DDHELP has caused error in GDI.EXE

[Guest]

##### is this error, and why isn't there a fix for this already? Sorry to seem ######, but i am. And anyone else that has gotten this error, can feel my pain!.I am tired of seeing this error, tho it's not that frequent, it is a pain in the A$$! Resulting in freezing the game while on a final approach, freezing the system and ultimately hitting the reset button. GRRRR!.Total BS.The microsoft explanation is bogus, because i am using the current drivers (30.82)for my vidcard, with directx 8.1a-,b,c,d,e,f,g,e,f, and z!!The only link i get from microsofts site, http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...b;en-us;Q275911only speaks about MSN Explorer and Macromedia Flash. I dont use MSN nor should this be required to fly this sim, and i am current on the Macromedia thing. So what gives?....Thanx in advance.............=Wing=System specs:----------------Intel 815 chipset ( i know it's not the fastest)Intel P3 866MHZ512 MB RamNvidia Gforce2 MX400 64MBWindowsME133mhs FSB....Yikes!

[John_Cillis 2,406]

I've seen this error entering multiplayer at times. Sadly, it's very generic and MS is no help at all. I see you're using the 30.82 drivers. To be quite honest, considering your card is a GeF 2 MX, I'd go back to the older 21.83 drivers. Those drivers are very stable on my system (P3/800, GeF 2/Ti). Many of the more recent driver upgrades were centered around exploiting features of the newer GeForce cards. I've seen marginal improvement in most versions, and tradeoffs.If your lockups are happening on final, do they happen without touching the mouse or keyboard? Or do they seem to pop up when you switch views? And what about aircraft? Any difference between default aircraft vs. add-ons? Is your joystick a USB joystick or a serial joystick? What's entered into the load and run sections of win.ini, and in the run, runonce, and runservices entries in your registry?Also, FS uses a lot of RAM, and sometimes will balk at RAM which is having a problem. I've had RAM pass all the utilities you can throw at it for testing, and it would still fail where DirectX is involved. Of all your applications--trust me--FS2002 uses the most RAM. As a last resort, try swapping your RAM chips or pulling one to take your system down to 256 megs of RAM.These are just questions to throw out there and suggestions.... Kind of a shotgun approach, because that's about all one can try with this type of error. I find the RAM most suspect. Given your MB type and the bus speed, I've seen many RAM issues in my line of work--desktop and network support.-JohnQuick edit... Also, make sure your system is running cool. FS does not like systems when they're running hot. I find the best way to prove/disprove heating as an issue is by using a table fan to supplement cooling

[Guest jase439]

This a DirectX condition that is raised when you run out of GDI system resources (fonts, pens, brushes, bitmaps, etc...)...which, unfortunately, has little or no bearing on how much RAM you have installed in your system. The PSS product line and the DF 737 were notorious for causing this on Windows 9x (although I think most of these issues have since been addressed in patches) as they are very "resource intensive" add-ons for FS.There's a utility in Windows ME under System Tools which lets you monitor your system resources. If you drop below 40-50%, you're headed for trouble.This is an unfortunate limitation of Windows Me and 9x - something that dates all the way back to Windows 3.1. There's nothing to be done for it, except use utilities like End-it-All to free up as many resources as possible before starting FS.If you're running an FS Add-On which leaks resources, it's only a matter of time before you'll get the DDHELP crash.My recommendation: toss Windows Me to the 4 winds and upgrade your box to Windows 2000 or Windows XP.J

[John_Cillis 2,406]

It's funny...I've heard of this error often, and have seen it once or twice, but I've never heard this explanation. Makes sense, but I've certainly seen it crop up with system resources between 70-80 pct (mine are 96 pct. at startup...I don't allow anything other than the system tray on my taskbar when I'm running FS)... Other than a fairly consistent error in multiplayer--which seems to only happen when the host is running a firewall, I've had it perhaps 3-4 times since the beginning of the year, always when switching views. Might be some odd gauge file or dll that's blowing up the GDI resources. Many forget that .gau files are dll's.... But I've never had FS lockup on final, in flight, or under any circumstance other than the very rare view switch. Last weekend served as a good example. I was flying Geof's Debonair. First from Phoenix to Rocky Point. Then Rocky Point to San Diego. Then San Diego to Santa Barbara... Then Santa Barbara to Palm Springs.It was a lot of flying, no problems at all.And an interesting thing to note--I've never had an error switching views on a GMAX aircraft..... But you raise another issue I failed to mention in my response--fonts and an icon ladened desktop can impact stability, for the reason you mention. -John

[Guest cornclose]

Whenever I have seen this error, it is nearly always sound card related, rather than video card related.Most prone to it was the Hercules Gamesurround Fortissimo II sound card. Don't have one of these, do you ? Sound card seems to be the one item people overlook, and never mention in their system specs.If you do have the above card, you need to update to the latest drivers for it. If you don't have this card, try pegging back the hardware acceleration for sound to 'Standard' via dxdiag.Chris Ehttp://www.circle-software.co.ukhttp://website.lineone.net/~flightsimukAvoid AGP texturing = Better Performance ;)

[John_Cillis 2,406]

In my case, I have a SBLive, and it runs flawlessly with the Coppermine driver set. As I indicated in my post, it's a very rare error for me--perhaps I've seen it once per every 200-300 hours of flying, always on switching views. But I've never seen it since my purchase of Flight1's 421 and Dreamfleet's Cardinal. Both, along with Geof's Debonair, use up about 90 pct of my simming time. Really makes me think that FS2002 is optimized for GMAX aircraft.... Scanning the usenet, one finds many different sources of the error. And often what crops up is memory as a culprit. In my case, I know I have a borderline chip, which I have in my last bank. I've always considered that the most suspect. Frequent DDHELP crashes like those of the thread's author point to a more serious issue. Since FS2002 is often the sole culprit in these threads, its biggest bit of uniqueness is its memory footprint, and perhaps its impact on the unrelated but equally important system resources.I know I have nothing to complain about. It's been about two months since I last hit the issue, which coincides to the same time I started getting heavily invested in the payware GMAX aircraft. So I'm not seeking any advice--only offering it :)

[Guest jase439]

When you get this error do you get a White Box of Death, or do you get one of the usual looking application error message boxes (i.e. "This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shutdown...blah blah")J

[Guest]

John, I looked it up in the microsoft troubleshooter, as I had this problem recently too. Jase's description matches what they said. Apparently ddhelp stands for direct draw helper driver, and indeed the recommendation from msoft is to upgrade video drivers or free up some system resources.for me it turned out to be one of those things that happen when you bring up a new harddrive and start loading stuff, sometimes I don't get it all in place before I try fs2k2...I think I put on the latest via 4in1 or perhaps my vid drivers and then it went away.Bob B

[John_Cillis 2,406]

I agree... In my case, most likely the rarity and randomness of the problem was system resource related, perhaps in combination with a rougue gauge file.

[Guest jase439]

Better yet, just purge the abomination that is Windows ME and spare yourself this resource nonsense forever ;-)