Crash

[psouthan]

Hello Peter,

I have your latest beta version of FSUICP which is included in the Activesky folder of their Beta 140 update.

My problem is trying to isolate what is causing my FS2004 to crash recently.

The frustrating part about the whole thing is that I can fly a long way without it happening and then suddenly doom and there isn't a trace of FS2004 on my screen, nothing, no error message nothing. I am begining to suspect that it has something to do with the combination of my PMDG 737s and Activesky.

What I would like to know is this...is there a way of locating an error message somewhere that tells me it is that keeps causing FS2004 to crash without having to go through hours and hours and hours of scenarios and flights with different planes etc etc..?

Regards

Paul

[Pete Dowson]

The frustrating part about the whole thing is that I can fly a long way without it happening and then suddenly doom and there isn't a trace of FS2004 on my screen, nothing, no error message nothing.

I get that too sometimes. I think it is an error in FS to do with textures at certain places, in certain seasons and at certain times of the day, with some video cards and some drivers. I have some routes which I never fly at night because I get that sort of crash most of the time, half way through. Yet it is okay at night. On a different PC with a different video card it is fine, never crashes.

I am begining to suspect that it has something to do with the combination of my PMDG 737s and Activesky.

No, I don't think it can be. That's a very popular combination and there would be reports all over the place.

I did hear of a 'fix' for a seasonal texture bug which does this, but I can't locate it now. But compare results flying at night versus day, Summer versus Autumn, etc. And maybe try different video drivers, not necessarily the latest.

What I would like to know is this...is there a way of locating an error message somewhere that tells me it is that keeps causing FS2004 to crash

There jolly well ought to be! Before FS2004 I've never ever seen any program crash to desktop (CTD) with no message, no dump, no trace whatsoever. I really don't know how it is possible! Even if I have one of my debugging tools running it doesn't catch it. Incredible! During the Beta testing of FS2004 there were really many of these -- hence the abbreviation "CTD" -- but they did eliminate most (evidently not all) before release.

Sorry not to be of much help. Please let us know if you do find any answers.

Regards,

Pete

[psouthan]

Hi Pete,

Thank you for your reply. I have a strong suspicion it is something to do with a combination of textures and seasonal weather in certain places as you mentioned. Gee...I have a a hard drive of 250 GB alone for scenery and textures where do I begin!

I will keep you posted if in the meantime you come acroos that bug fix you mentioned, I would love to get a copy of it.

Regards

Paul

[Pete Dowson]

I have a strong suspicion it is something to do with a combination of textures and seasonal weather in certain places as you mentioned. Gee...I have a a hard drive of 250 GB alone for scenery and textures where do I begin!

Try setting Summer or Winter as the season in FS, see if it helps or not. If it was one of those when you crashed, try the opposite: i.e. Spring or Fall. But I think the CTD problem was related to transitional trextures so these are more likely.

I will keep you posted if in the meantime you come across that bug fix you mentioned, I would love to get a copy of it.

One CTD I came across was fixed by removing some apparently bad AFCAD files. These were Project AI related files I think The filenames were:

PAI_AF2_?????_?????.BGL and

AF2_????_????_???.BGL

The sufferer mentioned that there were 77 of these on his system and after he removed them, no more CTDs.

The only way to find bad scenery files really is to eliminate one add-on entry in the Scenery library at a time. Or, quicker, do a "binary chop" on your list -- i.e disable one half, see if you crash, if so, halve that and so on. If not, swap halves. This is quite quick, getting through 256 add on scenery layers in 8 reloads. However, the results will be ambiguous if you have more than one causing problems.

Regards,

Pete

[psouthan]

I have a strong suspicion it is something to do with a combination of textures and seasonal weather in certain places as you mentioned. Gee...I have a a hard drive of 250 GB alone for scenery and textures where do I begin!

Try setting Summer or Winter as the season in FS, see if it helps or not. If it was one of those when you crashed, try the opposite: i.e. Spring or Fall. But I think the CTD problem was related to transitional trextures so these are more likely.

I will keep you posted if in the meantime you come across that bug fix you mentioned, I would love to get a copy of it.

One CTD I came across was fixed by removing some apparently bad AFCAD files. These were Project AI related files I think The filenames were:

PAI_AF2_?????_?????.BGL and

AF2_????_????_???.BGL

Hi Pete ,

Just some feedback for you regarding my problem. I deleted all the files you mentioned above and it seems to have resolved the problem so far, looking good!

Thanks for your time and help.

Regards

Paul

[Pete Dowson]

Just some feedback for you regarding my problem. I deleted all the files you mentioned above and it seems to have resolved the problem so far, looking good!

Seems that there are some faulty AFCAD files about!

Thanks for the feedback!

Regards,

Pete

[psouthan]

Hi Pete,

You are jmost welcome. Kind regards and thank you for what you bring to the community.

Paul

[psouthan]

Hi Pete,

I was wandering if you could shed some light on what the following error message means.

You may recall my problem...my FS crashes unpredictable and I mentioned to you that I didn't normally get an error message? I also mentioned to you that I removed some BGL files you mentioned above which seems to have helped. However, tonight, after a 7hr real time flight and would you believe 3 minutes from my T.O.D I get this:

C:\docume~1\paulso~1locals~1\temp\458e_appcompat.txt

My FS is on my S: drive but this is the message I got.

Any comments which could alleiviate my frustration will be appreciated.

regards

Paul

[Pete Dowson]

However, tonight, after a 7hr real time flight and would you believe 3 minutes from my T.O.D I get this:

C:\docume~1\paulso~1locals~1\temp\458e_appcompat.txt

My FS is on my S: drive but this is the message I got.

That isn't a message, it's a pathname to a file. Did you check the file? What was the error message?

If FS is crashing after a long time is usually means one of two things:

1) you have something causing a slow memory leak. Some sceneries and aircraft add-ons are thought to suffer from such problems. You'll need to mention these details and ask around, on some place like the FS2004 forum. I truly know nothing about these, I am only mentioning what I have heard. (I rarely fly much more than an hour or two in any case. I like take-offs and landings, I find cruising rather boring. :wink:)

or

2) something is overheating, most likely the video card. I have two PCs which suffer in this way. I run them with the side covers off all Summer -- they are okay in the Winter.

Regards,

Pete

[psouthan]

Once again Pete thanks fr your feedback. I have G-Force FX5900 video card which takes a hammering. I'll cank the fans in my case up a little a see how I go.

Memory leaks....ummmmmmm ? I have 2 GB of memory would that be an issue?

Thanks Paul

[Pete Dowson]

Memory leaks....ummmmmmm ? I have 2 GB of memory would that be an issue?

Since memory leaks can actually give rise to reports of not enough memory even when virtual memory (on disk) is umpteen gigabytes, I don't think a relatively small bit of extra "real" memory makes much difference. Windows is a virtual memory system.

Pete

[JSkorna]

Hi Paul,

Here is a bunch of stuff for you:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=Ugle+Search