Addons menu disappears after installing FS Acceleration

[BAW019]

I just installed FS Acceleration and the Add-ons menu has vanished. Having jumped through hoops* all last night I've finally managed to persuade the thing to un-install and having rebooted, checked that the Add-ons menu is still missing (yes) I've re-installed FSAcceleration. Although it appears to install a new version of Simconnect I still have no Add-ons menu. I deliberately didn't re-install SP1 as I wanted to see if Simconnect is upgraded by FSAcceleration and whether re-installing it would fix the problem.

I'm loathe to waste much more time on this as it's a pig to un-install but I desperately need my Simconnect to work - all my hardware is mute without it. If we can't figure out the cause I'll have to bin the Acceleration pack and revert to good old SP1 - big shame but can't say I'm suprised - sounds like Simconnect's been the runt of the litter since Microsoft had that particular stupipheny.

Anyhow, enough sighing. The logs from FSUIPC and Simconnect follow - if you think any extra info might help I'd be glad to post it, just let me know what you need.

Incidently the logs represent a full session of starting FSX and closing it down. Am I missing something - I'd expect a ton more info? (email addy's been editted to foil the spam trawlers)

=== Later ====

Just installed the SDK that comes with FSAcceleration, turned off McAfee, installed it then ran ..\SDK\SDK\Core Utilities Kit\SimConnect SDK\lib\Simconnect.msi. Still no Add-ons menu. :cry:

=== Later still ===

It occurs to me you may need to see my dll.xml file so here it is. As you can see I've disabled everything but FSUIPC to try to isolate the problem. This file worked fine with everything enabled until FSAcceleration was installed

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="Windows-1252" ?>

Launch

dll.xml

False

False

Object Placement Tool

True

False

..\Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK\SDK\Mission Creation Kit\object_placement.dll

Traffic Toolbox

True

False

..\Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK\SDK\Environment Kit\Traffic Toolbox SDK\traffictoolbox.dll

Visual Effects Tool

True

False

..\Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK\SDK\Environment Kit\Special Effects SDK\visualfxtool.dll

FSUIPC 4

False/Disabled>

Modules\FSUIPC4.dll

FS Recorder Module

True

False

C:\Program Files\FS Recorder for FSX\RecorderFSX.dll

FSCopilot

True

Modules\FSCopilot.dll

=============

********* FSUIPC4, Version 4.205 by Pete Dowson *********

User Name="Ian Niblo"

User Addr="xxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xx.xx"

FSUIPC4 Key is provided

WideFS7 Key is provided

Running inside FSX (SimConnect Acc/SP2 Oct07)

Module base=61000000

DebugStatus=255

344 System time = 22:55:40

344 FLT UNC path = "\\FLIGHTSIM\MyDocsFSX\"

344 FS UNC path = "\\FLIGHTSIM\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\"

2219 LogOptions=00000001

2219 SimConnect_Open succeeded: waiting to check version okay

0.00000 SimConnect version 10.0.61259.0

0.01864 Server: Scope=Global, Protocol=IPv4, Address=(null), Port=23000, MaxClients=64

0.03072 Server: Scope=local, Protocol=Auto, Address=127.0.0.1, Port=1247, MaxClients=64

0.04910 Server: Scope=local, Protocol=Pipe, Name=\\.\pipe\Microsoft Flight Simulator\SimConnect, MaxClients=64

0.06032 Server: Scope=local, Protocol=IPv4, Address=127.0.0.1, Port=1248, MaxClients=64

Thanks to anyone who can help me resolve this. Commiserations to anyone in a similar position.

All the best

Ian

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+

4GB RAM

SATA2 GLAN motherboard

nVidia 7950 GT (512mb - PCI Express) graphics card

Windows XP Home Edition SP2

Creative SBLive! soundcard

* For the record I noticed people in other forums have also reported a problem un-installing or repairing FSAcceleration. It keeps reporting that another program's already running setup and refuses to continue. I've thrown it at Microsoft, maybe they'll issue a service pack...

[Pete Dowson]

I deliberately didn't re-install SP1 as I wanted to see if Simconnect is upgraded by FSAcceleration and whether re-installing it would fix the problem.

SP1 is included in Acceleration in any case. And, yes, the version of SimConnect installed by Acceleration is better. It is much much more efficient (faster) and uses Named Pipes instead of TCP/IP, thus avoiding all the problems with firewalls and security programs.

sounds like Simconnect's been the runt of the litter since Microsoft had that particular stupipheny.

Pretty much all of the known SimConnect problems are actually fixed with Acceleration/SP2's version. Unfortunately it isn't SimConnect which is the problem. It's the horrendously complex installation / deinstallation process. SimConnect is only one component to suffer -- check all the other non-SimConnect related problems folks are having. I also think there are problems in the Windows Side-by-side library system. It seems to be very critical exactly how things are installed and de-installed, and interruptions, accidents, misreads, whatever, get it all corrupted. I've know several cases where a disk reformat and windows re-install was the quickest route to resolution! :-(

Anyhow, enough sighing. The logs from FSUIPC and Simconnect follow - if you think any extra info might help I'd be glad to post it, just let me know what you need.

Well, the Log from FSUIPC is incomplete. I've never seen one finish there unless FSX crashed immediately. And the Log from SimConnect couldn't possibly be the one related to the FSUIPC Log, as it ALWAYS shows the loading of DLLs, and most certainly FSUIPC was loaded else it cannot make a Log.

Incidently the logs represent a full session of starting FSX and closing it down. Am I missing something - I'd expect a ton more info?

They are both fragments, just the first few lines. But the SimConnect one crashes earlier or it isn't the right one, as it doesn't even show FSUIPC being loaded, as I said.

It occurs to me you may need to see my dll.xml file so here it is.

That looks okay.

The FSUIPC4 install log may have been useful. Remove FSUIPC4.DLL, run the 4.20 installer again, then copy in 4.205 to get back up to date.

Please try again to get FSUIPC and SimConnect logs. I really cannot believe those are correct. I've never seen any such short fragments unless everything crashed.

Regards

Pete

[BAW019]

Thanks for the help Peter, I reinstalled 4.20 and replaced it with 4.205 and the problems vanished. I've done a completely cold re-start and it's all back up and running again, including my Addons menu and all my hardware interfaces.

Cheers!

Ian