Performance issues

[BFMF]

For the last week or so, I've noticed that while flying in FS2004, between every 5-10 minutes, my flightsim performance will drop to about 5 or so frames per second. This will last a couple minutes as it slowly improves to being smooth, and then after another 5-10 minutes, it does it all over again. Untill recently, this has never happened before. This phenomena will occur even if I set all my sliders to medium.

My specs are:

AMD Athlon XP 2800+
512 mb of PC2100 ram
GeForce 3 Ti 500 64mb
WinXP pro

I've installed the latest Nvidia Drivers. I've gone through the DirectX diagnostics, and everything's checked out.

I'm getting desperate, any ideas?

Thanks

[VPA_KTPA]

Andrew.do you have anything running in the back ground antivirus or any thing of that nature.and sometimes you can get spy ware installed on your system and not no it just by visiting some web sites.i have been useing a program from this site that helps the sim run better.just go to downloads in the link.

http://www.fs-gs.com/

You can go to this site and get adware 6.0 and it will detect and remove any spyware running on your system.i use it once a week.you would be amazed how much junk gets put on your system and you not no it.and another good thing about it is its free.if you get check for updates after you install it.

http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail.php3?fid=965718306

[BFMF]

After restarting my computer, I usually have AVG Antivirus running and my firewall up, and the phenomena still occurs. I don't think those programs would be the problem cuz i've had them for a long time, long before my problem started

[VPA_KTPA]

If the problem just started then it may be spyware running on your system.i posted a link in my last post where you can get the free verison.just some thing you might want to check out.some thing else check and see if your system or videocard is over heating.

[BFMF]

Scanning right now

Can spyware really cause performance to drop so much?

I know my system isn't overheating, and I doubt my video card is either. I've got a goodsized heatsink on it, so it should be ok???

[VPA_KTPA]

Well Andrew.after the scan you will see how much there was on there you didnt know about.but a while back i had someone hack into my computer and start a new account on win xp and my computer was so messed up i had to do a reformat and reinstall of win xp.and i droped by windows news group and found alot of people are haveing this same problem.and the funny thing is i have 2 firewalls and a really good antivirus.i guess were not as safe as we were told we were.i cant say for shure its your problem.but if you havent changed anything it just lead me to think that it might be worth a try.

[nicecloud]

Andrew, your post is interesting.
I do not run XP yet, I have the program but did'nt install. A friend of mine reports same trouble. XP connects to internet doing al kind of stuff which slows your game. I want to be in control.
I noticed Your RAM should be PC 2700 for a AMD BARTON 2800, check this out.
Member Congo is one of the experts I believe. Go to hardware for this.
I'm new here, I do not know how to post my specs, but I run Barton 2800+ on aAsus A7N8XX with 533 mb PC2700. Win Me. FS9 wihth enditall.
Lots of stutters with my Gforce 5200, but I do not care so much as I'm mainly flying approaches in poor visibility.
Wish I had a better card though...
Good luck

[Delta_]

For security i use. As primary defence Zonealarm (latest) firewall, all up to date.  Then to get rid of spyware i use both adaware and spybot.  What adaware misses spybot picks up, and vice versa.  I then do a virus scan from panda scan, an online scanner which is highly upto to date, or i use McAfee free scan then i have a tool to get rid off most viruses and just run which ever tool is best for the virus.  I get the tools from http://www.bitdefender.com/html/free_tools.php , they have tools to get rid of netsky, bagle. Sobig etc.

[crj700]

EA_KATL, tried the software Ad-aware (found 202 items); also installed FSautostart. Conclusion: there is a difference in fps: used to run between 12-15 fps (with a lot of sliders - locked at 25); now, averaging 20 fps.  Will keep on monitoring. 20 fps: good enough for me!

Thanks for the info. Really useful.

JF

[BFMF]

How does FSAutostart improve anything?

[VPA_KTPA]

Well dont thank me for the tip on FSAutostart i saw it at the botton of Fly2e,post.checked it out for myself and got a boost from it.andrew it dose about the same thing as enditall but its 10 times better.it will even defrag your ram.i am shure Fly2e could probley tell you more details on it.but i have just started useing it myself.but so far it works like a charm.verry verry good program.its a low end system users dream come true.

[_526th_Fireman]

If you are using Zone Alarm as your firewall, you might consider this. Speedquide, a favorite web site of mine for info and tweaking, states in it's forums....and I quote: "If are using zone alarm remove it it is the biggest resource hog and bandwith eater firewall there is. Use Outpost Firewall http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost or Sygate Firewall http://www.sygate.com/, both have FREE and Pro versions and are heads above ZA."

Also, the advice on running BOTH AdAware AND Spybot is spot on. You really do need to run both, what one misses, the other catches.

[gw]

First, I've been using zonealarm on several systems for a couple of years now and I have not seen any resource problems attributable to it.  If you had some object evidence such as, for example, a task manager display I'd be interested in seeing it.  On my system it sits there using about 1 to 2 Meg of memory, less than 1% cpu and no network bandwidth unless it's checking for a new version.

Andrew.  What a/c were you flying at the time and what maneuvers were you doing?

The reason I ask is that I have an F16 with an insrument panel that will eat 5 to 10 fps just sitting on the runway.  If I hide the panel my fps goes immediately to 20 fps.

I have also seen a lot of frame rate hits near the runway threshold as I transition from flying to taxing.

gw

[BFMF]

It occured with several different aircraft, including some default that have never given me problems

[Delta_]

Well the resource hogging i don't really notice, but i run it when i go on the net.  Any other time i just don't run it, like when i play games.  I set it up not to run at startup, just when i tell it to.