system crash and cfs3

Hello pilots,

When I start flying within a minute the image of the plane freezes and windows xp restarts. The computer I use is a 3.4 GHz pentium4, nVidia Geforce 6610 XL, videodriver 66.74, 512 Mb memory. What to do?

Greetings,

You have great CPU etc, RAM could do with upgrading but unlikely to be that. Best guess would be that it is overheating. Try taking the cover off, so air can circulate. If it works, then install some fans. Hope that helps

To check if it is a overheating problem there are a few d/loads that can check them in windows(rather than going to the set up screen,by which time the temp has dropped)
Have a look at

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

It sits in the system tray and providing your mobo has temp sensors(most newer ones do) will display those available
Also will show other handy info,like voltages and as the name suggests lets you speed up or slow fans down---again if your mobo supports it

Also make sure you have DirectX 9.0c.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/

Hello John,

I think I have the same PC with exactly the same components (except I have added 512MB RAM ==> 1024RAM). Your problem description looks the same as I have (screen freezes, strange engine noise, need to force PC to shut down and wait at least 15 minutes before restart). I also believe the heating is the problem.
I wonder what you have done exactly as I also assume that heating is the problem.

Regards

Johan

johan,
Clean the dust out of the fans and especially the CPU heatsink blades, the dust seems to "cake" up in there.
Put one case fan in the rear to take out hot air, if you can put on in front to take in cool air that would be great.
I also put a PCI fan in, if you have an empty socket do it.
All of these fans are very cheap on the net and a little more in the stores.
Let us know what you decide.

Radarman,

Thanks for the info.
For now I have taken away the cover, but will take into consideration the extra fan.
I have installed Speedfan 4.23 en the following temperature are shown
temp 1 avg 50 degrees
temp 2 avg 62
temp 3 is hidden by me (is always 128)
HD0 avg 45
temp 1 avg 57 (= ACPI)

Are these temperatures normal ?
Should they be lower or higher ?
Note I have FS 2004 on idle. So aircraft on stand, all off, no engines runnig, no panel lights on, nothing.

Please advise

Regards

Johan1956

Johan,
I can't tell which is which, I use Active Monitor from Intel. Check and see if it is made to work on your system.
http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/active.htm

Here are some screenshots of your sensor, they seem to be in the range. Personally I never think it can be too cold in the case, if it ran better with the side off add the fan(s). Don't run the computer with the side off continually, just to see if it helps.

http://www.almico.com/sfscreenshots.php