Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | PC Support |
I found out what's causing my system to crash... |
AFV011
Senior Captain, B777-300
Joined on September 19 2004
GVA 5 Year Anniversary
Online Two Fifty Club
Triple Century Club
Historic Triple Century Club
"Remember...140, 250, and REALLY FAST" Midwestern United States
394 legs, 606.7 hours
274 legs,
430.6 hours online 86 legs,
126.5 hours ACARS 8 legs,
16.0 hours event 501 legs, 763.5 hours total
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Posted onPost created on
July 05 2006 10:22 ET by Michael Carter
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But not why.
Since I rarely fly off-line except for sight-seeing or practice it had not occured to me before that the on-line programs were causing my system to crash to black screen. The system was just flat out locked up and only a hard-boot would restore it. No CTD, it was black-screen as though the system was turned off except that it wasn't. It would also make a very short but startling noise when it crashed like someone swiping the tone arm from a vinyl album.
Yesterday I tried an experiment with FS and the DF727. This whole time I thought the system was having trouble with the Dreamfleet model. Not so.
I turned up every slider and marked every box in the video settings and put the aircraft in Wien. That's the Fly-Tampa Wien and I take a small hit on frames at that location. Same with the freeware de Gaulle I have installed.
I left IVAP and ServInfo off and was amazed at the scenery and frame rates. While on the ground at Wien at the gate I was getting about 7-9 fps. Upon pushing out of the stand and heading for the runway the fps went up to 10-12 on the taxi. Upon clearing the ATA, the frames went to 18-20 where it's locked at 20. There was no delay in loading ground textures as is common when on-line, and even the VC in the DF was at a respectable 12-15 fps while looking around at the beautiful European scenery.
UT Europe is also installed and never looked better. I'm not sure why IVAP and/or ServInfo is bottle necking my system or why they cause these crashes, but FS9 ran for nine hours non-stop yesterday with every slider maxed out, and away from a major airport I was still getting 18-20 fps.
If I'm on-line, settings have to be reduced to half or under. Global Quality has to be reduced to under half and Terrain Mesh Complexity has to be 30 or under.
I'm running a home-built with a 1.33 Ghz Athlon processor OC'ed to 1.47 Ghz, a gig of memory and an ATI9800Pro card on a 7200RPM drive.
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DVA544
Senior Captain, B727-200
Joined on October 24 2001
Online Century Club
Triple Century Club
Southeastern United States
329 legs, 661.4 hours
186 legs,
368.2 hours online 47 legs,
90.0 hours ACARS 7 legs,
22.1 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
July 05 2006 10:35 ET by Joe DeGregorio
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now you see why I dont hardly fly online anymore...unlike some people here who have like mega PC's with 3.2Ghz+ speed processors and PCI Expresss,my system still cant handle the load of online fliying with everything maxed out.....like you Mike,If i fly offline with just say ACARS and active sky,i can usually max out the sliders and still get 6-12fps with full clouds and stuff..i still get stutters,but its not as bad and doesnt affect my landings too much....my new CPU cooler is keeping my cpu temps down really low,but I still lag like crazy sometimes...
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AFV011
Senior Captain, B777-300
Joined on September 19 2004
GVA 5 Year Anniversary
Online Two Fifty Club
Triple Century Club
Historic Triple Century Club
"Remember...140, 250, and REALLY FAST" Midwestern United States
394 legs, 606.7 hours
274 legs,
430.6 hours online 86 legs,
126.5 hours ACARS 8 legs,
16.0 hours event 501 legs, 763.5 hours total
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Posted onPost created on
July 05 2006 11:02 ET by Michael Carter
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This Mobo is a socket-A system and there is a 2.3 Ghz processor that I'm planning to purchase for it. It's an AMD 3200+. As i understand it, this is the fastest processor I can install on a socket-A board.
I sure hope it helps. I don't like flying off-line.
It's hard to believe that on-line programs suck so much computing power out of a processor. This has been going on since last November and I was oblivious to the problem.
When in the C-172 or other simple aircraft, the frame rate is at a contant 20 no matter what airport I'm at.
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DVA3303
First Officer, CRJ-200
Joined on July 03 2006
"Me? Havin motto? Silly :o)" Eastern Europe
7 legs, 10.3 hours
7 legs,
10.3 hours online 6 legs,
9.1 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
July 05 2006 11:11 ET by Peter Fabian
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Are you both guys talking about VATSIM? Since I have been flying on IVAO for long time, and I even find out flying onlie less FPS-consuming than offline - I guess this is because AI models compared to MTL models, but anyway, I dont have big FPS losses...
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AFV011
Senior Captain, B777-300
Joined on September 19 2004
GVA 5 Year Anniversary
Online Two Fifty Club
Triple Century Club
Historic Triple Century Club
"Remember...140, 250, and REALLY FAST" Midwestern United States
394 legs, 606.7 hours
274 legs,
430.6 hours online 86 legs,
126.5 hours ACARS 8 legs,
16.0 hours event 501 legs, 763.5 hours total
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Posted onPost created on
July 05 2006 11:21 ET by Michael Carter
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I fly on IVAO. It's worse using VATSIM.
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DVA1933
Senior Captain, B727-200
Joined on September 19 2004
Triple Century Club
Monterrey, NL Mexico
357 legs, 860.4 hours
72 legs,
132.3 hours online 255 legs,
668.3 hours ACARS 1 legs,
1.9 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
July 05 2006 11:47 ET by David Eugenio Gomez
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I think you're very right, you should upgrade the processor.
I could be wrong, I'm no expert or anything, but it seems that your processor is very very low Mike. And your RAM memory is a lot, as well as an excellent video card.
Couldn't the slow processor cause the crashes, either by bottlenecking or overheating as you have it OC'd ?
I don't know, maybe online flying grabs say 70% of the processor and leaves nothing to process the video card's stuff, then it crashes...
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DVA3303
First Officer, CRJ-200
Joined on July 03 2006
"Me? Havin motto? Silly :o)" Eastern Europe
7 legs, 10.3 hours
7 legs,
10.3 hours online 6 legs,
9.1 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
July 05 2006 12:00 ET by Peter Fabian
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Yep, I also consider that CPU quite a low-end.. 2,4 gig would do well compared to the rest of your system I think.
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DVA1427
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP
Joined on December 14 2003
Online Double Century Club
50 State Club
Tri-Jet Triumph
Globetrotter
Moose Club
US Capital Club
Everett 250 Club
Quincentenary Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
"Livin' in the Dog Pound!" Kannapolis, NC
558 legs, 1,984.3 hours
250 legs,
611.8 hours online 384 legs,
1,530.5 hours ACARS 38 legs,
82.7 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
July 05 2006 12:02 ET by Lewis Gregory
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Online's definitely a LOT harder on your machine. I've got a faster system, but not really fast (Athlon XP 2500) and flying into a moderately-crowded airport online, I get as low as 6 fps, especially at night. Last night, by contrast, messing around shooting an approach into Christchurch NZ in the LDS 767 with some clouds around, four or five Project AI planes on the ramp, using freeware 76m mesh and Vista Australis textures? 15+ fps in the VC, 20 in the 2D (locked at 20).
Supposedly SB 3.1 fixes some low FR problems on VATSIM, but I haven't tried it yet.
Lewis GregorySenior Captain, MD-11
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AFV011
Senior Captain, B777-300
Joined on September 19 2004
GVA 5 Year Anniversary
Online Two Fifty Club
Triple Century Club
Historic Triple Century Club
"Remember...140, 250, and REALLY FAST" Midwestern United States
394 legs, 606.7 hours
274 legs,
430.6 hours online 86 legs,
126.5 hours ACARS 8 legs,
16.0 hours event 501 legs, 763.5 hours total
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Posted onPost created on
July 05 2006 12:28 ET by Michael Carter
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My son built this system for me. Why he would have otherwise excellent hardware and install this CPU is beyond me. This CPU was old tech when he installed it.
The Athlon 3200+ is from 2003 so it's not so cutting-edge either, but it fits a socket-A (or 462).
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DVA3303
First Officer, CRJ-200
Joined on July 03 2006
"Me? Havin motto? Silly :o)" Eastern Europe
7 legs, 10.3 hours
7 legs,
10.3 hours online 6 legs,
9.1 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
July 05 2006 13:25 ET by Peter Fabian
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That Athlon is OK, for your system it is great decision. Let us know how is it flying after upgrade.
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DVA3189
Senior Captain, DC-6
COMM
Joined on June 01 2006
DVA Five-Year Anniversary
Long Beach Century Club
50 State Club
Quatercentenary Club
Events Century Club
Online Quadruple Century Club
Tacoma, WA USA
449 legs, 741.5 hours
404 legs,
677.8 hours online 291 legs,
475.0 hours ACARS 100 legs,
209.0 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
July 05 2006 13:48 ET by Bob Welch
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A note about low frame rates in heavy traffic. If you are using FSINN they have a fix built in. In the upper left
hand side you will see what looks like 3 computer icons .Just click on it and all visibile traffic goes away.Frame rates will go up. Click again, sometimes it takes two tries and all traffic will return.
Or course you would use it only when you are saftely clear of nearby traffic.
I use it at times when on final in a busy airport.
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DVA057
Senior Captain, B777-200
COMM
Joined on June 02 2002
Events Century Club
Six Century Club
Online Quintuple Century Club
Everett 500 Club
50 State Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
"We Are ... Penn State!" Atlanta, GA USA
672 legs, 1,338.4 hours
531 legs,
1,076.4 hours online 392 legs,
786.1 hours ACARS 190 legs,
406.3 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
July 05 2006 22:24 ET by Terry Eshenour
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Michael,
Evaluate the economics of upgrading your MOBO and CPU. You may find a Combo deal that costs about the same as a CPU only purchase. I found this to be the case when assembling some components to replace a burned out MOBO.
Terry EshenourSenior Captain, B777-200
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AFV011
Senior Captain, B777-300
Joined on September 19 2004
GVA 5 Year Anniversary
Online Two Fifty Club
Triple Century Club
Historic Triple Century Club
"Remember...140, 250, and REALLY FAST" Midwestern United States
394 legs, 606.7 hours
274 legs,
430.6 hours online 86 legs,
126.5 hours ACARS 8 legs,
16.0 hours event 501 legs, 763.5 hours total
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Posted onPost created on
July 06 2006 00:55 ET by Michael Carter
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Thanks. That's a good idea worth looking into.
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