the dreaded CTD...help!

[Guest gooper]

how do i access the system event viewer in vista to see what the exact problem is Jim?

[Guest UlfB]

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....

Gooper,Right click on your Computer icon and choose Properties. Choose the Advanced tab and then click the button Settings under the part labeled Startup And Recovery. Remove the checkmark for Automatically restart. This will make the blue sceen stay until you restart your computer.If you haven't run OCCT to test the stability of your system that's what you should do first. If you get a reboot or a blue screen when running OCCT, you most likely have problem with your hardware (mobo - cpu - ram - graphics card - psu - ...).

[robert young 2,897]

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

I don't want to get into an argument about this. So thanks for the explanation and let's keep it friendly. Rob - RealAir

[Chock 17,769]

Absolutely, I've no wish to argue or to create the impression there might be something amiss with the Duke. Actually the Duke looks like one of the best add-ons ever seen for FS to me, and I hope you sell a stack of them, because that kind of attention to detail and quality rightly deserves success.Al

[Guest UlfB]

Absolutely, I've no wish to argue or to create the impression there might be something amiss with the Duke. Actually the Duke looks like one of the best add-ons ever seen for FS to me, and I hope you sell a stack of them, because that kind of attention to detail and quality rightly deserves success.Al

Al,I don't think that the OPs problem is caused by the Duke. Blue screens are seldom caused by aircraft add ons. CTDs and hangs might be, but not blue screens. Bugs and flaws in hardware drivers, core OS software, instable overclocks and faulty hardware do. FSX is in fact one of the best applications to test system stability with. Many overclockers, including myself, have run OCCT and other stress programs without errors, but got hit by bluescreens in FSX.I whish that Gooper could get around to run OCCT or some other stress test to see if his system is stable or has a flaw.

[Chock 17,769]

Yup, you are almost certainly correct.Al

[Guest UlfB]

how do i access the system event viewer in vista to see what the exact problem is Jim?

Gooper,Right click on the Computer icon and choose Manage. Under System Tools you'll find the Event Viewer. Open up the Windows Logs folder. Examine the System log.

[Guest gooper]

I will run OCCT as soon as o am home from work.....thanks for the help guys! great support and really appreciate it..hope wew can solve it together...

[Guest UlfB]

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.

Jim,Very often the program/module that was executing when the error occured, is seldom the cause of the problem. It's easy to study the symptom and forget about the cause behind it. When you have a hardware problem, for example a bad memory stick, all kind of DLL-files are reported to have been executing when the crasch happened. Every overclocker nows that an instable system, caused by faulty hardware or too aggressive overclock, will produce bluescreens and what program or module that was logged in the systems event log is of not relevant. FSX is one of the best stress test programs around. If you have som flaw in your system, sure FSX will crash it.

[Art_P 6]

how do i run a memory test ?

There is a Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool in Vista's Administrative Tools.

[Guest gooper]

ok I have run OCCT and system viewer but I don't have a clue as to what i am supposed to look for...I don't see any red flags, warningsd, etc, etc....?????

[Guest firehawk44]

how do i access the system event viewer in vista to see what the exact problem is Jim?

Best way for me to describe how to get to it is for you to click on Start and open up Help and Support. Then, in the search box type Event Viewer and hit return. You should see the first help topic is 'Open Event Viewer'. Click on this and you're there. Sorry for the delay in response. I just got a BSOD on my main system too and my problem is the video card drivers. I recently installed the new beta Nvidia drivers released yesterday. Now the system won't even even get to the BIOS! Yikes!Hope you have better luck!Jim

[Guest UlfB]

ok I have run OCCT and system viewer but I don't have a clue as to what i am supposed to look for...I don't see any red flags, warningsd, etc, etc....?????

Ok, You should run OCCT for 60 minutes or so. If no errors - that's good!What you look for when running a stress test program is a system error of some kind. If OCCT hangs, crashes or you get a blue screen while running OCCT, that's what your looking for. An error.But you have run OCCT and have no errors. Could you give us some more information:

• What PSU do you have?
• Do you clean your computer regulary? A lot of dust may prevent an effective cooling of graphics card, cpu and other components. If the cpu or gpu gets to hot, the power will be cut and strange thing happens, like blue screens.
• What mobo do you have and what BIOS version? The BIOS version is normally displayed during boot up.
• Do you get any blue screens flying a default fsx aircraft over dense urban areas?
• You run Vista SP1 and FSX SP2?
• You have installed the latest DX9 version (released march 2009)?

[Guest gooper]

ok hope i can pst the error before it crashes again:stop: c00021a [fatal system error]the initial session process or sytem process terminated unexpectadlywith a status of 0x00000 (0xc00001 0x00100434)system has been shut downcollecting data for crash dumpinitializing disk for crash dumpbeginning dump of physical memorydumping physical memory to disk:100physical memory dump completehope this sheds light on the problems!

[Guest UlfB]

ok hope i can pst the error before it crashes again:stop: c00021a [fatal system error]the initial session process or sytem process terminated unexpectadlywith a status of 0x00000 (0xc00001 0x00100434)system has been shut downcollecting data for crash dumpinitializing disk for crash dumpbeginning dump of physical memorydumping physical memory to disk:100physical memory dump completehope this sheds light on the problems!

Edited: If it crasches that often I definitely believe that you have a hardware issue. Or that a system file is corrupt.Here is some real old MS info on a stop error: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/156669/?sd=RMVPThe resolution is aimed at Win NT and I wouldn't try it Vista.Anyway, I did a quick search with Google and the error you got seems to be a general error trapping, so the cause seems to differ from case to case.Do you run any special background programs that might not be Vista compatible? What antivirus program do you use? Do you use any software firewall on your computer?You could answer my previous questions as well. Give us the whole picture, if we focus on the small details we might get lost and never see the obvious.