FS9.1 crashing

[iainsmith 9]

Sorry for the longish post but please bear with me.I've been getting some random crashes of FS9.1. I don't think it's my new computer hardware as I always get the message "Flight Simulator has encountered a problem and needs to close." This, I believe, indicates a problem in the programme itself.I think it's scenery related and I had two crashes during a short session last night, one in the PMDG 747 when I changed view to look out a side window and one in the Mooney Bravo when I called up the map for the second time. What happens is the screen goes black, the sound continues but keys/mouse/joystick don't work. Then after half a minute or so, up comes the message. It's happened before in different a/craft, default and add-on so it's not caused by what I'm flying.Last night's two crashes were after I had changed a bgl file in add-on scenery for downtown LA but when the crashes occurred I was flying over the UK. Can a scenery file, on the other side of the world from where you are, cause a crash?I looked at the details that would be in the report to MS if I sent it (which I don't of course) and it said that accompanying the report would be copies of the FS9.cfg file and the scenery.cfg file. Now I know I can create a new FS9.cfg but if the scenery.cfg file is corrupt how do I replace that?I have a fair bit of add-on scenery including Ground Environment Pro II, Ultimate Terrain for Europe, USA, Canada & Alaska, FS Global 2008 for mesh, Visual Flight's terrain mesh for England and Wales plus add-on airports such as World Airports Vol 2, UK2000 Heathrow Xtreme and UK2000 freebies for other UK airports. However, these crashes don't occur at airports but when I'm flying over general terrain.I wondered if it could be a video driver issue. For my 9600GT I'm using driver 182.06, which I used for some time on my old computer but, on reflection, I did have the occasional crash on that. My card maker, XFX has put up 186.18 as the current one. Is it worth trying?Has anyone got any ideas as to what I should be trying or answers to the three questions I posed above, please?Summary of questions:-1. Can a scenery bgl file for the other side of the world from where you are flying cause a crash?2. How do I replace the scenery.cfg file if it is corrupt?3. I'm using Nvidia driver 182.06. Is it worth trying 186.18?My computer specs in case they're relevant:Gigabyte GA-EP31-DS3L with Intel Core2 Duo E7400, 2GB Kingston DDR2 PC6400 RAM, XFX Geforce 9600GT 512MB video card, 2 x 250GB 7200rpm SATA HDs, EVO Labs 600W PSUI'd be grateful for any help. :( Iain Smith

[Swoop 0]

Hey Iain, what does your "Application Log" list? If you open it, you'll see a red icon, (or maybe many?), with an "X" in it. That might give you a clue as to which DLL was faulting. Check the time of the fault and compare it to the time you were flying :)Mark

[iainsmith 9]

Hey Iain, what does your "Application Log" list? If you open it, you'll see a red icon, (or maybe many?), with an "X" in it. That might give you a clue as to which DLL was faulting. Check the time of the fault and compare it to the time you were flying :)Mark

Hi Mark, thanks for your response. Where is the Application Log? I've done a Windows search of my drives, including system files and hidden files but no luck.Iain

[Guest blackcat79]

Sorry for the longish post but please bear with me.I've been getting some random crashes of FS9.1. I don't think it's my new computer hardware as I always get the message "Flight Simulator has encountered a problem and needs to close." This, I believe, indicates a problem in the programme itself.I think it's scenery related and I had two crashes during a short session last night, one in the PMDG 747 when I changed view to look out a side window and one in the Mooney Bravo when I called up the map for the second time. What happens is the screen goes black, the sound continues but keys/mouse/joystick don't work. Then after half a minute or so, up comes the message. It's happened before in different a/craft, default and add-on so it's not caused by what I'm flying.Last night's two crashes were after I had changed a bgl file in add-on scenery for downtown LA but when the crashes occurred I was flying over the UK. Can a scenery file, on the other side of the world from where you are, cause a crash?I looked at the details that would be in the report to MS if I sent it (which I don't of course) and it said that accompanying the report would be copies of the FS9.cfg file and the scenery.cfg file. Now I know I can create a new FS9.cfg but if the scenery.cfg file is corrupt how do I replace that?I have a fair bit of add-on scenery including Ground Environment Pro II, Ultimate Terrain for Europe, USA, Canada & Alaska, FS Global 2008 for mesh, Visual Flight's terrain mesh for England and Wales plus add-on airports such as World Airports Vol 2, UK2000 Heathrow Xtreme and UK2000 freebies for other UK airports. However, these crashes don't occur at airports but when I'm flying over general terrain.I wondered if it could be a video driver issue. For my 9600GT I'm using driver 182.06, which I used for some time on my old computer but, on reflection, I did have the occasional crash on that. My card maker, XFX has put up 186.18 as the current one. Is it worth trying?Has anyone got any ideas as to what I should be trying or answers to the three questions I posed above, please?Summary of questions:-1. Can a scenery bgl file for the other side of the world from where you are flying cause a crash?2. How do I replace the scenery.cfg file if it is corrupt?3. I'm using Nvidia driver 182.06. Is it worth trying 186.18?My computer specs in case they're relevant:Gigabyte GA-EP31-DS3L with Intel Core2 Duo E7400, 2GB Kingston DDR2 PC6400 RAM, XFX Geforce 9600GT 512MB video card, 2 x 250GB 7200rpm SATA HDs, EVO Labs 600W PSUI'd be grateful for any help. :( Iain Smith

I have UT Europe,Ultimate traffic and did use uk2000 scenery packs 1-8 and had the same sort of problems. it always seemed to occur when changing view or if a new window opened I.E the ATC window. But how and when it happened was random.I removed Uk2000 scenery and all was well. I also replaced the default ATC with Radar Contact.Do you use an addon AI Pack? i.e Ultimate traffic or Traffic 2005 etc? i beleave this can overload the default ATC. However i cant say that this was the problem with my crashes, but i have UK 2000 extreme airports (not Uk2000 packs 1-8), UT Europe,Ultimate traffic, and radar contact and havent had a crash since.regardsedd

[Guest belga1]

Hello,

Hi Mark, thanks for your response. Where is the Application Log? I've done a Windows search of my drives, including system files and hidden files but no luck.

Unfortunately I don't have a clue of the OS you use.Nevertheless if it's WinXP:Go in control panelGo in the Administration toolsThere you will be able to review the log(s)Knowledge of the OS can help for enjoy more the games and your everyday PC usage.Regards.Gus.

[iainsmith 9]

Hello,Unfortunately I don't have a clue of the OS you use.Nevertheless if it's WinXP:Go in control panelGo in the Administration toolsThere you will be able to review the log(s)Knowledge of the OS can help for enjoy more the games and your everyday PC usage.Regards.Gus.

Thanks Gus. Your guess was correct it is Win XP and you're right I should have stated this in my original post. :( Iain Smith

I have UT Europe,Ultimate traffic and did use uk2000 scenery packs 1-8 and had the same sort of problems. it always seemed to occur when changing view or if a new window opened I.E the ATC window. But how and when it happened was random.I removed Uk2000 scenery and all was well. I also replaced the default ATC with Radar Contact.Do you use an addon AI Pack? i.e Ultimate traffic or Traffic 2005 etc? i beleave this can overload the default ATC. However i cant say that this was the problem with my crashes, but i have UK 2000 extreme airports (not Uk2000 packs 1-8), UT Europe,Ultimate traffic, and radar contact and havent had a crash since.regardsedd

Thanks Edd. I use World-of-AI for traffic and I have just three of the UK2000 free versions, Bristol, Glasgow and Edinburgh. I'll try disabling those and see what happens. I also use Radar Contact and have been for over three years. Would never go back to default.Iain

[iainsmith 9]

OK so I've studied the Application Log and two modules seem to be involved. On the vast majority of occasions it is terrain.dll but for some it is g3d.dll.But what does this mean? What does it tell me? Are these modules faulty or were they just "at the scene" when the event occurred, so to speak?My guess is that with terrain.dll being mostly involved it points to a scenery problem but I'd be glad of some advice from those who know more than me.Iain Smith

[Swoop 0]

Some of the people who visit this site know the terrain.dll issues really well, I don't. But I had a couple of issues the other day that may absolutely have nothing to do with what is going on with your system, though, you can give it a try if you like. If not, then it might serve you down the road.From the advice of this board, I found that I had a landclass scenery with an empty "texture" folder in it. I also installed a couple of freeware sceneries a while back that had their own Traffic_xxx.dlls. I got side tracked and forgot to install the aircraft that were referenced in the traffic dlls. The next time I took a flight, my ESDG SR22-G3 loaded with the propeller looking like a smoked mirror and half of the default MS AI traffic didn't have any textures loaded, they were plain grey. So maybe, remove any landclass texture folders that are empty. You could also rename your traffic dlls to traffic_xxx.Original and see if you still get a CTD. I realize I might be reaching but it's something that you can try until one of the people who really know the terrain.dll issues chime in :)Oh, the folder location for traffic bgls is usually..Flight Simulator 9\Scenery\World\SceneryMark

[iainsmith 9]

Some of the people who visit this site know the terrain.dll issues really well, I don't. But I had a couple of issues the other day that may absolutely have nothing to do with what is going on with your system, though, you can give it a try if you like. If not, then it might serve you down the road.From the advice of this board, I found that I had a landclass scenery with an empty "texture" folder in it. I also installed a couple of freeware sceneries a while back that had their own Traffic_xxx.dlls. I got side tracked and forgot to install the aircraft that were referenced in the traffic dlls. The next time I took a flight, my ESDG SR22-G3 loaded with the propeller looking like a smoked mirror and half of the default MS AI traffic didn't have any textures loaded, they were plain grey. So maybe, remove any landclass texture folders that are empty. You could also rename your traffic dlls to traffic_xxx.Original and see if you still get a CTD. I realize I might be reaching but it's something that you can try until one of the people who really know the terrain.dll issues chime in :)Oh, the folder location for traffic bgls is usually..Flight Simulator 9\Scenery\World\SceneryMark

Thanks Mark. I don't think I have any empty landclass texture folders but I'll check and I'll do what you suggest to the Traffic dll files.Iain

[Swoop 0]

Oops...I ment Traffic_xxx.bgls!!! Sorry about that. I've had DLLs on the brain lately because of some of the software I've been writing. Duh...Mark

[John Hinson 24]

terrain.dll failures usually indicate exactly that - a problem with add-on terrain. If the problem can be narrowed down a specific location you can identify the offending file with a little patience by temporarily eliminating all files, then if OK reinstate 50% of them etc etc. until you find the culprit. I found numerous faulty files in North America and Alaska in a commercial package I bought (FS Terrain).g3d.dll usually indicates faulty scenery, try disabling add-on scenery in the area concerned. Again, if you can pin the culprit down to a specific scenario, you may be able to eliminate the file concerned without doing too much harm to the rest of the scenery.Going right back to Ian's initial questions, I'm not sure if a scenery on the opposite side of the word will cause a FS crash but over the years I have found i) mesh in Nepal that drove a rift through Colombia, ii) mesh somewhere else in the East (I forget where) that built a huge square 16000 ft plateau in Tunisia, and iii) an add-on airport in the USA that stopped me starting a flight anywhere in South Africa. So I would not ever rule anything out. The time (many hours) spent tracing problems like these is the price you pay for freeware!Hope this helps.John

[iainsmith 9]

terrain.dll failures usually indicate exactly that - a problem with add-on terrain. If the problem can be narrowed down a specific location you can identify the offending file with a little patience by temporarily eliminating all files, then if OK reinstate 50% of them etc etc. until you find the culprit. I found numerous faulty files in North America and Alaska in a commercial package I bought (FS Terrain).g3d.dll usually indicates faulty scenery, try disabling add-on scenery in the area concerned. Again, if you can pin the culprit down to a specific scenario, you may be able to eliminate the file concerned without doing too much harm to the rest of the scenery.Going right back to Ian's initial questions, I'm not sure if a scenery on the opposite side of the word will cause a FS crash but over the years I have found i) mesh in Nepal that drove a rift through Colombia, ii) mesh somewhere else in the East (I forget where) that built a huge square 16000 ft plateau in Tunisia, and iii) an add-on airport in the USA that stopped me starting a flight anywhere in South Africa. So I would not ever rule anything out. The time (many hours) spent tracing problems like these is the price you pay for freeware!Hope this helps.John

Thank you John that's of immense help.Iain

[iainsmith 9]

Just thought I'd close the loop and tell you that I appear to have solved FS9 crashing due to module 'terrain.dll' falling over. The cause was duplicate AFCAD files for some payware add-on airports. I'd used the utility called AFCADScan which said I had none but when I eventually did a manual trawl I found I had six! So beware of trusting that particular utility.I did have some crashes caused by 'panels.dll' but someone on the forums here posted a link to the MS Knowledgebase advising a change to the FS9.cfg file changing FULL_SCREEN from 1 to 0. This seems to have worked but, if you exit the sim in full screen mode, next time the figure will be back to 1. The trick is to remember to exit in Windowed mode.So, thanks to you good folk here on the Avsim forum I am free of those problems. I appreciate your help. :( Iain Smith