2 Problems: Long start up and crash when changing plane

[Georg Aubele]

Hi Pete!

I'm using FSUIPC 3.22 and FS2004.

I have two problems:

Number one (experiencing since I use FSUIPC):

The Start up process of FS9 takes *much* longer with FSUIPC installed than without:

With FSUIPC (registered or not does not matter, neither the existance of an FSUIPC.ini or FSUIPC.key) it takes 48 seconds to get to the point, where I can choose flight - without FSUIPC it takes nearly 10 secondsis that normal :?:

Number two came new last week:

When I try to change the plane while FSUIPC is installed, I get the following crash-message, no matter which plane I choose (even deafult planes). When I uninstall FSUIPC, everything works fine. Before getting the crash, there was also a *very* long period of time between choosing the plane and getting to the "flight"-window again.

FSUIPC.log looks like this after the crash:

********* FSUIPC, Version 3.22 by Pete Dowson *********
User Name="Georg Aubele"
User Addr="Georg.Aubele@gmx.de"
FSUIPC Key is provided
WIDEFS not user registered, or expired
Module base=61000000
ClassOptions: UIPCMAIN=FF7F, FS98MAIN=FF7F, FS2KMAIN=FF5E
WeatherOptions(Orig)=40003605[40003605]
InitDelay: 0 seconds
WeatherReadInterval=4
LogOptions=00000001
DebugStatus=15
     5158 System time = 13:22:18
     5288 D:\Spiele\Flight Simulator 9\
     5518 System time = 13:22:19, FS2004 time = 12:00:00 (00:00Z)
     9214 C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\Joker\Eigene Dateien\Flight Simulator-Dateien\WTA in EDDB.flt
     9254 AIRCRAFT\b737_400\Boeing737-400.air
     9254 Aircraft="Boeing 737-400 WTA"
    63692 AIRCRAFT\iFDG A320-214\Airbus320-200-CFM56-5B4.air
    63692 Aircraft="Airbus A320-200 - IFDG WTA"
   108877 Client Application: "fs9" (Id=2424)
   108877 D:\Spiele\Flight Simulator 9\fs9.exe
   108877    Product="Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 - A Century of Flight"
   108877    Company="Microsoft Corporation"

[Pete Dowson]

With FSUIPC (registered or not does not matter, neither the existance of an FSUIPC.ini or FSUIPC.key) it takes 48 seconds to get to the point, where I can choose flight - without FSUIPC it takes nearly 10 secondsis that normal :?:

If by "choosing a flight", then no, because FSUIPC does nothing at all until it is actually running. None of its code is activated until FS is pretty much ready to fly.

Do you by any chance have a complex aircraft panel as default? FS seems to load up whatever you have as default initially EVEN if the flight you choose at the menu doesn't use it. Then it unloads it all and loads the chosen one.

If the panel loading by default is one which tries to use FSUIPC, it won't get any joy until FS is almost ready to fly (certainly not until you are well past that initial menu) and this may be causing it to take more time than otherwise.

Just in case, or as a test, try deleting your FS9.CFG file and let FS make a new one (keep a copy of course, in case you want to restore it).

Number two came new last week:

When I try to change the plane while FSUIPC is installed, I get the following crash-message, no matter which plane I choose (even deafult planes). When I uninstall FSUIPC, everything works fine. Before getting the crash, there was also a *very* long period of time between choosing the plane and getting to the "flight"-window again.

You definitely have some add-on, or possibly something corrupted, which is related to the aircraft data then. It certainly isn't FSUIPC which is crashing or directly causing any crash, as it actually traps any crashes occurring whilst it is in control and logs them, automatically.

I think it is some add-on panel or gauge, or possibly another DLL, which is detecting FSUIPC is present, asking for data, getting zero in response (because FSUIPC is not yet active) then using this invalid data and causing the crash -- the few details in the crash message seem to confirm this.

The log shows everything is okay in FSUIPC, except that this aircraft you are using:

63692 AIRCRAFT\iFDG A320-214\Airbus320-200-CFM56-5B4.air

63692 Aircraft="Airbus A320-200 - IFDG WTA"

is accessing FSUIPC in an incorrect manner -- it is trying to use it like an external application. This is extremely inefficient (and it most certainly won't work with an unregistered FSUIPC installation). If I were you I'd try to determine which Gauge in that aircraft's panel is doing this, and remove it.

Regards,

Pete

[Georg Aubele]

is accessing FSUIPC in an incorrect manner -- it is trying to use it like an external application. This is extremely inefficient (and it most certainly won't work with an unregistered FSUIPC installation). If I were you I'd try to determine which Gauge in that aircraft's panel is doing this, and remove it.

No matter which aircraft I choose - I get always a crash ...

I will try the tip with deleting FS9.cfg.

[Pete Dowson]

No matter which aircraft I choose - I get always a crash ...

Yes, but by the time you've reached the menu in order to choose, FS has already chosen and loaded an aircraft. It is not to do with the one you are choosing, but the default one FS is loading before that.

I will try the tip with deleting FS9.cfg.

By starting with a default FS9.CFG FS will load its default aircraft. Provided you've not added any gauges to them, this should clear up the problem.

If not then investigate the Modules folder, see if there are any add-in DLLs other than FSUIPC.

Regards,

Pete

[Georg Aubele]

Ok - it worked :!: :D

The crash does not appear anymore :D You know your stuff 8)

Thanks :!:

But there is still this long start up timeeven with the default flight (Cessna 172 in Seattle). I didn't change anyting in this ...

Any suggestions?

[Pete Dowson]

But there is still this long start up timeeven with the default flight (Cessna 172 in Seattle). I didn't change anyting in this ...

Any suggestions?

Sorry, no -- there is no difference on any of my three PCs with the start-up time, with or without FSUIPC. As I mentioned, FSUIPC is really not doing anything to speak of until after the menu phase, and when FS is ready to fly. Even then it isn't doing much until asked by other programs.

Of course right at the start it does read its INI file and KEY file, and start a LOG file. Check those (in the Modules folder) see if they are very large -- they should all be pretty small. Even if they were large that would in itself no slow things down. But possibly your disk is short of space, or has not been defragmented in a good while?

The only other thing I can think of which might slow loading times is a shortage of memory. Whilst FSUIPC doesn't itself add that much more to the FS memory requirement, it does add a little and that may just be enough to cause some swapping out to hard disk if you've not got quite enough.

Regards,

Pete

[Georg Aubele]

I have 512 MB of RAM, that should be enough ...

I did a CLEAN intstall, deleted every file I know having something to do with FS9

Startup-Time: 10 seconds

Just copied FSUIPC into the Modules folder

Startup-Time: 48 secondsI don't know what else to do ...

Does FSUIPC write to/read/need something in the registry which isn't there /is wrong ?

[Pete Dowson]

Does FSUIPC write to/read/need something in the registry which isn't there /is wrong ?

No, sorry. All of its parameters are in the FSUIPC.INI file. Just delete that if you want it to start afresh.

BTW I am sorry, I realy don't know what you've got going there, but I am a little astonished at how desperate you sound about it. How often are you starting FS each day? If you were loading it and closing it continuously it would make sense, is this what you are doing?

Regards,

Pete

[Georg Aubele]

Wellsome kind of ...

I'm a Aircraft Painter and therefore I have to restart FS more often to see the changes of my liveries, because with some aircrafts FS seems to cache the livery files. When I change them and don't restart, I will see the old one at the plane. After the restart I get the new one :oops:

Do you know a parameter in FS 9 to log the start up sequence?

[Pete Dowson]

I'm a Aircraft Painter and therefore I have to restart FS more often to see the changes of my liveries, because with some aircrafts FS seems to cache the livery files.

Oh, I see. Even when you change aircraft not simply re-select the same one? There's also an FS control "reload user aircraft" or something like that. Doesn't that reload the textures either?

Do you know a parameter in FS 9 to log the start up sequence?

No. But if you want to see what it is loading and unloading during startup you can see that, live, using "DebugView" from http://www.systeminternals.com. That utility will also show FSUIPC's logging, live, if you add "Debug=Please" to the [General] section of FSUIPC.INI, but you shouldn't do this normally as it invokes extra code in FSUIPC and therefore can impair performance (though this may not be measurable).

BTW, I get a difference similar to your 48 seconds and 10 seconds, but not with FSUIPC installed or not. The first load takes about 40 seconds or so but all subsequent ones on the same PC takes 10 or less. This is with a 1 Gbyte memory.

I don't have any PCs left with only 512Mb -- that was fine for FS2002 but I think WinXP + FS2004 really do need more. The "sweet spot" is more like 768Mb now, more with more things running.

I'm still wondering if the difference on your system between FSUIPC installed or not is that -- the memory is spilling into virtual memory (and therefore swap disk space). There are ways to speed up virtual memory, like having fixed and equal top and bottom limits and making sure the disk is defragmented before Windows creates the resulting file, and so on. But in the end it is really best to avoid the need to swap out to disk.

I suppose the memory chip prices have risen again now, but I took adbantage of the plummet inprices not long ago to upgrade all my PCs to 1 Gb minimum.

You could try using something like EndItAll to kill all other unnecessary processes off before loading FS. If this helps then it is definitely lookingl ike memory.

Regards,

Pete