Piper Cheyenne X

[Crog 1]

Hi,

I have a problem which I have tried to resolve by uninstalling all FSX and addons, then re-installing FSX to SP2 level using the "Install/Launch/Shutdown/Restart" method for both SP's then installing the Piper Cheyenne X. During a flight using the Cheyenne, if I try to access FSX default menus, such as the save game feature or change weather etc., I come back to FSX and the screen will not reload. I just get a black screen, all menu's and other functions work within FSX, but I see no graphics, I cannot get my grahics back no matter what I try. It doesn't seem to happen with the default FSX aircraft...only the Cheyenne. Any ideas?

[Shaun Fletcher 571]

Hello Crog,

New one on me. But could you check out the post here and try reinstalling the Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable Files again. It may or may not help.

[Crog 1]

Hello Crog,

New one on me. But could you check out the post here and try reinstalling the Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable Files again. It may or may not help.

Hi Shaun,

I have seen this post and tried reinstalling the Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable Files again but the problem still persists. It's a strange one, it only happens with the Cheyenne, I have the Twin Otter which works fine, I also have several other 3rd party aircraft which are fine. Very frustrating since the Cheyenne is the best aircraft from my addons by far.

Kind Regards

Crog

*Edit*

It seems it was the vcredist after all, I just uninstalled the cheyenne and reinstalled after fixing vcredist and everything is fine now. Thanks for your help.

[Crog 1]

Well, I thought it was fixed but it appears not.

I have TrackIR, when I move my head I can see a vertical pixel line on the right of the screen, and I can see the colours changing in sync with my head movement. The menu bar is visible and the ATC window is visible, just completely black screen behind it. I can still hear the sounds (engines, ATC etc.). When I press CTRL+C and quit the game it doesn't shut down properly and a window pops up "Microsoft FSX has stopped working". This only happens when I use the Cheyenne and all my other addon aircraft work fine.

Regards

Crog

[Shaun Fletcher 571]

Hello Crog,

What happens if you dont use TrackIR.

[Snave 466]

This is all completely irrelevant until somebody tells us what system specs and OS are in use. Could just be using a crappy laptop with weak graphics card, but we don't know, do we..?

[Crog 1]

This is all completely irrelevant until somebody tells us what system specs and OS are in use. Could just be using a crappy laptop with weak graphics card, but we don't know, do we..?

I have an EVGA 790i Ultra MB with two BFG GTX280 OC in SLI and 4GB of Corsair Dominator Memory, Intel QX6850 (stock speed) and 600GB RAID 0 Velociraptor HDs, Vista 64-bit Home Premium with SP1.

I have tried turning off TrackIR with the same results.

It must be something else broke in FSX rather than the Cheyenne, it happens regularly with other aircraft now. Maybe I upset something when I tried the vcredist fix. When I went to uninstall previous vcredist there were two of them listed in Programs, so I removed both, then reinstalled the vcredist that I obtained via the link in the FAQ & Updates for the Cheyenne, now there is only 1 vcredist visible in the Programs list.

This is the kind of thing I now get before the graphics give up completely.

2008_11_27_12_55_54_217.BMP

[Snave 466]

This looks much more like a graphics issue than anything related to FSX or the Cheyenne explicitly.

First thing to try would be to take GTX280's OUT of SLI and try operating on one only. If necessary change drivers - there have been significant advances made with the new 180.xx series if you're not already using them.

Next, the problem could be power supply related as texture swapping will consume much of the GPU resources and you might simply being seeing the result of a complex aircraft in a complex sim pulling too much juice from the PSU.

Next, the problem could be RAM related. Try running a proper soak test on system RAM - at least 4-8 hours woul dbe my recommendation, and see if any errors are reported.

Finally, this might - outside chance but might - be nothing more than heat-stress - there's a lot of heat-production with that system and FSX stresses even that system to its limits. Might be worth checking case fans for fluff and ensuring better ventilation inside the box. However, heat problem will normally generate random lockups and crashes, not something as repeatable and specific as this.

[Crog 1]

Thanks for the reply and advice. I disabled SLI and all my problems went away, I also get better FPS without SLI. I guess that FSX is so processor intensive that running in SLI just added more demand for the processor. (I'm using the latest drivers from NVidia 180.48)

My power supply is a Thermaltake Toughpower 1500W so no problem there, and I have a Thermaltake Armor+LCS with plenty of fans, although I do need to re-seat the waterblock on the processor (running at about 65 degrees during FSX). I guess I should have waited before going for SLI as I have now found that FSX is more processor and RAM dependant rather than GPU dependant.

Thanks again and sorry for doubting the Cheyenne Shaun

[Snave 466]

Thought so.

...there's something funny with the new GTX cards running in SLI when it comes to FSX... My guess is that the SLI implementation is ersatz at best, probably more a bodge and that the newest cards all reveal that to the detriment of the game experience. I've seen something similar with two 9800 cards, but then they have their own problems with SLI!

A single GTX280 is more than man enough for FSX, so you won't lose anything by running in single card mode unless you want to go to multi-monitor setups.