Hi,I have just completely formatted my PC and switched from FS2002 to FS9, and now I am wishing I hadn't.The reason is that FS9 just will not run at all. It runs ok for anywhere between 10 seconds and a few minutes before either- FS Freezes, and then I get the "FS has encountered a problem and needs to close" message, which gives varying .dll files as the cause of the problem- Screen goes black with just cursor visable, and same messages as above- FS just dissapears and I am back to the desktop- the PC just rebootes itself all together !Now I think this is all due to my graphics card. My system is as followsAMD Athlon XP 2800+ / ASUS A7N8X2 / Radeon 9700 Pro / 1024 DDR Ram.I have tried the latest 4.11 Catalyst drivers for the card, and also driver versions 3.7 and 3.9.I have trawled the forums etc and could find lots of discussions about the Radeon 9700/9800 cards, but none with problems quite the same as mine.Has anyone got any ideas?Many ThanksBen Hunwicks

Welcome to the forums, Ben."...which gives varying .dll files as the cause of the problem"More info here would be useful. What .dll's are being blamed?Also, a bit more info about your system. What memory are you using? What motherboard BIOS and how do you have it configured? Are you overclocking? What are your system temps (Motherboard Monitor works quite well for checking temps)? Are you having any problems with other games?Thanks,Greg

Hi Greg, thanks for the welcome.The .dll I remember seeing most often is g2d, although g3d and d700 also ring bells? I plan on doing some tests and writing down exactly what i was doing at each moment, the problem.As for my system, I am no PC expert and am not sure about my BIOS settings. I certainly havent changed anything from the initial setup, and I am not overclocking. As for system temps, using ASUS Probe, CPU 42C/107F. MB 28C/82F.

Once I reduced the Aperture to 4X from 8X I no longer had "many" crashes (still some when I over-click).I used SmartGart to set this which required a reboot.AND, I fixed my fps to a low value, 14, which I think was determinant in my case. Was letting it free and although I would get 30+ it would go down fast to 6 then crash sometimeshave P4-2.4G with 1G ram and ATI 9800 pro

I've had the same problem/error messages in the past and found that my video card drivers were not properly installed. I have an ATI card too and found that uninstalling the drivers with ATI's program does not always work. I found an excellent guide at TweakTown (http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=guide&dId=569) which worked for me and solved my problem.Next, when you have completed uninstalling/reinstalling your drivers, start up FS2K4 and go into Display settings and make sure your video card has been properly identified. Change the resolution to 800x600 and back to the resolution you want. Then close FS2K4 and restart. Your error messages should disappear.My research within AVSIM forums has found this error message is most likely connected to your video drivers. However, some have indicated memory modules should be checked or make sure the system isn't overheating.Hope this helps!Jim Young

Hi,Thanks for the suggestions everyone, I am however still getting the problem. I have tried doing the same flight repeatedly to see if it happens at the same point, or with the same error, and its a no it doesnt to both. No particular action seems to lead to it, and the error messages still seem to be varied. I have had fs9.exe, d3d9.dll, fsui.dll, panel.dll, d700.dll, d3g.dll, and crash to desktops without errors, and still the myterious PC restarts.I tried the suggestion of completely reinstalling my drivers, but that didn't help, and so I did turn to thinking of a possible memory problem, and re-reading Jim's post above commenting on a memory module problem has made me think that this line of enquiry might be the one to head down. However, my tech skills are very limited, so does anyone know what the problem might be if it is memory related, is ther anyway to find out, and how do i cure it ?Many thanks for any helpBen Hunwicks

Hello Ben,Oh boy... *sigh* What can I say about your problem as I had it also and it has plauged many a Flight Simulator 2004 user. My postings have explained this somewhat (under username Byrna-use advance search for finding my previous postings, and select 'author').I have a system with a very similar motherboard to yours - the ASUS A7N8XE-DELUXE with the NVidia NForce 2 Ultra 400 chipset. I use one single KINGSTON 1GB DDR SDRAM of 333MHz. only (not 400) (it is a Kingston ValueRAM). Asus sent me an email that there is NO KNOWN ISSUE with Kingston memory and Asus motherboards but that several memory manufacturers have specifically TESTED their memory with this Nvidia chipset on this series of boards (i.e. A7N8X ...). Kingston confirmed via email to me that they DO NOT specifically test nor certify their memory to work with any specific motherboard so this is most likely my answer right there. What brand is your memory? Is it an OEM and if so, what is the name of the CHIp maker which you can find if you look at the black chips on your ram module. Do you have 2x512MB or a single 1024MB module?Since I installed the single module mentione above, I have not had any crashes in Flight Simulator 2004 nor any other game...UNTIL YESTERDAY - I was playing Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest and got a blank blue screen and had to manually reset the PC. This is the first such crash I've had since September...although I did have 2-3 crashes of FS 2004 "encountered and error" ... Not only that, I am using SUB-STANDARD memory as Kingston said 400MHz, even if it is a single module, will not work and cannot be guaranteed to be stable with my motherboard. I also saw another posting that Kingston memory with the HYNIX chip is unstable and we need KINGSTON chips...I will call Kingston next week and ask them for a definite solution or even a REFUND for my memory as they obviously cannot fix my problem. I will also check with CORSAIR to see what kind of warranty they have on their TwinX or similar memory before calling Kingston to make sure I can rely on Corsair's warranty in case of problems of compatibility. By the way, ASUS gave me the names of a few memory makers which DO CERTIFY their memory to work with the A7N8X series of motherboards and the one I remember (sorry can't remember the others as I had not heard of them) - is CORSAIR. In fact, Corsair's site specifically STATES they test their memory with these motherboards.Let us know the brand name of your memory...perhaps we can help. The problem is, if it is OEM, and the memory works without problems in everything else, then chances are your system mfg. will NOT warranty it.MY SYSTEM SPECS:ASUS A7N8XE-DELUXEAMD ATHLON XP 3200+SINGLE MODULE OF 1024MB KINGSTON VALUERAM DDR SDRAM 333MHz (PC2700)ATI RADEON 9800 PRO 128MB BUILT BY ATI retailWINDOWS XP PRO SP2DIRECT X 9.0CCREATIVE LABS AUDIGY 2 ZSANTEC 430-WATT power supply and case with 5 case cooling fans