I've been poking around a bit researching this increasingly nagging issue I've been having with FS9. I see other posts that are almost related but not quite the same issue.My PC stats:Dell XPS Gen 2 P4 3.2 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM - 533MHzATI Radeon 9800 XT - 256MB (latest Catalyst drivers)Sound Blaster Audigy 2 (latest drivers)160GB Serial ATA HD - 7200RPMWindows XP SP1DirectX 9.0bI believe I started noticing the issue after installing a certain add-on utility. More on that in a minute. The simulator would suddenly "go black" with no image to the screen and I'd hear a high pitched, often alternating, sound from my speakers. Like really annoying static. In addition to this, my monitor's power indicator light would be cycling on-off, like it does when you turn off the PC with the monitor still on. Keyboard input appears to be locked (no light comes on when selecting Caps-Lock for instance), and the only remedy is to do a hard boot.This has happened under the following scenarios:-In ANY of my aircraft. Add-on or default-Flying with autopilot engaged, no manual control input-In spot plane view-In VC view using my mouse and mouse wheel to pan around the cockpit-In spot plane view using my mouse and mouse wheel to pan around the aircraft.-Basically, ANY TIME I'm loaded in the sim with an aircraft active, I'm prone to get this. The last crash happened last night in the PMDG 737, level in cruise, auto-pilot on IN VC VIEW. I did also have Active Camera on and had loaded the saved views for this plane.Now, on to the add-on utility. I hate to point it out because it MAY not be the problem. BUT, I think I started noticing this "some time" after installing Active Camera 2004. I say some time because I don't believe I noticed it right away, or at least the crashes were not as often. In the beginning, I thought it might have been caused by my mouse when I press and held the middle mouse wheel to pan using active camera. I will try today to remove Active Camera, do some flights and see what happens. My gut tells me it could also be related to video card (temp), or monitor, but this problem ONLY occurs in Flight Simulator. I've NEVER seen it outside the sim. My PC is only 4 months old, and the XPS is supposed to do a fine job in the heat removal department. Never had my fans really spool up during play.I tried checking the forum for this product with not so much luck in finding a resolution. I have updated my video drivers, and sound drivers, but can't seem to find a mouse driver to update. (default dell optical mouse). I also recently re-installed DirectX 9.0bAgain, sorry for the long post, but I thought some detail might help with pointing me in the right direction. Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks!!!

Anyone with ideas? I'm just about to throw in the towel and re-install FS9. A new issues is now surfacing where my scenery starts loading during flight and hangs at 8%. This has happened at least twice recently.

I have also encountered crashes like this with FS9, and I don't have Active Camera 2004. I don't think it's a specific add on. Windows andFS makes a complex software system, and can't be completely stable.I have also experienced crashes were hardboot is the only way out outside FS in other games, but not precisely in the same way as you describes.

Aaron, your extensive post really merits a reply. Although I wouldn't know how to help! Doesn't your gear have a PCI-e display adapter? The DDR-2 mention makes me want to believe it's so. Also the 9800 doesn't fit the picture. Maybe that's why nobody can help? Are all the drivers installed? What's your chipset? Is the desktop resolution the same as in the game? Is XP's SP2 installed (although FS9 isn't listed in the SP2 'incompatibility list')? Honestly, I wouldn't know where to point you. Good luck nevertheless and kind regards Jaap

Hi Aaron. Let me make one suggestion. On some systems,( mine included) having fast writes enabled ( SmartGart in ATI-speak) can produce the type of crash that you are describing. Open the ATI properties on the desktop, click on SMARTGART and see if it is ON. If so, you might try disabling it ( turn it OFF) and see what happens.Good luck with it.Ed GreenKCLThttp://www.panelshop.com/DEV.jpghttp://www.globecargo.org/images/VAA_Sen_captain.jpg

I had a very similar problem, random crashes to a black screen. It seemed to mostly happen when changing views which led me to thing it was video-related. But I read somewhere to try changing my sound settings from Full Acceleration to Basic Acceleration in the DirectX settings. I haven't had this type of crash since.Run "dxdiag" and check the settings on the SOUND tabs.Jim

Hi Aaron,I had the exact same issue, until a couple of weeks ago.I discovered that I got the freeze when I had a heavy CPU load, and it almost always happened when I was in VC mode.My CPU (3 GHz P4E) had a voltage of 1.3.something - cannot remember. I've upped it to 1.45 V and the problem disappeared. I also had a heat problem, but you say that it's not a problem for you - so the voltage might have something to do with it.I don't know if you are able to set it in the bios, but it might be worth a try.Hope you'll resolve that, I know how annoying it is - with that rig, you'll really fly.Cheers-Lars

AAron, before doing a reinstall why not restore to a restore point prior to adding Active camera? That will give you an idea if it is that program or not. Just a suggestion,Joe

Joe,Sorry for the delay in response. Was away for work. Well, that is a good point, and I did perform a restore in XP..but for another reason! I weighed the options and decided to do the re-install so that I could put FS9 in it's own cage on another drive, away from the OS.Well, I got a bit ahead of myself wanting to clean up the registry to remove FS entries that the uninstall routine did not. Big mistake. I started getting crazy errors on important system files. Fortunately, I was able to boot to my wife's profile, run restore and now I'm on disk 2 of the re-install...Hopefully this works. I'm now going to start a log spreadsheet of all my FS additions, deletions, and modifications. Since I've only had my PC for a few months now, I have not loaded the massive amount of crap that I had in FS2k. I'm being much more cautions now. Besides. You can only fly one at a time!!!

Lars,Interesting point. I believe most of my crashes have been in the VC or external view as well. I'll look into the voltage thing. We can have pretty lame voltage dips in my neighborhood from time to time. How did you determine the voltage? Are you using a 3rd party application? I tried to D/L a temperature monitor (freeware program) but it did not support my "Dell proprietary" motherboard. Tell me, do you use ActiveCamera?I hate to keep bringing them up as a potential culprit, but I just want to start ruling things out. That's why I chose to do a fresh re-install and log the crap out of every change I make to the sim.

Jim,Thanks for the advise. I think I remember running the DXDIAG program and did not find any issues. HOWEVER I do recall getting some kind of message that there might have been a problem with DirectPlay during a previous session. Perhaps this is related to the hardware acceleration issue you mention. Certainly worth a try IF this situation comes up again. Since I've re-installed the SIM, I'm going to keep everything pretty basic, aside from the standard FS9.CFG tweaks to see how things hold up. If it happens again, I'll try the Basic Acceleration tweak.Thanks again!

I'll check this setting out. I just re-installed FS so I'm trying to eliminate as many variable as I can.Thanks for the advice.

Jaap,Thanks for the reply. Actually, I'm not familiar wit PCI-e so I don't really know. The other monitor connection I have is DVI. My monitor is not capable of using this however. To your questions...-All drivers installed and updated to latest (those that really matter)-Chipset is Intel i875P-1280x1024x32 for desktop and sim-No XP SP2 yet..waiting for things to settle down a bit.I know it sounds hard to diagnose..It really bums me out that you can have such a "powerhouse" pc and have issues like this..Nothing like what I had in FS2k2, but the simming experience was nothing like FS9 either, so I can't complain.As I've been responding to other replies, I just finished a re-install so I can start logging every change I make to the sim to see what works/dosen't.Thanks for taking a stab at problem resolution for me!

Aaron,I'm not sure how you'll do that on your Dell.I'm using an Abit AC-7 motherboard, and I could "up" the voltage in my bios settings.SOme years ago I to had a Dell, and I did not have any possability to change anything in my bios - as it was a pure Intel board (I don't think you want us to do things like that).I hope you resolve your problems.Cheers amd good luck-Lars