Microsoft Flight Simulator X freezes after a few minutes...

[Alphasunny]

Hi,

Could anyone please tell me why my Microsoft Flight Simulator X (Gold Edition) freezes about 5minutes after being started? This CPU/Memory intensive game was working well without any problems until recently. It now freezes on the screen after it's being played for a few minutes and will remain idle on the screen for about 15 minutes before resuming; but only to freeze again after a few minutes. I've re-installed the programm a couple of times just to make sure there's no broken file in the programm but it hasn't solved the problem. My HP Pavilion laptop runs on a quard-core AMD CPU with 6GB of RAM installed, plus a dedicated 512Mb ATI graphcs card. This problem, for sure, is not caused by CPU over-heating as I keep that in check always. I used to play the game for up to 2hrs non-stop until this issue started recently. Could anyone please help with some ideas of what could be wrong...cheerssss

With regards,

Alphasunny

[Dragon-Fur · Accepted solution]

Hey AlphaSunny,

Welcome to the HP Forum!

I would love to try that simulator!

Could be a couple of things. Could be another program stealing resource, could be Malware (bugs), could be network run amuck... Could be your Anti-Virus kicking in for a scan...

Let's start with a system check, that is, take a look at what your computer is doing a the same time that you are running the program.  I'll bet you have a second monitor, so this won't be terribly difficult to set up on the side view...

The tool I want you to run is the Resource Monitor.  Start it up by itself the first time and play with it a bit so you can see what it does.  Watch the various programs running and see how they use the CPU resources, the network, and the disk(s).

Next, fire up that Simulator software.  Watch, as best you can, to see if something "big" else besides the Simulator is runnning and trying to steal your resource.  Watch and learn.

NOTE:  The Resource Monitor is NOT going to fix your computer.  It is just a monitor.  It may let you see what is going on as the computer stops responding.

IF you see something out of the norm:

There is a particular program (Media Player Network Sharing Application) that can run amuck.  When the program goes "haywire", it steals the CPU resource (> 50-75%).  If you see this happening on your computer, you have your resource culprit.  This is a known "feature" (bug).  You would probably have to disable the program to stop it from disrupting your system.

========================================================================

Resource Monitor:

Start > search / type "resour" > Click on "Resource Monitor

(You may also Right-Click and Send it to your Desktop as a Shortcut if you like)

NOTE:  You can also get to the Resource Monitor from within the Task Manager.

Once you get it up and running, the view will probably default to Overview.  You can leave it there or Click over to CPU.  Regardless, in the CPU frame, Click on the CPU column to sort by CPU usage.  There you go.  The process using the most CPU time will be on the top.

You can highlight and the right-click to kill a process if you want.

BE CAREFUL!

Be aware that you are in some deep waters, here.  This is the workings of the system and what you do in here determines whether the systems runs or chokes and stops.  Tread carefully.  If you do kill something and the system chokes, press the On/OFF button for ten seconds and hard crash the system.  It will hate you for a few seconds, but it will shut down.

NOTE that there are tabs in the Monitor for DISK, Memory, Network... You can learn alot by watching the system go about its business.

NOTE!  Don't keep the Resource Monitor running all the time - IT takes resource, too!  Smiling.

=========================================================================

Let me know how you fare...

Hope this helps!

Good Luck!

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[Alphasunny]

Thanks for being there, pal! Although I haven't had much time to try it out in full scale but I must admit that your suggestions have paid off to a much extent for now! I opened up the Process Monitor on my system and clicked/ended many unnecessary programs that were running before firing up my Microsoft Flight Simulator X. Believe it or not, I was able to cruise in my Boeing 747 from Havana(Cuba) to Miami(USA) International airport without problems...something that wasn't possible for the past few months since the program started playing up!! I was even able to enjoy an aerial view of the Miami International airport as I flew over it only to do a turn-around for a touch-down after about 15mins from the airport. In fact, I enjoyed a total flying time of about 50minutes...something that wasn't possible before you came up with your suggestions; the program would've crashed just after about 7mins of being started. However, I'll make out time to use my Extreme 3D Joystick to perform more long-haul flights to see what happens. I just used a mouse to perform this initial test flight but has been impressed so far. I'll get back to you again with the result. I thank you for your assistance so far, mate. Kudos!!!

[Dragon-Fur]

Chills just reading your description!  Thank you!  I think I love that software.

We have family that flies; well, they used to, at least... the years do tell... Oh!  the dream!

One of their planes was an old Aero Commander.

I will think of you on our flight (as passengers) to Hawaii in May.

I am very glad it is working again!

Happy Skies to you!