the dreaded CTD...help!

[Guest gooper]

well, after running fsx and windows vista 32b successfully for about 2 years I have just suddenly had a couple of CTD's and I am not sure what is causing it...my specs are: pentium dual core 2.4 Ghz, 2 gigs ram; 512 mb ati 2600xt card. In both cases it has crashed using FSX...the screen turn s blue and all i get is a brief glimpse of something to do with memory ?? and then the computer turns off..it finally re-booted after about a dozen tries but i am scared poopless to run FSX anymore...is the cause of this not enough memory, is it windows vista? I have some add ons like FTX and a a lot of AI and the realair duke but thats it....hope someone one can help me out!

[Art_P 6]

I would try running FSX with different aircraft and scenery active until I could identify what is causing the crashes. I have had this happen due to corrupted scenery at a certain location. I also had problems when using the FTX free demo scenery. Try running just scenery and aircraft used well before this started to occur, then add elements. Try to remember where you were when the crash occurred and reenact the flight. If nothing can be identified, run a memory test.

[Chock 17,769]

My guess would be that the Real Air Duke might have something to do with it. The reason I say that is not because there might be anything bad about the Duke, but it is a recent add-on and so is indicative of being perhaps the most recent change to FSX and your installation of it.So, in no particular order of which to try first, try uninstalling the Duke and see if FSX runs okay. If it does, you are on the right route as far as investigation goes. What you could then do is try reinstalling the Duke and see if it occurs again. If on the other hand when you uninstall the Duke it still bombs, you might try inserting the FSX DVD and when it autostarts, choose the 'repair' option to see if that fixes any files. Other stuf you might check is, have you got both FSX service packs installed, or the Acceleration pack (which effectively is the same thing)? If not, you might want to try that first because I imagine the Duke would probably need it. Next you can try reinstalling Direct-X, which is another favourite to sort out 3D apps that keep crashing. Make sure you have an up to date version of Direct X and even if you have one, it is still worth trying a reinstall of it. Then, if that doesn't work, you could try other ATI drivers for your graphics card. ATI drivers are notoriously crap (and that's coming from someone who has an ATI card on their main FSX PC by the way!), so sometimes rolling back to an earlier version of Catalyst can sort things out. Note that you have to properly uninstall ATI drivers with the ATI uninstaller to get them to totally go off your system, so don't use the control panel to uninstall them, use the ATI uninstaller.That brings up another one you can try, which is to see if you can roll back to a restore point on your system and see if that has any effect on things.Plenty of suggestions there, and I suspect one of them will work.Al

[Guest ArtieLange]

Bad RAM is another thing it could be, would explane why things worked fine for so long and now you have problems. The 2 times I've had BSOD issues was due to bad RAM.

[Guest gooper]

how do i run a memory test ?

[Chock 17,769]

Easiest way is to do a search on Google for a little utility called 'CPU-Z' Download that, install it and you can use it to run a test on your system and report about the condition of everything from your motherboard to all the things stuck on it, including the RAM.Great little utility and highly recommendedUnless you mean a test of your own memory, in which case, put your car keys in a drawer, get drunk and when you sober up, try and remember where you put your car keys :( Al

[rightseater 0]

Easiest way is to do a search on Google for a little utility called 'CPU-Z' Download that, install it and you can use it to run a test on your system and report about the condition of everything from your motherboard to all the things stuck on it, including the RAM.Great little utility and highly recommendedUnless you mean a test of your own memory, in which case, put your car keys in a drawer, get drunk and when you sober up, try and remember where you put your car keys :( Al

Thanks for this post Al. I've been looking for a program to do this since I got a new computer and don't have my old PC Doctor anymore.

[Guest UlfB]

Hi,CPU-Z is a good tool for view data about your CPU and RAM, but for testing system stability including the memory, I would recommend OCCT: http://www.ocbase.com/perestroika_en/index.php?Download

[rightseater 0]

Hi,CPU-Z is a good tool for view data about your CPU and RAM, but for testing system stability including the memory, I would recommend OCCT: http://www.ocbase.com/perestroika_en/index.php?Download

That's another great freeware program, but unfortunately it doesn't like me very much (join the club). It keeps telling me that my DX9 is not up to date, but I'm using DX10, which most certainly is up to date. I'm guessing that means it doesn't work for DX10. That keep me from being able to test my memory.

[Guest UlfB]

That's another great freeware program, but unfortunately it doesn't like me very much (join the club). It keeps telling me that my DX9 is not up to date, but I'm using DX10, which most certainly is up to date. I'm guessing that means it doesn't work for DX10. That keep me from being able to test my memory.

If you run Vista you have both DX9 and DX10 installed. Have you updated DX9 with the latest release from march 2009? You find it here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...6a-9b6652cd92a3Edited: I use the 2.0.1 version of OCCT, so maybe there is a problem with latest release. Maybe you could try the 2.0.1 version instead. Edited May 1, 2009 by UlfB

[robert young 2,897]

My guess would be that the Real Air Duke might have something to do with it. The reason I say that is not because there might be anything bad about the Duke, but it is a recent add-on and so is indicative of being perhaps the most recent change to FSX and your installation of it.Al

In over a year of advanced stage development and an exhaustive test period on several different computers and OS, the Duke did not once cause a crash, blue screen or freeze of FSX, and that includes intensive editing on the fly without closing FSX. The only report we've had so far of a CTD was from a multiplayer customer who was running a 3ghz system overclocked to 4 ghz and pushed to the limit and we traced that to him running the Duke with two other Dukes, including all the detail within them, appearing on his screen. That is probably inviting a CTD!So until the cause is established, I would rather you didn't make unsubstantiated guesses and this customer can at any time e-mail me and I'll give any assistance he needs.Thanks.Rob - RealAir

[Guest firehawk44]

well, after running fsx and windows vista 32b successfully for about 2 years I have just suddenly had a couple of CTD's and I am not sure what is causing it...my specs are: pentium dual core 2.4 Ghz, 2 gigs ram; 512 mb ati 2600xt card. In both cases it has crashed using FSX...the screen turn s blue and all i get is a brief glimpse of something to do with memory ?? and then the computer turns off..it finally re-booted after about a dozen tries but i am scared poopless to run FSX anymore...is the cause of this not enough memory, is it windows vista? I have some add ons like FTX and a a lot of AI and the realair duke but thats it....hope someone one can help me out!

If you got 'Blue Screen of Death' (BSOD) and an error message and you have Vista, the system Event Viewer should provide you exactly with the error msg and the system file that caused the crash. You stated you saw a brief glimpse of something to do with memory and that was probably a memory dump you system was creating. Whenever you get a BSOD, you should write down the entire error message or as much as you can then, when you restart your system, do a Google search on the Internet and type the entire msg in the search box and you'll find several possible solutions to your problem. Likewise, if you provide the error message here, someone can possibly find out exactly what's causing your CTD. I doubt it's FSX or any addon to FSX that's causing your problem and it probably is hardware related.You can also check on your systems health by right clicking the computer icon on your desktop, selecting Properties, then Performance on the left side, then select Advanced Tools, and then click on Generate a system health report.Hope this helps.Jim

[Chock 17,769]

So until the cause is established, I would rather you didn't make unsubstantiated guesses and this customer can at any time e-mail me and I'll give any assistance he needs.

It's not an unsubstantiated guess, it's an educated guess at the possibility of a recent change to FSX being a route of investigation, which is further quantified by noting that it might highlight that service packs were not installed that a new product requires, because the original poster states that he's been running the install for a long time, which can mean it has picked up some oddities. So it's not a dig at your product, or even a suggestion that there is any issue with it.So I don't care what you'd rather I did or did not do, because all I'm trying to do is help someone by offering some suggestions, and you will note that it is one of many suggestions I offered, most of which had nothing at all to do with your product (and one of which it seems turned out to be the correct diagnosis). Read the first sentence of my post and it is obvious that I am not suggesting there is something wrong with your product, merely that as with any product, sometimes installing one can have funny effects. Even MS Word can do that on occasion, does that mean I'm saying MS Word is rubbish or faulty? I'm well aware of what an excellent product the Duke is and I'd offer the same suggestion to investigate any product if it was a recent install that might have been the unwitting catalyst of an issue.But since you brought it up, just because you tested it on a lot of computers does not mean that it cannot possibly have absolutely anything about it that might be the catalyst for a potential difficulty even when there is nothing faulty about it; that is to say, if you didn't test it on every computer on the planet, then you cannot possibly know that it definitely does not relate to the problem the guy is having, even in an unforeseen and blameless way. He has your product, and being brand new it is likely that it was the last thing he installed, and now FSX is having problems, what would be your your logical thought process under those circumstances for any software you'd just installed that preceded an untoward effect?Al

[rightseater 0]

If you run Vista you have both DX9 and DX10 installed. Have you updated DX9 with the latest release from march 2009? You find it here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...6a-9b6652cd92a3Edited: I use the 2.0.1 version of OCCT, so maybe there is a problem with latest release. Maybe you could try the 2.0.1 version instead.

That download did the trick, thanks.

[Guest gooper]

thanks Jim.....the problem is the BSD only flashes up for a second or two and i can't possibly write down more than a couple of words but system memory dump spounds like it could be the issue..i will try an older version of my video card driver and see if that helps....