threadkill

I was poking around and trying to think of what would fill a buffer. The keyboard! Went to the Options > Controls tab. In the Saitek column, I noticed that the cyclic directions were populated with directional commands. Since they're already assigned as analog controls in the Axis Command area (JOY Y, etc.), I cleared the entries. In addition to the directionals, there were also default assignments to the the joystick buttons for lock, fire, etc. Since I have all of my commands mapped to the X52, it was easy to scan the entire X52 column and remove other entries. Entire column is now clear. I just popped in and out of a few missions and not seeing the intereface lag. Hope this does the trick; off to fly

Thanks for the reply, JG. Should have stated that I am using the Affinity Launcher tool and have verified that it flashed "Affinity Set" at the top left on each sucessive launch. Cheers for the temp file loc. Update - I just completed map one of the first campaign and seem to have similar lag as above for multiple launches, so, the issue might be based on length of time in game as opposed to just multiple launches. Back to suspecting something with my memory, even if it does pass the usual diags. Will dig up memtest...

Probably not related, but during a mobo update, I'd installed drivers for a sound card that I had to end up removing. Forgot to delete the drivers before reenabling the mobo sound and drivers. Having duplicate sound drivers caused Launcher to crash. Deleting all drivers, running driver sweeper in Safe mode, and then reinstalling the mobo sound driver fixed the problem; Launcher now works a charm. Hoping this helps.

I recently upgraded my mobo/cpu, and also transitioned from XP to Vista32. Yes, all to improve Black Shark playability…. 8~) After much tweaking of settings, disabling Aero (using Win Classic color palate), using the Affinity fixes, etc., I am getting more than double my old frame rates in the pit. That’s the good news. The bad news is that after the first mission, I am seeing degradation in the frame rates and lag in the interface. Goes like this: - Fresh boot: 59-60 FPS looking straight ahead. Everything rocks! Mission is Clear Tkvarcheli - Exit mission; reenter same mission: 43-45 FPS - Exit mission; takes ~ two minutes to get to the debrief screen. Additionally, in the UI, I do not see the proximity circles around the menu commands as the cursor touches the button. I move the mouse over the button and click, and I see the proximity circle a few-to-ten seconds later and then the screen switches. Exiting the game completely and restart; the lag is still present. Fresh boot and can start over. CPU and GPU temps remain normal. Running a E8600 at 3.62 GHz and a GTX 285 SSC; plus a GT9600 for dedicated Physx processing (understand that DCS does not use). I’ve run Prime95 and other progs; system seems stable. Tried deleting the lua-direct_output.dll and any/everything else I could find in this fantastic forum. For Event logs, the only error I’m seeing is a WMI Event 10; but timing is not consistent with when the lag starts. However, if I have a memory leak or similar, I could be filling the pagefile and hitting the hard drive or something. Disabled a few services that I know were unneeded; no change. There’s lots more running in the background that I need to research. Rig: 780i mobo E8600 at 3.62 GHz Saitek 52 TrackIR M18 Mouse G15 keyboard Learning a lot about Vista in the process, so this is all time well spent. Would appreciate any hints and tricks for a new Vista user. I’ve resisted Vista as long as possible, but DCS performance is the goal. Even with the issues, being able to see 70+ FPS in a game just thrills me to no end. Amazing the time and money I’ve spent to improve my DCS performance; would do it all again tomorrow. ETA - The other thing I noticed is that with Vista, when I exit the game, the Temp folder is empty. Is this normal? I do have preferences to show all files and extensions.

Cheers you guys; I really appreciate the information. Roger that on Windows7-64; you anticipated a follow-up question. Is there a prescribed anti-virus software package that is better for Vista 32 and/or 64?

Did a few searches and did not see anything on the benefits of Vista32 versus Vista64. Thought I’d start a new thread. Pardon if this is a dup. I am currently running WinXP, but want to take advantage of the increased frame rates Vista offers via the Affinity fix. This machine is dedicated to Black Shark and Arma; maybe a few other games in the future. Will Vista32 provide all that the 64bit version provides, sans the memory handling (understand that 64 handles better or allows more). Are there any other advantages/disadvantages of using Vista 64? I’d read that finding 64bit drivers can be difficult. CPU is a Core 2 Quad (soon installing a Core 2 Duo). SLI capable for when this is supported.

Will try that, Draggon; thanks! the mobo did come with an optional fan for the heatsink, but the instructions noted to not use if using active cooling, which I am. I remember a thread where a user blocked the side next to the CPU as to not send air that direction, which is what (according to the manual) causes the airflow problem for the CPU fan. I think tinkering with this is well worth the shot. And cheers for the answer on the mem3.5 question; that had/has me a bit puzzled. More testing tonight. Will be glad when I can blow up bandits instead of computer parts.... 8~)

Reformatted last night and reloaded Windows this morning along with minimum chipset and graphics drivers. Will test memory in single channel bank(s) this eve. Thanks for the data on Mobo. Given that my main games are ARMA and BS, and Arma II when it comes out, will rethink my system requirements on the whole.

You might also consider setting the ministick to bands and use it to control the Shkval; set the mouse button to lock target. This, and disabling clutch and using that button for uncaging the Shkval/adjusting the Helmet-mounted site when held down, makes for very effective targeting.

Hate to read it . . but thanks for the honest impression. This mobo has been running since March of this year and has been fairly reliable, but dust and heat do take their toll. If it turns out the mobo is going, I'd be interested in what you might recommend that supports SLI. The GTX series are double wide, so installing a second card on this mobo won't work as the 2nd card slot hits the SATA connector. This is if I even return to SLI, but would like to have the option. Good question and worth asking; I am using the dual mem channel slots. Now reformatting and starting from a clean install. Will add bare bones drivers and start with MemTest. Anyone know: should the latest (3.5) work with my configuration?

Hey folks, The additional comments and suggestions are great; thank you. Swebeast - Think I misunderstood some initial data, thought full screen was an issue. I just tried and was able to get a higher frame rate; that is until it crashed again. Good catch, sir. Prophet - have reloaded a few times with latest and then one version back. Ran Driver Sweeper between installs; will try two reboots before reinstall if I get no joy. Cionara and Washer - Roger that on overclocking. I'm a noob at OC so need to bone up first. Well, I did find out that memtest crashed on the 3.5 version, at least test 0; was able to run if I skipped first test and ran them individually. The 3.4 version seemed to run; will let it run overnight. Get this: When I first ran 3.5 and after it crashed, I thought I might have a bad card. It crashed consistently at 48% into test 0. I tried different combinations of one mem card in either slot; 3.5 ran test 0 okay with just 1 2GB in either slot, and with either card, which got me thinking I had a Northbridge problem. Reinstalled the chipset drivers; no luck. It's a mystery. Now backing up my files and will reformat, just to start with a clean system. The battle rages on.

DragonRR - Thanks for the great feedback. For disk management and defrag thoughts, I flew Falcon 4 in the 1.08-plus-patch days so am accustomed to uninstall/defrag/reinstall/defrag routines. Have tried with BS with no change in behavior. Had a look around the mobo; was also wondering about a bad discrete component. Have been looking at Event logs constantly, no joy there. Will take a closer look at all voltages; usually have Probe2 active. The PS is an Ultra 3X; supposedly a good quality PS. Yes, more than I'd need for this config, but the price was good and I liked the modular connector aspect; however, I did recently have to make sure the PS-side connectors were in firmly (one more thing to have to check). True, the bad PS symptoms fit the GT9600 vids but not the newer card. That's a strange one in and of itself. No joy on removing the tv tuner card and driver. Have the ISO for Memtest86; will image to CD tonight, run, and if all is well there, I'll then be starting the backup/reformatting process.

That’s not a misprint; my frame rate, as measured by Fraps, actually went to 1 or 2 towards the end of the CAS mission; most enemy distroyed at that point and troops advancing. I’ve been struggling with getting BS to run reliably for about 3 weeks; here’s my story. Initial specs: Asus PN5-D mobo Q6600 Quad CPU 4 GB memory Ultra 1000w PSU Nvid GT9600 GPU x 2 w/wo SLI Gateway 24” LCD (1900 x 1200 native) TrackIR 4 5.1 headphones WinXP 32 SP2 Realtek on-board HD Audio drivers Initial problem: Game would run for different lengths of time (always under ~5 minutes) and then either freeze or the screen would go blank and power off (lost DVI signal), and then freeze. When the screen would blank, I could continue to hear game sounds for a few seconds. In any event, only way to recover system was the Reset switch or power off/on. FPS seemed okay; was playable at 1900x1200 (non full screen). Error logs showed much of what's already been uploaded here; crash caused several tmp files to be created. Could reboot and again play for a bit. Tried: Disabled SLI, took out one card, switched cards, reinstalled/used latest audio drivers and video drivers (ran cleanup utilities before reinstall), latest chipset drivers, reseated memory. Tried different screen resolutions and game settings (high-low). Tried lowering sound hardware accel in DxDiag (I’ve been pouring over this forum for clues). Also tried up’ng CPU clock speed to 2.54 (used BIO 5% over; simple interface solution). Tried up’ng pagefile to stated max in settings page. I have used Nvidia tools to stress test the GPU individually and the entire system. All tests passed. I’ve also cleaned the registry. This is for all practical purposes a dedicated gaming machine; no other software except a TV tuner card. Only other game I run is ARMA, which seems to run fine. Has crashed after looooong MP missions, but just a few times in many sorties. Temperatures remained in normalish (I think) range throughout. CPU and mobo never over 114F. Graphics cards did reach 130F for the active card. Specs change to test graphics card: Swapped out GT9600 graphics cards for one GTX 260 card. Set an environment variable to find all unused USB drivers in Device Mngr; deleted all unused drivers. Current Issue: I can now get to around 20-30 FPS with med or high settings, but after playing for some period of time, usually around 15 minutes, my frame rate drops into the single digits and the game becomes unplayable. No more crashes with this GPU though. Affinity and XP I’ve read all the posts about XP not being able to take advantage of an affinity setting, but after having my frame rate drop to four, I tried turning on all processors; brought my frame rate up to around 15 for a while. Seems an improvement is possible in this extreme case. Have not tried: I have a TV tuner card installed and use GB-PVR to activate TV; have not tried pulling this card. I do ensure that the background recording service is not running, and in general try to keep my running services at the bare minimum. May try: Have not tried a complete hard drive reformat….. Perhaps that’s next. Will try a different sound card and disable the onboard HD Audio. Thanks for any assistance you folks can provide. I hope to find a solution, as I just love this sim; have been waiting for it since the initial announcement. If I have to, I’ll plan my flying around 15 minute intervals and then reboot. There’s nothing else out there like it.