FS2004 Crash to Desktop with No Error

[Guest tonicfan]

This is bizarre.I thought maybe it was the add on graphics or the active sky. but i disabled active sky and it still does it. I disabled toronto's airport scenery and it still did it.I am flying from Detroit to Toronto, right when im outside Toronto the game crashes with no explanation, no report to microsoft or anything, it just disappears! I turned off pretty much everything, the active sky and any other add on i had going and it still does it when i load up the auto-saved flight. Im not sure if its because it is an autosave that the autosave may have saved the stoppage of the game, but technically that shouldnt happen. I am at a loss. This used to happen when i would do my flight from Calgary to SFO, about 45 mins into the flight, the game would shut down. So i re-installed FS2004 fresh and now its happening in toronto.Has anyone else experienced this? Ive done some searching on forums, but no one had this exact specific situation. I am going to be pretty ###### off if i cant fly my flights like i used to, i have no idea why all of a sudden its doing this. I did add on a Radar add on but i dont see why that would do anything when its minimized and ive flown all over the world with that add on and never had this problem.Any advice would be appreciated.Ive owned this game since it came out and the only change was i added 4 gigs of ram awhile ago, but that has only improved the performance, not made it crash.

[ubersu 78]

This is bizarre.I thought maybe it was the add on graphics or the active sky. but i disabled active sky and it still does it. I disabled toronto's airport scenery and it still did it.I am flying from Detroit to Toronto, right when im outside Toronto the game crashes with no explanation, no report to microsoft or anything, it just disappears! I turned off pretty much everything, the active sky and any other add on i had going and it still does it when i load up the auto-saved flight. Im not sure if its because it is an autosave that the autosave may have saved the stoppage of the game, but technically that shouldnt happen. I am at a loss. This used to happen when i would do my flight from Calgary to SFO, about 45 mins into the flight, the game would shut down. So i re-installed FS2004 fresh and now its happening in toronto.Has anyone else experienced this? Ive done some searching on forums, but no one had this exact specific situation. I am going to be pretty ###### off if i cant fly my flights like i used to, i have no idea why all of a sudden its doing this. I did add on a Radar add on but i dont see why that would do anything when its minimized and ive flown all over the world with that add on and never had this problem.Any advice would be appreciated.Ive owned this game since it came out and the only change was i added 4 gigs of ram awhile ago, but that has only improved the performance, not made it crash.

If you haven't already done so, install the 9.1 patch...DJ

[Guest tonicfan]

If you haven't already done so, install the 9.1 patch...DJ

I installed the patch when i did the new re-install, so its running 9.1

[Mudhendriver 3]

I installed the patch when i did the new re-install, so its running 9.1

What AV are you running? Some virus programs will cause FS9 to CTD unexpectedly. Also, I used to have a problem around BWI/DCA...I installed scan AFD which looks for duplicate .bgls AFCAD within the addon/scenery folder. Check your addon folder scenery for any additonal scenery folders that have nothing in them. I don't know the link off the top of my cranium for ScanAFD but if you google or search within avsim forum, you'll find it.Also, just thinking out loud here, do you have UT loaded? If so, make sure you've got the latest patch for it--resolved some memory "leaks" in US/Canada.Lastly, please provide your system specs and any other addons that might be causing issues. You mentioned the radar add...even though it's minimized it is still sucking up memory (perhaps enough putting you over the edge..sounds like you're running XP 32-bit?)... You can always delete your FS9.cfg and let it build a fresh one as well to rule out corrupted .cfg. If you're going to do complete reinstall of FS9...make sure all the old stuff is removed/deleted--then run a registry cleaner...disk cleaner...defrag...then reinstall FS9. Start with default settings and document each thing you tweak and addon. It's a butt pain, but it's really the only way to isolate potential issues.Rich Perry

[Guest tonicfan]

What AV are you running? Some virus programs will cause FS9 to CTD unexpectedly. Also, I used to have a problem around BWI/DCA...I installed scan AFD which looks for duplicate .bgls AFCAD within the addon/scenery folder. Check your addon folder scenery for any additonal scenery folders that have nothing in them. I don't know the link off the top of my cranium for ScanAFD but if you google or search within avsim forum, you'll find it.Also, just thinking out loud here, do you have UT loaded? If so, make sure you've got the latest patch for it--resolved some memory "leaks" in US/Canada.Lastly, please provide your system specs and any other addons that might be causing issues. You mentioned the radar add...even though it's minimized it is still sucking up memory (perhaps enough putting you over the edge..sounds like you're running XP 32-bit?)... You can always delete your FS9.cfg and let it build a fresh one as well to rule out corrupted .cfg. If you're going to do complete reinstall of FS9...make sure all the old stuff is removed/deleted--then run a registry cleaner...disk cleaner...defrag...then reinstall FS9. Start with default settings and document each thing you tweak and addon. It's a butt pain, but it's really the only way to isolate potential issues.Rich Perry

Good ideas thanks. After some research i decided to turn off pretty much everything except for the new scenery i downloaded to replace the old toronto scenery. I turned off all MY AI's and got rid of the Radar which is from Reality XP. I really dont want to lose that, but im thinking the thing may have been AI related, but we shall see. I did the flight with all of that off and no active sky just the regular weather from FS 2004 Static and I was able to land. Now granted there were no AI aircraft at all, so the next test is to try turning the AI back on and leaving the other stuff off still and see if thats the issue. Ive got alot of AI aircraft.I do run 32 Win XP. SP3.I have 4 gigs of memory, so the fact that its a memory issue is not likely.The problem that bothers me the most is that the game just QUIT and didnt give me a report to microsoft or anything which is really weird. Ive had it happen before, things just crashing, so im not 100% sure whats causing it, but i have a sneaky suspicion its the AI.

[Guest tonicfan]

What AV are you running? Some virus programs will cause FS9 to CTD unexpectedly.

I use AVG anti virus.

[Bigmack 26]

Try reinstalling the scenery world textures from FS9 cd4. Maybe one's corrupt.Bill M

[Guest tonicfan]

Try reinstalling the scenery world textures from FS9 cd4. Maybe one's corrupt.Bill M

How can i just install that without doing the whole deal?

[Guest belga1]

Hello,

How can i just install that without doing the whole deal?

Yes you can Read:http://205.252.250.26/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1241545570Regards.Gus.

[John Hinson 22]

Usually, if Flight Simulator closes without a message, it will be an external problem. I would recommend checking your screen drivers, DirectX etc are all up to date.You might also like to experiment with different screen resolutions/colour settings, full screen vs windowed etc etc.John

[Kosta 122]

Usually, if Flight Simulator closes without a message, it will be an external problem. I would recommend checking your screen drivers, DirectX etc are all up to date.You might also like to experiment with different screen resolutions/colour settings, full screen vs windowed etc etc.John

If FS closes without a message, it can very often indeed be the FS itself. Not only external program. One should check for double afcad's (ScanAFD in the AVSIM Library), remove sceneries etc.My experiences FS doing that comes solely from the sceneries being installed falsely. Even disabling in some cases wouldn't do the trick. Reinstalling was usually the last resort that proved useful.I don't know which sceneries you are using and how and where they install, so I can't give you all the details. Also I disable AI on my computer, I fly always online, I heard AI also can cause CTDs.

[Guest tonicfan]

If FS closes without a message, it can very often indeed be the FS itself. Not only external program. One should check for double afcad's (ScanAFD in the AVSIM Library), remove sceneries etc.My experiences FS doing that comes solely from the sceneries being installed falsely. Even disabling in some cases wouldn't do the trick. Reinstalling was usually the last resort that proved useful.I don't know which sceneries you are using and how and where they install, so I can't give you all the details. Also I disable AI on my computer, I fly always online, I heard AI also can cause CTDs.

Thanks for the info.Some updates on my testing.I got rid of my old Toronto Airport area scenery completely. Removed from FS and fully deleted.I installed a different one that i downloaded and i flew the flight with AI on and off and it worked, it didnt crash in that spot where it did before.So now i have to load up Active Sky and try it with that i suppose. I think it was the scenery. I am going to download the program you suggested, i have got so much scenery here who knows if something got corrupted or is missing, this way this wont happen again. But i honestly believe it was the scenery. I had scenery for Calgary as well and i think it was by the same guy and that crapped out too so i think thats gonna get deleted and ill have to try to find someone elses to put in its place. So far so good, im keeping my fingers crossed. I really like the active sky weather, so i hope that didnt cause the issue. I also disabled that radar too, so ill have to try to re-enable that too next time.

[Mudhendriver 3]

Thanks for the info.Some updates on my testing.I got rid of my old Toronto Airport area scenery completely. Removed from FS and fully deleted.I installed a different one that i downloaded and i flew the flight with AI on and off and it worked, it didnt crash in that spot where it did before.So now i have to load up Active Sky and try it with that i suppose. I think it was the scenery. I am going to download the program you suggested, i have got so much scenery here who knows if something got corrupted or is missing, this way this wont happen again. But i honestly believe it was the scenery. I had scenery for Calgary as well and i think it was by the same guy and that crapped out too so i think thats gonna get deleted and ill have to try to find someone elses to put in its place. So far so good, im keeping my fingers crossed. I really like the active sky weather, so i hope that didnt cause the issue. I also disabled that radar too, so ill have to try to re-enable that too next time.

Just keep track of what you're loading in order to isolate--it's time consuming but will pay dividends later. Also, since you're running XP 32 bit FS9 is not using the full 4GB RAM...using something less than the physical RAM. One way to tweak (I used to have XP 32-bit on my old system) is to adjust the values in virtual memory page (I believe you get there by right click on my computer/properties then advance tab/performance into virtual memory. You'll find loads of forum comments on values and ranges. I don't want to give you bogus numbers--but I played with those settings and improved the stability of FS9 running in XP and reduced the number of CTDs I got. I'm sorry I can't recall my virtual memory XP settings. However, there are plenty of smart guys on this issue who can help better than I. But you may want to save that tweak until/unless you resolve the scenery one. They very well could be related.Rich

[Guest tonicfan]

Just keep track of what you're loading in order to isolate--it's time consuming but will pay dividends later. Also, since you're running XP 32 bit FS9 is not using the full 4GB RAM...using something less than the physical RAM. One way to tweak (I used to have XP 32-bit on my old system) is to adjust the values in virtual memory page (I believe you get there by right click on my computer/properties then advance tab/performance into virtual memory. You'll find loads of forum comments on values and ranges. I don't want to give you bogus numbers--but I played with those settings and improved the stability of FS9 running in XP and reduced the number of CTDs I got. I'm sorry I can't recall my virtual memory XP settings. However, there are plenty of smart guys on this issue who can help better than I. But you may want to save that tweak until/unless you resolve the scenery one. They very well could be related.Rich

How much ram is it using? Most of my games should be using the full amount of RAM i have already seen better performance out of not only FS2004 but other games as well. It seems rather stupid that the game wont utilize as much ram is there is available physically, or maybe microsoft didnt expect people to have that much memory. You think other programs are not utilizing it as well? My friend told me that they should.

[Jure 36]

Hi,it happens to me occasionaly. A CTD without any error message whatsoever. I found a solution that works for me - a bizzare one but it works. Now, these CTD's usually happen when I fly to my home airport LJLJ sometime in spring. I found that if I go to LJLJ when I start FS, I will get a CTD, but not always. If it happens, I simply restart FS, go to LJLJ again and - it will load normally! Then I simply go to the departure airport and do the flight. The trick is to go to the "offending" airport first and all will be well. Why? I have no clue... Like you, I also deactivated all add-ons, AI and whatnot - I even use the Modules folder clear of .dll's that belong to add-on aircraft (I use custom fs9.cfg's and batch files to copy only the relevant .dll to the modules folder when I fly that particular aircraft), all to no avail. But the above solution works for me. For some reason. I have no explanation... if I remember correctly, there is a sort of a seasonal bug within the FS9 (when seasons are changing) that could cause a no-error CTD, but I really don't remember the details about that. :(Regards,Jure