FSX Not Responding

[jmartintn7 0]

My son (12 y/o) has had FSX for about 4 years and has not had any significant trouble with it until today.  FSX worked fine for him last night and now it just won't start.  The task manager says that it's not responding.  I have scoured various forums to find a solution to no avail, so I'm hoping someone here can help.  

 

I have done a system restore and followed the steps to fix a corrupted logbook (which seemed to be the most common cause of this type of problem), but nothing has worked.  I was going to reinstall FSX until I saw that we only have disc 2 and disc 1 is MIA, so until we locate that, reinstalling isn't an option, I guess.

 

I ran the Event Viewer and all of the error messages say "Application Hang", however there are various descriptions depending on which error type I select. For example:

 

"Hanging application fsx.exe version 10.0.61355.0, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000"  

"Fault bucket 429836706"

"Hanging application iexplore.exe, version 8.0.6001.18702, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000

 

He frequently downloads airplanes and scenery and he had just purchased "Samsoft - The Very Singapore FSX" from SimMarket this morning.  It was installed in a temporary folder on the C drive and we never got to the point where we attached it to FSX (because when we tried to open it to do so is when we started having this problem).  I'm not sure if this is the actual cause or just a coincidence.  

Either way, any help would be much appreciated as he absolutely loves playing this game and is just distraught at the thought of not being able to play anymore.   

 

He plays on a Dell desktop, running Windows XP Professional.  I'm not sure what other information you might need, but will do my best to provide whatever details you need.  Thanks in advance for any help!

[jmartintn7 0]

Just found disc 1, so I can reinstall if that will be the best bet.  I should also mention it is FSX Deluxe Edition, so I'm assuming the service pack is Accelleration, though I'm  not sure where to check to confirm that.

[Jeff H 63]

Sounds like your FSX.cfg might be corrupt. Before you go on reinstalling everything, which can be a pain, you should try to let FSX rebuild the config file.  First, make sure your system is set to show hidden files. Once that's done, click on the start button, search and type in fsx.cfg.
It should be in your documents and settings\username\application data\microsoft\microsoft games\microsoft flight simulator x\ folder.  Rename the FSX.cfg file to FSX.bak and save it.  Then start FSX as normal.  This will let FSX rebuild the cfg file and it should start normally. 

I hope this helps.  Let us know how you make out.

 

Cheers,

Jeff

[jmartintn7 0]

That was it!  Thank you SO much, Jeff -- I really appreciate it!  There's no way that I would have figured that out on my own.

 

Is there an explanation for why/how that file became corrupt?  Do you think it has anything to do with the add-on scenery that we were going to install or any of the recent airplane downloads that he had installed?  I'm wondering if it would be safe to try to install the scenery like we had planned on doing before running into this problem, but I'm leery now of this happening again.

 

My son is absolutely thrilled that this is fixed, too, so thanks again! 

[Jeff H 63]

You're quite welcome.  Happy to help.  As for your first question, the simple explanation is that the FSX.cfg file can get messed up for any number of reasons, and there's not always an obvious cause.  It could be the add-ons, it could be that FSX didn't shut down properly the last time your son flew, it could be because the wind was out of the northeast today, lol.  It's just the nature of the beast that it sometimes happens.  You do have to be careful with add-ons.  There are varying levels of quality in the things you can add on to FSX, but even the best can sometimes cause issues.  Rarely are the problems insurmountable, but the solutions don't always jump out at you. Best thing you can do is make sure you are purchasing from reliable developers, of which there are several. It always pays to do some research here before purchasing something.  I'll go out on a limb and say that among the hundred and some odd thousands of pilots here on AVSIM, every add-on available has been tried by someone at least once, and you'll be able to find a wealth of information on their experiences with them.  A little due diligence will go a loooong way towards making your son's flight time enjoyable and as close to trouble free as is possible.  One last piece of advice is to always check here before doing anything catastrophic, like uninstalling and reinstalling. It will save you a lot of headaches.  I'm so glad your son is a happy aspiring pilot again.  If there's anything I can do for you down the road, please don't hesitate for a second to ask.

 

All the Best,

Jeff

 

Edit:  I'm sorry I don't have any experience with the software you mentioned, but you could try to reinstall it. Actually,if it's still there it may actually work now.  No way to tell without trying it.  If you have to reinstall it, be sure to try uninstalling it first.  If you run into issues with it, by all means post a question here in the forum and I'm sure someone will be able to get you sorted.

[jmartintn7 0]

Thanks again for your help.  Unfortunately, we're back to FSX not responding again.  ??  After getting FSX up and running, my son saw that the traffic in My Traffic X wasn't showing.  Apparently this problem is usually caused by a path in the fsx.cfg file.  When I went to the folder to check the file, I saw that there were other fsx.cfg files, too.  They were:

 

FSX.bak (the one that I had renamed) a CFG file

fsx.CFG -- a Text Document

FSX.cfg.bak -- a BAK file

fsx.cfg -- a CFG file

 

First, should all of these files be there?  The first 3 files listed were there when I went in to rename the file to solve my original issue.  Files 1,2 and 4 all opened with Notepad and it look like they all had the same information.  When trying to solve the traffic problem last night, I saw the first 2 files and both had the correct path for MyTraffic.  However, after shutting the computer down for the night and trying to see if I could solve the problem again today, I saw the fsx.cfg file (file 4), which I could swear wasn't there last night.  In that file, the path for MyTraffic was missing.  I typed it in and started up FSX.  That's when I saw that it wasn't responding again.  I wish I would have tested FSX before I made that change to see if it was already having trouble, but I didn't.  So I don't know if the problem is caused after shutting the computer down and restarting it or if it was due to file 4 and my editing the simobject path in there.

 

Unfortunately, I'm back to square one and not sure how to fix it -- and afraid to try anything on my own for fear that I'll mess something up.  Any ideas on how to fix this again is greatly appreciated!  Thank you!

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[jmartintn7 0]

I now see yet another cfg file named fsx in the Application Data/Microsoft/FSX folder.  It's 1KB and I'm sure it wasn't there yesterday or even when I made my last post. That's a total of 3 CFG files, 1 text document named fsx.cfg and 1 BAK file named FSX.cfg.bak.  Are all of these supposed to be in this folder?

 

How are these getting created and does this have anything to do with FSX not responding?  

 

Changing the name of the fsx.cfg file to FSX.bak worked last time, but now with so many cfg files, I don't know which to change or if I even should.  Or if I should delete some of these files if they're duplicating? 

 

Would it help for me to attach the files to my post and if so, how do I do that?  I appreciate any help -- thanks!

[Jim Young 2,356]

Whenever there's a FSX crash or fsx did not start up properly, a fsx.txt file is setup.  The only working file would be the one with the extension .cfg.  Anything else would not be recognized by FSX.  When you renamed the fsx.cfg originally, it looks like you just added .bak as you could not "see" .cfg.  That's okay too.  FSX only looks at the .cfg extensions.  You can delete the .txt or .bak files if you want.  If you want you can go into folder options and uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types".  Then all of the extensions will be shown and it won't look like you have several fsx.cfg's in the folder (click on the Start button, type Folder in the search bar, look up in the menu and click on Folder Options.  Once open, click on the View tab and then look in Advanced Settings).  Again, it does not hurt to have them all there but it's nice to keep things tidy.

 

If you want to attach a file to a post here, you have to copy the fsx.cfg then rename the copy to fsx.txt or jmartintn.txt.  Then, in the lower right corner of your post, click on "More Reply Options".  More reply options will allow you to attach a file.  Unfortunately, our system will not accept any files with .cfg as an extension for security reasons.

 

 

Just found disc 1, so I can reinstall if that will be the best bet.  I should also mention it is FSX Deluxe Edition, so I'm assuming the service pack is Accelleration, though I'm  not sure where to check to confirm that.

 

FSX Deluxe has two installation DVD's.  If you reinsert the first one, you will get an option to "repair" fsx or uninstall it.  If you do the repair option, then you will need both DVD's.  If you have Acceleration (which is not a service pack), you will need to reinsert that DVD too and do a repair to complete the repair process.  If you do not have Acceleration, then you will need to run SP1 and then SP2 to complete the repair process.  Acceleration has both SP1 and SP2.

 

Most likely the application hang was not caused by MyTrafficX.  First of all, the hang report does not indicate SP2 or Acceleration is installed, just the Deluxe version (your version indicates V10.0.61355.0. FSX Acceleration version would be V10.0.61637.0.  MyTrafficX and most other FSX addons require at least SP2 or Acceleration to run addons properly.  If you have an Acceleration disk, I would install that and that will bring FSX up-to-date and you should see no more application hangs.  If you do not have own the Acceleration disk, then you will need to download and run SP1 - http://www.microsoft.com/products/games/fsinsider/downloads/pages/flightsimulatorxservicepack1.aspx and SP2 -http://www.microsoft.com/Products/Games/FSInsider/downloads/Pages/FlightSimulatorXServicePack2.aspx.  This should fix your problem(s).

 

The second application hang you referenced above in your OP belonged to Internet Explorer and should not have any bearing on this issue.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Best regards,