Hello everyone

 

Since a couple of days Windows presents a pop up message at the bottom of the screen each time when I shut down FSX. The message mentiones initially fsx.exe but then says that there is a damaged record or folder in the C:\ProgramData\Temp and advises to execute a 'chkdsk'. Windows maintenance centre as well as my own maintenance program (Advanced System Care) do not report any problems. Only the Windows Eventviewer produces the error message repeatedly during an FSX session. FSX works normally. I have no idea what the relation of fsx is with the files/folders in the Temp subfolder, most of which are by the way more than a year old. So I figure that with deleting the content of the Temp folder I would get rid of the error messages. Can I do this without running into other problems? Thanks for any input/thoughts on the subject.

 

Kind regards,

Rene

My Win7 64b PC at work does not even have a temp folder in ProgramData. I will look, but I doubt that my home PC and laptop have it either, both are also Win7 64b.

 

Before you delete the folder you can rename it to C:\ProgramData\Temp2, reboot and see what happens. After you boot if you have a temp folder again some program or service that runs on starup is creating it.

Doing a google search for "what is C:\ProgramData\Temp" everything that comes up relates to a virus. When is the last time you did a virus scan. Two free ones that I use that will pick up a lot are Spybot and Malwarebytes. Install, update and run Spybot first.

 

http://www.safer-networking.org/ (Spybot)

 

http://www.techspot.com/downloads/4716-malwarebytes-anti-malware.html (Malwarebytes)

Thanks for the replies. I'll certainly follow your advice (already have Spybot), but meanwhile I discovered another possible source of the error message, i.e. the settings of the game booster I normally use before starting FSX, which I've changed recently. If the gamebooster is not being used, the error message does not appear after shutting down the sim. So it looks like the booster 'kills' a service or program that shouldn't be killed.

 

Regards and thanks for your efforts.

Rene

Current state of affairs: I did a full virusscan with NOD 32 which said it had found two infections in a downloads folder. Those were successfully removed. Then ran Spybot, which found no problems. Subsequently ran a scan with the Malwarebytes Anti Malware program (seems a very good tool indeed); found no problems.

The gamebooster has been ruled out as a possible source of the problem.

 

I've done some testing with FSX, after taking the courage to delete everything in C:\ProgramData\Temp. Started a flight with the default Cessna (no gamebooster, no weather program), shut down FSX. No error message, BUT in the Temp folder a file (re)appeared, named 74603393.TMP, size 145 bytes, and oddly enough with a date of five days back.. So according to logic it seems as if FSX produces this mysterious TMP file, but I find that hard to believe. The error message now pops up irregularly, in most cases not when the default Cessna has been used, but it does after an NGX flight.

 

Regards,

Rene

For future reference: The problem has been solved with Hitman Pro (which found a vrus that NOD32 hadn't discovered) and a disk check/repair. Don't know which of the two exactly cured the appearance of the mysterious tmp file, maybe both.

 

By the way, the health of the HDD can quickly be checked by opening the classic DOS screen (type 'cmd', without the hyphens, in the field at the bottom of the Windows start screen, followed by 'enter'), and in the DOS screen type 'fsutil dirty query c:' If the answer (appears immediately) is 'the volume is not clean' than you should do a 'chkdsk' (command 'chkdsk c: /f').

 

Rene