FS Crashes -- Constantly! HELP

[SteveLewis 0]

OK, I've just about had it with FS2002. I purchased a new PC a little over two weeks ago (see specs below) and everything went great for about a week. Then I began experiencing FS Crashes (you know, we've got to send a report due to an error....... BS). Now, I get a crash 4 out of 5 flights. What finally frosted my cake is this: There I was flying a 757 from San Juan to Newark, at 39,000 ft minding my own business. I was 3+ hours into the flight, just about to decend when I got the FS Crash. Nothing especially was going on. I was flying at 2X with ActiveSky and Radar Contact. The specifics said it was due to the module damage.dll which has been the bane of most all of the crashes -- except for the one before which was due to atc.dll. I was using both FS ATC and Radar Contact per the instruction manual and nothing else.Does anyone know what causes this to occur? What can you do about it? Just getting the "We're sorry" notice doesn't cut it, Mr Gates. Tell us what went wrong SO WE CAN FIX IT!!!!! This is so frustrating it's causing the rest of my hair to fall out, and I'm an old guy! :-fume I have had FS crashes prior to starting Radar Contact and prior to starting ActiveSky so they're most likely not the problem. There has to be a way to fix this without re-installing FS2k2. Prior to this I had only had one (1) FS crash in over 6 years of using FS98, FS2000, and FS2002.Any help would be most appreciated.

[Guest ba747heavy]

Steve --Does this happen with every plane? Or do you fly one plane all the time?Did you reinstall FS2K2 after you upgraded your puter? Or did you move the FS2K2 files over? And, I take it that this is a homebuilt machine, did you reinstall W$ after you got your new computer?Forgive me if you got an HP or some other prebuilt machine and my questions are moot points :D

[SteveLewis 0]

This has happened in all a/c except the FFX/SGA MD80s. I have had the problem with Mike Stone's ERJ145, Mike's 757, and Nick Botamer's ERJ135. I had the machine custom built including a brand new 80Gb 7200 RPM hard drive. Did a clean install of Win98SE. Did a clean install of FS2002 then copied over all my folders/files on top. I'm using DirectX 8.1 and using the diagnostics it says: "The file iac25_32.ax is a beta version which is unsupported and could cause problems. You should reinstall DirectX"Question: Should I install DirectX9 ? I have Go Back by Roxio so if it causes problems I can get my PC back.Thanks for answering..Steve

[Guest ba747heavy]

Steve --Yea, I think you need to install DX. I would go to DX 9.0, it doesn't hurt anything. Good thing you have 'Go Back' just in case it doesn't work =)You shouldn't have any trouble with your FS2K2 setup if you copied everything over from an old setup, HOWEVER, IIRC there are one or two files in there related to hardware. These files are built on your configuration and shouldn't have been copied over. Please, someone else back me up on this because I am no 100% certain.

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi Steve."Did a clean install of FS2002 then copied over all my folders/files on top."As soon as you did that, you no longer had a clean install, and that is the root of your problem. Sometimes, you can just copy the older folders and get away with it. This time, it obviously didn't work.Bad news?Time for Spring cleaning.You can save your folders as a reference, but uninstall FS, then reinstall it, then one-by-one, reinstall your aircraft and scenery from their default sources... not from your saved folders.Wouldn't be a bad idea to jot down the install sequence, and check the sim every few addons to make sure it still functions properly.I'd start with the recreation of the elements of your last flight ( scenery, plane, utilities ), and see if rebuilding the sim from scratch recreates the crash. If it does, then one of those addons is at fault.The last thing to question is FS itself or your version of DirectX. Those things worked fine before, and continue to work fine for thousands of other simmers.Dick

[SteveLewis 0]

The crashes began just after I purchased ActiveSky. As a matter of fact, I posted over on that Forum regarding the problem. Problem is that I now get crashes (sometimes) after starting FS2k2 but before I run ActiveSky or Radar Contact.I've downloaded DirectX 9.0a and ran DxDiag. I now have no problems showing in DirectX. I will fly another flight, using FSMeteoe vice ActiveSky and see what I can recreate. I'll use Mike Stone's ERJ145 which I've had some crashes.Steve

[Guest]

Hi ya, I've had the problem.I've changed my CPU cooler Fan and Robert is apparently my Dad's Brother. So hopefully yours' is an overheating issue too.Hope this helps, if not get back to me as I've had a long running problem with FS2002 and I can tell you of other cures.Peace, smiles and happinessRene

[Guest FPSFREAK]

Steve, Unless all of your programs on the machine are crashing or the machine is locking up the heat issue is not the problem. Want a list of your problems from my perspective?. Rhumba is right. It's time for a spring cleaning. I tried the same thing myself w copying over files and found out that it's not the right way to do it. Unless you made a BU copy of your registry and copied that over you will be missing some reg entries needed for the proper operation of FS. Uninstall FS and start from scratch. It's time consuming but in the end aren't you wasting more time dealing w errors?. Also, WHY 98SE?. You do realize that running 512 Megs of ram w 98 is defeating the purpose of having that large a cache of ram. 98 cannot physically address that much ram so in effect a large part of it is going to waste. Not to mention that a switch to Windows 2K or WinXPPro would probably result in a large speed increase as well as a significant boost to the stability of the machine. Your running a very nice machine. Why tie it down w an outdated OS?. Just some things to think about.Bobby

[SteveLewis 0]

No other programs are having problems on my PC. It's only FS2k2 that is crashing (closing -- send error report.)Why Win98SE? It's mainly because I didn't want to pay an additional $200 for Win XP when I was hitting up against my $1,000 budget for my new PC box (I kept my 19inch flat screen monitor by MAG, keyboard, mouse, etc). I had read in the FS Hardware Forum that Win98/98SE could address up to 512Kb of Ram w/o any problems and I had 640 Mb of RAM in my old machine with Win98 (AMD900).I didn't copy everything. I didn't copy over FS2002.cfg which I let it configure itself and then edited the sections I wanted. I redownloaded and reinstalled FSNav4.5. The only things I copied completely were my a/c, gauges, etc. I followed the directions I found in the Hardware Forum to do this so I really don't think that's the problem.I downloaded and installed DirectX 9.0a. I just completed an error-free flight KEWR-KBUF with Mike Stone's ERJ145. The only difference was that I used FSMeteoe and not ActiveSky..... And, I had NO FS Crash. I will download the update to ActiveSky (to v1.7) and see how that runs with DirectX 9.0a.If all else fails, I will reinstall FS2k2 but I would rather not do that. I had to reinstall FS2000 once because my entire PC was locking up.

[Guest FPSFREAK]

Steve, I hear ya about the extra money but even XPhome would be a big step up from 98SE and it isn't $200. Believe it or not Microsoft has officially dropped support for 98. I geuss there slowly saying goodbye to an old freind. :). From what you describe above I would uninstall Activesky. DL the latest version of both it and FSUIPC and try that. Seeing as you flew error free without AS I would say your pointing in the right direction.Bobby

[SteveLewis 0]

I downloaded the v1.7 update for ActiveSky last night. I'll fly with it today and see what happens. Also, jd from RadarContact, tells me that most FS crashes are from aircraft, panels, or scenery installs. I had installed 3 new AI a/c also prior to the crashes. Two were PAI CRJs and one set was Dornier 328s I got from FlightSim.com. One of my crashes was in module Atc.dll. I looked at the details and one of the modules listed was Do328.mdl. I unloaded the 328s but still had a crash yesterday due to damage.dll. I'm going "fishing" in FS configs to find any reference to that.Meanwhile, I'll try the latest ActiveSky. If I still have problems, I will uninstall and redownload it.Thanks, all! :-waveSteve

[SteveLewis 0]

After a morning of tests, I thought I had the problem isolated. Until Test #8.I tried to force a FS Crash by loading ActiveSky, FSMeteoe, no weather program at all, Mike Stone's ERJ145, and Bill Graboswki's ERJ panel. Testing these installs I get a FS Crash no matter what weather program I used -- even got one before I started either of them, so ActiveSky and FSMeteoe are not the culprits. I tried changing a/c from Mike's ERJ to Nick Botamer's ERJ-XR and got an immediate crash. All FS Crashes mention damage.dll as the module. Only common thread in those a/c is Bill's ERJ panel.I tried a FFX/SGA TWA MD82 at STL and did not get a crash. Actually flew STL-MSP without mishap. But as a final test, I tried the FFS/SGA MD82 and tried to change the aircraft flight number twice and did get a FS damage.dll Crash.So, here's what creates my crashes: Any attempt to change the aircraft flight number in the Aircraft/Select Aircraft/Change procedure causes a crash with the ERJs. All Crashes are in damage.dll which I have replaced out of the FS2002 original file.Anyone have any ideas? I have not gotten a crash on the FFX/SGA under normal (change flight number once, max) situations and have been able to complete all my MD82 flights (for COA and TWA). However, I get crashes 9 out of 10 times when using Mike Stone's ERJ and Bill Grabowski's panel. These crashes are while I'm still at the gate. I had two crashes of a 767PIC panel (using a 757) while inflight. One of those was the ATC.dll file while climbing at 26,000 ft and the other damage.dll after 3 hours of flight.If I can't come to some conclusion here, I'll have to reinstall FS2002. Ugh. x( Steve

[Guest ba747heavy]

Steve,I hate to tell you this, but I think you need to to reinstall FS2K2. But don't panic!! You can save most of your FS2K2 work!!Copy the Gauges, Aircraft, Texture, Scenery, Addonscenery, Scenery.cfg, for starters. Then copy any folders related to your payware addon files. Then uninstall FS2K2, and reinstall. Copy those files over, and you ought to be good to go.However tho, you could be asking for more of the same problems using that approach. As was recommended above, you should reinstall from the source packages, that way the problem will not be there.Good luck

[rhumbaflappy 113]

The "Copy those files over..." is what got Steve in trouble in the first place.Uninstall the addons, uninstall the sim, move the remaining folders, reinstall, reinstall the addons from original sources ( use the moved folder contents for reference only ). Test the sim during the reinstallation of the addons... jotting down what was installed in each step. If the sim is fine, destroy the old addons in the moved folders.If that is followed, I wouldn't be surprised if the problem simply disappears, as correct installation practice of all the addons was followed. By reinstalling addons in steps, you increase the chances of identifying any rogue addons that might crash the sim. By uninstalling addons before uninstalling the sim, you'll keep the registry and addon uninstall programs in good shape.It might take a few days to rebuild the sim, but it's the only reliable way. If my sim starting crashing for no good reason, I'd start uninstalling/reinstalling everything after about 1 day of trying to bandaid the problem.This is also a good opportunity to do that "Spring cleaning" and get rid of all those sceneries, planes, and other addons that aren't used anymore, and may be slowing down loadtimes or framerates.Dick

[Guest ba747heavy]

Dick --With all do respect, your only partially right. From what he said, he did a 'full copy', all files, folders, everything. *That* is what got him in trouble. If he does what I said, then he will more than likely not get in trouble. That is what I do with no trouble at all.However, I agree with you on another point, 'spring cleaning' and 'install from the sources' is a good idea.