Dreamfleet 727 and Windows 7

[HaraldG 559]

Just a heads up:

The Airspeed Indicator is the offending gauge.

If I deactivate the ASI gauge in the panel.cfg, I can toggle, read and click the kneeboard without problems. It seems that the gauges and the kneebord communicate in a way unique to this plane (and maybe depending on GPU manufacturer?!?).

 

But due to the complex modelling of this superb aircraft I get other problems. The VSI gauge will crash the sim without ASI already when loading the flight. (I deactivated the VSI, too). Furthermore, with ASI and VSI deactivated, toggling the Flight Engineers panel crashes the sim.

I didn't test what happens if I replace the ASI with another ASI gauge. I honestly expect the whole plane to work not longer.

 

I decided to move on to the DF 727 support forum, but I'm frankly suspect, that it is not really alive anymore.

 

As I bought the 727 as boxed version from Aerosoft, it may be useful to use their support forum, doesn't it?

I really appreciate the help I got here at Avsim but I think I should rather ask the vendor of the product.

 

Thanks to all

Harald

[ehasanov1 1]

Hi Harald.

Thanks for deep investigation and report.

I will leave as it is. I don't fly to much.

 

P.S. Little OT. Do You know maybe good Sochi scenery. You can pm

 

Thanks

 

Edin

[HaraldG 559]

 

 

P.S. Little OT. Do You know maybe good Sochi scenery. You can pm

 

Hi Edin, you have a PM.

 

Harald

[HaraldG 559]

After I had no success neither at the Dreamfleet 727 support forum nor at Aerosofts support forum I decided to come back here. Today I ran ProcMon and I realized that at the very moment I toggle the kneeboard, FS9.exe wants to get access to a file "d3d10warp.dll" in the c:\windows\syswow64 folder (it is indeed there), but there is a problem indicated "File locked with only readers".

There are other problems indicated, mostly connected to the registry, don't know what they want to say me.

 

I have managed to get around quite well without the kneeboard, but I try to understand the problem and I'd feel better without it.

 

Thanks for any input!

 

Regards,

Harald

[Jeff H 63]

After I had no success neither at the Dreamfleet 727 support forum nor at Aerosofts support forum I decided to come back here. Today I ran ProcMon and I realized that at the very moment I toggle the kneeboard, FS9.exe wants to get access to a file "d3d10warp.dll" in the c:\windows\syswow64 folder (it is indeed there), but there is a problem indicated "File locked with only readers".

There are other problems indicated, mostly connected to the registry, don't know what they want to say me.

 

I have managed to get around quite well without the kneeboard, but I try to understand the problem and I'd feel better without it.

 

Thanks for any input!

 

Regards,

Harald

Hi Harald,

Sorry to say that the Dreamfleet has been out of business for a few years now.  You may be able to find some answers on the Dreamfleet forum here:

http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/forumdisplay.php?19-DreamFleet-727-Support-Forum

 

Not sure if you found that one or not, as the link on Dreamfleet's site has been dead for a few months now. It's not that active anymore, but it is still a valuable repository that you can take advantage of.  As for the Dreamfleet 727 specifically, You might also contact Flight1.com, who still sell the 727.  They might be able to offer some limited support.

Hope that helps a little.

Cheers,

Jeff

[HaraldG 559]

Hi Jeff,

 

many thanks!

 

On the Dreamfleet forum, my post wasn't answered for weeks now. At Aerosoft (I bought the boxed version via Aerosoft) there was an attempt to help but without success. To me, Avsim seems to be the most "living" forum.

Anyway, perhaps anybody has an idea, if not, it won't be the end of the world!

Regards,

Harald

[alexos 1]

Harald - just a wild guess: since your error seems to reflect sth with d3d, have you disabled any enb bloom feature?

---

Well as a man of your insight and sherlock i tend to state you already tried that...

 

Beste Grüße,

Alex

 

PS I am gonna reinstall that bird into w7 to see if i can reproduce, any further observations via pn.

Harald - just a wild guess: since your error seems to reflect sth with d3d, have you disabled any enb bloom feature?

---

Well as a man of your insight and sherlock i tend to state you already tried that...

 

Beste Grüße,

Alex

 

PS I am gonna reinstall that bird into w7 to see if i can reproduce, any further observations via pn.

F*** ya, mobile device!

[wad53 3]

Hi Harald,

This is probably no help but:

 

I tried my DF727 to test the Kneeboard (haven't usually used them) and indeed I get the same problem. PC freezes and can only be unlocked by using Task Manager.

I tried using a different key assignment (desperate hey) but problem remains.

I tried just accessing the Kneeboard via the windows menu, same problem.

I tried using Firefox and Google Chrome instead of IE11, same problem.

 

So, I couldn't solve it either.

 

Only person I can think to get help from is Paul Golding who often posts here at Avsims.

 

Cheers,

 

Warren

[HaraldG 559]

Hi Alex and Warren,

 

thanks for your posts.

 

Warren, do you also own an ATI/AMD graphics card? Which driver version?

 

I tried all that, too, but without help. With one exception: I never used ENB bloom (or SweetFX) due to problems I experienced with these tools on my old WinXP system.

Nevertheless I enjoy this aircraft without kneeboard, which I actually used only to remember some ATC advices I didn't understand clearly enough because I use the accellerated ATC by EditVoicePack.

After all, I still believe in some strange incompatibility of the gauges with some other FS2004 functionality under Win7 according to my previous tests (post #13 and 16).

 

Am I right that this d3d10... stuff somehow belongs to DirectX 10?

The strange thing is that my Win7 came with DX11, while I installed DX9.0c additionally to have proper sound for the TinMouse 732, what worked well. If I test DirectX via DXDiag, I get v.11 as installed version without problems. There were no differences for my DF727 problem before and after re-install of v.9.0c. I thought of reinstalling v.10 the same way, but found no installer. But then I found the d3d10warp.dll file within my Windows\system32 folder as well as in my Windows\WinSXS64 folder. They have a different file size, but nevertheless they are there. The question is what ProcMon wants to say me with the indication "File locked with only readers"?

 

By the way, after my latest tests, I get the same phenomenon if I load a flightplan and click the "Show navigation log" button or if I choose this functionality via menue "Flight - Navigation log" (but again, only with the DF 727 as active plane). In the latter case, the "frame" of the navigation log will appear, but without the log itself, and then Fs2004 freezes. FYI, I use flight plans made with FSCommander v. 9.4. Obviously, the navigation log of FS2004 is somehow similar to its virtual kneeboard. Another fact: I can use FS2004's map without problems.

 

Regards and Grüße,

Harald

[wad53 3]

Warren, do you also own an ATI/AMD graphics card? Which driver version?

No Harald, I'm using NV GTX480. I also don't use any special enhancer programs, it's a pretty basic FS9 setup.

I also have no similar problems with other aircraft, it's specific to the DF727. I'm pretty sure it used to work ok when I had Win XP as my OS, but now I'm using Win 7 64.

 

Warren

[HaraldG 559]

Thanks Warren, so we have ruled out that it is a specific ATI/AMD graphics problem.

 

 

 

I'm pretty sure it used to work ok when I had Win XP as my OS, but now I'm using Win 7 64.

 

Same for me, I have this problem since I changed over to Win7 just one month ago.

 

Harald

[wad53 3]

Still not much help for you Harald, but you got me interested enough to try a few more things.

 

I tried substituting the default B737 kneeboard files into the DF727, but still crashed FS9. So it's not the format of the DF727 checklists etc.

Tried Windows mode and Full screen, still crashes.

 

I then tried running in Windowed mode, but I opened the kneeboard files from the File manager. They open as expected in a separate window, but of course FS9 pauses while that window is open. You can then return to the FS9 window and it continues running. Not sure what that is telling us, but it seems that the way the kneeboard runs from within the DF727 is causing a conflict.

 

So, I suppose if you really wanted to have the kneeboard checklists etc available during a flight, it can be worked around by running windowed and opening them separately, or transferring them to a second monitor, but that is very messy.

 

Pity, but at least the DF727 still flies nicely without the kneeboard items, so best to remove them, I think, to prevent accidently freezing FS9.

 

Or, maybe someone else here is able to run it with the kneeboards and can enlighten us further.

 

Cheers,

 

Warren

[HaraldG 559]

Meanwhile I tested further and I can confirm, that not only the "kneeboard freezing" but also the "navigation log freezing" depends on the Airspeed Indicator gauge. And also in the case of "navigation log freeze", ProcMon shows a lot of registry accesses and finally "d3d10warp.dll".

 

Warren, you are right, the 727 flies very well without the kneeboard and I use her almost every day. But, as we say in Germany, "The Better is the enemy of the Good"; it's a kind of nerdness that I still search for a solution to have this plane working perfectly. By the way, your observation that

 

 

it seems that the way the kneeboard runs from within the DF727 is causing a conflict.

is corresponding very well to my observation about certain gauges being in conflict with the kneeboard.

 

There are indeed some members who can toggle the kneeboard without or with only minor problems as they had stated at the beginning of this thread. But I'm sure it's almost impossible to find out what is different in their systems as it may depend on many factors system- (OS-) or FS2004-wise.

 

Maybe they use a different panel layout? I run panel.10 with CIVA INS enhancement. I could try with one of the EFIS or low resolution variants.

 

Cheers!

Harald

[Captthud 0]

I just installed it for the first time for a long time.....haven't installed FS9 for a year or so, I was just using FSX.....and have this problem. I wonder if it's an internet browser problem it may be set up for a specific version. I'm not sure how to test this, and I'm just guessing 

[HaraldG 559]

Yes, some users did downgrade their Internet Explorer to version 8 and solved the problem, but with a late copy of Win7 - being equipped with IE11 from start - installing IE8 is impossible. I have accepted this, while I did have a very good time with the DF 727 in the times of WinXP I'm now looking for another everyday plane. It's not only the kneeboard problem, since I have Win7 I often had crashs due to panel.dll with the 727...

 

By the way, this seems to affect other Dreamfleet planes too, for instance the ATR 72, while their A36 Bonanza makes no problems at all.