Please help -Desperate

[Guest psouthan]

Hello,I am absolutely sick and tired of never being able to fly FS9 due to CTDS. The hours I have spent, I mean hours, is unbelievable (sound familiar). I have tried everythign except a re-install and the thought kills me. However, Now, to add insult to injury, in my Add Remove progrms list, there is no FS9 listed to uninstall. I was going to just simply re-install everything on top of my existing FS9 but without be able to uninstall it first, i can't re-install it! That's one problem. Another is that i have heard and seen that a possible cause of CTDs is a driver called realtec97 (not sure what it does, something to do with sound I think) If anyone knows how to make sure that i do not have a trace of this on my PC (I am aware of device manager etc, nothing there)then please tell me.The main culprit at the moment seems to be NTD.DLL (I hate this b......) I so sick of it. I am starting o wonder if it only crashed when i use an add on aircraft like PMDG . I will try a standard bog fs9 plane and see what happens. If it is ok any ideas where I might start looking? It's not just the PMDG it happens with , it also happns with level-d so it is not unique to just one add -on.Please guys I amd esperate for help here. Any ideas will be thankfully recieved.Paul

[vonmar 122]

Load the MSFS9 CD and see if there is a menu item to Uninstall.

[Max Kraus 338]

Paul.Nightmare!Firstly I can tell you honestly that a reinstall is the best thing you can ever do. You get the performance boost like buying a new PC. It also makes you realise how much useless stuff you are running that you DON'T need :-) Sometimes your PC just gets so clogged up that a reinstall of Windows actually gives you less pain than trying to fix the original problem.Anyway it sounds like you just have an old mixed up, worn out install with lots of files maybe mixed up, you could try as a last resort CrapCleaner, a decent registry cleaner, a good defrag program... Also try the Flight1 Registry Repair Tool which will realign your registry with FS9 and might make it show again in Add/Remove...My first reinstall was a scary thing, but with experience you can have all your backed up stuff kept ready to put back with little fuss. If you take it slow and only put back planes and scenery as and when you need them, you can get a pretty solid bahaving FS running again. As soon as you rush back all your addons, things get out of hand again.FS9 is such a nasty animal sometimes. I have even seen problems arise overnight while with the computer off I am sleeping and not doing anything!! How can this be? :-)

[HoratioWondersocks 4]

>Paul.>>Nightmare!>>Firstly I can tell you honestly that a reinstall is the best>thing you can ever do. You get the performance boost like>buying a new PC. It also makes you realise how much useless>stuff you are running that you DON'T need :-) Sometimes your>PC just gets so clogged up that a reinstall of Windows>actually gives you less pain than trying to fix the original>problem.>>Anyway it sounds like you just have an old mixed up, worn out>install with lots of files maybe mixed up, you could try as a>last resort CrapCleaner, a decent registry cleaner, a good>defrag program... Also try the Flight1 Registry Repair Tool>which will realign your registry with FS9 and might make it>show again in Add/Remove...>>My first reinstall was a scary thing, but with experience you>can have all your backed up stuff kept ready to put back with>little fuss. If you take it slow and only put back planes and>scenery as and when you need them, you can get a pretty solid>bahaving FS running again. As soon as you rush back all your>addons, things get out of hand again.>>FS9 is such a nasty animal sometimes. I have even seen>problems arise overnight while with the computer off I am>sleeping and not doing anything!! How can this be? :-) >>I have to disagree in my experience of bouts CTDs (and i have had some buggers)re-installing made no difference and that included the option of removing folders etc as well.This is what makes the CTD such a nightmare.In my last bout, clearing out my add on scenery folder which had got full of all sorts of stuff SEEMED?(may have been coincidence)to have solved it for me.anyway (touch wood) i have enjoyed a long period now a CTD free.Try visiting MSs own FS problem solving page as they also have various things you can try.Hope you get it sorted Nowt worse than the CTD

[HoratioWondersocks 4]

>>Paul.>>>>Nightmare!>>>>Firstly I can tell you honestly that a reinstall is the best>>thing you can ever do. You get the performance boost like>>buying a new PC. It also makes you realise how much useless>>stuff you are running that you DON'T need :-) Sometimes your>>PC just gets so clogged up that a reinstall of Windows>>actually gives you less pain than trying to fix the original>>problem.>>>>Anyway it sounds like you just have an old mixed up, worn>out>>install with lots of files maybe mixed up, you could try as>a>>last resort CrapCleaner, a decent registry cleaner, a good>>defrag program... Also try the Flight1 Registry Repair Tool>>which will realign your registry with FS9 and might make it>>show again in Add/Remove...>>>>My first reinstall was a scary thing, but with experience>you>>can have all your backed up stuff kept ready to put back>with>>little fuss. If you take it slow and only put back planes>and>>scenery as and when you need them, you can get a pretty>solid>>bahaving FS running again. As soon as you rush back all your>>addons, things get out of hand again.>>>>FS9 is such a nasty animal sometimes. I have even seen>>problems arise overnight while with the computer off I am>>sleeping and not doing anything!! How can this be? :-) >>>>>I have to disagree in my experience of bouts CTDs (and i have>had some buggers)re-installing made no difference and that>included the option of removing folders etc as well.This is>what makes the CTD such a nightmare.In my last bout, clearing>out my add on scenery folder which had got full of all sorts>of stuff SEEMED?(may have been coincidence)to have solved it>for me.anyway (touch wood) i have enjoyed a long period now a>CTD free.Try visiting MSs own FS problem solving page as they>also have various things you can try.>Hope you get it sorted >Nowt worse than the CTDAPOLOGIES I was talking about reinstalling FS9 not Windows itself.cheers Andy

[Guest PowderBlue]

I have about every add on you could imagine for FS9 , I keep a folder with all the downloads in it on a seperate ext harddrive. I can wipe fs9 and defrag and have it reinstalled in less then an hour and a half. And thats with all the fancy mumbo jumbo. The first flag is no uninstaller in the add or remove program. Second try erasing your fs9.cfg and restarting the sim and adjust your levels accordingly. If worst is worst reinstall it.

[HoratioWondersocks 4]

I backed up my whole FS9(CTD Free at the moment)to an external DR(took over six hours)but at least its there just in case(Obviously it will take the same time to restore and will be a little dated but if CTD free then i dont care about that.cheers ANDY

[Guest psouthan]

:-hang Hi Max, I didn't want to hear what you said but i think you ar right. Keep it clean, keep it simple. One positive thing i can take from all thise is that when i re-install everything, i will know what to re-install that works well and what not to reinstall.One question though, how can I be absolutely sure to wipr EVEYTHING old Dlls. registrery entries tec from my hard drive before I re-install FS?Paul

[Max Kraus 338]

I take a view that if I'm going to reinstall FS, I may as well do XP at the same time. XP takes 40 minutes, FS takes a day maximum if you have everything ready backed up to hand. And I run pretty much all the big addon packages, aircrafts etc.As I said, you'll discover there's tonmnes of things you won't need so the act of trying to "get back to where you were" is not as laborious as first thought.All I'm saying is that most of the time, when things get that bad, it's likely to be more than FS. It's likely to be a more serious Windows issue, registry issue, lost libraries, etc.Reinstalling the whole lot also gives you the chance to try another partitioning setup, make core changes to the drive(s), maybe put FS on it's own little partition and next time you can just wipe the FS partition and not harm XP.

[jagabom 21]

Every so often I have to reinstall XP as well as FS. I tried once to just uninstall FS and everything but even after a new install of FS, I still had problems. When I reinstalled XP all was OK. Mind you I have a dual boot system with only FS on C drive. Everything including another copy of XP is on D drive. I think FS gets too clogged up and eventually a reinstall of XP is required.98 posts till 1000.JimCYWG

[scott967 62]

I installed win XP in Nov 04 and FS9 on it at the same time and have never reinstalled either. Not to say that Win Xp would probably run a little snappier with a reinstall; it's just too much work until I move to new hardware. I used FS Manager to back up all the default textures prior to applying new ones, and I probably don't change textures as much as some folks do. That's the main reason I can think of for a reinstall, though you should be able to just uncab any scenery you need off the install disks. The Realtec AC97 onboard sound was probably used on 90% of motherboards until the last year or so. I've never had CTD problems, but I've never updated the driver since I did my original system build -- the sound works and that's about all I need from it. If the realtec was a big problem I think there would be more screams about CTDs.scott s..

[Guest]

Hi:I have been fortunate in having only one CTD ever with FS. It was caused by a duplicate BGL. I had installed some scenery and then it started. Using a utility I found here at Avsim that checks all your scenery files found the culprit and deleted it. I cannot remember the name of the utility but I am sure someone here can. And any duplicate file finder program can check for dll'sHope your problem is a simple as mine was.Good LuckRick