Fortunately I save most of my default installation FS9 critical folders and files before I change or add anything.By a process of elimination I have found what has been causing my problem and hope that it might be of some help to somebody else.In the texture folder there are ten "cumulus_XXXX.bmp" files. I deleted the ones in my folder and replaced them with the defaults and everything is working fine SO FAR now.In retrospect, it seems that these problems started about the time I updated my Chris Clouds, but I would not want to be hung for that. For sure I never had a problem with the previous version. Not bad mouthing that fine work at all, just trying to be helpful.I would suggest that anyone having similar problems take a crack at going back to the default textures and see if the problem goes away. If that works, you can start the process of elimination to find out which files are the culprit. I would suggest starting with the ones I name above.Now if anybody is interested, I will tell the rest of my story. If not, just try the above and ignore the rest of this post.My problems developed a couple of weeks ago. Useing FSMETEO weather, i would get random FS9 crashes with no warning (An immediate crash with no error window or anything else.) This problem was progressive until it would finally result in a crash when I cranked up FSMETEO (NOT THE CAUSE, keep reading!) I have used this program for years without any such problem and had changed nothing in it of which I was aware.I finally used the XPPRO Restore function a couple of weeks ago and went back to October 1, before I installed the FS9 patch along with a few other things. Murphy took over and everything cleared up (False cure).Today the problem reappeared. I tried the restore routine again, and it did not work. In fact, during the process, I lost all restore points up until today.This time, just for the heck of it I removed FSMETEO and FSUIPC and tried FS9 real world weather. She crashed there just like it did with FSMETEO. It appeared to me that any time something (not sure what) updated or changed in weather, that was where the crash came. That somewhat makes sense with the "cumuilus bmp" cloud bit above.I started my process of elimination. I went back to default scenery, then default modules, then default cfg files etc. etc. until I put default textures back in. The problem was gone. I then started replacing my current other folders and files until default textures was all that I had that was new (or old depending on how you look at it). I then started replacing the texture files(half, then half of that, half of that etc. etc.) alphabetically until I got to the "C's". Had my problem back again. Narrowed it down until I came up with the ten files mentioned above.Now to see if I can find a similar bug causing the default flight saving problems.In the event that someone wants to pursue a similar path but did not save their default folders and files, there is an Excel spreadsheet listing all of the content on each FS9 disk thanks to Brian Collins (Thanks loads Brian). I don't remember whether it is on FlightSim or AvSim, but the file I copied was fs9cddir.zip. You should be able to find it on one of them.Hope this helps somebody!Happy flying:RTHEdit: One sidenote I just noticed. While I was having the problem and before it deteriorated to the point of weather not working at all, With live weather, everytime i changed airports or anything else which required everything to update, when the ribbon got to "77%" (which was weather) she crashed every time. - For whatever that might be worth. There is no sign of that response now. She goes to the new selection smoothly with no problem.

Just curious--is "Render to Texture" checked in your display settings? If the bmps you replaced were in DXT3 format, it would explain the CTD if you have render to texture turned off... Some of the replacement cloud sets were saved in DXT3 format to keep file sizes down.Having render to texture enabled eliminates many CTD issues that are otherwise hard to track down.-John

Hi, "the when the ribbon got to "77%""In the readme it was stated , if you are using DXT clouds, enable render to texture, 32 bits no need to use render to texture enabled.It is related to DXT clouds when there is no render to texture enabled in fs2004, also on some system having render to texture enable can degrade performance, try the 32 bits version which is created to have the same result on fps without render to texture enabled.ThanksChris Willis[link:fsw.simflight.com/FSWMenuFsSim.html]Clouds And Addons For MsFs

I believe you are correct.I did have render to textures turned off.When it was on, every few seconds I was getting a flicker on my screen at one point and discovered that with it off, the flickering went away. Any ideas concerning that issue?I am about to try reinstalling your clouds Chris. (Was going to do that anyway). The difference in frame rates is astounding. I probably will start with the previous version being that i had no problems there at all to my knowledge and work forward from that point.Thanks guys:RTH

I have gone back and reinstalled Chris's clouds and lights. I have tried both the 32bit and DTX options and see no problems with either so far. I have also tried both the HIFPS and HIPSv2 versions and both seem to work equally well.Pretty well 100% Probabality lies with my render to texture turn off as the crash to desktop problem. Believe it or not, I did read the readme file, but had forgotten that instruction over time when my flicker bit showed up. I make no claim to having enough memory installed between my ears. So far I am not seeing the flicker I saw earlier when render to texture was enabled. I don't know what the cause was, but with it turned off, the flicker went away. Hopefully it will not reappear.No sign of a crash either so far.Thanks again:RTH

I guess the flicker problem only occurs in very high visibility scenarios. After I had set my max vis to 50sm inside ActiveSky I have never seen the flicker again.Alex