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I have short freezes (pause) of display...


McDaniel

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Hi guys

After a long pause I am back to SB Pro, it runs like a dream on my Flightsimrig, but I do have a issue, which I could not solve so far.

Time to time I get a display freeze, means I get a a still picture like event, for about 1-1.5 seconds. If I fire coax, I still can here the shots but the picture is frozen (paused).

If I move the turret the position after the freeze is shifted as much it would under normal circumstances.

All this makes me think it runs fine (fps always 60 with VSYNC enabled), it runs but the display just freezes for a short moment.

Its not terrible, but in engagements its annoying (tow tracking, firing).

Its not freezing the game, the action goes on but not the display....

I use this PC for FSX, DCS A-10 C, DCS BlackShark 2, IL2, IL2 COD, Garviteams Sims etc etc PP, no problem at all....

I also was not able to made the freeze happen on certain situation, maybe sound related?

Any feedback welcome

Thanks

McDan out

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I don't think that a reinstall will solve anything. I would rather run SB Pro in windowed mode (Alt+W, or Display Options) and have the task manager open, then check for unusual activity while you play, e.g. if there is some other application making a disk access. I suspect however that it is some network issue with a timeout, e.g. your computer tries to locate a certain server with some regularity (e.g. a domain server that doesn't exist) and sends a broadcast, then waits for a reply that never comes. It may be that this happens all the time when you run Windows, it's just that in an Office application or so you never notice this.

Such a network timeout could simply be a network configuration issue, or maybe also a malware trying to connect to a botnet that has been disabled.

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Danke Nils

Will try tonight and report back, I have a idea what could cause the hickup, for all my games and simulator performance I use processlasso, which gives me the possibility to close not needed process and block them from restart.

Which process will run besides the main exe? It could be that I surpress a process which is used or searched for by using SB... will check

easy test, will try tonight without processlasso :-)

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Ok I get closer now, deinstalled Processo Lasso, no change.

Checked windows log, no entry, no timewise match.

Now the funny observation: I play the M2 tow tracking tutorial, its perfect because I have to move all the time with crosshair.

At the beginning, I paused the game after freez, to search in wondows log, task amnager etc etc...

Then I let the mission run and just noted when a Freez happend....and BINGO!

It happens exactly at: Mission Timer 2 Minutes, 4 Minutes, 6 Minutes, 8 Minutes!

and with exactly I mean 2:00 4:00 6:00......

The fact, that it happens always exactly at 2:00, would be a hint it is SB....or any other idea?

So what happens in SB or my System every 2 Minutes???

Here a video....

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28528904/SB-2Minutes-Freez.wmv

Fully reproducable....

Now I am going to try a diffrent mission....

EDIT: confirmed, happens in every single player mission always at 2:00, 4:00, 6:00, 8:00 etc etc

??? Is it checking the dongle???

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Not sure when we added the aar feature, but that's when that would have started. Maybe 2 years ago?

You could try a ssd, but if I remember correctly the aar is being written into the MS documents structure. So there would be some jumping through hoops to get it writing to the ssd instead of the c drive.

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Not sure when we added the aar feature, but that's when that would have started. Maybe 2 years ago?

You could try a ssd, but if I remember correctly the aar is being written into the MS documents structure. So there would be some jumping through hoops to get it writing to the ssd instead of the c drive.

My C: is a SSD and I have a revodrive, tried both no joy.

So I guess I am not the only one to see this happening?

Can you see a freez on your systeme, as bad as in my video?

Thanks for helping!

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No, I have to say that I don't see it last that long. Is it always that bad or is fraps making it worse?

I looked into this when we first added the aar feature, and I'm almost positive that is what is happening every 2 minutes. If I remember right, we tried experimenting with more frequent but smaller writes but did not gain much from it.

One thing you might want to double check is that your antivirus software has a exception for the folder that the aars are getting written to. That's definitely something that could cause a problem - AV software sees a new/changed file and scans it immediately to see if something is wrong.

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No, the AAR file is written to disk much more often.

I think it is CodeMeter related. Have you specified an IP address in the WebAdmin ("Configuration | Network") that doesn't exist anymore (or isn't switched on as a license server)?

Like I suspected before, it sounds like a network timeout.

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I think it is CodeMeter related. Have you specified an IP address in the WebAdmin ("Configuration | Network") that doesn't exist anymore (or isn't switched on as a license server)?

Like I suspected before, it sounds like a network timeout.

Thanks Nils

That did it for me, I removed the IP address of my server and that stopped the small freezes I was having when the codemeter stick was plugged directly into my PC.

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No, the AAR file is written to disk much more often.

I think it is CodeMeter related. Have you specified an IP address in the WebAdmin ("Configuration | Network") that doesn't exist anymore (or isn't switched on as a license server)?

Like I suspected before, it sounds like a network timeout.

:-( well no dice here, still got the freezes after trying to mess with the CM software....

Still how could it be exactly every two minutes into a mission, makes me feel it must be SB related, is there anyway to turn AAR off?

EDIT:

I tryed following, I started the mission and disconnected the CM dongle, after 1.27 minutes, it gave me a error, that the CM is missing.

I reconnected the dongle the mission played again, at 1.50 I removed the dongle again, at exactly 2:00 the freez happend, but no dongle error message, I waited and at around 3.24 the dongle error occurd again.

Fazit: it is not the CM, it must be something else....what could it be?

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Troubleshooting is a process of elimination. Start by breaking it down to 2 categories: hardware and software.

Hardware

Try playing with just the keyboard and mouse. Remove or disable all other peripheral devices and any programs they use. Also include any 3rd party apps that affects hardware, like setting everything to default in your video control panel.

Software

Monitor what Windows is doing with a program like this: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645. Compare SBPE process activity to other games/normal use. Try running your copy of SBPE on another computer to see if it is corrupted.

The more possibly causes you can eliminate, the better the direction you know where to look for the actual problem.

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  • 9 months later...

Well I don't know about the demo.

So far about 30 people have "borrowed" a license from me and no one else has mentioned it (not to say it didn't happen just that no one else has said anything).

Not sure how to address this (short of you finding someone nearby and borrowing their dongle - or of course buying your own :)).

I don't think this is widespread (otherwise the thread would be huge - not 22 posts in ten months) and seems to only impact a few, whatever the cause is.

I know personally that sometimes when a scenario is loading (or network session is starting) that I get a "SteelBeasts not responding" message but this lasts maybe 10-15 seconds if that and after that it runs smoothly.

But just to confirm, I do not experience a scheduled freeze every 2 minutes and you are the first "borrower" to mention experiencing it.

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Is it exactly every two minutes?

If so, it may be that you have more than one license server IP address stored in the WebAdmin network configuration? Try alternating the sequence in which they are listed. It may also be related to some other network configuration issue, where every 2 minutes a broadcast or some other activity may experience a time-out.

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I will do some more investigation later tonight or tomorrow. It seems every 2 minutes but I will double check.

I shouldn't have any other ip problems, I did have an old install of propellerheads reason demo which I think uses the same copy protection dongle system but I never had the dongle and only ran it in demo mode, its all un-installed now.

Ben

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Okay, the pauses happen every 2 minutes, they coincide with a small peak in network comms on both my main network and hamatchi ( I presume this is SB checking the licence as discussed earlier). There also is an occasional triple peak on hamachi that comes in about 10-20 seconds before the disruptive peak, this burst of data has no effect on SB and is not as regular.

Could the distance between myself and Gibsonm be the factor?

Ben

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