I'm dying over here! Need help!

[TheStrikeEagle]

Hello fellow flight simmers, I'm in desperate need of some help. I've been flying FS9 since a few months after it was released, I love it! Thats why I am so desperate it here... Just recently I started having problems with FS9 freezing up while in flight. When I say freezing up I mean that once it freezes I can't do anything but push the reset button on the computer. This is so frustrating!

I am not the type that ask for help with something till I've gone through every possible thing I can think of that could be causing the problem. I've tried everything I could think of to try to fix the problem. I uninstalled FS9 completely (even went through the registry and deleted anything that I could find that said FS9 or microsoft flight simulator), I reinstalled FS9 in a different directory after defragging the hard drive. I made sure that I only installed FS9 as it is out of the box with no add ons except for the patch. I've installed new drivers for everyting, all drivers are up to date. I checked hard drive for errors. I thought it might be SP2 for XP causing the problem so I uninstalled it. I'm out of ideas.

I am hoping someone has some idea of what might be causing this. My next step will be reformatting and starting over from scratch but I really dont want to do that. System specs are:

Windows XP Home
Athlon xp 2800+
1 gig Kingston Mem
Asus A7N8X-X mobo
Asus V9980 Ultra 5950 Ultra 256 meg

Thanks in Advance for any help!

[cleobis]

hmmm...son't know if I can help, but I once had a problem like that...the game would just freeze...I mean, the whole computer would freeze and I had to reset the damn thing....it turned out to be the motherboard that was "dying"... changed it and problem disapeared...

I hope you have a less expensive solution...

cheers

[zeberdee]

Hi it could be your cpu fan has stopped causing the cpu to over heat. I had it happen, the computer worked ok until I played any demanding game then it crashed or froze. As a quick check if your computer doesn't have temp monitoring, take the side off the case and use a desk fan to blow air over the cpu / mother board. If this cures the problem its just a simple over heating to sort out. Good luck!! Regards Chris

[Jared]

if it was doing it randomly and not only in the sim mode I would suggest a different power supply, but only when in the sim huh? hmm...

[Skligmund]

I would defininately check out your case, RAM and CPU temps.

[VOHY_VO0I]

So its not only me who faces that problem  >:(

I had two major problems when flying in FS2004.

First, the game would freeze (when i'm about to complete the perfect flight) and had to press the restart button. Damn frustrating.

Second, the PC would restart on its own suddenly in the middle of a flight.

I could not find a cure for this problem (even after a lot of consultation) so i left it as it was.

But now i no longer face that problem. It just disappeared on its own. Such an error has not occured since the past 6-8 months which usually used to occur almost everyday.

[TacitBlue]

Mine corrected itself of a problem too, it would freeze when the game was loading, and I would be stuck looking at the splash screen, then one day it just stopped. So maybe you just need to wait it out.

[CAFedm]

Not with FS9 but rather 2002, turned out the cause for my freezing was due to the video card installed in my then-computer, an upgrade patch was downloaded and this solved the problem.  Unsure if this might be of help to you but anything is worth a try at some point.

[eno]

Sounds like your video card .......... I had the same problem when I updated the drivers for mine.

Check in your settings if there is a VPU Recover setting if so make sure its checked. It might just be on ATI cards.

hope that helps

eno

[-sam-]

Hi there,

I had similar problems. The reason was a to high CPU temperature !
I have an Athlon 3000+ wich was set to a multiplier of 12,5
Everything worked perfect on my machine expect FS9
wich crashed my computer (shutdown).
After trying everything without success I set the CPU multiplier to 12 and suddenly everything worked perfect !

Another helpful tool is that windows application log.
It

[Moach]

i am having the EXACT SAME PROBLEM... but it's not only FS... ALL my games crash out on me after about 15 minutes of play.

i too have tried just about anything with no luck...

but i can safely say the video card is NOT the culprit here... i sent mine (radeon 9800xt 256mb) back to the store and they ran tests on it and it was perfect...

tomorrow im going to format my hd and hope for the best...

but now that i see your specs i found something alarming... i also have the same motherboard... i dread to think that it could be the source of the trouble...

if formatting doesn't work, i guess we'll know then...

c ya

Moach

[codered]

The last time my game froze, was because my video card went bad.  It was in the days of Nvidia GeForce 4400.  That is when I went to an ATI card, but that is a different story.

My screen would pixelate and strange lines would appear.  Then the game would die.  Turn out the card burnt up.  Try running the computer with the case off and a fan blowing on it to see if that helps.  If it does, then it could be a cooling issue.

[Skligmund]

If any of you have the Kt133 series chipsets on your motherboard, make sure you have the Via 4in1 4.43 or EARLIER driver. The later ones cause the same problems experienced by you guys. I still have my Abit KT7E running as my back-up computer, thats how I know this.

Your problems can be attributed to one or more of 4 things.

1. Over Temp of components

2. Incorrect Drivers (weather they are too new, too old, lack of proper installation or wrong hardware)

3. Lack of power or inconsistant power from your power supply

4. Hardware conflicts, or bad hardware

You may want to do basic hardware troubleshooting. Remove all your expansion cards and disable your onboard network/sound ect. Remove the drivers for the above stated. Play FS. Do you still freeze up? If so, then you have shown it is not a hardware conflict with your expansion cards ect. If it doesn't freeze up, start re-installing cards one at a time, until it freezes up again. That will tell you what card is giving you grief.

Note: I Have built MANY computers, and I have yet to run into a bad piece of hardware, so don't go out buying new stuff to try to fix your problem unless you have concluded that that piece of hardware is your problem.

[TheStrikeEagle]

You guys rock! Thanks for all the responses! I've tried most of them but there are a couple that I'm still working on. I'm starting to believe that is a power supply problem, I recently had a power supply go out on me so I bought a new one but I bet the one I got is not that good (AG is the brand never heard of them) and it is causing problems, maybe inconsistant power like Skligmund suggested. The reason why I think it is the power supply is because come to think of it now the problem started occuring after I put the new one in. It could also be a problem with cpu over heating but I checked all the fans and they all seem to be working. I don't have a temp gauge on the system other then the Bios cpu temp reading but it seems to be fine if I look at it right away after the computer freezes and I reboot. I guess it could be cooling down some before I reboot and look at it but probably not cooling down that much that fast. I might try the suggestion to turn the multiplyer down but that hurts performance and FS9 is a cpu hog.

The really frustrating thing about this is that it doesn't have a pattern... meaning that it doesn't crash at certain times or when doing certain things. Sometimes it crashes right away on takeoff and sometimes it crahes midway through the flight or when landing  :'(. I can fly every now and then and it doesn't crash at all but not very often. I do know that it only crashes when playing FS9 and not any of the other games and simulators I play, which Half-Life 2 is pretty demanding and it doesn't crash when playing that and I play it sometimes for 2 to 3 hours straight.
Anyways, you all have been a big help! Thanks! Oh and Moach if the reformatting fixes the problem let me know.

Thanks again,
Todd