P3Dv5.4 lockups lasting a few minutes - perplexing

[John Dowson]

2 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Your reaction is pretty disappointing.

I am sorry you feel that way. I just don't understand why you would want to contact Hi-Fi when you have no information that your issue is at all related to AS. But do as you want.

[Ray Proudfoot]

18 minutes ago, John Dowson said:

I am sorry you feel that way. I just don't understand why you would want to contact Hi-Fi when you have no information that your issue is at all related to AS. But do as you want.

Without the exclusion for ASCA I was getting freezes on just about every flight. Once I added ASCA as an exclusion I had no freezes on five flights. What conclusion would you draw from that?

I never accused AS of causing the issue. In all probability it’s the Virus Protection that’s the issue and specifically the Windows 11 version.

My own guess is that ASCA is changing cloud textures and W11 saw that as something suspicious. I have no evidence. Just logical thinking.

[John Dowson]

Can you not log anti-virus protection behavior? That would give you more insight, if you think that this is the cause of such pauses/freezes.

In a previous life, I used to investigate/trouble-shoot such problems for business apps, and the issue was invariably caused either by the OS not being tuned for its purpose, or from large-scale garbage collection. But this was in my unix / java days. Windows internals are more of a mystery to me that I would rather not enter into more detail than needed.... 😉

[Luke Kolin]

43 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Without the exclusion for ASCA I was getting freezes on just about every flight. Once I added ASCA as an exclusion I had no freezes on five flights. What conclusion would you draw from that?

I may be confused here, but from your AVSIM thread wasn't this being triggered on a flight save, with the PMDG aircraft?

Cheers

[Ray Proudfoot]

28 minutes ago, John Dowson said:

Can you not log anti-virus protection behavior?

I have no idea how to do that. I downloaded ProcMon in the hope it might help identify the cause but it’s a complicated app and I don’t have the required knowledge to analyse it’s output. It throws out data as much as SimConnect so you can imagine how difficult it is for an amateur.

I’m really hoping the problem is solved because it’s really taking the shine off the new computer. Performance is brilliant but not when you get these freezes that I never had with the same software on my 2018 Chillblast.

Having turned 70 a couple of years ago I just want a quiet life these days. Just like Pete I imagine.

[Ray Proudfoot]

3 minutes ago, Luke Kolin said:

I may be confused here, but from your AVSIM thread wasn't this being triggered on a flight save, with the PMDG aircraft?

Cheers

It’s hard to establish if that was the case. I kept a very close eye on performance when autosaves were due in my five flights today and never even spotted any pauses bar one.

There was one pause - 10 miles out of KDFW when it paused for 3-4 seconds but I didn’t check if that was linked to an autosave. DFW is a very heavy airport and with 100+ Ai I put it down to that rather than anything else.

[John Dowson]

14 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

15 hours ago, John Dowson said:

Can you not log anti-virus protection behavior?

I have no idea how to do that.

For windows defender, there should be logs/events for all activity in the windows event viewer - see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/defender-endpoint/troubleshoot-microsoft-defender-antivirus?view=o365-worldwide

This should tell you when a scan was started, finished, etc. Maybe next time you get a pause, cross-check with the events there,  which should then tell you if this could be related to windows defender activity.

Of course, if you use any other anti-virus software, you would need to check where that logs its activity.

[Ray Proudfoot]

Thanks John. I’ll look at that after lunch. I flew to Schiphol this morning and the flight was fine until 3 miles out when there was a 2 minute pause. It eventually freed and I was able to land.

I’ll check the logs for anything unusual. Sod’s Law because I turned off extra logging and also SimConnect logging. But if the Defender’s log shows what it was scanning that will help. 👍

I’m wondering if there’s an exe or dll being run when close to the airport. I’ll try more flights there to see if I can replicate it.

I don’t have any 3rd party AV.

[Ray Proudfoot]

Hi John,

I've just looked through the log and frustratingly there doesn't seem to be an entry covering the tme of the long pause. That suggests it wasn't because of Virus protection.

But at least I know where to look now should it happen again. I'm very grateful for your help when you're busy.

I did spot this in the Windows Error reporting but other than telling me P3D had an "AppHang" I don't know how to establish what caused it.

[Ray Proudfoot]

John, P3D froze 6ft off the runway at Phoenix this afternoon. It took 4 mins to recover. Where would I look for any logs that would indicate the problem please? Nothing in the Defender ones.

I’m wondering if it might be a hardware issue. The only difference to 4 successful flights yesterday is I stopped SimConnect logging and also advanced FSUIPC logging.

[John Dowson]

26 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Where would I look for any logs that would indicate the problem please?

I am sorry Ray but I have no idea. Try asking on the P3D forums and include that AppHang event. There is a post on P3D appHang with v5, but it doesn't say much: https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/602354-p3d-v52-freeze-application-hang/

32 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I’m wondering if it might be a hardware issue.

Always worth updating your graphics card drivers, if you have not done so already...

John

[Ray Proudfoot]

Thanks John. I’m going to switch to another aircraft and try the troublesome routes. If the problem persists then I’ll update the graphics drivers and take it from there. It’s so frustrating because all this software was fine on my old computer.

At least I can discount Virus protection.

[Ray Proudfoot]

Hi John,

I know you’re on holiday but wanted to give you the good news. After updating my Nvidia drivers on Saturday I’ve completed 7 flights without any freezing. Thanks for your suggestion.

The autosaves are also executed with virtually no pause noticeable. I had to watch the outside view very carefully to notice it. And of course no disconnects in FSUIPC6 log.

Have a happy Christmas and all the best for 2024. 😃

[John Dowson]

Glad that your issues seem to be resolved. Have a great christmas as well, and best wishes for the new year,

John (from Oporto!).

 

[Ray Proudfoot]

It wasn’t the drivers. After a couple of days with no problems the lockups returned. So frustrating. I decided to fly YSCB- YSSY with no Ai. It was fine so my suspicion turned to AIG Ai.

But that had been fine on my old computer running P3D v5.3HF2. And the first few weeks with my new computer were also fine with that version.

The problems seem to have started when 5.4 was installed. But it could have been so many other things including hardware. But a week into going back to 5.3HF2 and no lockups I can only assume LM “broke” something with BGL traffic files.