Help! FS9 crashes

[Joseph29 225]

Over the past 2 weeks my FS9 has been crashing and I have no idea why. So far I have had crashes in Canada (CYAY), Russia (USSS and UHPP), Doha (OTBD), Chile (SCTE), and the US (KCTL, KTIW, and KNTU)

 

When I start at the airports everything is fine, but when I change times (usually to a late afternoon or early morning time) is when the crash will happen. And here is the weird thing, after the sim crashes I will go back to the airport at the exact day and time the crash happened and everything will be fine.

 

I thought it might be a bad AI texture (I guess it still could be), but I can't get the sim to crash at the same time of the last crash. Any idea what could be wrong?

[alexos 1]

Joseph, try the reduction method:

 

Temporarily remove any AI aircraft, modules, clean the scenery.cfg, backup and save your FS9.cfg.

 

Try to make FS as standard as possible. Then, add back your files (that have been backed up before!!!) until you find the culprit.

 

Also: os it at its latest update cycle?

 

Directx at last version?

 

Streamline your setup!

[vonmar 122]

What I would do is:

Turn off AI in FS9.1.

Shut down/reboot.

Test FS9.1 using the default Cessna at KSEA.

[Joseph29 225]

But how will I know if AI or scenery is causing the crash?

 

Last week I was at USSS in Russia on a Wednesday at 9:30am (local time) and the sim crashed. Right after the sim crashed I loaded up FS9 again and went back to USSS at 9:30am on a Wednesday and the sim didn't crash.

[mebull 27]

 

 

But how will I know if AI or scenery is causing the crash?

Is there any MS or FS9 error message when the crash occurs?

Can you start a flight at one of these airports and fly around it ( staying within a 40nm radius ) without the CTD?

Do you have FS9 updated to 9.1?

One thing to keep in mind is that if your CTD is AI related it would have to be a aircraft / airline that flies to all the airports listed in your original post and that doesn't look likely. Scenery - default airports? Add on or default, all those mentioned airports and your description tells me it is a timezone or seasonal problem associated with FS9.0 If you do not have the update to FS9.1 I would highly recommend it. If you do have the update installed I would recommend uninstalling it and then reapplying the update, . . . .with special attention to how it behaves in regards to any add on material you have installed. The update may fail if it determines that any of what it is to update is not FS9.0 original ie .dlls and .bgls

If these are default airports, then it would have to be a corrupt default texture, however, since you can successfully restart a flight from these then that source of the CTD is also eliminated.

From your information, I just can't see how it could be AI related unless it is a default AI aircraft texture. That said, most commonly AI problems would cause a immediate CTD as soon as they come into view. In the above post you describe a attempt (flying to?) and problems at USSS at 9:30 am then restarting at 9:30 am at USSS with no trouble. If this was a AI problem, reloading at the same time wouldn't prove much. The AI engine may have set the AI to have already departed or it may have not yet arrived. You would need to restart at 9:15 am or earlier and observe until at least 9:45 or latter to be sure. The fact that your problem occurs at so many geographically diverse locations is the key. Crossing timezones or seasonal transitions. To test for a seasons.bgl problem set your season to mid summer and try a flight. The seasonal problem occurs during or near the time they change or when flying from one season area like winter to a location where the season is something different (on the ground appearance) such as spring. If you have a successful flight set the season back to current (same time a week as above) and test again to verify the CTD. If your flights are east / west try a north / south flight so you will not be crossing timezone lines. If you get the CTD then try the same flight set to mid summer and north / south. Let us know what happens and we will go from there.

Regards,
Mel

[Joseph29 225]

Mel, here are some answers to your questions.

 

Is there any MS or FS9 error message when the crash occurs? I don't know the exact wording but it says something like a error has occurred and needs to close.

 

Can you start a flight at one of these airports and fly around it ( staying within a 40nm radius ) without the CTD? This I don't know. When these crashes happened I was at the airports just watching my AI. I would slew to different parts of the airport, turn off the slew mode then just watch the planes from the spot view (I was in the default Cessna 172). Then after maybe 15-20 minutes of watching I would move to different part of the airport and switch to a different time.

 

Do you have FS9 updated to 9.1? Yes

 

All of the airports are custom scenery except for Doha which is default. (USSS is from Aerosoft and the others are freeware)

 

I have been thinking and one thing that could be causing my trouble is AI planes with 32 bit textures. I have had problems in the past with 32 bit AI textures and I would change them to DXT textures with mipmaps and the problems would usually end.

 

I will try your idea of doing a flight at mid summer then switch to the current season I will also look for 32 bit AI textures and change them to DXT textures.

 

PS: I have had crashes before, but this is the first time I have had so many crashes at so many different aiports. Also I was just at CYAY and SCTE before coming to the forums trying to cause a CTD and I could not get it to happen.

 

[pschlute 37]

Are you using Flight Environment ?

 

Peter

[Joseph29 225]

By the way my KCLT scenery is from Imaginesim and not freeware.

 

Are you using Flight Environment ?

 

Peter

 

No. I have REX.

[pschlute 37]

By the way my KCLT scenery is from Imaginesim and not freeware.

 

 

No. I have REX.

 

I use Flight environment, and very occasionally get a crash like you describe...usually at sunrise/sunset textures. Updating with a different texture set solves it.

 

You do need to rule out AI or airport textures first, but as your crash is not repeatable by day/time I realise this is going to be very difficult.

 

Peter

[mebull 27]

 

 

I will try your idea of doing a flight at mid summer then switch to the current season I will also look for 32 bit AI textures and change them to DXT textures.

 

Have you checked the FS9.exe to verify that the update went properly?

 

Changing the AI textures from 32 bit to dxt is a good idea regardless of anything else. See if you can get more detail from the crash report, most often there will be something provide in it that will point us toward a very likely cause, even though it may be a bit cryptic. It would be very helpful to know if a .dll or .bgl is mentioned.

 

Again,  . . . to have problems all over the FS9 globe with so many payware sceneries doesn't seem likely, except there is obviously something in common with them all and possibly all non payware locations as well. (Have you checked that?) The problem with the commonality issue is that there are so many possibilities. So, the question is what do all of these locations have in common that is not part of any payware scenery. Sky textures, cloud textures, perhaps autogen textures, perhaps land class textures, time zone changes and seasonal changes / variations etc.

 

What aircraft(s) are you flying when you experience the CTD? If you are always using the same aircraft try some other choice, if for no other reason than to eliminate that as the cause.

 

Regards,

Mel

[Joseph29 225]

While looking at a new freeware scenery for Tbilisi (UGGG in FS9) I installed tonight I was getting crashes again at both dusk and dawn. You know when FS9 loads it has that progression bar? Well I noticed that the sim was crashing while loading weather (at the 76% mark I think it was). I did not notice when the sim crashed the other times but I did notice it tonight. Maybe pschlute (Peter) was on to something?

 

Tomorrow I am going to load a different set of REX textures and see if that helps/fixes my problem.

[Joseph29 225]

Here is my Windows Event Viewer of the latest crash

 

Faulting application name: fs9.exe, version: 9.1.0.40901, time stamp: 0x4135a208
Faulting module name: nvd3dum.dll, version: 9.18.13.1106, time stamp: 0x50f946b6
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0054b950
Faulting process id: 0x22b8
Faulting application start time: 0x01ce47b3324c8c2a
Faulting application path: C:\MSGames\FS2004\fs9.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\system32\nvd3dum.dll
Report Id: 401f47af-b3a7-11e2-91d9-90e6baa27bd7

[ematheson 19]

Check that "Render to Texture" is checked ON in your hardware graphics settings in FS9. That is almost always the cause of a freeze or crash while loading weather - and the percentage (77%) is almost diagnostic. If somehow "Render to Texture" is unchecked and you are using 3D clouds, this is a potential problem - and if it is a problem for you, it is an issue with incompatibility of something in the graphics card drivers, so there is little to nothing that can be done about it, so it is best just to make sure that it is turned on at all times.

[vonmar 122]

"Faulting module name: nvd3dum.dll"

 

This is the Nvidia (video card),

 

What card do you have?

How much memory does it have?

Is the driver up to date?

[Joseph29 225]

ematheson: The Render to Texture option is checked on

 

vonmar: My graphic card is a GeForce GTX 275. I don't know how much memory it has. Where would I look to see how much memory it has? The latest drivers I have is 311.06. I figure since this is a older graphic card it wouldn't be worth it to update the drivers often.