computer crashes to blue screen on long flights

On long flights,over two hours,as I am being vectored in by ATC for an ILS approach,my computer crashes to a blue screen.This has happened four consecutive times,and it always happens as I am getting close to landing.I can do shorter flights without any problems,anybody have a similar experience or any suggestions.

I'm going to look at it from the technical point. First we don't have any of your computer specs/video card/drivers/cpu/ram/os, etc.

You could be short on memory and pushing the computer at that point always makes Windows crash (BSOD) or your video card isn't strong enough/drivers old or corrupted/even sound cards can cause that.
It could also be overheating, manufacturers don't put enough cooling fans in their machines, especially with the new cards that generate quite a bit of heat.
Do you have all the Windows updates installed (critical ones) and do you have the latest version of DirectX.
Take a look at the above and let us know what you think, I hope it's as simple for us to figure as a new download.
By the way, that must be very frustrating, bummer!

Afterthought, is it the same aircraft every time, or the same area of the world.

Thanks for the reply RadarMan,I have a 1.5 AMD Athlon,ATI Radeon 9800 pro graphics card,windows XP,512 RAM.I believe everything is up to date,I will check to make sure.And it is the same aircraft that this has been happening with,one I downloaded form a VA,in various places.It is frustrating,just as things are getting exciting,the rug gets jerked out from underneath me.LOL

The last time the program crashed,was on a flight from Salt Lake to Dallas Ft. Worth in a beechcraft turboprop,which was supposed to take a little over three hours.I just flew this same flight in a Lear Jet,it took slightly over two hours,about the same point(about 30 nm)where the program crashed while in the Beech,in the Lear Jet the program started responding sluggishly the closer I got to DFW.

I went checking last night after I posted to you figuring that you would be back. Your setup is very similar to mine and I added a fan in the rear grid, don't go over 20cfm it'll be too noisy.
There are scenery bugs and seasonal bugs. I've heard about them happening in Sweden, I believe it was.
The only thing that I can think of is to try the same flight at different time of the year. If it crashes then it's probably the scenery, try a flight to a different area from a different airport in one of the aircraft that you used before. This will eliminate the scenery and the season (if they're the problem).
Hope to see you again with a smile.

By the way, my machine still runs hot with this Sim and I am looking to add a fan in front (to pull in cool air) and a interesting double fan that plugs into a PCI socket next to my 9800 Pro to cool it down. All these fans (sealed sleeve bearings) and I'm looking at about $25 US. Cheap investment for better performance.

Im thinking along the lines of in that its a scenery problem.Have you added any scenery or mesh for the area you are flying over?
An xp1.5 should be just powerful enough for fs9 so make sure nothing is running in the background(hit Alt+Ctrl+Del to find out whats running)
As you say it happens as you come into land,fs9 needs more memory for the graphics for autogen and ATC(try lowering your settings)

A couple of things to try,please come back and let us know

as for cooling you realy need to be as cool as possible and those pci coolers are very good (but remember you are drawing extra power from the supply so makesure your power supply unit can handle it or you may cause more problems)

TTT

Well I eased up on a couple of of the graphics settings,did a flight in a different part of the country and completed a two and a half hour flight without any problems.So i guess for my next test I will try the SLC to DFW flight again with the new settings and see what happens.As far as the heat issue goes,my computer never seems to get very warm.Thanks for your help guys,I will keep you posted on how things go.

That sound good.
It seems to be the scenery and taking TTT's suggestion about turning your graphics down should do the trick on approach when the FPS take a major hit from the local heavy scenery.
Good luck with the duplication of the problem flight, let us know what happens.

Thanks RadarMan,I hope the fix was that easy,but I still have my doubts.

Trust us, we are doctors

Well I did the flight again,FS didnt crash,but the graphics became jerky,and the flight controls were slow to respond.

The area Scenery is more than your card and computer can stand, it'll be that way when your in a heavy graphic area. I have the same at a few airports.
It looks like a slide show, I have my graphics turned up so I "suffer" for a few moments.
At least your rid of the crashes, good!

What? With your card?

TTT

I have some turned up to "ultra high" so that I can see all the jetways and ground scenery, beautiful but damaging.
I have the feeing that my card is getting too hot. When I go into the sim I'm running a temp of 39° and when I come out 46° just at the red line.
That's why I mentioned the fans the other day, have to get into the box, check for space and order them.
It also happens after a screen shot (delay 1 second).
My OEM p/s isn't very good, about 250w.

Not a very good power supply....it could be that what is causing the high temps(it may be running flat out therefore warm)
Whats in the next pci slot to your graphics card(try and leave it empty for airflow)
Dust.....it gets everywhere (any on your fans It realy slows them down)

The minimum set up is two fans 1 blowing the warmer air out (normally in the power supply)and the other a drawing cooler air in(from the bottom)
Better to have a slightly more powerfull fan drawing cooler air so you get very slightly higher pressure inside the case(helps push the warmer air out)
Try running the pc with the sides off(watch for kids and pets)
Ill have look about for system temps

TTT

TTT,
I already a have fan in the rear (about a year now) and plan on mounting one in front (cool air) and the double next to the Video card, it pumps the warm air out the bay.
I clean the inside at least every three months. My house has central a/c so it never gets hot.
When I put what I can into the box I'll post both the information and some screens of the fans or even the box here.
I use a temp meter from Intel for P-4 computers.

RadarMan,how do you tell what temps your video card is running?

Read these over and see if they are for your machine. Mine comes from Intel and is only for their boards.
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

http://www.hmonitor.com/

This one looks pretty good (the lite version). Read it carefully, I never tried it.

http://www.7byte.com/index.php?page=purchase

I have read this thread and I wonder if you guys think that i should have to turn down the graphics to resolve my system crashes?

P4 3GHz 512mb 9200 radeon XP-home

Shouldnt this system be able to handle Ultra-High settings for this sim?

thanks...

As long as your video drivers and DirectX are up to date your all right there.
For a 3gig machine you should have more memory, at least another 512mb and it would handle the Sim better.
There isn't a machine made today that can handle this Sim maxed out with add-on's like Ultimate traffic.
The biggest problem you have would be programs running in the background (anti virus, ICQ etc,) and the low memory for that machine.
You may have a heat problem with a P-4, they do run hot, I have one.
Keep the fans clean (compressed air) and see if this temperature meter will work for you, it should I'm using it.

http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/active.htm

Let us know how you do.

I have not had any more crashes since I turned down some of the graphic settings,although the video and flight controls slow down around large airports.Thanks for your help RadarMan and TTT.

Glad to hear it's better.
Turn down your traffic a little, and your clouds, that should help around airports and other graphic heavy areas.

O.K. RadarMan,I just finished reading your thread about Ultimate Traffic,and I bought it(It's all your fault),should be here in a couple of days.My concern is that my hard drive is getting kind of full,it's a 40 Gb drive about 78% full.and with the recent history of crashes, I am a little worried about further taxing the system. Do you see UT giving me any headaches?

Good for you, it's a great add -on, you'll enjoy it.
The only time you'll notice any slowdown in FPS is at major airports, but once you take off it should be the same as it always was.
You can move the "traffic" slider down from 100% (in settings) it'll help some if you get "the stutters".
Can't you dump some of the garbage programs that are on your h/d. Ones that you don't use any longer, maybe do partial installation on some (not the flight sim, it won't run well).
If your OS has been on the machine for over a year you've picked up quite a bit of waste. Go to "Disk-Cleanup" in "Accessories" and dump your "System restore points", keep the last one.
Defrag and scandisk every week.
If you want, read this post and decide on your own.

http://flyawaysimulation.com/forum/topic/1016/hard-drive-cleaner/

A clean install of your OS every year is a good thing, I just had to do it with a new h/d, and it's much faster.

Hey RadarMan,will the HD being that close to full affect the performance of the sim?

rcj,
If a h/d is too full it can be a problem. Ant large program needs what's called "free space" to run. Usually 1 gig would be more than enough for any program, most suggest 500mb.
One of the biggest problems is that a full h/d reacts slower because it has to search for what it wants and that slows up the "game", in our case it'll slow the Sim of an aircraft flying. It may look like a slide show in a busy area like an airport.
The most important task that you can do is to scandisk and defrag once a week.

Yes a clean and tidy h/drive is a happy h/drive(even if XP tells you there is no need to defrag)

TTT

The slideshow effect near a busy airport is what I am having,I have been experimenting with different settings and it stopped crashing for the most part.With H\D's being relatively inexpensive,I think I will upgrade.

A nice new Video card, a new fast h/d and a fresh install of Windows you should have a relatively problem free flight experience.
Good for you and let us know how it all works out.