Long Flights

[HoratioWondersocks 4]

I know you probably have all done this BUT just in case...make sure you have the FS9 patch installed this deals specifically with seasonal scenery CTDs .Its not a cure for all CTDs (shame)but it defiantly works.cheers Andy

[EngineRoom 205]

Do a Google search for "filemon". It's a very nifty little utility that monitors the HDD activity on your computer and will give you a blow by blow account of every file that is being accessed and whether or not it was read successfully. If any of your FS scenery or texture files have become corrupted this will help you track them down. A couple of weeks ago I was getting CTDs when flying around Europe. I used Filemon to help me diagnose the problem - some of my UT Europe files had become corrupted. A fairly simply reinstall of UT Europe solved the problemThere is also a fairly well known issue with landclass files being incorrectly installed. If you have any BGL files that contain landclass information, and they have a corresponding texture folder installed with them, you will get a memory leak that will eventually result in a CTD. It's worth going through your addon sceneries and just checking to see if there are any landclass files intalled incorrectly. Even though this problem has been known about for a fairly long time, I still see some third party sceneries that install landclass files into a "scenery" folder that also has a corresponding "texture" folder too. I'm not sure if this is your problem, as it usually generates an out of memory error message before quitting FS, but it won't do any harm in checking.Another possibility you might want to consider is a hardware fault. I was getting random CTDs and blue screens a few years back, and it was driving me nuts. I formatted and reinstalled Windows several times before finding the cause of the problem - a faulty RAM module!Good luck with fixing your CTDs!

[psolk 3,037]

EngineRoom,The reason you might see LC files with associated texture folders is if the LC files actually call for those textures. The memory leak comes from having LC files in a scenery folder with an EMPTY texture folder. Just because a LC file has a texture folder associated with it does not necessarily mean it will cause a memory leak.As for Filemon it is the best thing to happen since sliced bread ;)-PaulPrimary RigLiquid CooledIntel C2D E6600 @3.2 gigsAsus P5N32SLI-Plus2 gigs Corsair XMS PC6400 4 4 4 12 @810Dual OC'd XFX 8800GTX @ 2 gigs24 inch Widescreen LCD 16XAA/16XAFDual 19 inch LCD'sRaid-0+1PCPower and Cooling 1k Quad SLIhttp://home.comcast.net/~psolk/3monitorsa.htmlBackup RigAMD 4000 San Diego @ 2.72 Gigs Kingston Corsair XMS CL2XFX 7900 GTX Raid-0

[Guest KemoF15]

Engineroom--thanks for the Filemon vector--my question is which files are suspect--the failures and/or not found? or both?One file failed consistently over time--it was an FMGC file for the Airbus 320, so I put that in a temp delete folder...I did not see any addon scenery, ultimate terrain or GE Pro, or freeware scenery issues...at least in the 1hour slot I monitored--I captured every 5 minutes (there's probably a more efficient way to monitor scenery files only but I haven't figured it out).I looked in all the scenery folders to see if there were any texture/or empty texture folders--did not find any--though--in UTUSA and in the base scenery folder there are some files with a .xxx extension vice .bgl...are those redundant files?Thanks againKemo

[EngineRoom 205]

I think the xxx files in UT are ones that have been renamed in order to deactivate them. I would leave them be, as FS will ignore them because of the xxx extension. If you want to reactivate any of the features in UT in the future you'll probably find the UT configuration utility will probably rename these with the bgl extension.As for Filemon, files that aren't found may not necessarily cause the sim to crash, but they probably will cause stutters as FS searches for these files. The files that cannot be read are the ones that are likely to cause you headaches. A good way to find the problem is to set Filemon to real time monitoring, start FS, and recreate the situation that you know will cause a crash. Then examine the Filemon log file afterwards and if the crash is caused by a missing or damaged file you will see it in the Filemon log.

[EngineRoom 205]

Thanks fo that, I never realised it was landclass files with empty texture folders. I always thought it was landclass files with any associated texture folder!Cheers

[Guest KemoF15]

I found this interesting piece on the UTUSA--UTEurope forum; seems UT will look for an EFFECTS file that doesn't exist--I noticed this issue last night with filemon as well--most of the time folks will have OOMs or CTDs on long flights over the US/Canada because the EFFECTS file call is used for river/lake/stream coastline enhancement.There's a UTUSA patch out 1.30 that renames these files and doesn't put FS9 into a constant file search loop wasting precious memory.Anyway read for yourself:http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=19466Kemo

[HoratioWondersocks 4]

HelloOne thing you might want to try is this...i had a the same problem as you with a CTD that occurred out of the blue and FS would shut down with no warning message or anything else.What appeared to solve it for me was emptying out my ADDON SCENERY folder,it meant losing some things that i had installed but they are easy to reinstall again and after that no more CTDs.Maybe one of the ADDONs had a bug or fault(apologies not tech wise)but it really helped me solve one of my worst bout of CTD blues chapters.I fly two three and four hour flights every day and touch wood i have not had a CTD since.cheers Andy

[Bob Scott 7,704]

>But the original poster said he got a straight CTD no error>message no nothing. That points to missing or corrupt>textures, not the Out of Memory error you are talking about>Bob.Not necessarily...an OOM can provoke a straight CTD.>Also, 200 megs memory usage above initial load is "normal". >Actually almost all of it goes in the first 30 minutes before>you even get off the ground and the last 30 minutes on>approach. But his climbed steadily through the course of the flight, to over a gig committed by the time he had it on the ground. That's nearly 400MB of steady growth, and definitely not normal. With same model, and most of the same add-ons, I see things hovering at around the 800MB mark, not climbing to over a gig.RegardsBob ScottATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VSantiago de Chile

[Guest KemoF15]

Andy--were you able to isolate which addon or addon files were the culprit? Kemo

[HoratioWondersocks 4]

>Andy--were you able to isolate which addon or addon files>were the culprit? >KemoUnfortunately no.I just cleared out all stuff in the addon scenery folder and weather it was just coincidence or not i don't no,but at that time i was having the same sort of problem as you ie CTDs all the time, in fact sometimes it would crash before i even started the flight.I also checked out the fs9 help page and i implemented one of there suggested fixes.I cant remember which one it was but if you want to try it i could look it up again and i am sure i will remember it and could pass it on to you.Hope you get it sorted out theres nothing worse than random CTDs for completely spoiling your FS experience as you are always waiting for them to happen and cant really enjoy your flight.cheers ANDY

[Trans_27 Pilot Chase 59]

Well I suffered a CTD last night. Was flying into SFO with the LDS and about 15 minutes from the runway, POOF. I said a few bad words and walked out.. Ruined my day. Thats for #### sure.

[Guest KemoF15]

Thought I had "most" of the problem nicked, a flight from KCLT to KPHX, nearly 4hrs, was unenventful and memory/filemon were consistent...I turned in KPHX without exiting FS9 and flew back to KCLT--about 3hrs 45 minutes on letdown into KCLT--POOF--CTD--Now this would have been almost 8hrs of running FS9 over USA with UTerrain and FSgenesis 38m, GE PRO environment, Active Sky, Squawkbox and FSACARS in the new Wilco Airbus--so might be reasonable to expect a CTD of some sort given that length--as a previous post mentions--many of the long haulers are over the water which I'm guessing, is far less memory intensive then rendering 38meter near photo-realistic terrain. It was painful nonetheless.I'm reluctant to chop my addon scenery to bits as a possible solution given the vast majority of my flying is less than 3hrs at a go--and once you fly into airports that are covered by pay or freeware upgrades, it's very hard to go back to the block houses of the Soviet gulag.Kemo

[Trans_27 Pilot Chase 59]

You could run a fresh install, but then again, it's a major downgrade. Me personally, if I had to give up my addons, Id give the entire sim up. Just not worth it.

[HoratioWondersocks 4]

HelloI am no tech man so forgive me my ignorance,but when i cleared out my ADDON SCENERY folder it was only the stuff i had downloaded and installed myself it didn't mean i lost MyFSGLOBAL SE or that it affected my ULTIMATE TRAFFIC or anything like that.It was just freeware sceneries and things i had downloaded.My simming did not go back to that GULAG look.:)Have you gone along the PSU line ie if you only have say a 250watt power supply and you run a decent Gcard,soundblaster and other things i believe some machines can struggle and that can also cause shutdowns(I have to say that i only have a 250watt unit and have no problems at all,but some insist you should go for 500watts and upwards)the only thing i do as a precaution is to run my machine with a sidepanel off)PS a lot of people suggest reinstalls of FS9 but in my experience this never worked for me when i had CTD problems.You might try deleting your FS9 config file and letting the sim rebuild a new one.Have you tried looking at CTD forum on this site?I hope you get it sorted.cheers AndyPS you could try setting up a new user account just for FS9 that is another MS suggestion.I have done this myself.