FS2002 + Soundblaster 5.1 + System lock-up

Anonymous

February 14, 2002 8:31:21 AM

I *have* tried to solve this problem myself, but after 5 effective hours of research on the Internet I ask for your comments and input on this rather delicate matter:

Symptom overview:

System locks up at one perticulair point when running Flight Simulator 2002 with the add-on 737-400 from Dreamfleet.

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System specs:

General state of sytem: Cleared for obselete files, shortcuts and bad registry-references.

HARDWARE:
Mainboard: Fujitsu Siemens WT70EC
Processor: 1.8 Ghz Intel Pentium IV
System Memory: 256 MBRAM
Display card: Geforce 2MX400
Sound Card: SoundBlaster 5.1 Live

SOFTWARE:
OS: XP Professional
Video driver: Nvidia 23.11
Sound driver: Latest SBLiveXPDrvUpdate
DirectX: 8.1

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Symptom details:

In 99 percent the lockup happens at approach and touchdown, with a high rate of wav-files being played: Numerous Air Traffic Control- and AutoPilot-wavs. In addition there are many wavs which simulate engine- and general environment-sounds.

At approach I get some minor and (really) unnoticable lock-ups, but at landing - and when engaging the reverse thrusters (playing thrust reverser-wav) the system halts for 1/3 second. This happens in 99 percent of the tests I've done.

To solve my problem, I have tried to edit the wav-files into smaller sizes, adjusted hardware acceleration, installed latest drivers, and optimized my system.

I have the same software installed on another machine - AMD 1.3 Ghz, with 356MBRam. I never get the system lock-ups there, but I guess it is due to higher Ram.

So - what can I do to avoid this lockup, which really is a major problem when trying to simulate reality. The general approach is smooth and fine with 15-16 fps. When getting a 1/3 second sytem halt at touchdown, it is really a major setback for the overall feeling of realism.

Regards,

Ø. Jensen, Oslo, Norway

Edited by Mr767 on 02/14/02 05:39 AM.

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FatBurger

February 14, 2002 9:34:37 PM

Why do you think it's a sound issue and not a video issue? In my experiences, most problems in games are caused by video drivers. Try using different ones.

Quarter Pounder Inside

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arsend

February 18, 2002 4:57:13 PM

If you are only getting 13-16 fps on a game, I would highly recommend you lower your detail settings or buy a better graphics card. I do not believe that it is a sound problem as the SB can handle anything that Flight Simulator 2002 can throw at it. Try lowering your detail settings or screen resolution to the lowest setting and then, If you still are having problems, go to the graphic cards section and ask for their advice. When a game gets below 13fps, it very likely will freeze. With the processor that you have, I would recommend the Radeon 8500 or a normal Geforce 3 to power your games, I think you will see a huge improvement in performance over you Geforce MX.

If it works for you then don't fix it.

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