Lancasters causing loss of host connection

[67yankee]

[/i]All has been going well until just recently when my connection has been lost when I load Lancaster's for take off.  As with all losses of connection the game goes very good for an hour or more until when at the exact same time in every instance, just as rotation begins, a freeze takes place with an audible hum for around 20 to 30 seconds then back to normal take off followed briefly by the same freeze along with the error boxes going to windows with error subjects of fire wall, Game manager, etc.. Aces High is and always has been listed in my fire wall exceptions.
  Factors that have recently changed since this has been happening are a change in computers, switching from Avast to AVG antivirals and an updated version of Game Booster by Io bit.  The new PC has two ATI crossfire 3800 series graphics AMD. Until the PC is rebooted, Windows seem to be effected by the crash also? Your advice would be greatly appreciated..Thank You

[Skuzzy]

AVG will interfere with the stability of the game.

[Auger]

Yankee, do you have custom sounds loaded for the Lancaster?  If you have a bad or corrupt sound file it could cause the behavior you describe.

[Skuzzy]

Correct about the sound files as well.

[edog1977]

All things being equal you shouldn't need Game Booster. It could cause problems.

[bustr]

Have you ever rebooted in safe mode, then run a deep scan of your drive to see if IObit still installs unwanted tracking packages when you install game booster? Some of them used to wake up during the game and use your active channels to upload on a frequent basis. That's why I shut down all unneeded services and process with a batch file then open service manager and look for anything that restarts because of the massive state change of all those service stops.

One tour years ago I was having frequent discos and game errors to the desktop. Finally ran a deep scan in safe mode and found an unwanted tracking app. After that my variance and delay was flat and no more strange discos. After researching the unwanted guest, turned out it was one of many, 3rd party game tools install while you are running the tool's install. When you click yes to allow that 3rd party game tool install, you are telling your system for the most part, everything the 3rd party game tool wants to install is ok.

[67yankee]

I have the same problem as before with any bomber I load, after disabling my anti virus program plus not using the power Booster program. When I installed the OS in this computer I also went to AH home page to load AH. I previously backed up my stick defaults, my settings, skins and sounds files and replaced respective folders in the new AH download. I really didn't need the sound files because I had only a few custom sounds in fighter a/c. It seems that this problem would have occurred a few days earlier in my other PC to which the files came from. However Bustr may be on track because I did load IOBIT programs along with their Booster program, which are newer versions. I am pretty diligent about loading software and read the small print avoiding garbage being shoved down my throat. These people are getting better in slipping the crap by. Guess I will try as Bustr suggests....Thanks again guys

All things being equal you shouldn't need Game Booster. It could cause problems.

Correct about the sound files as well.

Yankee, do you have custom sounds loaded for the Lancaster?  If you have a bad or corrupt sound file it could cause the behavior you describe.

Have you ever rebooted in safe mode, then run a deep scan of your drive to see if IObit still installs unwanted tracking packages when you install game booster? Some of them used to wake up during the game and use your active channels to upload on a frequent basis. That's why I shut down all unneeded services and process with a batch file then open service manager and look for anything that restarts because of the massive state change of all those service stops.

One tour years ago I was having frequent discos and game errors to the desktop. Finally ran a deep scan in safe mode and found an unwanted tracking app. After that my variance and delay was flat and no more strange discos. After researching the unwanted guest, turned out it was one of many, 3rd party game tools install while you are running the tool's install. When you click yes to allow that 3rd party game tool install, you are telling your system for the most part, everything the 3rd party game tool wants to install is ok.

[Rich46yo]

Thats a new one. One airplane?

One thing I will warn you about, NEVER use IOBITs disc repair. If you donwload it with a package never, ever make it the default windows disc scan/repair. The defrag works fine but the repair is a horror story. Ive experienced it and so have a few others I know.

Gotta be the sound file. This is an easy one, just trial and error. I'd like to know what happened when you figure it out.

[JimmyD3]

Been running AVG for 2 years now with no known problem.

[Skuzzy]

Been running AVG for 2 years now with no known problem.

You will.  Others have.  It is just a matter of which AVG update you get, coinciding with any given release of the game.

There have been updates which have completely killed Aces High.

[Bizman]

Been running AVG for 2 years now with no known problem.

I have an elderly customer (68 yo, as he told me, a retired Doctor of Medicine) who's extremely keen on his AVG paid version. It took me several visits to assure him that the free AVG Tune Up utility was in fact crippling his PC by disabling something as a false positive! The virus guard itself seemed to find a couple of something during every scan - which he wanted to be run automatically every Sunday. As far as I could tell the finds were harmless cookies - severity level "low" in the AVG category. I can't tell about AVG's ability to find and eliminate real threats, but without heavy modification it certainly does a lot of unnecessary things to prove why it is necessary. Sad to say, but the same phenomenon seems to be a trend within antivirus programs.

[67yankee]

I am back to ground zero. I have formatted my hard drive (drives, have two) completed a clean install. Installed Avast instead of AVG, disabled it when entering AH, with out using any back up files from previous settings. The same disconnect as taking off in Lancs, 24's or 17's. Just for the hell of it I went to the "off line arena" and had no problems. I did discover before I formatted that I was missing a mmsys.cpl file which explained my missing sound icon from control panel, however my sounds worked well except when doing mike tests in direct x diagnostics. Why now is this still happening with a new install with complete files? I'm thinking of the two hd's to maybe one is carrying the error still? Also I wonder about the two ATI HD 6800 series Cross Fire configuration with 4 video out put ports? Maybe my XP os doesn't have whats needed for these graphics but I'm really not that impressed with them. I seem doomed not able to fly bombers in AH. " Sorry commander but I can't except the Lanc mission, I will end up in the cyber vortex"
Should I bag one of the two HD's and install 7 or 8??????

[Bizman]

I didn't find any other specs about your computer than the crossfired video cards, and even those don't match in your first and last posts in this thread. Are they of HD3800 or HD6800 series? Or am I just missing an explaining line somewhere?

Anyway, the problem may just be the lack of video memory! You see, crossfiring doesn't add up the total amount of dedicated video memory, or at least that's what I've read. Since most of the 3800 series models only had 512 MB which is the recommended minimum, you might be hitting the limits especially with the advanced graphics maxxed. The HD6800 series have 1024 MB which will allow a little more headroom for textures, but even that isn't too much. Also, if your entire computer is from the HD3800 era, it's starting to have performance related issues with max eye candy.

The first third of your DxDiag would help to see whether it's your hardware or something else. That would also help to determine whether you would benefit from upgrading to 7/8 or not.

As for Avast, you might want to add AcesHigh into Settings->Antivirus->Excluded.

[67yankee]

As I was getting information on my Asrock Phenom 2 M3a770DE  motherboard to share here, the site had several drivers by the producers of the AMD processor and MB for the chipset, audio..etc, plus several utilities. Until then I thought that the "Driver Booster" program from IOBIT had found all the required drivers as is advertised. ATI also had drivers for the graphics that IOBIT did not produce. So lesson learned..manufacturers drivers first and formost.

That's a new one. One airplane?

One thing I will warn you about, NEVER use Obits disc repair. If you download it with a package never, ever make it the default windows disc scan/repair. The defrag works fine but the repair is a horror story. Ive experienced it and so have a few others I know.

Gotta be the sound file. This is an easy one, just trial and error. I'd like to know what happened when you figure it out.

Thanks for all the help from every one >

[TWCCajun]

See Rule #4