Main Panel Missing MD-11

[lensman 0]

Hi all,On loading an MD-11 from the "Free Flight" page, or from saved flights, the main panel will be gone (this is 2D mode). There is a gray outline where the panel and compass would be. If I click on known click spots, the popups appear, but they are gray also. Going to the menu bar to restore the main panel has no effect. Attempting to select individual items will have them pop up, but they are gray. In 3D mode, none of the controls work, but the main panel and all subpanels are there. The sole exception is that the DUs & MCDUs are gray - not blank, as in a validation problem, but gray.A simple way to reproduce this (for me) is to load up an MD-11 (say a GE) then on the menu bar go to "select aircraft" and select any other MD -11(regardless of engine type or livery). When the new a/c loads, it's got the gray panels. The only way to fix this is to do a "repair install". I could live with that if I did not have to do it every other time I loaded an MD-11. Loading a different panel state has no effect, deleting FSX.CFG has no effect, I've tried the Flight1 path fix and the .dll fix as described on the PMDG web site, set FSX so that the default flight is a "warm" Cessna, deleted saved MD-11 flights (both FMS and .pln), tried flying the a/c with and without liveries installed (i.e. just PMDG house colors), and probably other things I've forgotten. I checked the PMDG web site, couldn't figure out the wiki, and searched the AVSIM forums for clues. So far, no luck. Any suggestions would be very welcome.Thanks in advance,dan davisonFSX + Acceleration, VisionTek 3870 Radeon 512 MB gently overclocked to 800/1287, Intel quad Q9450 also gently overclocked to 3.21GHz, 2 GB RAM, 1.5 TB disk, Saitek X52 throttle & stick, Win XP Pro SP3.

[Roadburner426 19]

It almost sounds like that you didn't click accept when you got all those messages the first time that you loaded the aircraft in FSX to allow the texture files to run? That is the only thing that even sounds similar that I have experienced to what you describe.. I would uninstall the aircraft, go into the FSX main folder and delete the MD-11 files, then re-install the aircraft and when you open FSX for the first time click accept on all the windows that pop up and see if that doesn't help? It doesn't look like this is your first aircraft though so I am sure you clicked accept on them all, but this is the only advice that I have to offer. Hopefully it will be of some help.

[lensman 0]

Hi,Thanks for the interesting idea. I'll check dll.xml and see if PMDG MD-11 textures are trusted. However, before I go re-installing, why does the main panel show up if it wasn't trusted in the first place? That's what makes this so weird - it's almost as if it was alternating trusted-not trusted. When I did delete the MD-11 and all liveries before, I did not get a question about trusting PMDG software. I assumed this was because I had already "trusted everything by this publisher" when I bought and installed the 747X.Good things to check - thanks!dan davison

[Mac_Paint 35]

Try this. Uninstall Acceleration then run a repair on the MD-11. See if the panels appear correctly when loading the 11. Reinstall Acceleration and run the 11. Panels ok?

[F.Schmid 0]

I have experienced this same behaviour with a small difference:I always load default FSX aircraft at the airport then I load MD-11. After a flight, I return to free flight page and then I load default FSX aircraft on another airport. When I change it to MD-11 I get the grey panel on 2D view (which is my default view).The only way to correct it is to restart FSX. No need to repair MD-11 install.Schmid

[F.Schmid 0]

BTWFSX-SP2WinXP SP3Schmid

[Mac_Paint 35]

Skip loading default aircraft.

[lensman 0]

Hi Steve, Schmid, Pete,I will try (1) Pete's second suggestion (don't load default a/c),then (2) Pete's first suggestion. I am extemely embarrassed to say that Schmid's suggestion didn't occur to me. I think there was a reason - perhaps re-loaded flights started with blank panels? Steve - the dll.xml file passed the "load into Internet Explorer" test and also a XML-file checker/converter I found somewhere long ago.I'll report again soon. Thanks all,dan davison