-733 pc back in 2000. That one I couldn't figure out. But, it was a Win98SE/W2k issue since Linux Mandrake 6.0 (and later XP) worked perfectly with it.

[michaelvvmm]

I don't have REX (yet). Maybe someone here is experienced in REX-specific issues.

But, I'd start with REX first since the freezes are internal to FSX. Even if REX was uninstalled, some settings made to FSX may not have been changed back be it in the Registry or a config file somewhere. I'd exhaust that perspective first.

If it's external to FSX then it really becomes a pain.

Looking back at your original post...... I'd have to consider a hardware problem as well especially when it wouldn't turn off when the power button was pressed and held down.

I've had the power button problem happen 3X in my lifetime:
1. The third time was recently with that bad motherboard. The power button problem was one of the later symptoms.
2. The second time it happened was two years ago when my Antec Truepower II 480 PSU went bad.
3. The first time was with a P3-733 pc back in 2000. That one I couldn't figure out. But, it was a Win98SE/W2k issue since Linux Mandrake 6.0 (and later XP) worked perfectly with it.

One person if you hold down the power button for 7 seconds it just shuts down the computer and it worked. I was just playing mw2 and it froze and I waited to see what happens, it froze for 5 or so seconds and the screen went black then my monitor said "no signal", yet the computer was on. Then it worked again.

[bkeske]

michaelvvmm, didn't know you were talking about AMD stuff here, so hopefully Pekto can be of more help than myself.

That said, my old FS computer (now my work computer) had a single core Pentium 4 650, which was 3.4 GHz. and 2 GB of memory. After flying a while in FSX, I went with a Core 2 Duo E6700, which is 2.66 GHz and 4 MB of memory. Incredible what a difference the Core 2 Duo made, even when the GHz was less.

Now that is out of date, way out of date actually, but it runs FS without many issues at all. I originally had a couple 'out of memory' issues, but increased my RAM by 2GB, and have never had a problem again.

[Jun aka Pekto]

One person if you hold down the power button for 7 seconds it just shuts down the computer and it worked. I was just playing mw2 and it froze and I waited to see what happens, it froze for 5 or so seconds and the screen went black then my monitor said "no signal", yet the computer was on. Then it worked again.

Hmmm. I got those symptoms too before. Just wondering what's your exact motherboard manufacturer and model.

Better yet, what kind of capacitors are at the back between the cpu and the ports? Are they the newer solid state ones or the old "coke/pepsi can style. If they're the latter, they too may leak/bulge someday or perhaps earlier.

I noticed while checking out every single AMD motherboard at newegg.com that some with nVidia chipsets (eg nForce) still use the old capacitors. That's why I went with one that used AMD chipsets (780, 785, 790) and moved to the Gigabyte brand.

[Jun aka Pekto]

If the capacitors aren't this style then I guess you're okay. If they are, expect problems later on.

[michaelvvmm]

Thats bad for me, I have that style (I guess thats what I get for getting a cheap board) about when will they break?

[Jun aka Pekto]

Thats bad for me, I have that style (I guess thats what I get for getting a cheap board) about when will they break?


Mine was a top-notch board from 2005:

MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum (nForce4 Ultra)

I started getting some "weirdness" with the power button after two years. The board finally malfunctioned completely two months ago. With a budget board, I don't know. It could be sooner.

The tops of such capacitors should be straight or curving slightly inward if they're in good shape.

If they're starting to go bad, the tops will start to bulge first followed by the sides. Then, they'll eventually leak.

My motherboard is mainly at the bulging top stage. It actually still posts. But that's about it. Try to load a Windows or Linux OS and the pc spontaneously reboots. Then the cycle starts all over again. Sometimes the power button problem will manifest itself.

The only OS that boots up is my Amiga OS on an Amiga Forever DVD. That's not much use to me though since it's mainly for nostalgia.

I'd replace that motherboard with another that has the smaller solid-state capacitors. Try Gigabyte. They understand capacitors quite well as part of their shameless self-promotion. :D

[Jun aka Pekto]

when will they break?

Perhaps you may get lucky and the old-style capacitors on your motherboard aren't the defective ones. But, I have no way of telling which ones are the defective ones and which ones aren't.

Anyway here's a Wiki article on it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

I've been assembling DIY pc's since 1992. I never had a single failure from that time until 2000. Then all of a sudden I had a Soyo and an Abit (both Via KT-266a) motherboards plus two power supplies fail within two years (2002). My iBook 800 (2003) was one of those with a defective motherboard. And finally there's the motherboard and PSU from my previous pc (assembled in 2005). It's been a costly decade.

Usually, I pass my older pc to family or relatives as hand me downs after four years or so. They get further use and may last a total of 8 to 10 years. Checking back..... I have no older hand me down newer than a Pentium 3.

Oh. Consider my previous laptop, an HP Pavilion ze5270 (2003) as a casualty as well. It croaked in 2005. A friend has a similar one which simply died for no reason.