FS9 crashes to the desktop repetitively

[Jean-Claude]

Last week, I have been using the 747 200 RFP with Flight Deck Companion and, four times in a row, my flights aborted at different times during the flight when I was selecting a different view, FS9 shut down and I was back to the desktop in a split second (my FDC and GoFlight hardware were still active).

I first suspected FDC to be the culprit but Dave March replied as follows:

"On some systems, when using different views, FSUIPC will timeout when attempting to read some data. My guess would be you were also using a third party aircraft. Really not an FDC issue"

So here I am, seeking some light from you on a possible FSUIPC untoward action, and how I could avoid those shut down with my preferred add-ons.

Thank you for your help.

My system is a Dall 8300 3.02Ghz, 1Gb RAM and Radeon 9800 Pro 128

[Pete Dowson]

So here I am, seeking some light from you on a possible FSUIPC untoward action, and how I could avoid those shut down with my preferred add-ons.

Sorry, but it isn't FSUIPC, and it won't be FDC either. There are several main possibilities -- video driver (ensure you have the latest non-Beta for your card), bad gauge (add-on panel/aircraft, or corruption), bad scenery (add-on or corruption) or bad sound file (or even sound driver), etc.

It could even be a bad WX file (WX files are weather files associated with FLT (flight) files. Try starting off creating a complete new flight instead rather than loading an existing one, just in case. Also try different aircraft, especially the default ones, in case it is something in an add-on aircraft, panel or gauge.

Generally, though, the only foolproof way I know to resolve such things is to uninstall each add-on in turn till the problem goes away, then add the others back in. However, even that doesn't always work because the add-ons don't always uninstall in a way which returns things to the way they were before.

So the most definite way, assuming you have enough disk space, is to rename the FS folder, then install a fresh copy of FS. Check it out, then add one add-on at a time, checking at each step, until you regain your full system, but now working, or discover which it is that is crashing FS. Then you can either remove the old installation, or remove the discovered culprit from that copy and re-test that one.

If you don't have enough disk space and no other method solves the problem, then I'm afraid a complete de-install of FS and re-install of everything would be called for. But be sure to check things out at each step.

Regards,

Pete

[Jean-Claude]

Many thanks Pete, most helpful, I believe I have a better understanding of the issue causing the crash now.

It is most likely a mesh/scenery since those crashes happened to be in the same geographical area. I have taken note of your advice regarding weather files as well, that may be another lead.

I have also found a post about a known bug in FS9 scenery causing this sort of shut down without notice, and there appears to be a fix for it.

http://forums.simflight.com/viewtopic.php?t=20488

Best wishes.