Very high single core CPU usage

[Sailor512]

Hey,

Last autumn I built myself a new desktop pc (specs below) and made a clean install of Win 10 and FSX on it. I did a few brief tests and a longer flight and everything looked like working fine.

 

During the last weeks I finally found some time for proper simming and the trouble started: I experienced a crash to desktop with my PMDG 777 on final to Amsterdam Shipol and one taxing at another airport.

 

After that I went through the instructions in the PMDG manual (settings, installing uiautomationcore.dll and adding affinitymask in the FSX.CFG), all the same I experienced a freeze and consequent crash shortly after landing and – what baffles me most – another crash when I was only fooling around with the default Maule Orion attempting a water landing. I never got any error messages and couldn’t find anything noticeable in the logs (Microsoft and freeware FSUIPC).

I checked for OOM problems, but never noticed a value larger than 3,2 Gb.

 

The one possible cause I can imagine is the very high single core CPU usage FSX causes on my desktop pc: the core with main FSX.exe on it often runs at nearly 100%. I tried reducing traffic and texture settings to minimum – no change noticeable, the effect also seems not to depend a lot on the aircraft, I get almost the same with PMDG or default.

 

Now I checked on my old notebook, where I used to run FSX before (Win 7x64 and the same addons installed), CPU usage is way lower there.

 

I did a search in the forums and the internet, but couldn’t really find anything helpful. As I’m fairly new to FSX troubleshooting (lucky me) I’ll greatly appreciate any help!

 

Happy Easter!

 

My Specs: MB: Asus Prime B250-Pro, CPU: Intel i5 7600@max. 4,0 GHz, 16 GB RAM, GPU: Geforce GTX 750@2GB VRAM, Win10x64, FSX SP2 in own folder on SSD, Addons: PMDG 777, FSL Concorde X, Austria Pro Scenery (not the HD one), freeware LOWW scenery and lots of freeware planes

[CRJ_simpilot]

Put the Sim in Windowed mode ALT + Enter. Run Process Explorer and view the FSX.exe process. What other crap may be hooked to that process? And for the hell of it, run Ring3 API hook scanner. It seems something is like binding to the FSX.exe process.

 

In process Explorer, double click FSX.exe and click the threads tab. You will see individual threads and their CPU usage.

 

 

http://www.novirusthanks.org/products/ring3-api-hook-scanner/

 

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

 

If you'd like, run Autoruns and zip the ARN file and share here. I can look at it. Don't disable or delete anything you shouldn't.

[il88pp]

High 1 core usage is perfectly normal.

If you set affinity mark right you can make fsx run on core 1 while Win and most others run on core 0.

Still, core 1 will be used pretty much to the max.

 

The slight difference between 2 pc's could be due to a different graphics card, other hardware differences, graphics card settings, connected hardware, and more. No 2 pc's are the same.

Anyway, it's not usefull for troubleshooting.

 

Find the cause of crashes in the error logs.

 

An addon not causing a crash on one pc does not mean it is installed and running properly on the other pc.

[CRJ_simpilot]

High 1 core usage is perfectly normal.

 

No it isn't. I get about 30% usage looking at my task manager. He's saying 100% usage. And he said he looked at logs and there was nothing.

 

Also, learn to read... THOROUGHLY!

 

 

 

 

Now I checked on my old notebook, where I used to run FSX before (Win 7x64 and the same addons installed), CPU usage is way lower there.

 

GPUs will have next to no bearing on FS.

[Sailor512]

Hey again,

 

Many thanks for the fast replies! :)

 

Put the Sim in Windowed mode ALT + Enter. Run Process Explorer and view the FSX.exe process. What other crap may be hooked to that process? And for the hell of it, run Ring3 API hook scanner. It seems something is like binding to the FSX.exe process.

 

So I followed your instructions. The hook scanner did not find anything at all...is there a possibility to run a scan of a specific process?

To make sure I also ran a virus scan of the FSX folder (Symatec Endpoint Protection) no results there either.

 

About the threads of the FSX process I will enclose two screenshots.

 

This is the "standard" situation high CPU usage and obviously its only FSX.exe causing it.

 

 

I tried panning around a bit and this you see on my second screenshot, to me this indicates the API.dll threads are running on core 2 & 3

 

 

So everything normal and just a high CPU usage? What puzzles me is that I would expect to see a definite drop in usage if I reduce the settings. If this was the case I'd go for il88pp's theory.

 

If you'd like, run Autoruns and zip the ARN file and share here. I can look at it. Don't disable or delete anything you shouldn't.

 

I did and did not find anything I considered odd, should I look for something specific?

 

Find the cause of crashes in the error logs.

 

I will definitley check again, next time something happens. I did look at the Windows Event Recorder, but could not find anything relating to FSX (you always get some warnings and notifications of all kinds there, dont you?). The FSUIPC log didn't seem terribly helpful maybe I would need the payware version for that. If you can indicate where I should look I'd certainly be grateful!

 

Once again thanks a lot to you both!

[il88pp]

In "event logs" under "administrator events".

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?270280-A-note-to-those-creating-threads-regarding-FSX-crashes

[Sailor512]

In "event logs" under "administrator events".

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?270280-A-note-to-those-creating-threads-regarding-FSX-crashes

 

No, I checked - and now re-checked this - nothing there.

[Luke]

No it isn't. I get about 30% usage looking at my task manager. He's saying 100% usage.

 

If you're looking at usage aggregated across all cores, then a single core pegged at 100% with normal usage on the other 3 cores would give you 30%.

 

Having 1 core pegged is pretty standard for FSX.

 

Cheers!

 

Luke

[JSMR]

If you're looking at usage aggregated across all cores, then a single core pegged at 100% with normal usage on the other 3 cores would give you 30%.

 

Having 1 core pegged is pretty standard for FSX.

 

Cheers!

 

Luke

 

Yep. Something wrong if C1 isn't maxed out. Turn it up (settings) as Lynyrd Skynyrd would say.

[CRJ_simpilot]

I don't see your CPU using 100% like you indicated. It's at 35% which mine does. The threads look normal and I see nothing else there. Did you run Ring3 API Hook Scaner at the same time you ran the Sim? Try that once.

 

If there are no logs, then I'm suspecting some add-on you have that is causing the crash to desktop. What kind of add-ons do you have? Did you install anything to the Sim or computer recently before these crashes started to happen?

[CRJ_simpilot]

This looks like Win 10 and I know M$ will replace your drivers. So what I would do is disable Windows from updating your drivers and only use the manufacture's driver for your GPU and sound card.

 

https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/disable-automatic-driver-downloads-on-windows-10

 

 

Once you do this boot into safe mode and uninstall your audio driver and video driver using Revo Uninstaller. Then reboot in normal mode and reinstall the audio and video drivers. But don't use express install on any of those, especially the video card driver. When you install the video driver don't instal the Nvidia experience or audio driver. Just the driver and PhysX.

 

 

 

https://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninstaller_free_download.html

[f16jockey_2]

... and reinstall the audio and video drivers. But don't use express install on any of those, especially the video card driver. When you install the video driver don't instal the Nvidia experience or audio driver. Just the driver and PhysX.

Surely you have a founded explanation for that, or is it just some addition to make it sound more erudite?

Because I've always installed Nvidia driver updates as an express install, via Nvidia Experience. Without problems.

 

Wim

[loki]

No it isn't. I get about 30% usage looking at my task manager. He's saying 100% usage.

 

Yes, reading thoroughly is a good start to answering a question. The OP said one core was pegged at 100%, not the CPU overall, which is what the screen shots they posted show. You're confusing the overall CPU usage with single core usage. As others have noted, one core pegged at 100% and the rest idling will show as ~30-35% usage overall.

[loki]

So everything normal and just a high CPU usage? What puzzles me is that I would expect to see a definite drop in usage if I reduce the settings. If this was the case I'd go for il88pp's theory.

 

FSX maxing out one core is normal and to be expected. Lowering settings will not necessarily affect this as even with lower settings, there is still plenty for the sim to be processing.

 

The cause of your crashes will be somewhere else. Issues with add-ons or a corrupted file in the sim somewhere. Could be an OOM as some cases just see the sim crash without the usual out of memory error message.

[Sailor512]

Hey again,

 

I was always talking about the usage of one core. I am sorry, if I did not make that clear enough.

 

Did you run Ring3 API Hook Scaner at the same time you ran the Sim?

Yes I did and again no results. So i am happy the high single core usage is normal, maybe I just wasn't ambitious enough with the setiings on my old labtop.

 

About the crashes...

 

This looks like Win 10 and I know M$ will replace your drivers. So what I would do is disable Windows from updating your drivers and only use the manufacture's driver for your GPU and sound card.

Once you do this boot into safe mode and uninstall your audio driver and video driver using Revo Uninstaller. Then reboot in normal mode and reinstall the audio and video drivers. But don't use express install on any of those, especially the video card driver. When you install the video driver don't instal the Nvidia experience or audio driver. Just the driver and PhysX.

 

I am sorry, but I really don't get your meaning here. There is not a lot of auto-updating happening on my PC, I generally had bad experiences with that and prefere to do those things manually. I regularily update my graphics drivers via the Nvida Geforce Experience tool. Why is this a bad idea?

 

I don't have a dedicated soundcard, just using whatever my motherbord has installed (Realtek audio) and therefore those drivers should be Asus, shouldn't they?

 

Could be an OOM as some cases just see the sim crash without the usual out of memory error message.

 

I checked in the PMDG 777 on my one addon airport (freeware LOWW) did a lot of changing views, panning around, etc and this gave me 3,2 GB VAS. I don't have any addon scenery, but Austria installed. Do you think in this scenerio an OOM is still likely?

 

Once again many thanks for all the help!! :-)

 

My Specs: MB: Asus Prime B250-Pro, CPU: Intel i5 7600@max. 4,0 GHz, 16 GB RAM, GPU: Geforce GTX 750@2GB VRAM, Win10x64, FSX SP2 in own folder on SSD, Addons: PMDG 777, FSL Concorde X, Austria Pro Scenery (not the HD one), freeware LOWW scenery and lots of freeware planes

[CRJ_simpilot]

 

 

 

I am sorry, but I really don't get your meaning here. There is not a lot of auto-updating happening on my PC, I generally had bad experiences with that and prefere to do those things manually. I regularily update my graphics drivers via the Nvida Geforce Experience tool. Why is this a bad idea?

 

I don't have a dedicated soundcard, just using whatever my motherbord has installed (Realtek audio) and therefore those drivers should be Asus, shouldn't they?

 

Windows will replace your drivers. I gave a link to how to shut that off.

[loki]

Windows will replace your drivers. I gave a link to how to shut that off.

 

Only if the driver installed is older than what the Windows Update servers have. If the latest version from Nvidia is installed, Windows Update won't replace it.

[CRJ_simpilot]

What I'm trying to convey here is that you really shouldn't have M$ replace your drivers, but use the driver from the manufacture only. And if a new driver causes a problem wheres the previous didn't, then you can blame M$.

 

Based on M$'s quality control, I wouldn't allow them to update my drivers. I'd keep my own from the GPU and sound card manufacturer. Whether that's onboard or not.

[CRJ_simpilot]

I regularily update my graphics drivers via the Nvida Geforce Experience tool. Why is this a bad idea?

 

Because you are getting more than just the driver with that. All you need is the driver. What I do is go to Nvida's website and download the driver. When I install I use custom install and don't install their experience crap or the audio crap. Just the bare minimum that I need for the GPU to function and that is the driver.

 

Have a look here as well: https://www.techpowerup.com/227598/nvidia-telemetry-spooks-privacy-sensitive-users-how-to-disable-it#g227598

[il88pp]

Make sure you set your framerate target to a fixed number. 20 for example. In fsx settings.

Then set other settings so the target of 20 is reached most of the time.

That will give the processor some breathing room.

If you have framerate unlimited, lower settings just give more fps and not more breathing room.

 

100% used or nearly 100 is perfectly normal. It is not an indication that anything is wrong with the pc or drivers.

[mallcott]

Surely you have a founded explanation for that, or is it just some addition to make it sound more erudite?

Because I've always installed Nvidia driver updates as an express install, via Nvidia Experience. Without problems.

 

Wim

 

Never thought I'd find myself defending CRJ_Simpllot but in this case he is right. FSX cannot use most of the unnecessary addons to the basic driver and over the years the default, Express install has added more and more bloatware completely unnecessary to operation of the OS or a Flight Simulator

 

Twin parts are recommended for Nvidia driver installation:

1: Install ONLY the driver using the Custom (Advanced) install checkbox.

From the selection boxes uncheck ALL the other checkboxes save for Graphics Driver, (which you can't delete anyway as the box is greyed out).

You don't need: HD Audio Driver; PhysX System Software; 3D Vision Driver or GeForce Experience driver.

These are not used by flight simulation. If they by any other game or parts of your system you will be prompted!

 

2: When you have operated you system, NOT just the sim, for some time DELETE the folder C:\NVIDIA . There's a large file saving from deleting it and it will give a clue as to just how much crapware you have in your system as it contains ALL the installation files.

 

Finally, (and consider this Routine `0.5` before getting to 1: above):

When opening the driver installer it provides an option for a `Clean` installation. Use it.

[f16jockey_2]

I play games besides FSX. Not the newest, but quite new (I wait until a game goes on sale, or when a sequel comes out). Paying 60€ for a new game is against my religion (read: can't afford).

So I'll stick with NVidia Experience and the easy way of installing.

No C:\NVidia on my system btw ?

 

But thanks for explaining.

 

Wim

[Luke]

You don't need: HD Audio Driver; PhysX System Software; 3D Vision Driver or GeForce Experience driver. These are not used by flight simulation.

 

It depends. I pipe my sound from my video card to my amplifier over HDMI. I need the HD Audio driver. It's not a common situation, but also not unique. Since Vista, there's no advantage to dedicated sound cards, all the sound is digital anyways.

 

Cheers!

 

Luke

[mallcott]

It depends. I pipe my sound from my video card to my amplifier over HDMI. I need the HD Audio driver. It's not a common situation, but also not unique. Since Vista, there's no advantage to dedicated sound cards, all the sound is digital anyways.

 

Cheers!

 

Luke

 

Check your video card. If it's absent a dedicated sound channel you are compromising video performance and would be better off running sound through the dedicated sound channel of your MOBO, if fitted...

 

Suggest checking for topics `DISABLE NVIDIA AUDIO IN DEVICE MANAGER` via Google.

[PhantomTweak]

There's a very good guide for installing NVidea drivers, what to look for to see if they are monitoring your system, NVidea Inspector settings, etc.

Look HERE. Section 3 is the NVidea Driver install instructions, and more importantly, what NOT to permit to run on your system, and how to prevent it.

Take a look. I found it very easy to read and follow the instructions.

Pat☺