CTD Query

[ianzee 0]

Hello out there,

 

Hopefully I'm in the right place, and that some kind person can help. Its a bit weird.

 

My problem is this - whenever I try to fly towards or even get near airspace in Denmark I get an Immediate CDT. It doesn't seem to matter which part of Denmark or which airport I head for the result is the same.I've tried looking in the Recycle Bin to see if I may have accidentally deleted something but to be honest I'm not that technical, so not sure what to even look for.

 

Has anyone got any suggestions? Can anyone help, I hope so.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Ian Zetland

Warwick

 

 

( High End games PC - System: Windows 7 (x86) FSX all patches & Acceleration)

[Guest firehawk44]

Has anyone got any suggestions? Can anyone help, I hope so.

 

You might want to go through some of the recent posts here as some others have experienced this problem and it is most likely a system configuration problem like memory frequencies, timings, or voltages not correct or virtual memory settings not set to 'system managed size' as FSX seems to like that setting the best. You could be having overheating problems too. One of the things you need to do is check the system Event Viewer and look for any error messages showing a faulting module in FSX, etc. I have explained this procedure in most of the posts below this so I won't repeat it now. But, if you're having problems, let me know and I'll go through the procedures you need to take to check errors in the Event Viewer. Not to worry. You did not accidently delete anything. FSX just can't use all the memory resources you have installed. It's an old program.

 

Best regards,

Jim

[ianzee 0]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly.I've had a look in Event Viewer - there are loads of error messages but I can't see any references specifically to FSX anywhere. Maybe I'm missing something as it's all rather technical - but I'm not!! Even if I saw an a error message, what would I do about it? I did have some overheating issues but thats been resolved a while ago now. Your further help would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks & regards

 

Ian Zetland

[Guest firehawk44]

Maybe I'm missing something as it's all rather technical - but I'm not!! Even if I saw an a error message, what would I do about it?

 

What I always recommend is looking at the Administrative Events in the Event Viewer. When you open up the Event Viewer, in the left column, open custom views, then click on Administrative Events. When you do this, you'll see a listing of all the events. In the right column there are Actions. Go down to View and click on Preview Pane. Now, when you click on an event, you'll see a preview of the problem in the middle column below the list of events. Look for an Event that occurred on the date and time of your CTD. It may or may not reference FSX. Once found, look over at the Actions column again. Look down the menu and you'll see the Event (number), and the Title of the Event (such as Service Control Manager). On the right there's a small arrow. Click on it and it should open up more items below it. Click on Copy then "Copy Details of Text". Come back to this forum and right click an area in your Reply to this Topic. Click on Paste. The details of the event are now displayed in your response. The information in these error messages is important and it provides information that may lead to the cause of your crash. For instance, a faulting module or an Exception Code error. Without this information, it's very difficult to figure out what when wrong to cause your CTD. There are a lot of people here who have reported CTD's while landing and especially after a long flight. Most likely that's caused because you started to run out of memory. A lot of people set the size of their page file or virtual memory. That's good for a lot of games but it doesn't work well with FSX. System managed size is the best setting. To check this, click on your Start button in the lower left corner and, in the search bar, type Virtual Memory. Look up in the Menu and click on How do I change Virtual Memory settings. That will take you to that page. If it's system managed size, that's good and no need to go further. Another common cause for CTD's is not having all the required Microsoft.net framework programs on your computer. These are programs used by FSX addon developers to make your addon run better. Since FSX is an old program, you will need to have Microsoft.net framework versions 1 thru 4 installed. Microsoft installs Version 4 automatically with Windows 7 but it is not backward compatible. All of the different versions installed are located in your C:\Windows\Microsoft.net\Framework folder. If you don't have four versions, you'll need to make a Google search for Microsoft.net and download the ones you need. After you have all versions installed, run Windows update to make sure you have the latest update as this program is constantly updated. One other main function of Microsoft.net software is to manage memory for FSX and FSX addons.

 

You might want to lower some of your sliders in your FSX settings too and see if this resolves the CTD's. Some have had success too by deleting or renaming their FSX.cfg, restarting FSX, and letting the config rebuild. You might want to rename it just in case it didn't fix the problem and you want to go back to your original FSX.cfg.

 

That's enough for now. We need to see the "Event" that caused the CTD and hopefully we can then find a solution.

 

Best regards,

Jim

[ianzee 0]

Hello Jim,

 

Many thanks for your comprehensive reply. It's taken me a while to sort through all the details. Anyway. before I set out the Event Viewer. I have changed over to 'System managed file', as you have suggested. However on searching through the

 

Microsoft.net data that you suggested I have found that while I have : V1 through to V4.3 on Framework, on Framework64 however I only have V2 through to 4 (no sign of V1 here at all) Further, even going onto Microsofts downoad page I can't

 

seem to locate it - there seems so much other technical stuff which doesn't seem relevant. Do I need V1 for Framework 64? If so can you please let me have the link for it - thanks. As to the Event Viewer results on the latest CTD this what I have copied

 

out:-

 

Log Name: Application

Source: Application Error

Date: 07/05/2012 12:45:40

Event ID: 1000

Task Category: (100)

Level: Error

Keywords: Classic

User: N/A

Computer: IanZetland-PC

Description:

Faulting application name: fsx.exe, version: 10.0.61637.0, time stamp: 0x46fadb14

Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 6.1.7601.17725, time stamp: 0x4ec49b8f

Exception code: 0xc0000005

Fault offset: 0x0002e04e

Faulting process id: 0x960

Faulting application start time: 0x01cd2c42c37222c7

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\fsx.exe

Faulting module path: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ntdll.dll

Report Id: 2b2e6a8d-983a-11e1-9e65-001f81000250

Event Xml:

<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">

<System>

<Provider Name="Application Error" />

<EventID Qualifiers="0">1000</EventID>

<Level>2</Level>

<Task>100</Task>

<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>

<TimeCreated SystemTime="2012-05-07T11:45:40.000000000Z" />

<EventRecordID>44102</EventRecordID>

<Channel>Application</Channel>

<Computer>IanZetland-PC</Computer>

<Security />

</System>

<EventData>

<Data>fsx.exe</Data>

<Data>10.0.61637.0</Data>

<Data>46fadb14</Data>

<Data>ntdll.dll</Data>

<Data>6.1.7601.17725</Data>

<Data>4ec49b8f</Data>

<Data>c0000005</Data>

<Data>0002e04e</Data>

<Data>960</Data>

<Data>01cd2c42c37222c7</Data>

<Data>C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\fsx.exe</Data>

<Data>C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ntdll.dll</Data>

<Data>2b2e6a8d-983a-11e1-9e65-001f81000250</Data>

</EventData>

</Event>

 

Hopefully this will be of use in tracing the reason for the CTD, At least I hope so.

 

Once again many thanks for your efforts & patience it is appreciated.

 

Ian Zetland

[Guest firehawk44]

Framework64 however I only have V2 through to 4 (no sign of V1 here at all)

 

That's great! That's all you need. I have the same 64 bit versions installed too. I don't think it's for FSX though as FSX is strictly a 32 bit application living in a 64 bit environment. A 64 bit OS environment provides better memory management for FSX. The dotnet framework is used to manage memory for their addons too. What about the MS Visuals C++ Redistributables for 2005, 2008, and 2010? Those must be installed too (looking back I don't see where I told you this - sorry!). Look in your Add/Remove Programs and scroll down to the Redistributables. Make sure you have all installed. They are NOT backward compatible so you can't just have 2010 installed. Again, these are installed by the developer of FSX and addon developers if not located on your system but sometimes this doesn't happen. They are very important.

 

Your CTD (looks like today) was caused by the infamous NTDLL.dll. There is no known 'magic bullet' to fix this type of crash but it is connected to your system memory. The ntdll.dll allows user programs like FSX to request system services from the Windows kernel, such as 'give me more memory' and is usually accompanied with the Exception Code 0xc0000005 (explained next below). If you just installed a new aircraft or scenery, it may not be compatible with FSX. I have found some people porting FS9 aircraft/scenery/utilities over to FSX and that caused the crash. I helped one individual here back in March or April and he had just installed a new aircraft, one he had been flying for years in the past. He had the same error report as you provided. He didn't think that was the problem but he reinstalled the aircraft and the crashes went away. I just mention this as it could be your problem too.

 

The Exception Code 0xc0000005 indicates you had a Memory_Access_Violation. This could be caused by a lot of things too and you just have to investigate through trial and error to find the culprit causing your crashes. Since NTDLL.dll is connected to memory resources too, I suspect you might have the wrong frequency, timings, and/or voltages for your system memory. It could be caused by overheating too or even your CPU voltages being too high or too low. If you are overclocked, you can try returning your BIOS settings back to the default and see if that stops the crashes. Then you'll know if that's the problem. Here's a link to one of my favorite articles on overclocking. It's short and it provides info on settings that should not be exceeded - http://www.techreaction.net/2011/01/04/3-step-overclocking-guide-%e2%80%93-sandy-bridge-v0-1beta/. Too high FSX settings will also cause this crash if the crash occurs in areas where your FPS suddenly go down and a lot of resources are being placed on your system. FSX has brought down many high end systems! Lastly, it could be a bad "tweak" in the fsx.cfg. High end systems really do not need tweaks. The one I think is really needed is the HIGHMEMFIX=1 in the Graphics section of the FSX.cfg.

 

Hope this helps you figure out the problem.

 

Best regards,

Jim

[ianzee 0]

Hello Jim,

 

Thanks for that. I can confirm that I have all the 3 Modules for MS Visuals C++ Redistributables.

 

I note what you say as regards NTDLL.dll.. I have ported over 1 FS9 aircraft about a year ago, I flew it once it seemed OK, Should I remove it? I haven't recently installed any new scenery, the last one was about 6 months ago , but these CTDs have been going on for quite some time now.I am currently flying the PMDG JS41 more or less all the time now, it's a complex programme, should I re-install it? ( As mentioned earlier the CTD seems to come when I'm within or close to Denmark airspace - even when testing the default Microlight crashes when I'm there !)

 

As far as wrong frequency, timings, and/or voltages are concerned I really know next to nothing about these settings or what they mean or even where to find them :-( - ditto with the BIOS settings too - I'm very unsure about messing with any of these settings, without the commensurate knowledge. Recently, I replaced the CPU with a high end one, as I had overheating problems, however it turned out that a good vacuuming for dust etc & general clean up inside the PC case sorted this out.

 

Finally, the FSX.cfg file - I note your comments with interest - however I have done several searches for this on my PC ,but it doesn't show up - perhaps its a hidden file? Is there some special nack in finding it? You mention about the HIGHMEMFIX=1 - do you mean to change it to that setting?

 

It seems that I have 'ticked most of the boxes' with most of my system settings as you suggested - yet still I have these frustrating & annoying CTDs, Am I getting anywhere?

 

Many thanks again for input & patience ( and my apologies for my lack of technical knowledge)

 

Sincerely

 

Ian Zetland

[Guest firehawk44]

FSX.cfg file - I note your comments with interest - however I have done several searches for this on my PC ,but it doesn't show up - perhaps its a hidden file?

 

Yes, it is a hidden file. To show hidden files on your computer, follow the directions at the following link - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Show-hidden-files (for Vista but it works for Windows 7 too).

 

Once completed, open up Windows Explorer and click on your C:\drive. The fsx.cfg is located in C:\Users\Your User Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX. Double-click on fsx.cfg to open it up. Look for the GRAPHICS section and then enter HIGHMEMFIX=1 anywhere in that section then click on file at the top and select save.

 

You stated: "I have ported over 1 FS9 aircraft about a year ago, I flew it once it seemed OK, Should I remove it?"

 

I wouldn't remove it unless your crashes started right after installing the fs9 aircraft. Most fs9 aircraft are compatible with FSX. It was just a suggestion to look at the possibilities of this being your problem.

 

You stated: "I can confirm that I have all the 3 Modules for MS Visuals C++ Redistributables."

 

Make sure you run Windows Update to make sure they are up-to-date.

 

You stated: "Recently, I replaced the CPU with a high end one, as I had overheating problems, however it turned out that a good vacuuming for dust etc & general clean up inside the PC case sorted this out."

 

This could be the problem. In the BIOS there's a setting for the CPU voltages. If it is too high or too low this can cause your computer to crash and/or an application like FSX. You replaced your old CPU with a higher end one so it makes sense your voltages should be different. Your computer manual will tell you how to open up the BIOS as you system is starting (could be the F2 key, the delete key, the ESC key). When you hit the key as your system is starting up, your BIOS will be displayed. Here's a good link to check to make sure the voltages are not too high or too low - http://www.techreaction.net/2011/01/04/3-step-overclocking-guide-%e2%80%93-sandy-bridge-v0-1beta/. (If you do not have the Sandy Bridge chipset, then here's a link to the others - http://www.techreaction.net/2010/09/07/intel-core-i3-i5-and-i7-buyers-guide/ (click on the appropriate chipset guide).

 

You stated: "As mentioned earlier the CTD seems to come when I'm within or close to Denmark airspace ."

 

Others in this forum who have suffered crashes while attempting to land at an airport in Denmark never indicated how they fixed this problem. Most were flying for several hours and I surmised it was an overheating issue. The only suggestion I have left is to disable the addon airport (if it's an addon and not the default) and the Denmark scenery (if it's not the default but an addon) in the Scenery Library by unchecking the scenery to see if this fixes the problem. If it does, you'll know there's something wrong with the addon scenery. I figure it has to be the scenery as you are getting the crashes whether flying the PMDG aircraft or a default aircraft. We are running out of possible fixes and, if disabling the scenery does not help, I recommend you completely uninstall FSX and reinstall it. I see you're running Acceleration. There is a possibility this was not installed properly. Before uninstalling FSX (if that's the option you are going to seek), I would insert the FSX disk and select 'repair' when the options show up. Once repaired, you'll have to reinsert the Acceleration DVD and select repair there too.

 

Sorry I can't be of more assistance in solving this problem. Good luck!

 

 

Best regards,

Jim