FS initial launch slow

When I launch the fs9 executable it takes a fair amount of time to bring up the splash screen. From this point on everything works completely normally.

It's nothing to do with my actual FS installation, nothing has changed, it just suddenly went from loading reasonably quickly as it should to suddenly slow. If I click the fs9 exe a second time before the first attempt has actually launched the splash screen, the splash screen will then immediately appear and the game will load. In this case once the game opens on the second attempt, eventually the first attempt tries to launch and then I will get a message telling me FS is already running. I can easily click out of it and carry on. I do have the option with this problem to wait for a slow load or click the fs9 exe twice so it loads fast and I can just click out of the resulting error that will pop up when attempt one tries to launch.

 

Something on my system has changed to cause this. I've installed a few things but nothing that has not been on my system before. I manually update Windows and everything else and I don't think I have even updated Windows during the period this problem has developed. It's not a memory or fragmented hard drive issue or anything like that. Has me stumped at the moment. Anyone have any ideas?

 

Same issue appears to be causing the same slow load on a couple of other games while all programs and remaining games on my system launch normally. Weird.

Something on my system has changed to cause this.

 

It could be your Internet Security/Antivirus program. If it has a Game Mode (mine does) select that before launching FS2004.

It could be your Internet Security/Antivirus program. If it has a Game Mode (mine does) select that before launching FS2004.

 

Thanks, did disable everything antivirus/firewall related, still no change.

There are a number of things that can cause slow startup, but here are a couple of things to try:

 

1. if you have a lot of scenery items checked as active it may slow down your startup, so try reducing active ones to what you are currently using. Also, the scenery.cfg file might need to be repaired and resorted. Try using this program by Steve Greenwood to repair the scenry.cfg file.

FSTscenery: http://www.simforums.com/forums/uploads/12417/FSTscenery.zip

Try using "Game Booster" before starting FS9. I will shut down unnecessary software that you don't need for flightsim thus providing some extra memory resources.

I suggest this older version because newer ones are loaded with a lot of extra garbage you don't need. Get it here: http://www.afterdawn.com/software/system_tools/system_tweaking/game_booster.cfm/v1_6

 

Good Luck

 

When this happens again, check Task Manager for anything unusual running. For example some versions of Firefox do not always exit completely and remain running as processes (consuming as much as 700meg RAM); I've also encountered this with video editors and graphics software. This can cause excessive page file activity as new programs load, and occasionally stutters as they run.

 

I'm familiar enough with my system, and have Task Manager start with windoze, that a glance at the process total alerts me to anything amiss (more than 52 and it's "alright, what's going on here").

FYI: When I had FS9, the more aircraft, the slower the load time (I had well over a 100).

 

To test my theory, I re-named the AIRCRAFT folder, then loaded just the default aircraft in a temp. Aircraft folder: Result was close to a 90% improvement in load time... You can try this if you have a large number of planes to see if that's the problem...

Thanks guys but it's nothing to do with my FS installation. Nothing has changed and a couple of other games now do the same 'hang' thing to confirm FS is not the problem. I have plenty of memory, no issues there either. The second click of the fs9.exe would also not result in an instant open of FS if memory or anything inside FS wasn't working as it should. The second click should hang just like the first attempt to open FS if there were problems directly with FS.

Edit: Just testing the other game that hangs in the same way as FS on launch, a 2nd click also brings it up immediately just like FS while the first attempt from the first click struggles to load just like FS.

 

Did find a clue though. The two other games that were giving problems had files with .flt extensions. These files had now somehow become associated to open with FS. FS also uses .FLT files for flight plans. I restored the .flt extensions in the other games back to default. Didn't make a difference. I then also removed one of those games because I know it wasn't installed when FS was working correctly. This still made no difference.

 

Really has me stumped but need more think time.

Well, can't remember ever having an issue I couldn't resolve but this might just be the first. I'll post one more time to let everyone know where I'm at.

 

I have around 30 games installed on my system. This slow launch happens to around 4-5 of them. FS is on a separate SSD drive to the others so doesn't even appear to be drive related in any way. The only thing the slow launching games appear to have in common is they are all old games released between 2000-2003. There are games I have from this period that launch fine. I'll still try and work on this a little longer, may be DirectX related, who knows, but if anyone ever does experience the same problem and finds the solution, please post!

This may or may not have any relevance...

 

You say you have FS on a separate SSD drive. There was a note on another post only a few days ago, something about that reusing disc space (ie, space freed by deleting files) files on an SSD drive is significantly slower than using genuinely "empty" disk space. The same post went on about some kind of "disk cleaner" which would convert the "slower" disk space back to the "faster" one.

 

If as you say your problem has "suddenly" appeared, that may or may not be relevant. Maybe you simply ran out of "empty" disk space and went onto "recycled" ones. There would be no indication that that had happened.

Thanks Steve but I have games on two different drives acting this way not just the SSD. A second click on any exe also immediately opens that game up without delay. Anything to do with a slow drive, it would remain slow regardless of how many times you clicked on a game exe file. Multiple clicking of a game's exe isn't going to increase drive speed. This problem is a real tough one and I've found nothing similar anywhere on the net for ideas.

This problem is a real tough one and I've found nothing similar anywhere on the net for ideas.

 

It may be Microsoft Game Explorer, details in this thread:

 

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/544404/games-need-opening-twice-to-start-please-help/

Yeah, what a pain that is but I'm online and it's only a handful of games so it really shouldn't be the cause.

I just timed it, it took 40 seconds from the time I hit the FS9 exe till the splash screen came up. I can live with it and can always double click the exe if I want an instant open of FS9. Just don't like having something on my system that isn't right and that I haven't fixed. Bugs me! lol

My pc has 2 drives and fs9 is installed on a drive that don't have much space used and pc overall has about 5-8 games. My initial load is over 1 minute 30 seconds regardless how many times I start the sim. I have few addons sceneries, not much but lots of aircrafts and AI aircrafts. Over 900 bgl files, maybe unlimited flight plans lol, lots and lots of GBs in the aircraft folder. System is win7, i7-3770 @ 3.4 ghz, nvidia geforce gtx 660 2 gb and 16 gb ram 1600 MHz. I get solid 60 fps. I also have MAIW lots of them, before that the launch was a bit faster.

I can live with it and can always double click the exe if I want an instant open of FS9. Just don't like having something on my system that isn't right and that I haven't fixed. Bugs me! lol

 

Hi Brodie, Skywatcher over at Avsim has just found that the Win10 upgrade notification in his taskbar was causing this, he deleted the windows update that installed it (didn't say which one) and that cured it.

I had the same problem. The updates you need to uninstall are for WIN 8 KB2976978 and for WIN 7 it's KB2952664. Also next time windows does an up date make sure it's not trying to install it again. If it does just right click and hide update. Also google GWXUX and you will find a utility that will get rid of the rest of what the update does. After I did that I had no more problems. I don't run FS9 any more but this sure did help for FSX. John

Hi Brodie, Skywatcher over at Avsim has just found that the Win10 upgrade notification in his taskbar was causing this, he deleted the windows update that installed it (didn't say which one) and that cured it.

 

It worked!!! tiger1962 thanks!!! It was update KB3035583 for me on Win 7.

FYI: When I had FS9, the more aircraft, the slower the load time (I had well over a 100).

 

To test my theory, I re-named the AIRCRAFT folder, then loaded just the default aircraft in a temp. Aircraft folder: Result was close to a 90% improvement in load time... You can try this if you have a large number of planes to see if that's the problem...

 

This^

 

It's all the AC you have there. Happens to me and I just have to wait for the sim to load.

 

Edit- Looks like you have it figured out. I don't use updates myself. Haven't since 2004 and since I run a mighty tight ship I have never gotten a virus. One should just use Autopatcher and just install criticals. But I bet even criticals have telemetry tracking BS. https://www.raymond.cc/blog/offline-windows-update/