FSX locking up after reinstall and running smooth

[SSI01]

I don't know if anyone's run into this problem yet. FSX Gold Edition with Acceleration expansion pack is locking up after anywhere from 10 minutes to 3 hours of activity. There is no add-on scenery in this sim, although there are add-on aircraft. All the add-on aircraft were there when the reinstall happened about a month or five weeks ago. Never a glimmer of a problem. Over the last couple of days my lockups began. The stupid sim will freeze but will NOT cause a CTD, meaning there are no clues in Event Viewer to help me along in figuring out the problem. The entire computer locks up when this happens. Only way out of the lockup is ctrl + alt + delete. If I start Task Manager and ignore the situation, then just open Firefox to do something on the net or write an email, and come back to the sim - I find it paused and ready to fly. After that, it's just a matter of hitting "P" and away we go again. It will lock up again, no set interval after that, could be 10 minutes, could be 3 hours. Open Task Manager again, go do something else, come back to the sim - and it's back at the "paused" stage, ready to fly for a while longer. It's like whatever the sim is doing, what the computer reads from the sim to make it operate seems to be going through some sort of "funnel," or data backup point, that appears to need to clear up before the sim will go back to running as it should. I've installed Razer Cortex as a means of shutting down processes that don't need to be running while FSX is, hoping to free up resources. Came highly recommended by someone on another FSim site. Sorry, but even that program can't clear this problem up.

I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium, SP1. AMD Phenom II X4 940 processor, 3.00 GHz, 12.0 GB RAM, 64-bit OS. Video card is AMD Radeon HD 6850, has a cooling tower on it. I don't know if this is a computer/mobo issue, or a video card issue. In spite of the cooling tower the vent on the rear of the machine is hot. The one thing I'm also suspecting is my Windows 7 HP just won't play the FSX sim very well, period. I hope no one else is dealing with this problem, because I'm getting an education in how frustrating it is, and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Almost enough for me to shut down FSX for good and just go back to FS9.

[Victory103]

Hmm, having the same issue recently, it's a new one for me and I actually looked at the temps of my GPU and CPU cores. My fans are coming on as normal. I've tested a few recent somewhat high FPS payware models thinking they may be the issue, but even a default plane locked up the sim/cpu. Same for me, complete lock up, no mouse and no sound. I'm running a gaming laptop from ASUS that really is getting long in the tooth (GTX 460M card). Rechecking any major scenery add-ons, but honestly haven't changed much. I control all my Windows 7 updates and install them one at a time.

[Jafo]

Think back to when the problem FIRST started....date-wise....and go to your Windows Update history...and sequentially uninstall each update since the fault.
I'm willing to bet one of those is the culprit, particularly IF FSX 'was' running smooth prior...;)

[StormILM]

Just to be careful here, the issue that both SSi01 & Victory103 could be caused by different issues. Two things come to mind, UIAutomationCore.dll version (or absence) could be a culprit (especially with a new install of the sim) or it could indeed be a recent windows update. I am current on my W7/64 HE version and no issues with freezing up so far. Regarding the UIAutomationCore.dll version, the version I have is: 6.0.6840.16386

[Victory103]

Thanks gents, I'm thinking mine maybe a Win7 HP 64 update or just an overtemp. My first issue long ago after converting over from FS9 was the standard UIAutomationCore.dll, my version checks. Also both Event Viewer and AppCrash are not picking up the lock-up, making troubleshooting frustrating. Scenery or missing textures at least get me going in the right direction.

[SSI01]

I haven't installed Windows updates in ages, after having FSX refuse to load because of one that came down the pike a year or so ago. Had to uninstall the update and then things worked fine. My version of UIAutomationCore.dll is 6.1.7600.16385.

[Jafo]

I haven't installed Windows updates in ages, after having FSX refuse to load because of one that came down the pike a year or so ago. Had to uninstall the update and then things worked fine. My version of UIAutomationCore.dll is 6.1.7600.16385.
Yes....I had that one too....was both the updates from IE9 to IE 10 and to IE11.
I went back to IE9 and 'hid' those two for about 6 months....then allowed them again...and no issue. MS had obviously ironed out whatever bug it was.

[SSI01]

This is the second time this morning I have typed this. We had heavy rain yesterday and every time that happens the electric company's little bungalow across the street that governs electrical power for this block and the other one on the other side of the street gets wet inside and we have power bumps. This last one was a good one, bumped twice, computer remained running but monitor blinked twice. Thunder overhead right now, unusual thunder, quick, abrupt "bump" noises in the air, not the pealing and crashing one is used to. Hopefully I'll get this one finished, the second bump eventually caused a shutdown-restart. That's normal for the rickety power grid we have on this island.

Anyway - I had a local computer shop attempt an upgrade of memory for my machine about 3 mos ago and it didn't take, the memory I ordered through New Egg was bad. I tried again and used memory bought through the shop. I asked the shop to install the memory and check the system the first time around. During this process they installed their own AV program which conflicted with my AV program (Avira payware) and my own AM program (Malwarebytes payware). It was hell getting their AV program off this machine as it caused a complete reinstall of both those programs. At about the same time, every day about 3 or 4 AM the computer would have Windows pause - in the morning I would come into the room to a black screen instead of a screensaver. Move the mouse and got a screen talking about "Windows Resume Loader" that got things running again. Didn't do that before. Any program running at the time was interrupted - such as the screensaver. I since ran across the issue re: FSX display lockups that I posted about. Yesterday I checked the settings for my Malwarebytes program and discovered it was running scans several times a day - a situation I did NOT set up. I fixed that right away restoring it to a once-a-day 330AM scan, as it originally was. After that, I took two hops in FSX, the first using an Avia triplane for a local flight from Phoenix, AZ-area Deer Valley Airport; the second a looooonnnnggg hop - about 7 hours - in an A2A Pan Am B377, a real frame rate hog. Both flights ran from start to finish. The second flight had one pause, caused by my getting tired after about two hours, I crashed for a nap - got back up and the desktop was showing. However, a quick move of the mouse caused the sim to COME BACK UP and a glance at the LL corner showed we were in a genuine "pause" condition. I hit "P" and we were back in business (gotta fix it so the sim does NOT pause once it is running, never goes to screen saver mode - need suggestion(s) on that). Sim ran for another five hours after that, I kept making periodic input via mouse and it continued to run, no problems. Over water, over land, checked out both sceneries. Stayed within 1 - 1.5 frames of default 20FPS target frame rate entire time. Beginning to believe fixing Malwarebytes problem may have fixed my FSX problem. I say "may" since I've learned how temperamental these things are, and to never get complacent. I've also started to implement Kosta's fixes and have gone through "Bufferpools," "JobScheduler," and "Graphics" installations so far and these may have helped as well. I think for once we may be on the right track. Sorry about the length of this but it's a complex problem exacerbated by external factors, like our power supply to this home. Looking to move after the election, clear out of state - maybe that will solve things. I don't remember this power bump stuff happening in metro Chicago, or even in Honolulu and New Orleans, and I've lived in all three places. We lost power during hurricanes/tropical storms in NOLA, but never after just a rainstorm - only here.

PS - I now have a little ritual I follow before beginning to run FSX. First - Avira System Speedup to look for registry errors, junk files, etc, clean them up and bring computer up to snuff. Second, installed and use Razer Cortex to shut down non-essential programs (I use the app's default settings). I start FSX through Razer Cortex. So far so good.

[BendyFlyer]

SS101 I am not sure it is a hardware issue but an FSX issue, it sounds to me like CPU issue but one whereby modern units (more than two cores) do not sit well with the way FSX works processing graphics. I am sure the lockup is being caused by the CPU not being able to refresh the graphic files at a fast enough rate to the point where it appears to freeze, I call it choking. I get it from time to time on my machine which is no faster than yours but has a bog standard Intel video chipset as originally installed by HP. The folks at Orbx and Rex have both identified this graphic load sequencing as an issue, and so for example I get the freeze when the absolute maximum graphic texture load up is no doubt going on (major capital area, complex and dense scenery and real time but heavy weather) my FPS can go as low as 2 before and freeze, it does unlock or unchoke then resume as per normal after a few mins or what is probably only a few seconds. Their recommendations for traffic levels and scenery levels appear to properly minimise the problem as they say it is an FSX issue and no amount of CPU increase or high level video card will fix the problem so you wind stuff back accordingly.

I can give you the settings if you like.

[SSI01]

Interesting you mention that as yesterday I was in the PAA B377 leaving Miami IAP heading south. I departed from the gate via pushback in this airplane, which is a real graphics hog. Combine that with the airport scenery and I was down to between 9.5 and 10.5 FPS on a display that normally has no problem achieving default 20FPS. I wondered about that "choke," as you call it, and believe it to be a valid concern. If you look at Koska's fixes for FSX (a sticky thread on this site) I think there's a fix in there that somehow lets a multicore processor use one core to run the rest of the computer's operations and sends the FSX load to another core. I did activate that fix and so far it seems to be holding. Unless or until something else crashes and freezes this thing, I think that's what's been letting me run without freezing. So far so good, at any rate. I hope this bloody thing doesn't make a liar out of me.

[Victory103]

I'll look over my FSX.cfg again, but I'm sure I did all the regular .cfg mods years ago along with Nvidia Inspector settings. Since that initial set up, I do get the "choke" as FSX loads up scenery and my FPS hogging military AI I have flying around, but I generally don't touch anything and it comes back after the pause. Testing AI and scenery last night in the Virginia Beach area and no issues with lock ups. I'll take a gander at the Koska fixes.