Fix to my CTDs - Windows Screen Saver

[VBF-12_Stick-95]

This may be known but in case it isn't...

 

The short:  Windows Screen Saver can interfere with the game and I believe has been the cause of my random CTDs when playing on-line.

 

The long:  Screen Saver used to work on Windows years ago.  When it worked I had it set to fast change of pictures and when I was flying I was getting a screen hesitation at the same interval.  If I shut off Screen Saver the hesitations went away.  Very easy to reproduce.  Screen Saver is always working in the background.  The issue went away years ago as Screen Saver stopped working all together.

 

A couple of months ago I began getting random CTDs while playing on-line.  It seemed to occur when I wasn't doing much such as RTB or a long distance bomb run, but not while in a dog fight, etc.   I started closing processes I normally had open while flying, e.g., Fraps, Internet Explorer, etc.  No go, still received the CTDs.

 

Then I noticed something very odd.  When I go away from the computer for any length of time I usually shut off the monitor (as it's an OLED).  When I came back once the other day and turned on the monitor there was a photo of mine on the screen for a split second.  At first I was stumped but then checked the Screen Saver.  Its set to On with wait period was set to 3 minutes.  Although it stopped working years ago I never changed it.  So I sat back and waited and bang, after three minutes photos started appearing.  My assumption is when I'm not active when flying, e.g., not moving the mouse in the map, I would hit the 3 minute mark, Screen Saver would try to take over and the game would crash.  This would explain the randomness.

Remembering my last problem with it I changed the wait period to 20 minutes and have flown a number of long sorties without issue.

 

Like I said in the title, my fingers are crossed.  If this isn't the problem, I give up.

Edited June 24, 2022 by VBF-12_Stick-95

[VBF-12_Stick-95]

Last CTD was over 2 weeks ago.  This change fixed the issue.