2019-06-08, 01:15:02
I have been plagued for quite some time by this same issue some folks have been reporting. While trying to debug the problem this evening, I stumbled across something that may help the developer isolate the problem; at the very least, it may help provide a little relief to pilots when the freezing happens to them mid-flight.
First, to review the symptoms:
* Some time into a flight, usually around 2 hours, FSX repeatedly freezes for 20-30 secs, unfreezes for around 5-8 secs, then freezes again, and so forth.
* Several reported it happened with their payware aircraft, but I am among those who see it happen regardless of aircraft, even Microsoft default ones.
* Though the freezing cycle typically begins 2 hours into the flight, I can shorten that substantially by adding FSUIPC client programs (VATSIM client, ACARS, FSCommander, Radar Contact, etc...). These programs will report they lost their connection to the flight sim when the freezing happens, and regain it again for the short time it is unpaused.
* When the hanging cycle begins, you cannot stop it by closing out the FSUIPC-based programs -- the pausing continues even after they have been terminated and FSX is running alone. The only way to stop it is to terminate FSX.
So, having isolated FSXWX as the apparent offender after flying with various combinations of programs and aircraft, I decided to see if the Microsoft SysInternals tools could shed any light on what was going wrong.
Flying a Captain Sim B707, with FSXWX, VPilot (VATSIM client), SIMACARS and FSCommander running alongside, I got FSX to start hanging predictably 2 hours into the flight. Earlier in the flight, I launched the ProcessMonitor (ProcMon) tool from the Microsoft SysInternals suite and had it ready to capture the activity from FSX and FSXWX. I didn't spot the onset of the freezing cycle right away, once I did, I disconnected my VATSIM session first and closed VPilot so I wouldn't bet a nuisance to their network. Then I began ProcMon's event capturing, and the freezing STOPPED! FSX and all the addon software returned to normal operation and I was able to continue my flight, except for some reason, I couldn't get reconnected to VATSIM.
So whatever is behind the obnoxious freezing, it looks as if maybe ProcMon's act of hooking into Windows system calls clears it up.
First, to review the symptoms:
* Some time into a flight, usually around 2 hours, FSX repeatedly freezes for 20-30 secs, unfreezes for around 5-8 secs, then freezes again, and so forth.
* Several reported it happened with their payware aircraft, but I am among those who see it happen regardless of aircraft, even Microsoft default ones.
* Though the freezing cycle typically begins 2 hours into the flight, I can shorten that substantially by adding FSUIPC client programs (VATSIM client, ACARS, FSCommander, Radar Contact, etc...). These programs will report they lost their connection to the flight sim when the freezing happens, and regain it again for the short time it is unpaused.
* When the hanging cycle begins, you cannot stop it by closing out the FSUIPC-based programs -- the pausing continues even after they have been terminated and FSX is running alone. The only way to stop it is to terminate FSX.
So, having isolated FSXWX as the apparent offender after flying with various combinations of programs and aircraft, I decided to see if the Microsoft SysInternals tools could shed any light on what was going wrong.
Flying a Captain Sim B707, with FSXWX, VPilot (VATSIM client), SIMACARS and FSCommander running alongside, I got FSX to start hanging predictably 2 hours into the flight. Earlier in the flight, I launched the ProcessMonitor (ProcMon) tool from the Microsoft SysInternals suite and had it ready to capture the activity from FSX and FSXWX. I didn't spot the onset of the freezing cycle right away, once I did, I disconnected my VATSIM session first and closed VPilot so I wouldn't bet a nuisance to their network. Then I began ProcMon's event capturing, and the freezing STOPPED! FSX and all the addon software returned to normal operation and I was able to continue my flight, except for some reason, I couldn't get reconnected to VATSIM.
So whatever is behind the obnoxious freezing, it looks as if maybe ProcMon's act of hooking into Windows system calls clears it up.