I can no longer make a flight without either a CTD or a shutdown due to out of memory. I have been with FS since the beginning, love this hobby and now it makes me sad.I have tried all of the suggestions. I have re-installed everything progressively and just as I think Ive solved the problem.Bang! Theres another one.I love tinkering with FS as much as the next man and of course I know that given time and patience, the problems can be resolved. Unfortunately, I neither have the time nor the patience to put this right. It wasnt this bad with FS2002 and yes I know that I can re-install that if I want. When FS9 is working its amazing and thats what I would really like.If anybody can point me in the direction of a miracle solution I will be forever in their debt. ThanksRegardsAdrianDell 8250 3.06ghz1536MB RAMATI 9700 PROAudigy 2XP PRO

It can be frustrating.The memory error seems to be related to autogen - try zipping up default.xml in the autogen folder and deleting the original. Also, when I was having problems, I found a utilty called maxmem by analogx that recovers memory when it gets low...Start there. After that, start looking into the "seasonal CTD" threads...Best,sg

Hi Adrian,I feel your pain, I too have had problems with stuff like this.I have one question though, have you installed any addons?, scenery in particular, or are you running a "vanilla" installtion of FS2004?Dan.

Are you using Windows XP?Another suggestion which may very well help is that when the application crashes, SEND THE ERROR REPORT! It is an anonymous application, and if MS knows a solution or cause, IE will open and show you suggestions. I too was getting random crashes, and good 'ole MS told me the problem was likely caused by sentinel drivers. I updated the sentinel drivers and the CTDs were gone. If you re-install the OS, and are still getting CTDs, you could have a hardware problem. Update all the drivers you can find for your hardware. Motherboard BIOS, mouse, Video card, joystick etc. Usually just the video card driver alone will not help, unless you have pinpointed the problem. You can also try moving your RAM to different slots and a few other tricks. I've just made massive hardware changes to my system, including SATA RAID drives, so I too have the "here we go again" pit in my stomach- but eventually it will all workout, just be persistent.

>SEND THE ERROR REPORT! It is an anonymous >application, and if MS knows a solution >or cause, IE will open and show you suggestions.That's a great tip - I had no idea. I've always been averse to sharing any info I don't have to over the net, I've discounted the possibility that useful information might actually come of sumbitting the error...good to know.Thanks!sg

Yeah, alot of people are afraid of sending MS info- especially since serial numbers tend to get, uhum, "lost" or "borrowed". Working closely with them, I have found out many interesting things about the company, and one of the big ones is that they tend to turn a blind eye toward consumers using illegitimate versions of their OS's. Most of their revenue comes from large corporations, and they are very strict making sure site licenses are up to date. With consumers however, they would rather have you using their OS rather than a competitors even if you didn't pay for it. This will make you dependent on them, and at some point you will most likely buy something from them. FS being a perfect example. It makes the MS products attractive to corporations as well if their employees are already familiar with MS products. I am an MS certified partner, and as an example, I can download and install any product Microsoft makes. I have 10 licenses for each product that requires a license key. If I run out, they give me more. Many products on the subscriber download site don't even need product keys. There is a master key for all MS products that require a 10 digit code (I won't post it). Their products tend to proliferate themselves, and this is why they are on 90% of the world's PCs. Training is another huge revenue maker for them. The reason I get all this stuff is that I'm supposed to love it, and sell it to other companies (which I do- why wouldn't I tell companies to go with XP Pro over Linux? I love it, and I know how to support it, and the employees already now how to use it). There are some 400,000 MCSEs in the world. Each one pays $125 per test, with an average of 10 tests to get their certification. That's 50 MILLION dollars they made just so people are proficient with their products! Brilliant. Enough rambling. My point being- don't be afraid to send them info- it will only benefit you and them.

Very good point about the error report, I have sent some myself in the past. The problem with the CTD is just that, straight to the desktop, no error message and no chance of sending a report.This is the most frustrating part about CTD's I think.Colin

hi Christian,what are these "sentinel drivers" and where are they located? i'm getting the CTD's as well. thanks in advance for the info. happy flyin, fm

DanLast night I bit the bullet and completely re-installed to a "vanilla"installation.With zero addons, all sliders maxed and 1600 x1200 x 32 and default 747 loaded I flew for 1.5hrs from EGCC north without CTD's and/or memory crashes. ALSO, not a stutter to be seen. FPS set at 25 and thats what I got. (Autogen at normal) JulyHave now repeated same flight with FSG mesh and same situation. For 3rd flight I have added FS Scene summer textures. Am seeing same FPS, but some stuttering. AugustTonight I propose to add British Airports and Scottish Scenery to see what happens. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is all to do withAFCAD files.A big thanks to all of you for taking the time to reply. You have given me the motivation to keep trying. I will keep you informed of how things go.Thanks againAdrian>Hi Adrian,>>I feel your pain, I too have had problems with stuff like>this.>>I have one question though, have you installed any addons?,>scenery in particular, or are you running a "vanilla">installtion of FS2004?>>Dan.

I am trying an experiment where I have created a fictional island that I have been flying to and from and in and around for about 2 months now, in an attempt to discover what cause a CTD. I have no atc or afcad yet but intend adding afcad files soon to see if these do make a difference. Hopefully I will be able to tell if it is an FS thing or a system thing, hopefully. Colin

The crash to desktop problem due to a memory leak is a very well known bug in FS9. It comes from landclass files residing in scenery folders that also have a texture folder besides it. If this is the case, FS9 starts to reload default textures over and over until the memory is completely used up - then FS9 crashes.The solution is simple, but can be a lot of work: You need to identify ALL landclass BGL files and move them to FS2004SCENERYBASESCENERY . This is where all landclass files should reside. Note that there is no texture folder beneath the scenery folder. Unfortunately there is no secure way to identify a landclass file. Normally authors tend to name them LCxxxxxx.BGL, where xxxxxx denotes the coordinates. But this is only a rule of thumb. If you

Hi MartinIn my own designed scenery, I have kept all the landclass files together in a separate scenery folder. There is also a texture folder next to the scenery folder but there are no textures in it. Would it be prudent to remove this texture folder, or just move all the bgl's to the SceneryBasescenery folder as you suggest?Generally I don't have many CTD's, they usually happen every 3 months and last time was just before the moon became full.Colin

You probably don't have any sentinel drivers installed. They are 3rd party device drivers for hardware locks for high-end programs. I have them installed for 3DS MAX. GMAX does not use them (I don't belive- although I haven't installed it). If any of you with CTDs are also using GMAX, you might want to look into it. They can be updated rather than un-installed which may help.

thanks. fm

Some good points but I'll continue to keep an eye on Linux and I still will use Open Office instead of M$ Office (come on, hundreds of $$$ for a word processor when I only use 10% of the features in it?), and Mozilla instead of Internet Exploder and MS Lookout :-lol The latest Sasser worm is a perfect example of what happens when you have a software "monoculture".