Flickering and Freezing

[John_HR]

 grrrrrrr, flickering is back, even worst than before, and now it freezes often as I sit at an airport, getting ready to fly, any aircraft, any airport, doesn't matter, freezes just for a few seconds at a time, but often.

When I first fully installed my NVIDIA 6800 and got that lil' green icon on the task bar, adjusted and set it according to Midnight's advise, it seem to work real well, but now, only about a week later, its real bad, can hardly fly my FS2004
Is it time to uninstall and re-install? could that make a difference?
HELP please.   Thanks        

[John_HR]

I'm so sad no one can help me with my "flickering & freezing" problem.

By now I've uninstalled and re-installed my FS2004, makes no difference, same old, same old.

Wonder if I shoud get me a "Radeon" card, and junk my Nvidia ? Anybody a suggestion about that? I use to have a Radeon, in my previous PC. and it never gave me any headaches.
I'm starting to think that Radeon is much better than Nvidia.

Next question is for Pete Daly: I have renewed my subscription a couple of weeks ago, but I can not enter "Simviation.com" anymore as a member, have to get in as "guest"  Why is that?  and it does not let re-register either, I've tried and tried many times, Any help on all of this will be very much appreciated.

John  

[ashaman]

Your problem seems a driver problem to me. Try downloading the last version from Nvidia and se if it gets better.

Eventually I would look for heavy background tasks in your PC too. Tasks like antivirus and somesuch, that can take away power to the CPU while you're simulflying.

[Hai Perso Coyone?]

I have the same card...and I am really satisfied with it...it's been running on my machine for a good 6 months now and it gives me top notch FPS in FS9

Like Ashaman said...try updating your drivers...

[John_HR]

Thanks ashaman and Ashar,  I just downloaded the newest version of Nvidia driver  "82.12 forceware" but when I wanted to install it, it gives me a warning not to install it because it hasn't been approved by "Microsoft", so I did not install it.

I can not fly my FS2004 anymore, the flickering and freezing is getting worse and worse. In regards to ashaman's suggestion about checking heavy background, I did that, and there's nothing of that kind to interfer, I also use the FSAutoStart, so I think I'm good there.

Don't really know what to do anymore to fix my problem. Wonder how long it will be for Microsoft to approve the latest version of Nvidia drive?

Also looked at the newest version of a Radeon card, cost: $620.00.  will think about it for a few days.

Thanks guys.

[Moach]

FS2002 has a "safe mode" option... just look for it in the "start" menu

if it's a driver issue, then it should be fine when ran in "safe mode"

i think..... maybe not....

 ::)

oh well i think it's worth i try


and also, i think you should go ahead with the driver installation, though i don't wanna be the guy who tells you to go and cut the red wire ( )... well, it's just an idea... if all goes bad you can just reinstall the old drivers that came with the card...

[microlight]

It might be worth thinking about your memory also. I'd recommend 512mB RAM minimum but 1gB if you can stretch to it. Not sure it's a video card issue - I have a relatively low-end Radeon 9200SE but it operates with no stutters with 1gB memory.

Good luck.

[microlight]

Another thought - if you have 512mB memory already, then you might want to try reducing the number of background programs that are memory-resident in your PC, which prevent FS from utilising all the memory it needs. Bring up the task manager (Ctrl-Alt-Delete) and see how many processes are running. If you have a lot identified with your (or the PC user's) name, then you  might want to try shutting a few of these down to see what affects the system operation. (I have the bulk of my personal memory-resident programs shut down.)

Another option is to use FSAutoStart which you can program to shut down these processes for you, and then re-start when you're done with FS.

[garymbuska]

On the microsoft error message you are getting. I think the problem is that the driver is not signed if this is the case you can still use it. I used a unsigned driver for months before nvida finally updated and signed the driver. Run dxdiag it will tell you if your driver has been signed or not. But if you are still leary just set a restore point before installing the driver that way all you have to do is to go back to the point before you installed it.

[ashaman]

Please, all the drivers on all three computers I own were never approved by M$ and I never had a problem.

The "yes" of M$ costs money, so it's only natural that a driver that is updated on a monthly basis (almost) like the video driver cannot wait the do-so and then cost more money too from M$.

Do as I said. Go in the control panel and uninstall your old drivers then, after having rebooted, install the more up to date drivers you can find on the Nvidia site. You can do no wrong.

[John_HR]

??? Good evening all you friends that have been so willing to lend me the help I need.
Just finished uninstalling my older Nvidia drivers, downloaded the newest driver, "82.12 forceware" released a month ago, installed it, in spite of MS warning, did all exactly like ashaman suggested, and guess what? It made not one bit of a difference, flickering & freezing, continue just like before.  I'm at ends whit  >:(
Sorry to be a pain in the butt, I know you guys have done the best to help, and I appreciate that very much.

Here's my machine:  

Asus P4 Motherboard
Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHZ CPU
1 Gig PC3200 Memory
2 x Seagate 120 GB 7200 8MB Cache in Raid 1 Config.
BFG OC Geforce 6800 256 MB AGP Card
Onboard 32 Bit Sound Card
Gig onboard LAN
DVD drive R. W.
ATX Case w/400W Power Supply
Windows XP Home Edition

Don't think there's anything wrong with my machine.

John

[John_HR]

Just finished Un-installing my complete FS2004, Re-installed again,  (2nd. time in the last 10 days),   No matter what I do, nothing makes a difference, very frustrating.

I've decided to spend over $600.00 and get me the best ATI Radeon card on the market.

Just received my new 21" Dell Monitor,  its great, I have a big, beautiful machine all around, there should be no reason for the FS2004 not to work. We'll see when my new card arrives.

Salud Amigos.

John

[dave3cu]

"..BFG OC Geforce 6800 256 MB AGP Card .."

Does this indicate you are currently overclocking?

I had a similar problem with my (XFX)5200FX, oc'd to the freq's determined by the oc utility that comes with the software.

Using the 'detect optimal freq.' settings the card preformed well for a time. I then began to see minor stuttering (no flickering) and freezing for 10 to 20 seconds at random times while flying (usually 5 to 10 minutes).

If I disabled oc'ing the problem ceased.

I have since manually reduced the oc freq's somewhat from the 'detect optimal freq.' setting and the card is now running stable.

Dave  

[John_HR]

Good evening Dave,

Thanks for looking at my problem and for your information.

My Card Overclocking?  it could be, didn't know there was such a thing, now I've been looking, trying to find the 'detect optimal freq.' setting, can't find it, where should it be?

Please, can you help me further with this?  
Very much appreciated.

John

[TerryW]

John,...I had/have the same problem on occasion (I have an ATI Radeon X800XL 256 mb card). It seems a lot of newer cards have latency set at 255...there is a Latency Configuration Tool (freeware, small program) that let's you set a lower value...most people I've read on various forums set latency to 64. I've been using it for many months and it has practically eliminated the flickering and freezing on my machine. My machine certainly doesn't have the legs that yours does.

Do a google for the program, and read some forum posts (there were some here on SimV back awhile)...heck of a lot cheaper than replacing that nice card you have...now, if your card is PCI-E...ignore this repsonse, as the tool is only valid for AGP cards...all the best,
Terry