Random stuttering every few seconds

[MikeDV]

Thought I would check in, FWIW it was not my intent to hijack the OP's thread, I do appreciate the ideas and have tried a few...

Skywatcher12 - Good idea of a test default install, even maybe installing right from my DVD set, but I do remember this stuttering on my old PC. Honestly this is the only program I have any issues with on this particular machine. (Specs are in my sig). I may end up trying that anyway someday down the road.

jorgen.s.andersen - I have not overclocked, that may happen in the future though, I will look into it. That is unfamiliar territory for me. I did set up those suggestions in the tweak guide (Thanks!) Results - the stutters are fewer, more random, and quicker, as in it does not freeze for like a second, more like "flashes" now.

I will find this and nail it! Next research is the nvidia card and settings on that end. My old PC had Nvidia graphics as well so maybe there is something there.


Question - even though my FSX folder is on a separate SSD (H:\FSX), the FSX.CFG is buried down in C:\users\username etc. Should it be moved or is that the "mandatory" location?

Thanks everyone!

Mike

[TextRich]

Don't do that. It's a mistake.

With all due respect, my experience and hundreds of others' experience I have read in years suggest not leaving the base FSX folder in any Program Files folder. Even the OP is doing that that. So rather than attempt to contradict others, I suggest you offer possible solutions that your fellow posters may have overlooked. Thank you.

Question - even though my FSX folder is on a separate SSD (H:\FSX), the FSX.CFG is buried down in C:\users\username etc. Should it be moved or is that the "mandatory" location?

No, because the base sim and countless third-party add-ons need the files at those designated locations.

I just remembered one guide I found useful to many simmers. Try all the steps there and see if it helps.
https://www.avsim.com/files/file/41-...uration-guide/

Another poster also said to try to see if you can get your CPU up to 3.5 GHz or more. That is also what I recommend to others. That seems to be the sweet spot for smoothness. Also, remember that FSX was more designed for single core fast CPUs rather than multi core CPUs with a slower processor speed. So anyone wanting to build or buy a system that works with FSX should look at high processor speed and consider additional cores only as bonuses.

I have used FSX for years with a i7-4790K (over 4GHz base clock) and a GTX 970 with tons of add-ons, including FSUIPC4, and no stuttering except in heavy cloud/stormy conditions. Hopefully you find the solution that works for you soon, MikeDV.

[longbreak754]

Hi all,

Come a bit late to this thread but a possible cause for the stuttering may be related to windows indexing and/or SSD related settings. I helped a friend a couple of years ago who's kids PC was having stuttering issues with a number of games following the addition of a SSD and installation of the games on the it. Whilst none of the games were FS related it did include a number of games that were as old as (or older than) FSX, were very CPU heavy and used similar CPU core usage patterns....

After some trial and error and internet searching we were able to eliminate the stuttering on most of the games by doing the following actions...

Enabling trim - which was disabled.
Disabling Windows File Indexing
Disabling Disable Prefetch and Superfetch

A quick internet search will give a number of 'how to' pages to check and change these options.

[MikeDV]

Wow so much help and great ideas, I cant thank everyone enough!


At any rate I did note in watching this carefully just sitting on a runway that many of the quick freezes were when AI planes showed up with tail numbers etc. So I uninstalled (again) Ultimate traffic, same problem remains with default FSX AI. Next, shut off all AI. Still skipped. The only thing I have not done that was suggested is reinstall from scratch out of the box and just run it default to see if it still happens.

So currently, after going through all the tweaks suggested here, including the "other site" manual, disabled all indexing and sysmain (which I found is the WIN 10 version of superfetch I believe) also snagged the nVidia profiler and applied the tweaks shown, I can say I am down to only occasional freezes, or dare I say - rare! So there is significant progress here!

Again, thanks to everyone who jumped in and apologies again for hijacking the thread from the OP. But we are in the same situation I guess!

If I nail these last occasional freezes I will post here. Seems like finding a minnow in the Atlantic ocean LOL

Mike

[longbreak754]

Hi Mike,

Another possible solution regarding the remaining freezes...

Disable Windows Optimisation - this is MS's name for its inbuilt defrag utility and is on by default.

It will/should have auto detect(ed) the SSD and will not be running defrag on it but it will still run on the SATA HDD. Obviously, it will be taking some system/CPU resources when it does this which may be impacting on FSX performance.

Also note that if you have a 3rd party AV or anti-malware suite these may also have an defrag optimiser as part of the package.

If it proves to be the source of the problem you will have to decide what is appropriate for your needs regarding whether to leave optimisation on (and live with stutters) or disable it and get into the routine of manually running a defrag regularly or when required. I generally run a manual defrag every 30 days or so. IME, with todays HDD technology (formatting options and bigger cluster sizes etc) the need to defrag is much less crucial than it use to be.

[TextRich]

Great tips longbreak754!

[MikeDV]

Latest update, and another THANK YOU to everyone. A bit of a long read but if anyone else is following to correct the same problem I am hoping to be as detailed as I can.

longbreak754 - I went looking and did find that defrag setting set to automatic, it was hidden at first as I have "Defraggler" installed. Uninstalled, killed the automatic settings, re-installed. Checked Malwarebytes and Win defender for anything else I could think of. Still hiccups

Today's test put me at a gate in LAX where I just sat there and let Ultimate Traffic inject planes etc. It was set to night so I had the sequenced runway lights in my view. Sure enough, every so often it would freeze. (In an earlier post I mentioned that I tried a similar test with Ultimate Traffic uninstalled to no avail) Flying at LAX caused no additional freezes but they were there. So no matter traffic / scenery density, or what plane.

Side Note on Ultimate traffic - There is one guaranteed freeze up, which is when Ultimate traffic first injects traffic after boot up, it also happens in FS9, but I expect that. Today I started FSX and let it sit for about 10 minutes for aircraft to spawn, however the random freezes continue. I am convinced that this has something to do with AI, but that still contradicts my tests as when everything is off / uninstalled (UT) I still get the freezes occasionally.

Also toyed with the FPS slider again, everything from 30 (1/2 my monitor refresh rate) to unlimited. Not much difference there in performance.



Out in Google land there are many people in the same boat, errr, sim cockpit ; so this just might be a "just live with it" deal until I can spend some time perhaps installing out of the box just to see if default install does the same thing. For now if I want to enjoy FSX, I live with the limitations as I do in FS9. The new MSFS is installed as well and am on a learning curve with it, it really runs very well for me but I think I need a degree to use it LOL. Hence, FS9 and FSX for the fun of it all!!


I'll be lurking and if I catch this freezer bug I'll share the fix...

Thanks again everyone and Happy Flying

Mike

[MikeDV]

Hi all, answering my own posts here...

When I installed FSX originally on this PC I started by installing out of the box, (Gold deluxe version) then renamed the installs etc and copied my old FSX folder in from my old WIN-7 PC. I was reading out there in Google land so many mixed statements about the "acceleration" that I do not recall installing it, as seemed most stated not to. I do in fact have SP-2 installed though.

Also, I have the "Preview DX-10" unchecked.

Any thoughts on the stuttering based on either of these? I don't want to damage things more by installing stuff that I shouldn't at this point.

Thanks again, and you knew I would still be at it looking for the culprit LOL. System specs in my sig regarding this as well.

Mike