FS9 program crashing

[Guest scoeva]

I have recently been experiencing FS9 crashing on me. I will start a flight and everything seems good then all of a sudden the program shuts down with no error messages and my desktop page comes up as if I hadn't even started a flight. This happens randomly. Sometimes before I even takeoff, and other times I will be halfway to my destination. Any ideas I should look into? Thanks in advance.

[Guest KemoF15]

Many variables. Could be hardware (memory or out of date drivers) or software related, could be an FS9.cfg issue, could be a registry issue, might be addon software issue, or could be something related to your system setup. It would be helpful if you provided system hardware info to include operating system (XP, Vista, etc).Some possible solutions:-- Make sure your drivers are up to date -- Defrag hardrive-- Consider memtest of RAM (even though you're not getting an out of memory error or blue screen)-- Make sure you have adequate RAM especially if you've added lots of scenery/payware aircraft; while you're running FS9 hit "ctrl-alt-del" and bring up your task manager--from here you can see your memory commit values/compare against available RAM-- If you're pushing memory--add -- End uneccessary processes running in the background (especially Antivirus/Spyware etc)--there's plenty of references and discussion in the forum on how to do that-- Attempt to isolate the CTD timeframe to a scenery or aircraft addon--if scenery, take a look and see if you have any empty scenery folders or texture folders within scenery that are empty and delete; if you downloaded aircraft (to include AI), try uninstalling/deleting it (process of elimination)-- Delete your FS9.cfg file, and restart FS9--it will build a fresh .cfg file when you restart (make sure you print out a copy or save your original on desktop to compare settings)-- Might be a FS9 registry issue--there's a small utility that you can download that repairs FS9 registry:http://www.flight1.com/view.asp?page=library-- Download FILEMON and run it in background--you'll be able to see read/write activity and isolate file errors or files not found within FS9-- May want to get a "registry healer" for your operating system--many available free/payware that will repair misplaced/corrupted .dlls etc-- Lastly, you can always uninstall/reinstall FS9--make sure you develop a reinstall "strategy" and have a copy of your keys etc for any addon payware; you can logically reload stuff and see if you can duplicate the issueJust a few brief thoughts--there's many more out there since just about everyone who's been simming a while has at some point, had an issue like this.Good luckKemo

[Guest scoeva]

Thanks Kemo for all your suggestions. I did see another topic related to my problem just after I posted mine. I changed all my settings in FS9 back to their default values, especially ones that say, may affect performance or may cause computer to become unstable. After doing so I completed a flight with no problems. My guess is that I may have been pushing my system a little too hard for what it can handle. Thanks again.

[Guest KemoF15]

Good to hear--lots of great info packed in this forum--saves reinventing the wheel and spinning your wheels. I always come to this site first if I have a sim issue.Kemo

[Guest scoeva]

Kemo,it seems I spoke too soon. I just had another CTD. This happened twice in the exact same area, same flight, same settings. This one happened 58 miles out of CYYC (using Canuk's scenery). In addition, I am also using UT Canada, UT USA and a POSKY 737-700. As you suggested, I used the FS9 registry repair tool earlier, also, I do weekly defrags and registry cleanings. I also shutdown all programs that might run in the backgound before starting FS9 except for Mem Turbo 4. I'll give you my system info as well: AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 3800+ 2.00GHZ processor(using AMD's dual core optimizer as well), 256MB DDR3 XFX GeForce 8600GT XXX Edition video card, 2.00GB Ram DDR2 667MHZ and WinXP Pro. I have made sure that my drivers are up to date, I checked for duplicate AFCADS and empty scenery/texture folders and all is good. Anyway, I will keep trying to figure this issue out. In the meantime I will check out the other topics related, but if you(or anyone) can think of anything else I can try, it will be much appreciated. Cheers,Scott