ATI HD 4850

[Bumkin]

I have been having problems with "FSX not responing".

[NickN]

In this situation where you question the hardware I would suggest you install the benchmark test 3DMark06 and run it

If you crash and/or do not see the fan running on your video card then look further into the hardware situation. If it passes and everything responds and runs normally then I would suspect the issue is local to your FSX install at that point.

ATi did have some problems with their fans going back about a year but I was under the impression that was fixed in drivers a while ago

Make sure you have the latest directX update installed too

[Bumkin]

I ran 3DMark06 and got a rating of 12691.

[NickN]

You said FSX does not start and just hangs

You have just confirmed the hardware is working.. assuming its not intermittant. You could set 3DMark to LOOP tests repeating them over and over for an hour. I would say that should force any hardware issues to the surface.

If you have confirmed the above and you are not overclocked in which and/or set up improperly in your BIOS for stability (overclocked or not) then I would uninstall FSX and start over

[bbstackerf]

I have the exact same setup i7 920, 64 bit Vista, 500 watt PS, ATI HD4850 and have no problems with FSX, FS9, or CFS3 running. I have added a lot of addon a/c to FSX. But I haven't applied any tweaks as of yet. That's how I screwed up my last PC messing with what I wasn't familiar enough with. I should say however that I did apply the tweaks to my Gate FX gaming Laptop and everything works fine in all my flight sim apps. My desktop is a Gateway FX also BTW.

Keni

[Bumkin]

Keni - Thanks for the reply, we seem to have the same setup except hard drive & memory.

[New Light]

   I have a simular set up (Gateway i7 920 @ 2.67 GHz, 3Gs memory, 700w power supply and a ATI 4870) and had the same exact problem. I had used the ATI Catalyst Control Center the auto-tune option which overclocked itself to about 92% of its capability. Nick had suggested that I return to the default vid card settings and see what happened. I did so and, viola, all the "FSX not responding", "FSX stopped working" and "FSX has closed" errors stopped along with FSX not starting (eternal intro FSX page).

  Also, on the ATI Catalyst Control Center page, there is a red square with gold lock in it. If you click the lock in the red square, it should allow the settings to be clicked including the option to enable manual fan settings without having to adjust anything else. I keep my fan on 100% when "flying", then drop it down to 50% when web surfing.

  Oh, and, by the way, I use FSX/Acc, UTUSA/Can, GEX(Nh), FEX(SHD), REX, Sound Environment X, Trees X, My Traffic X, Traffic 2005, HTAI Cessna Pack along with most freeware AI traffic for North America on ultra high settings with no problems now.  :) Hope this helps...

Blue Sky Wishes,

Dave

[Bumkin]

Thanks, I appreciate the reply.  Will give it a try this weekend.

[Bumkin]

On the ATI Overdrive page I have selected defaults, unlocked the gold lock and deselected the "Enable ATI Overdrive".  Is that correct?

[New Light]

 Yes, that is correct. You want to try running FSX successfully with the stock clock setting to make sure that, that is not the problem. At the same time, you can adjust your fan setting manually. Setting the clocking back to default did the trick for my pc. If the problem persists, NickN can be of more assistance - I'm just passing the lesson on that he taught me.  :) I hope it does the trick for yours also...

Blue Sky Wishes,

Dave

[Bumkin]

Again, I appreciate the info.  I have googled everything I can think of but have not found anything like Nick's setup for the ATI controls.  Have you found anything?

[NickN]

I have not messed with ATi since I got snookered by them in looking at testing the new HD2 series back in 2007 and they released a card that was nothing like what I was testing after I opened my big mouth and posted benchmark results.. then they had the nerve to be pissed at me

So ATi and I are no longer on speaking terms. I dont did not like their game back then and I dont like how their products work with FSX either... in a nutshell, they suck

They are fine for Crysis and shader engine games, not FSX

I do not know anything about their drivers at this point. I tried a X2 in FSX for about 20 min a long time ago and after seeing how it could not run better than my 8800GTX 768 just uninstalled it and put in a GTX 280.

[Bumkin]

Nick - I appreciate your input.