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rsrandazzo

DLL.XML Problems in FSX (What, Where and How to Fix)

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Captains-Soon after release of the PMDG 747-400X, we began to get reports from a minority of customers who complained that FSX would crash when they selected the PMDG 747-400X from the aircraft menu.By Monday night, we had nailed this problem down to these customers having a corrupted DLL.XML file in their FSX setup.For those who don't know- the DLL.XML file is a component into which add-on developers like PMDG must make entries in order for our software to run in FSX. Some customers were reporting back to us that when attempting to launch the 400X after installation, FSX would crash, and we quickly identified this as a problem with the registration of some PMDG files in the DLL.XML file.The problem with this is that if a developer makes a mistake while editing this file, it can have unintended consequences for the customer, and for other developers who come along later to add information to the file.In aviation speak, we call this a "Single Point of Failure," or SPF.SPF is a very bad thing- and this DLL.XML file is, in fact, the Achilles heel of FSX.In the case of these customers, we found that their DLL.XML files were corrupted, and as such the PMDG 747-400X installer was editing them incorrectly.We have conducted a significant amount of research this week using a number of add-on products from non PMDG publishers in order to determine WHAT PRODUCT was corrupting the DLL.XML file, and we were able to localize it pretty quickly to a specific add-on product.In this case, we have determined that the WILCO/FEELTHERE PIC 737 is editing the DLL.XML file in a manner that does not meet industry standards, and the file thus becomes corrupted in a manner that can go undetected until another add-on comes along that attempts to conduct a standard XML edit on the file.I have detailed our findings, and a RECOMMENDED PROCEDURE TO FIX THE PROBLEM in an article that you can find on PMDG OPS at the following location:http://ops.precisionmanuals.com/wiki/How_t...SX_DLL.XML_FileThe bottom line is: If you install the PMDG 747-400X and cannot get FSX to run, your first stop should be to read this article. Follow the instructions provided and you should be up and running within minutes.We have attempted to contact WILCO and FEELTHERE directly, but I am unable to confirm that they have read our email, or that they will fix the problem. Thank you for all of you who were patient with us while we researched this- and thank you to all of you who provided copies of your DLL.XML files so that we could cataloge our findings and determine a solution.You


Robert S. Randazzo coolcap.gif

PLEASE NOTE THAT PMDG HAS DEPARTED AVSIM

You can find us at:  http://forum.pmdg.com

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Thank you for your posted explanation concerning the DLL.XML. I was able to fix the DLL.XML by simply rearranging the entries in it using Flight1 XML editor so that everything including PMDG 747 AND PIC 737 would load fine. I do not have any apparent problems with loading anything at this time.I have some questions.In your posted explanation you say to run the DLL.XML using explorer and if you get errors the file is constructed incorrectly. However, when I was having trouble with the various add ons loading, I never did receive an error when opening the DLL.XML file with explorer. It would always open fine. So is this a good way to gauge the problem? Obviously if the file can't be opened without error then that is a big problem but just because it can open without error also does not mean that there will be no loading problems with the add ons.Also what exactly is the PIC 737 doing to the DLL.XML file? Can't something be corrected within the DLL.XML file to fix it after it is installed?Can you expand on these issues within your posted explanation. I would really appreciated it.Thanks!Mike

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Mike,Best we can tell, the 737 PIC installer is removing the carriage returns between all the lines, which essentially makes the file all one huge string of text.


Ryan Maziarz
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For fastest support, please submit a ticket at http://support.precisionmanuals.com

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If by carriage returns are you talking about the < and > symbols, I never did see those missing in the file when I was having all of the problems and I did have the PIC 737 installed. You can see my other thread where I posted the offending file and the < and > symbols are there. If this is the case, are you guys sure this is what's causing the problem?I am not trying to be difficult. I just don't want someone else to go through what I did.Mike

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Mike,A carriage return is an invisible "new line" character basically. It's what happens when you press enter in most word processing apps.The term comes from old typewriters where the carriage (the part that moves and holds the hammers that strike the paper) would return to the far left of the machine and roll the paper down one line.


Ryan Maziarz
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For fastest support, please submit a ticket at http://support.precisionmanuals.com

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After reinstalling the new updated version of the 744X, I couldn


System: i7-10700K, 32GB RAM, RTX2070S 8GB, 1TB SSD, 2 TB HDD, Win10 64bit Home

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Finn-You make my point perfectly!DLL.XML is going to be an Achilles Heel forever and ever, amen...When order matters in something like this- it strikes me as bad programming....


Robert S. Randazzo coolcap.gif

PLEASE NOTE THAT PMDG HAS DEPARTED AVSIM

You can find us at:  http://forum.pmdg.com

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YepThe developers now have to fight each other for the best "seat in the cinema" say place in the DLL.XML.Aces (Microsoft" say that they really have taken care of 3rd party developers in their developement of FSX. I couln


System: i7-10700K, 32GB RAM, RTX2070S 8GB, 1TB SSD, 2 TB HDD, Win10 64bit Home

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Guest jveeningen

I also have the Wilco 737 installed in FSX.However after installing the 747X, I do not get any dll.xml error.It works perfect. What is your advise in this case?To be sure, I checked my dll.xml file, and the layout seems to be correct.

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Hi All,I would like to add that this is not only limited to the PIC 737. It also happened to me after installing the WILCO/FEELTHERE Citation X.At least I found my DLL.XML file corrupted after installing this product.RegardsRainer


Rainero

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I


System: i7-10700K, 32GB RAM, RTX2070S 8GB, 1TB SSD, 2 TB HDD, Win10 64bit Home

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From my experience, what I have seen is that if you install the PMDG 747 and then the Wilco 737, the resulting dll.xml file will open with the html editor and will look just fine. However, open it with Notepad and you will probably see the all the carriage returns are missing and the file is just one long string, if you are going to have this problem, that is. The PMDG and the Wilco 737 will run however and all seems good. The real problem shows up when you install something after the Wilco, in my case it was the LDS 767. Then you will see the dll.xml messsed up, unopenable with the html editor, and with LDS entries at the top and outside of the simobjects lines. Now both the PMDG and the LDS crash with the fatal error. So the Wilco 737 takes out the carriage returns and subsequent addons can't handle the modified dll.xml file and so have a problem. When I first had this problem back when I installed the PMDG for the first time, I already had the Wilco 737 installed and the PMDG also failed and it too had the dll entries outside of the simobjects lines. After starting to understand this problem, I unistalled the PMDG and the Wilco 737 and reinstalled the PMDG first then the Wilco 737 and all was fine. I then installed the LDS and the fatal crash returned; both PMDG and the LDS would not run. The dll.xml was also messed up. Simply editng the dll.xml as posted here in this thread and elsewhere got everything working perfectly again.It is interesting to note that when I installed the Wilco 737 and started it for the first time after installing the PMDG first, the Wilco 737 gauges would not work and nothing was clickable on the panel. The panel was also dark. This was fixed by editing the xml file to proper format. You might notice on the Wilco site in their FAQ on the support page, they have an entry regarding this problem. They say that this problem with the gauges comes from SP1/Simconnect and you need to run the SDK off of one the FSX disks. I think now that it comes from the script they use to write to the dll.xml file that running this SDK somehow fixes. I am not an expert by any means and could be very wrong about this. On the other hand, I should also say that I did not, however, have to run the SDK as per their FAQ to get the Wilco 737 panel and gauges to work correctly; just had to edit the dll.xml file. Kinda makes me wonder now about that FAQ advice.On another computer, everything installed perfectly. So....not everyone or every computer is going to have this problem. You might have been one of the lucky people that did not have this problem, in which case, don't worry about it and ...happy flying.My two cents worth.Bill BarretteUnited-Virtual.com


i7 3770K HT, 8GB RAM, nVidia 980GTX, Win7, P3D 3.4, FSG mesh, UTX, GEX, ST, ASA16/ASCA, NickN optimized

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Guest Zacherius8

Allright, I read the Wiki on this problem. I have Wilco's Volume 1, Volume 2, and Legacy installed, so three times more 'chance' of a f'ed up dll.xml...;)The only problem I have is : I can't seem to locate the file at all. I'm running VISTA and I put in a search for both the fsx.cg and dll.xml, but it came out blank. Perhaps because it's hidden? Could somebody point me in the right direction?Thanks in advance,Zacherius.EDIT : Found it. I had to check the 'Including not indexed, hidden and system files' (don't know if I translated it correctly, I have a Dutch Vista). Well.....wish me luck, I'm going in!!! ;)

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Guest percy

I also had this problem, I downloaded early after release and was having crashes every time I tried to load a PMDG 747 plane. I have FSX in a separate drive I formatted the drive and then loaded FSX and PMDG 747 back in and all worked ok. Thanks for the info as I could not figure out what happened, I will not re-load wilco 737. percy

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Is there a fix for this yet without having to edit any files?Much as luuuuuuuuuve my 744, i'd also like my 737 back:)

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