Is my CPU overheating?

Hi Guys,

Fsx is crashing pretty soon into a flight and I suspected an

overheating CPU. I downloaded a heat monitor and the CPU temp

is peaking at 70 degrees C just before it crashes to desktop and

that happens within 15mins of starting flying a Cessna over Orbyx UK.

with 10% traffic and autogen normal.

I have re-pasted my heatsink onto the CPU but it is still hitting those

temperatures.

My question is...How hot is too hot? what temp should the CPU be at whilst running

FSX?

Intel i5 3570K running at 3.8ghz

cheers

Stinger

70 degrees C should not be a problem for your CPU. Those chips are in trouble if you go above 90-100 - and then they start to throttle down and don't just crash.

If it really is related to hardware and not something in your simulator, then this sounds more like an unstable overclock. Unfortunately not all CPUs are equal, some are more prone to instability when overclocked than others, even models of the same type. Does this happen when you run the CPU at the 3.4 base clock too? What kind of GPU do you have and is your PSU up to the task?

70 degrees C should not be a problem for your CPU. Those chips are in trouble if you go above 90-100 - and then they start to throttle down and don't just crash.

 

If it really is related to hardware and not something in your simulator, then this sounds more like an unstable overclock. Unfortunately not all CPUs are equal, some are more prone to instability when overclocked than others, even models of the same type. Does this happen when you run the CPU at the 3.4 base clock too? What kind of GPU do you have and is your PSU up to the task?

The reason i suspect overheating is that i had the same problem six months ago which was seemingly cured by a local pc repairers by re-seating the heatsink. When the problem started again i decided to redo the thermal paste myself . Tonight i flew the stock " Sitka landing " mission with no problem.After finishing i went to do a free flight, the temp rose a bit more in free flight and I got a crash to desktop.

My graphics card is an nVidia gtx660ti. I have check the load and temp of this and all seems fine. I am not too sure what psu is in there.

Thanks for the reply and i think returning the chip to 3.4 ghz may be a good starting point.

 

Thanks for the reply and i think returning the chip to 3.4 ghz may be a good starting point.

YES It's always a good idea to return all your hardware to basic out of the box settings when you begin troubleshooting. Then only make changes one at a time on one piece of hardware at a time. And don't get in a hurry to try the next change until you're sure the last one has had a chance to stabilize or perhaps get flaky or fail. ;)

If you want to make long term improvements, patience isn't just a virtue, it's a requirement.

I have a 3570k too and personally I think 70 is too high.

I know, opinions differ. Some say it can go higher.

I just rather not risk it.

Mine was running 70-75 for a while, with freezes (possibly as result).

I then bought a nice big case, plenty of room for the heat to go and two big big 14CM Fans pumping cool air through it all. Temp is not getting over 60 any more, and that's with a 4.2 ghz overclock.

Going to 3.4 for a while to test is a good idea. Maybe reset BIOS to default values if you know your way around the BIOS.

How much Thermal paste did you use? You should only put a small drop about the size of a grain of rice. Is FSX the only thing that shuts down?

Hi, I used a pea sized blob in the middle as instructed by youtube vids. Perhaps too much then. FSX is the only CPU intensive thing I do with my pc (just emails and browsing etc other than that) and FSX is the only thing that crashes out to the desktop. It is also the only program which takes the temp up to seventy plus so I definitely think it's a heat issue.

I will try dialling back the CPU to default (If I can work out how to do it, the overclock was done by the firm which built it for me)

cheers

Stinger

I have a 3570k too and personally I think 70 is too high.

But Intel doesn't. If your CPU is crashing at 20 degrees below tjmax, then it's either defective or the problem is somewhere else. Run a Handbrake job to encode some large videos - it will happily run at 80C on all cores for hours.

Going to 3.4 for a while to test is a good idea.

Right now we don't even have a good idea of what is causing the crash. I'd probably start with looking at the crash report and disabling add-on scenery.

Cheers!

Luke

 

Right now we don't even have a good idea of what is causing the crash. I'd probably start with looking at the crash report and disabling add-on scenery.

 

Luke

Here is the most recent crash report...

Faulting application name: fsx.exe, version: 10.0.61637.0, time stamp: 0x46fadb14

Faulting module name: uiautomationcore.dll, version: 7.2.10586.212, time stamp: 0x56fa2107

Exception code: 0xc0000005

Fault offset: 0x0004d233

Faulting process id: 0x1e6c

Faulting application start time: 0x01d1bfba1b58b7b4

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\fsx.exe

Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\uiautomationcore.dll

Report Id: b92013ea-cedc-47b2-8b81-e2c94114363d

Faulting package full name:

****

And here is the one before that...

Faulting application name: fsx.exe, version: 10.0.61637.0, time stamp: 0x46fadb14

Faulting module name: ai_player.dll, version: 10.0.61637.0, time stamp: 0x46fadb57

Exception code: 0xc0000005

Fault offset: 0x00037489

Faulting process id: 0x19a8

Faulting application start time: 0x01d1bf1151781969

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\fsx.exe

Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\ai_player.dll

Report Id: fc42c22c-4ddf-49c3-9562-b6433fef5a72

Faulting package full name:

Faulting package-relative application ID:

********

And the one before that....

Faulting application name: fsx.exe, version: 10.0.61637.0, time stamp: 0x46fadb14

Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000

Exception code: 0xc0000005

Fault offset: 0x00000000

Faulting process id: 0x1dcc

Faulting application start time: 0x01d1bb612d5c8d0e

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\fsx.exe

Faulting module path: unknown

Report Id: 2c5ef75b-6080-46bf-b7aa-362ebf8b80b6

Faulting package full name:

Faulting package-relative application ID:

Perhaps someone with a bit more knowledge will be able to digest it.

As far as addon scenery goes, I have added nothing for the last six months and the PC was working fine with the same scenery a while back. The crashes happen wherever in the world I am flying.

cheers

Stinger

P.S I am yet to try dialing my CPU back.

you need to download the uiautomationcore.dll file, and place it in your main fsx folder.

So in:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\

(and nowhere else!!)

you need to download the uiautomationcore.dll file, and place it in your main fsx folder.

So in:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\

 

(and nowhere else!!)

Is it ok to delete the one that is in the System32 folder?

NO. Do not delete it

Placing a copy of the file (which you can download from here - http://www.mediafire.com/download/mik2mlqdz1w/UIAutomationCore.zip - into the FSX directory is all you need to do. FSX will read that file before going anywhere near the System32 folder. The copy in the System32 folder will be used by other programs. It is also likely that if you have a 64-bit OS there will be version of the .dll in the SYSWOW64 folder as well - again leave it there

you need to download the uiautomationcore.dll file, and place it in your main fsx folder.

So in:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\

 

(and nowhere else!!)

I have done that but I am unable now to delete the version from the SYSTEM32 folder because it is telling me that I need the permission or "TrustedInstaller" even andI cannot change the permissions on my Administrator account as "full Control" is greyed out>

Sorry, missed Brians reply. Ok I wont delete it. I'll have another fly and report back. In the meantime I have dialed my CPU back to 3.4 but the sim still crashed.

cheers

Stinger

You should NOT delete things from system32.

Those are system files and windows needs them. They work the menu-clicking in all programs.

THe thing is that the new versions of it, in system32 and syswow64 are not working with FSX.

For FSX you need to put the old one (downlaod from interweb) -->in the main fsx folder. There fsx will use it.

\

Your other programs will then still use the default windows ones from system32, alike they should.

Only fsx will use the one in the main fsx folder.

(Edit: fxsttcb says it better then I can. Here reposted by rishabk:

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?278868-How-to-stop-FSX-from-accessing-the-uiautomationcore-dll&p=1855392#post1855392 )

I just flown again and didn't get a CTD which is good. I am still getting random pauses though so i'll need to look into whether that is related.

I'll need some more thorough testing to before I check back. I'll let you know how I get on.

In the meantime thanks all for your help.

cheers

Stinger.

WRT the random pauses.........

If the sim just pauses but remains active (i.e. the flight stutters and then continues) this is probably caused by your scenery settings. As a flight progresses the sim has to load the next set of scenery tiles - as the tiles load into memory it may cause the sim to pause as the info is written to the memory cache.

If the sim actually pauses and needs to be un-paused before the flight continues then this is a symptom of a background task forcing the sim to pause. Check the FSX general settings page to see if the Pause on task switch option is selected. If it is not selected then you will need to look at the Windows Event Logs to determine which application may be causing an issue - making a note of the time such pauses happens will help here. Common culprits for such actions are AV suites or other applications updating or running other tasks.

Thanks Brian,

The sim is pausing, needing me to hit "P" to un-pause it. I think I have the "pause on task" switch unticked (not at home at the mo) so I will need to investigate what is starting up in the background. I run antivirus (AVAST) and I have spotted in another post that this has a game mode to stop interrupts so I need to check that out also.

I have a feeling it might be my Epson printer portal that might be causing it so that needs checking too. I'll get there.

Really appreciate your input.

I'll post the solution when I get it solved.

At least now it seems my CPU isn't the issue, I was on the verge of investing in a water cooler system to sort it out.

cheers

Stinger

Ah. Now there's me thinking all was sorted. It is certainly better. I turned off "pause on task". Set my Avast to game mode, then went for a flight from Gatwick to edgd (st mawgan ). The flight went fine as far as getting landed at edgd. Then as I turned off the runway to taxi, the Sim disappeared from my screen. It had minimised but not paused. I tried restoring from the task bar which took a few goes before it stayed on screen. By this time my aircraft had taxied out of the airfield onto the local fields. Go figure !

More testing required but at least I got a whole flight out of it this time.

Cheers

Stinger.

Sent from my SM-A300FU using Tapatalk

Stinger,

As I stated at post #17 try checking the Event Viewer logs to see what was happening at the time of the pause. This will give you pointers to what other program(s), other than AV, that might be running random tasks. Another option is to have task manger running in the background, set to show the CPU activity, so that you can see if there was a sudden spike in CPU activity.

Other options to consider are to try running un-connected to the internet if you normally stay connected.

WRT to AVAST (and other AV suites for that matter) - Check to see what the 'game' mode (and similar modes) actually does. It may only disable such things as running a scheduled scan or the showing of reports but may still be carrying out other background tasks, especially if there is still internet connectivity. There maybe another way to totally stop such task running when you run the sim. for example, I use Norton. it has a 'silent mode' that only turns off some automatic tasks (ie scheduled scans) and the displaying of warning message pop-ups but still runs background tasks such as AV protection, updates etc. However, it also has a option to stop all background tasks when specific .exe/.bat files are run.

WRT the crash after landing at EGDG - Another possibility, although probably very unlikely, could be related to FSX crash detection if you have it selected. Each scenery object has a invisible box surrounding it and it is 'colliding' with this box that triggers the crash detection. The scenery in question may have a visible object with a oversized box at the crash point or even a 'hidden' object. Unfortunately, the way the FSX crash detection works can cause problems. For example, a well documented situation following a really heavy landing that triggers the crash detection is for the Aircraft to be reset flying at high altitude over or near to the landing field - sometimes with the sim is paused.

One way to check this out would be to load a flight at EGDG and taxi to the crash location from the same direction and other angles and see what happens.

Thanks for sticking with me on this Brian.

The Avast game mode is just as you say I believe, in that it just stops any pop-ups. I think i'll do as you say and try to disconnect from the internet totally and temporarily disable Avast totally.

WRT to the crash detection I would have thought the sim would take me back to the free-flight menu rather than minimising the program. However, I do have it switched on and it may be worth turning it off, having been flying since FS98 I don't crash that much these days anyway ! :-) . I'll bare it in mind though if the internet disconnect doesn't sort me

out. I'll try anything that gets me back to relaxed flying instead of waiting for it to crash again any minute.

cheers

Stinger

Ok , two flights from Gatwick to edgd again. The sim crashed about twenty minutes into the first flight even though I had crash detection off and both my antiviral and my WiFi off. No pause, no error messages and no event shown on my event manager log at the time it crashed. It just disappeared and was not sitting in the background.

I found "myepson portal" in the task tray and exited from it. Then I tried the second flight which passed without problems from parking gate to parking gate.

I then looked for "myepson portal" in my programs list so that I could uninstall it but it is not there so I need to do a bit more investigation to find out how to get rid of it. Until I do I can't be sure if it is the cause.

Hey ho, all good fun.

Cheers

Stinger

Sent from my SM-A300FU using Tapatalk

Ok, final post as I think I may, with all of your help, finally cracked it.

I found the printer software in the windows services and disabled it. "My Epson Portal" seems to run in the background checking for updates and on occasions creates a pop-up ,which i think in the end was the cause.

Another run down from Gatwick to St Mawgan with no incident so I am pretty confident that was it.

Thanks for all your help again

Now back to some proper simming.....

regards

Stinger