Looking for help: I purchased the J41 based on both my good experience with earlier PMDG products and the great reviews here. Had a free Saturday (today) to learn this thing but so far am only frustrated - every way I try to load the J41 FSX crashes ("Fatal Error...") shortly after either clicking the "Fly Now" button or loading the Tutorial flight as directed from the sim with the default flight loaded. Note: I also have the (excellent) MD-11 and it loads / runs fine.I have: FSX SP2 on WinXP SP2Dell XPS M1730 Intel Core2 Duo CPU T9300 @ 2.5GHz1.57GHz, 3.00Gb RAMNVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTAll suggestions, ideas, pointers, etc. welcome - I finally have a day off and want to try this thing!!

One thing that has helped some (not all) is to reinstall SP2 (for FSX). Don't know why, but it might be worth a try.

One thing that has helped some (not all) is to reinstall SP2 (for FSX). Don't know why, but it might be worth a try.

downscc,Thanks for the quick reply - I will try as you suggest.Additional note: The same error occurs when I try to load the plane setting up a free flight, before I even have a chance to press the Fly Now button.Also, when loading the Tutorial flight, just before the program crashes, I hear a sound like a plane crashing - screen is black, until the Windows error message box comes up...Mitchell

After you installed did you activate it? I had a crashing problem at first and found out the activation window was hidden behind fsx. If you have not activated (putting in your serial number) then start FSX in windowed mode and you should see the activation window.Glen

After you installed did you activate it? I had a crashing problem at first and found out the activation window was hidden behind fsx. If you have not activated (putting in your serial number) then start FSX in windowed mode and you should see the activation window.Glen

Yes - entered the code and received confirmation of successful activation.@downscc: I uninstalled and reinstalled FSX SP2 and no joy - same problem.Any other ideas?

Does the error message tell you what the problem is?

Does the error message tell you what the problem is?

It is the standard Windows error box - "A fatal error occurred." with the option to send an error report to MS.

It is the standard Windows error box - "A fatal error occurred." with the option to send an error report to MS.

I've had the same problem for a week now, but support are working hard on a solution.Out of interest, what happens when you load the MD11 then swith to the J41. When I do this I get the J41 working but without the FMS.CheersSteve

I've had the same problem for a week now, but support are working hard on a solution.Out of interest, what happens when you load the MD11 then swith to the J41. When I do this I get the J41 working but without the FMS.CheersSteve

I did try that but it did not help - thanks for the suggestion, tho -I DO have the J41 working now, and I believe it was one of these two things I did that fixed it:1. Uninstalled / reinstalled the PMDG J41 (I did this twice, but with no success the first time, possibly because I did not reboot in between - not sure about this, tho...). During the second uninstall / reinstall I was also playing around and did this:2. Created a vanilla Cessna 172 cold & dark flight and saved it as my default flight. My usual default flight before was set to a C&D Wilco Citation X setup.Anyway, after the second reinstall (with computer reboot) and setting a non-addon default flight the J41 loaded and is working.thanks to all for the help - now I just have to figure out how to fly this thing :( Mitchell

2. Created a vanilla Cessna 172 cold & dark flight and saved it as my default flight. My usual default flight before was set to a C&D Wilco Citation X setup.

Wish everyone would read the sticky thread at the top of the forum - it's said for almost a week not to use other custom programmed addons as your default flight, they get loaded in the background during startup and can play all kinds of havoc with the J41's initialization.

I did try that but it did not help - thanks for the suggestion, tho -I DO have the J41 working now, and I believe it was one of these two things I did that fixed it:1. Uninstalled / reinstalled the PMDG J41 (I did this twice, but with no success the first time, possibly because I did not reboot in between - not sure about this, tho...). During the second uninstall / reinstall I was also playing around and did this:2. Created a vanilla Cessna 172 cold & dark flight and saved it as my default flight. My usual default flight before was set to a C&D Wilco Citation X setup.Anyway, after the second reinstall (with computer reboot) and setting a non-addon default flight the J41 loaded and is working.thanks to all for the help - now I just have to figure out how to fly this thing :( Mitchell

Glad to hear you got it sorted Mitchell. Is there anything else you did? I've still got the same problem & I've tried everything that you appear to have done, both before & after reading your post.The crazy thing about my situation is I can load the plane from the Wilco Airbus, MD11, 747 etc but not my C&D default Cesna flight from Westchester. When the plane does load - no FMS - although I can hear the 'on' button being pressed.Any help from anyone would be appreciated - it's been a week now & I'm running out of ideas.ThanksSteve