load up time for FSX, this old chestnut

[ian elliot]

Ive just done a fresh install of FSX after reinstalling windows 7, i made sure i'd deleted anything associated with the old install and check'd add-remove programs to see if anything was still in there FSX related. Ive only installed a few AC and my Orbex add-ons. Im getting long load up time's simile to before i reinstalled everything so im guessing ive still got something lurking in my system from before, any idea's

[MrZippy]

Is it possible that your antivirus is scanning it every time you fire it up? Maybe put the AV into sleep mode before launching FSX?

[pletheron]

Do you turn automatic updates off?

[BendyFlyer]

Ian when you say a fresh install of Win 7 and FSX was it onto a clean disk etc not just a MS uninstall then reinstall process. The reason I ask is that when you use that method, it actually only uninstalls some of the key files and leaves most of them there, anyway, the issue of load times for FSX has been a bug bear of mine from day 1 and after several deletes and reinstallations of FSX (but not Win 7) i have noticed that when it is all fresh, it loads like lighting - same number of scenery files, aircraft models and sundry addons. I also get a remarkable improvement in load time with the old trick of deleting the FSX. cfg and having a new one now and then. Over the years I have read any number of suggestions; too much scenery, too many aircraft, too many old gauges inside FSX. I think there may be some truth in this but I am now convinced it is simply FSX which is a 32 bit program running on a 64 bit O/S on a machine that was not around when FSX was developed.

I am also running a lot of ORBX stuff, as basically my base scenery addon system, Global, Vector, Trees, HD Buildings. I only do two critical things: I follow the the advice of Nick N from FS developer about the base hardware and O/S setup and do check that it is running like this from time to time. Apart from a few basic tweaks (the ones MS left out) i run a bog standard FSX on a trusty HP Pavillion with minimum processor speeds, dual cores and but good memory on the CPU and GPU, in other words nothing fancy or exotic.

The second thing I have done following advice from Nick N and another is I keep all my addon scenery outside of FSX in a separate directory structure, that ensures a whole lot of scenery junk does not accumulate inside FSX. That helps as well.

I guess my bench mark is that when I have a fresh FSX.cfg FSX will load on my PC within about 2-3 minutes, the aircraft drop down menu will take 30 seconds to appear and then it depends upon where in the world, what date and time and how complex are the textures and files for the relevant area I am going to fly in is, as to how long from selecting a flight to go in the sim, can be 2-5 minutes, can be up to 8 minutes (ORBX rich areas are a classic). I run a mix of models from the most frame hogs to old and simple ones without an issue. All my issues and load times derive from the base FSX Engine and the way it works and how it relates to other MS stuff on your system. I think a lot of people are blissfully unaware that FSX has to call upon basic Win drivers and scripts to do stuff all the time and this seems for some reason to become progressively out of whack over time and I have no answer as to why deleting the cfg file and making it build a new one fixes up the load times other than to suggest it is because FSX can reorganise itself vs a vs the Win 7 O/S and files it uses but over time as other programs use these files FSX finds it hard to find them straight up so takes longer to load, there may also be file security and sharing issues that have to be resolved via internal dialogue and it is not the firewall or antivirus program doing this (although it can make it worse) but rather it is the simple r/w process that goes on with files, and FSX use a hell of a lot of files that it does not own or control but has to access. The clue to this being the case is once it has what it needs it gets going well but it is this lag that is the issue it takes time sometimes to find and get control of this stuff so they can be executed or used within FSX. So I guess if your setup is good ala NICKNs advice and otherwise not to cluttered then I would say you have a system processing issue with respect to first Win 7 and then FSX and how they talk to each other and the rest of the computer peripherals. Another example is this - if I have a whole bunch of programs open doing other stuff and then say move to start up FSX it will always take its time (generally about 4 minutes) but If I do not in other words apart from the internet and browser open, FSX is not competing for some files or scripts that it might be sharing with other programs it goes back to being nice and quick on load times, in flight sim experience is always good for me irregardless of the load and start up times.

I know this is a frustration I live with it now but other than keep the FSX directory reasonably uncluttered or streamlines and rebuilding the FSX cfg periodically, once set up as per NICKN that is basically it .

[William Njurmi]

I started to use Simstarter NG. For 12 euro it has saved saved my hobby. I have dealed world into areas and loading them takes only a fraction compared to times before it (it could take half hour). Now it is below 5 min.

[Shessi]

Hi Ian,
Are you sure you have finished doing ALL of the Win 7 updates. A fresh install of 7 will mean a huge amount of downloading and updates, and this will slow the whole machine, and then more so loading the pc up with initialising Fs9 etc.

If you have the same issues as before then prob/poss you have a HDD that's going wrong. If you're running 7 then this is an older machine, and if the original HDD then...... I would get the HDD makers status check prog or a decent freebie and run checks to see how many faults you have, it may show that your HDD is on the way out which can cause slow HDD response times.

Cheers

Shessi

[ian elliot]

Hi Ian,
Are you sure you have finished doing ALL of the Win 7 updates. A fresh install of 7 will mean a huge amount of downloading and updates, and this will slow the whole machine, and then more so loading the pc up with initialising Fs9 etc.

That may have a lot to do with it, ive decided to allow update's, my logic being, that in the new year when support for 7 end's, i'll try to keep my PC as sterile as possible and invest in a new tablet for online stuff, which i need anyway, so im accepting everything for 7 while its still going, so it make's sence that thats going on in the background while im simming

As for the HD, its only a few years old but worth checking