FS2004 Help!

[Joseph29 225]

For the past 3 days everytime in the middle of a flight I would be panning around in spot plane view looking at the scenery when all of a sudden FS2004 would crash and I would get the following error message:Ddhelp"The program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down"Any idea why this is happening?? It has happened everytime Im looking around in the spot view. What can be done to stop this??

[Joseph29 225]

No one can help me? Maybe my computer just can't handle FS2004? If no one can help me it looks like I will have to go back to FS2002 :-(My current specs are:P4 1.9GHz256RAMGeForce2 MX 400Soon my specs will be:P4 1.9 GHz512 RAMa new graphic card

[Guest OneTinSoldier]

Hello,Sorry, I can't help you. But it might be a good idea to list what sound card and driver version you are using. Not only that, it may be an issue with the game, in which case you can request technical support from Microsoft to try to get to the bottom of the problem. I would also suggest listing what plane this is with. If it is with any plane, I would say so.Regards

[calypso 32]

The problem is most probably memory (or lack of it) related.I believe the error message you got concerns Direct Draw (part of DirectX)Upgrading to 512 MB RAM and more memory on you new graphics card will make an big difference.What version of DirectX are you running?Cheers,

[Joseph29 225]

I was flying the default cessna, the default Learjet, and a FFX 737-300 when the crashes happened.Im not sure what type of sound card I have (I definatly know it's made by Creative) Where does it say the name of the sound card?I downloaded DirectX 9.0a but I thought I saw on here that my current graphic card don't support DirectX 9. On the DirectX Diagnostic Tool it says DirectX 9.0a is installed though.

[Guest Boogie]

I have had a similar problem which I hope has been fixed by installing the 44.03 driver from Nvidia's site.Hope this helps.Boogie.

[Guest emergency_pants]

Yes...definitely install the lastest drivers. Also, as John says, it might be a memory error or a swap file that is too big, run out of disc space or unable to read or write for some reason. The answer may be to bump the memory up a bit or temoprarily reducing the texture quality and cloud quantity to see if it makes a difference. If you have a HUGE swap file, your disc drive will be reading/writing/running overtime, so it might be worth taking a look at that to see if you need a tad more memory.What graphics card do you have? I can't imagine that DX9 would make a graphics card not work properly... I've never heard of that before! Slightly older graphics cards wouldn't utilise the full capabilities of DX9, because they were designed with DX8 (or earlier) in mind. But that's not to say that the card won't work. I don't think you need to worry about that.Good luck with it. Si.

[Guest ssurjap]

I would also click on the details button.The first line is the telltale sign. It'll say something like "DDXXX caused an invalid page fault in module YYY". That YYY is the one that's causing the problem.I agree with the others--update your drivers. Also DirectX 9.0b is available. Download that and you should have less problems.

[Joseph29 225]

My current graphic card is a GeForce2 MX 400. Some time this week or next week I will be getting a new graphic card (either a Radeon 9800 Pro 128, Geforce 5600 Ultra, or a Geforce FX 5900 Ultra) Since Im getting a new card should I bother updating the drivers on my old card? (I will also be getting more RAM with this upgrade, currently I have 256 RAM)When the crashes happened I didn't click the details button, when it happens again I will look at that.(PS: I already have DirectX 9.0b installed)

[Vulcan 14]

As others have said Joseph the error is in Direct Draw and I am *almost* certain it is a lack of RAM.You don't say what OS you are running, I hope WinXP, in which case you certainly do need more RAM.If your upgrade is RAM or Graphics card I would invest in more RAM, if you can afford both then you should be a happy bunny :-)Best of luck.

[Joseph29 225]

Vulcan: Im still using Win98, and I will be upgrading both graphic card and RAM at the same time. (I May upgrade to WinXP now if the RAM and graphic card don't cost to much, if not I will upgrade the OS later)Well I guess it's back to FS2002 for now.

[Vulcan 14]

Just a note Joseph in case you were not aware,Win98 does not handle RAM above 512MB very well but there are work arounds, although 512MB should be OK if you don't run any other large or memory intensive programs at the same time you are simming.WinXP handles RAM far better than Win98 and so gives you a more stable platform for FS anad also should eliminate any ddhelper or GDI errors.HTH

[Joseph29 225]

>although 512MB should be OK if you don't run any other large or memory intensive programs at the same time you are simming.I never do that, when my FS is running that is the only thing that's running. I even turn off my virus protection when FS is running. :-)As for the WinXP. I might upgrade to that, I have to see how much the graphic card and more RAM will cst first. (I might be a new CPU and new motherboard too)