Help -- frequent, periodic freezes of front-end software

[Brooke]

Howdy, all.

I have a problem where, if I fly for more than a couple of hours, my front-end software starts freezing for about 1-2 seconds every 6-10 seconds or so.

I'm running the dx11 version.  This has happened to me before (probably last scenario I flew in).  Software works fine on shorter amounts of flying.

Any suggestions?

I did have film on and didn't experiment with turning film off to see if that fixed it.  I didn't think of it at the time.

[CptTrips]

I've had problems like this gaming if my CPU or GPU aren't cooling properly.

Basically things run OK until circuits get hot and then freeze up or performance would degrade noticeably.

I'd check you machine innards to see if you see a lot of dust.  Especially around the CPU heatsink or the heat sinks on the GPU on your vid card.

There is something called Intel Extreme Tuning Utility you can download that can run a stress test on your CPU and monitor the chip temp and see if you are getting any thermal throttling.  That's worth a check.

Do you have a spare video card to swap out to see if it still does it?  After you've been playing, are the fans turning ok on the chip heatsinks?

One time the fan on my video card was toast and not working.  Another time I had a ton of dust on my CPU heat sink and the thermal paste had dried out and wasn't conduction well.

That is what I'd check first.  Good luck.

[Mano]

Dx11 for VR and Dx9 if you use a monitor.

Try dx9 version if you use a monitor.

Also, check for dust. I cleaned mine out with a leaf blower. 
Make sure there is no dust in the video card.


 

[Bizman]

Yep, sounds like a heat issue. Are your fans spinning like crazy when that happens? If they do, does it take long until the spinning goes back to normal when your system is idle?

Run HWmonitor to see the temperatures and fan speeds. It shows both max and min values as well as the current one so you can easily see if there's been some overheating issues during your session. https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html.

Heavy Load is another good tool to be used with HWmonitor. It pushes your system to the limits in a minute so you'll soon find out if the heat goes beyond the threshold of reducing performance. https://www.jam-software.com/heavyload

[Brooke]

Definitely isn't heat.

I have cpu and gpu temperature monitors going always so can see the temps.  (Also,  not much dust, a high-flow mesh case with lots of big fans, and a Noctua D15 on the cpu.)  Things run fine for a couple of hours -- well into steady-state temperature.

[Eagler]

Something similar happened to me and it turned out to be the proprietary USB cable from the link box to my vive pro headset

Start off great and after a while freezes and glitches

In the beginning it took a bit and was mild but by the end it was happening sooner and more frequently

Replacing the cable fixed it

Eagler

[Brooke]

I have usb cables to my hub, joystick, pedals, kb, and mouse, but they are all working fine and same as I've been using for many years.

Another of my pals thinks is a dx11 thing as well.

I'll trying going to dx9.

I also wonder if it is a filming issue.  Film file gets pretty big after 2 hours of filming.  Maybe that is causing some issue.

[Bizman]

I also wonder if it is a filming issue.  Film file gets pretty big after 2 hours of filming.  Maybe that is causing some issue.

Now that you said it, in my understanding that's highly possible. In other words after two hours of continous filming your system may run out of virtual memory which then starts to expand in steps. More RAM would be the primary cure for that, a larger page file as well although reserving a huge part of your disk for a set size page file may not be optimal. The most cost effective and safest way would be to save a film after an hour and start a new one.

[LCADolby]

It's an AHIII problem and the solution;

Dx11 for VR (users) and Dx9 if you use a monitor.

[Eagler]

His mention of using dx11 I assumed he was vr

Yeah use dx9 and turn your massive film file off

Eagler

[Spikes]

Used to happen to me, DX9 solved that issue.

[Ack-Ack]

The pauses isn't a game issue, it is a DirectX issue with DX11 and DX9. 

[Bizman]

The pauses isn't a game issue, it is a DirectX issue with DX11 and DX9.

Admittedly I haven't been flying lately but for what I've experienced the DX11 pauses come infrequently with several minutes to even half an hour random intervals and they can start immediately.

The OP says the issue starts only after a couple of hours playing and filming and the pauses come in just a few seconds intervals.

[Shuffler]

Definitely isn't heat.

I have cpu and gpu temperature monitors going always so can see the temps.  (Also,  not much dust, a high-flow mesh case with lots of big fans, and a Noctua D15 on the cpu.)  Things run fine for a couple of hours -- well into steady-state temperature.

How is the ram temp?

[Brooke]

Used to happen to me, DX9 solved that issue.

Thanks, and related story that might solve a mystery.

Last Saturday, I was flying in the "Cherkassy Pocket" scenario when the periodic freezing started:  a screen hang for 1-2 seconds every 6-8 seconds.  It makes it difficult to fight and highly dangerous to maneuver near the ground.

During this, I was flying CAP over a vbase when two Tu-2's came screaming in right on the deck.  I dove on one and did a firing pass, but not enough hits to destroy it.  I kept having problems setting up other passes.  A lot of cursing strategically deployed on my part did not fix the hangs, unfortunately.  I was thinking, "Man, the guy flying this Tu-2 must be wondering what in the hell I'm doing."

Turns out it was Spikes.