FSX Play Constantly Crashing - Laptop Performance Issues? Software Problem?

**rkphelps** · 07-15-2023, 12:07 PM

I'm having the same problem with this latest update to Play. My wife and I played Pebble yesterday and it crashed to the desktop twice and it just locked another 2 times and I had to and use task manager to get out of Play. Each time we were able to pick up where the game left off but it is very frustrating each time as it messes up the flow of your round of golf. I have a lot of money invested in the Foresight ecosystem with the GCquad and it's software or I would be looking for a more reliable system by now as I'm tired of the constant problems with Foresight software. You'd think Foresight could afford to hire a couple of decent software engineers. I run my software on a newly built intel i7 high end gaming desktop with 32gb of memory and a 3080ti graphics card outputting 4k to a Lazer projector projecting to a 12' x 8' screen. I do notice the computer is running hotter than it use to in Play, but not enough to cause the crashes and that's with a computer case that has 8 cooling fans in it plus 3 more fans on the graphics card. I also have several courses in Play that says they need updating and after I start the download and it installs the update it still states the courses need updating, very frustrating. I've purchased a lot of software over the last 30 years and this ranks right up there as one of the worst I have owned. Foresight needs to get their act together.

**MongoOnlyPawn** · 07-15-2023, 01:33 PM

dmboiler-your issue is heat. Running FSXPlay with a laptop with a 2070 isn't going to work. Current GPU designs just shut things down instead of frying the system. I know there are error logs somewhere you can use to sort things out, but I don't know where/how to get at them. I don't recall if FSXPLay has a way to run at a lower resolution, but in my experience there's just no way you're going to get enough airflow through the system to run the program. The GPU is going to be screaming hot. My suggestion would be to sell the laptop & buy a desktop/floor mount with a large case & lots of airflow. You could also look at this article for help, though I don't know how you'd alter the system enough to remove the heat. https://www.howtogeek.com/784198/how...u-temperature/

rkphelps-I'd put big money on the fact that it's the same issue.. Look at this article and try the suggestions: https://www.howtogeek.com/784198/how...u-temperature/ for anything north of 70° Celsius you're going to have issues. If the temps are running high you could try using Fan Control, ( https://getfancontrol.com/ ) to increase your fan speeds acrtoss the board. Sometimes even the GPU fans are spinning fast enough, and if you've got 8 case fans I'd have the 2 lowest ones pulling air in and the other 6 pushing air out, you just can't pull enough cooler air in to make much of a difference, you've got to get the hot stuff out.

**dmboiler** · 07-16-2023, 01:28 AM

Thanks for the input. I really appreciate the information. I thought this might be an issue. I recently bought one of the cheap laptop stands on Amazon that has 6 fans that move more air around, but honestly I'm not sure if these even help that much.

If you don't mind, I have a couple of follow-up questions:

1.) Is there any reason why the issue would be worse now than it was a year ago?
2.) Does ambient temperature have an effect on the overheating problem? I have a mini split in the garage. I could always crank it down and let the garage get nice and cold before I fire up the laptop.
3.) If I have to go the route of a desktop PC, and still plan to only use the computer for the golf sim, do you have any recommendations? What processor is enough to handle all that FSX Play can throw at it? I would like to eventually move to a 4k projector system from my current 1080 setup.

Thanks again for your help,
David

**MongoOnlyPawn** · 07-16-2023, 12:31 PM

1) The ventilation channels on most laptops are pretty narrow, I'd guess that over time the dust has built up enough in the channels and on the fan itself that the ability to get rid of heat has been seriously degraded. You could buy some compressed air and try blasting the thing from both ends. It might help a bit, but it won't cure the problem. It's likely just heating up faster now than a year ago.

2) Yes, ambient is an issue, but it's all relative. If it's 70° F in your facility, it'll take longer to overheat than if your room temp is 80°F, but longer as in more minutes, not more hours.

3) Go here: https://discord.com/channels/2726021...79625941073986 Read the posts from top to bottom, there's lots of great discussions on the systems and designs that are needed to run GSPro, if it can run GSPro well it'll handle FSX Play. There are a lot of CPU/RAM/SDD/PSU combo's that do well. It's mostly going to depend on what you get for a GPU, and how you get rid of heat, that will determine how FSX Play runs on your system. The larger and more open the case is will have an impact also.

**delaloi** · 07-17-2023, 12:06 PM

I had the same crash issue yesterday, for the first time with the next-to-latest version of Play. The newest version crashes immediately for me, I could not make it run at all (Unity error as explained on another thread) and had to reinstall the prior version. So in that case the problem is not a heat issue.

That said, my laptop does run hot with Play and that might be the problem now. I saw a Unity error message flash on screen a couple of seconds before the crashes recently. I'll try to clean out the fans and ports of the laptop and see if it helps.

**cpatino2** · 07-17-2023, 09:18 PM

I discovered that poor internet stability was causing the crashing issues with FSXplay 1.7, but the latest version has resolved this problem.

Give it a try to 1.8 and check if it works for you, for me on Medium works 80fps in most of the courses with a 3070 nhttps://www.foresightsports.com/fsx-play-download-and-installation

**cpatino2** · 07-17-2023, 09:23 PM

Originally posted by dmboiler View Post

Hi All,

Need some technical help with my GCQ/FSX Play setup. I do most of my practicing on FSX 2020 but use Play for sim rounds. I've been running into issues lately with Play crashing multiple times in the middle of rounds. Every couple of holes, Play just closes out of the blue. I am able to continue play as it picks up where it left off, but sure enough, another shutdown a couple of holes later. Play has never run perfectly, for a while it would crash about every third time I used it, but it was at least semi-reliable. It is much worse in recent weeks. I did install the latest FSX Play upgrade from the end of May, but reverted back to my previous install shortly after because the new updated software wouldn't even stay open without crashing. To be clear, my current issue of multiple crashes a round was happening before my failed upgrade and again once I reverted back.

I am running the software on the below setup which I purchased new at the end of 2021. This computer is only used to run my golf sim.

Laptop: Lenovo Legion 7 15IMH05
Processor: Intel Core i7-10750H CPU @ 2.60GHz 2.59 GHz
Installed RAM: 16.0 GB (15.8 GB usable)
System Type: 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Operating System: Windows 10 Home
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 with Max-Q Design

I've attached a screenshot of what Windows Task Manager shows during play on a course. The laptop sounds like a jet engine the entire time Play is open. Not true with 2020.

Any advice is very much appreciated. I'm fairly tech savvy, but not when it comes to the nuts and bolts of computer systems & components.

Thanks,
David

What version of Play are you running?

FSX Play Constantly Crashing - Laptop Performance Issues? Software Problem?

FSX Play Constantly Crashing - Laptop Performance Issues? Software Problem?

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment