crash and burn problem

[lordofyardley]

My FSX keeps crashing after a few minutes of play. Everything just freezes up accompanied by a machine gun sound and sometimes is followed by the dreaded blue screen before resetting. Have all the updates installed incl SP1 on a brand new from scratch system with Vista 32 Home Premium installed. The only application loaded is FSX. Originally I had 4 GIG RAM installed and nothing would work but removing 1 gig of RAM helped get things to work. The CPU is constantly going to 100% so I am getting a new one because Intel thinks it may be bad. Temps run 41C max on CPU. I reduced FSX settings from Ultra high to high and even medium but still crashed after awhile (1 to 5 minutes) no matter which aircraft was involved (Trike or B747).  
 
The system is a home built and gets a 5.1 rating from Vista because the CPU is only getting 5.1 while Video card comes in at 5.9:  
 
ASUS P5SNLI socket 775 motherboard  
Intel Core2 Duo E6400 2.13ghz CPU  
Ultra XVS 700 Watt Power supply  
Ultra X-Wind Copper Fan 2200 RPM 775 up to 3.8ghz for cooling the CPU  
3 each OCZ Platinum Rev 2  1024MB PC6400 DDR2  800Mhz RAM  
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB PCIe w/dual DVI  
2 each Seagate 250gb serial ATA w/NCQ  7200/8mb/SATA-3G  running mode 0 RAID  
CH Rudder pedals  
CH Throttle Quadrant  
CH Flight Sim Yoke  
Samsung  244T  24 inch 1900x1200  1000:1 LCD Monitor  
Logitech G15 keyboard and G7 Laser Mouse  
 
Microsoft is trying to figure it out too. Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas to keep me from crashing and burning?  Anyone getting a better performance score with this same CPU?

Does removing only one stick and leaving the other three create problems? supposedly not?  :'(

This seems like a great system and its got to work. I haven't messed with any clockspeed or overspeeds or anything since I probably don't know enough. At most, I have a second display working but I don't think the problem is caused by the video card.
 

[Fozzer]

Sounds like an over-heating problem to me..?

It may be a daft question to ask, but as it is a home-built, including the Processor and Heat-sink...
..did you apply the correct Thermal heat transfer compound between the Processor and Heat-sink when assembling them together...?

Cheers... ...!

Paul... 8-)...!

[THEMasternerd]

Cold also be a weak power supply! But there are too many factors to say for sure. Removing the 1gig stick may have lessened the load on the PS

[lordofyardley]

Sounds like an over-heating problem to me..?

It may be a daft question to ask, but as it is a home-built, including the Processor and Heat-sink...
..did you apply the correct Thermal heat transfer compound between the Processor and Heat-sink when assembling them together...?

Cheers... ...!

Paul... 8-)...!

Yes I put compound. For the first 2-3 hours the fan was not working because a cable blocked the fan from rotating. Maybe during that time some overheating ocurred? Hard to tell there were so many other problems. But what kind of Vista Experience Rating do you get with this CPU - just the CPU - not overall? 5.1 or more?

[ctjoyce]

Well first off its because you're using vista for gaming. In all seriousness what bluescreen are you getting? I'm willing to bet its 0x7E or 0x0A. If its ithor of these it could be a few factors. The main one being that you have a nVidia GPU, and Vista hates G71 and G80 cards. So it could be that (I had that problem trying to run a SLi rig) Also if you have nortin go-back enabled, disable it.

Cheers
Cameron

[lordofyardley]

Well first off its because you're using vista for gaming. In all seriousness what bluescreen are you getting? I'm willing to bet its 0x7E or 0x0A. If its ithor of these it could be a few factors. The main one being that you have a nVidia GPU, and Vista hates G71 and G80 cards. So it could be that (I had that problem trying to run a SLi rig) Also if you have nortin go-back enabled, disable it.

Cheers
Cameron

the blue screen goes by so quick (sometimes everything just freezes) but yes I used to get the 0x0000000A or D1 etc but after taking out a stick of memory that all went away. I make a practice of eliminating everything to do with Norton on all computers - sloppy overrated problem software. It looks more and more like the CPU so I will heed Hardware advice and push up the clock. I have the max cooling fan available so I should be OK.

[ctjoyce]

When booting, after you pass POST, hold down the F8 key. Then tell the computer not to automatically reboot after bluescreen so that you can get your BSOD code.

An overheating, or dying processor would cause a BSOD, not one that can't handle FSX. It would just hang.

Cheers
Cameron