FSX Crashing

[garymoore]

Hi Robin, I hope it is o.k. to post this support issue here - but I have not been able to find a more closely related thread. My problem is that after purchasing VLC last month and following the installation instructions carefully (including such things as putting VLC DTM below VLC in the FSX scenery library) I find that after about twenty minutes flying time [either north from Wellington or South from Keri Keri] that my system comes to a grinding halt, and all that I am able to do is stop FSX running through the Task Manager. When I made the initial installation I also included the Wellington dtm scenery and when I first experienced the crash I removed Wellington thinking that it was the problem, but it does not seem that way now. However, I will be eternally grateful to you if you can help me sort this out. Best Regards, gary moore

[AlisterC]

What are you flying in Gary? I have the same problem no matter where I am flying in NZ (with VLC) if I am flying a payware plane like a Level D 767, and if I am switching views frequently, taking screenshots etc. Always after about 20 min. I figure it's more a case that my PC is being run to the limit and can't take any more so FSX gives up. I'd be interested to hear what Robin or Timmo have to say about this one either way, as it's fairly similar to what I see.
Might help them also for you to post up your system specs?

[deeknow]

Hey Gary (great name by the way, do you play guitar by any chance

Not sure what sort of rig your running, but its possible your experiencing an out-of-memory condition, leading to the crash. There are a number of guides out there for tuning and configuring your FSX install, and generally you want to be careful to not change too many things at once, but take a look at the following as an example, an in particular the OOM error section. I was having the odd crash on my XP machine and havent had anywhere near as many since making the boot.ini change mentioned:

http://www.simforums.com/forums/setting-up...topic29041.html

Be careful though, the boot.ini one has the potential to screw up your PC startup, if your not sure what your doing, you probably should avoid dong it

[brad63]

Ive been having the same problem but in NZ only. After 10 to 30min Fps fluctuates wildly and freezes then have to taskmanage out of FS. Been doing many tests over the last week to find problem and trying every tip and tweak I can find. Only seems to happens in NZ. Have flown to different areas for 2 to 3 hrs straight with Orbxs PNW USA Canada and Australia without a prob then I shut down FS,reboot, de frag, then start up FS ,reset scenery library, choose my test craft (in this case Quest Kodiak), make a flight plan between Whakatane to Wellington (my test flight for this excercise) and jump in and fly. 10-20min later crashed again (for about the 15th time). Have been disabling sceneries one by one up to this point and Im now going to try the default scenery alone today. Ive recently done a complete reinstall of FS and addons and had been running sweet up to about a week ago.This problem as well as the invisible wall around Auckland has made NZ almost unflyable for the moment. Its a very slow process of elimination unless someone finds the majic bullet.

B-RAD

[frostynz]

QUOTE (AlisterC @ May 21 2011,12:12 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What are you flying in Gary? I have the same problem no matter where I am flying in NZ (with VLC) if I am flying a payware plane like a Level D 767, and if I am switching views frequently, taking screenshots etc. Always after about 20 min. I figure it's more a case that my PC is being run to the limit and can't take any more so FSX gives up. I'd be interested to hear what Robin or Timmo have to say about this one either way, as it's fairly similar to what I see.
Might help them also for you to post up your system specs?

Hi Alister

Are you using Vista or Win 7 64bit? if so, are you using the 'uiautomation.dll' fix? ..... sing out if you need a hand with this, but it does address the crash that comes from switching views .... did for me anyway.

Regards Dave

[Timmo]

QUOTE

This problem as well as the invisible wall around Auckland has made NZ almost unflyable for the moment[/quote]
What do you mean by this wall ,are you talking about the crash boxes if you have the detection on which is been explained in FSX and is recommended to have it turned off .
I have the random crash when changing views and sometimes aircraft ,i have 64 bit and will try the above fix ..

Last edited by creator2003 on Sat May 21, 2011 1:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[frostynz]

All the info you need is in the last post ....

http://www.simforums.com/forums/wife-says-...tomation#227470

don't forget to registar the file in the registry

Regards Dave

[Timmo]

Hi guys, It would be interesting to try and get to the bottom of this although this is the first reports I've heard of this with VLC (if anyone else is experiencing similar issues, feel free to post here)

Some questions to narrow it down:

Computer specs? (+ is case free from dust and other things which may cause overheating)
Do the problems only arise over certain parts of NZ? If so, where?
Do the problems only arise with VLC activated? If so, what if all other NZ sceneries are switched off in the scenery library? (if doing this fixes it, then it may be a specific scenery)
Have you ever had similar issues with other graphics intensive programs?
Have you recently changed hardware or updated drivers?

At least from my/VLC's perspective, we would need to know if the issue still happens with VLC activated first of all and then we can narrow it down from there- VLC is more hard drive intensive than default scenery but it shouldn't cause a crash

[AlisterC]

Hi Dave, I'm still back in the semi dark ages on Win XP. Thanks anyway (saved it as a favourite for the future maybe)
I'm not all that keen Timmo for messing with FSX & VLC for some fault finding, so I'll leave all that to the other guys for now.
I'm fairly sure otherwise my issues are related to performance of my PC under load. I don't get crashes elsewhere in the world, but then, maybe I don't take so many screenshots in other parts of the world either My PC only runs FS9 and FSX. The side of my PC is permanently open, on my desk, and free of dust. I have a program to check, and overheating is not an issue -at least not my CPU or gfx card.

Core 2 duo 6400 (2.13ghz)
Gforce 9800GTX+ 512mb
4gb ram ddr2 - (win XP home 32 bit - uses about 3.2gb of it)
550w power supply
FSX installed on C: drive with windows etc..

[Ian Warren]

Many have had silly little crash,s and problems , Greg 'Scaber' put an idea to me - while could be this that , whats possible causing the crash,s , Microsofts updates ? , could be another avenue to check out

[garymoore]

Hi Folks, Thanks for all the responding, gives me hope that there may be a happy ending. To the business: Similar spec machine to Alister - but answer Timmo's points - my current spec is:- i7 x980 3.33 ghz, 8 GB RAM, 2 x CSSD's one for o/s and one for FSX (drives C: and D:) plus a third (drive E:) a 1TB HDD for scenery etc. etc., NVIDIA GTX 480, Windows 7 64 bit with Saitek controllers. Yes regular cleaning and dusting up to date together with routine Disk Cleanup for each drive. The problem so far appears to be arising where ever I am flying in NZ (ONLY) I have had oom issues in the past with older/lower spec machines only. Most of my flying is VFR in South Island - as we [the ukvga.org gliding group] is normally based at Omarama when we are there. However I love to fly VFR throughout NZ whenever possible. I have never had anything similar happen [on this machine] with any other graphics intensive programs. And no recent driver changes or updates, apart from VLC plus some extra airfields and scenery such as Wellington dtm. I will do as you suggest Timmo regarding switching other scenery files on and off and post the results. Hope this helps, Regards, gary moore.
PS I do play guitar, but not as good as the dead one use to.

[Timmo]

hmm the only unusual thing there is the scenery on a different physical drive to your FSX installation.....It could be the culprit but get back to me about your tests to determine what/where it causing it

[Rotordude]

"Occam's razor"
I'll just stick my nose in here and highly suggest that you go looking for couple of New Zealand bgl files competing for the same space and time, thats the usual cause for a consistent freeze ups and brick walls over certain areas.

[garymoore]

Thanks for your reply Timmo, I have been digging deep into files, BGL's & CFG etc. and also checking out performance after switching scenery files. I did discover that there was a mesh file (nz-fsx-mesh) hiding inside the Addon scenery>scenery and after removing this I thought that I had it cracked as I was able to run FSX, very smoothly for over two hours (Hamilton to Wellington in a Chipmunk) but sadly about 30 nm to run it came to a halt and crashed. During my checks on files I noticed that I had ORBX Holgermesh running for Australia and OZx-World for Grand Canyon and I am guessing now, after so many failed flights that these are most likely to be the cause ? The only really consistant issue I have pinned down is that frame rates drop and FSX crashes when I am getting close to Wellington. Although I have thought that I should uninstall VLC and re-install it my guess is that I may not get a clean uninstall - Any suggestions would be gratefully recieved

[garymoore]

After several more checks I now find that the only problems for me are at the Major airports - when frames rates drop - and FSX finally crashes. Oh what pity !!!
Could you please let me know what the DTM file is for ? Cheers.

[dbcunnz]

QUOTE (garymoore @ Jun 4 2011,8:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

After several more checks I now find that the only problems for me are at the Major airports - when frames rates drop - and FSX finally crashes. Oh what pity !!!
Could you please let me know what the DTM file is for ? Cheers.

The DMT file is the 20M mesh that goes with VLC.

[Timmo]

QUOTE (garymoore @ Jun 4 2011,9:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

After several more checks I now find that the only problems for me are at the Major airports - when frames rates drop - and FSX finally crashes. Oh what pity !!!
Could you please let me know what the DTM file is for ? Cheers.

I think it sounds like you may have a hardware cooling issue- was your computer an off the shelf purchase or was it built from scratch? Do you have any sort of cpu/gpu temperature monitoring software installed?
If my hunch is correct, you'll see your temperature climb before the crash- FSX pushes almost every part of your hardware hard and if a machine isn't cooled well you'll get crashes

[creator2003]

Sorry forgot to mention in this post that my sim is now running sweet as after i did the fix for my 64bit that the others said i should do ,so no prob for me now cheers guys for the help

[garymoore]

Hi Timmo,

I think that you are going up the wrong path - Because I do not have any issues with any other scenery or software on my machine. In fact the scenery from "antsairports" (Aus) is running very smoothly indeed, even at major airports and extremely high frame rates. Unlike VLC which causes my frame rates to drop dramatically when approaching major airports and finally for FSX to crash completely. My only worry now is; will I be able to uninstall VLC completely and move on. Best Regards

[Ian Warren]

Gary , old and one other approach and fix similar issue before , delete or save your earlier flights in a new folder , refly the route your having a problem with .