Out of the  blue, FS9 refuses to start.  The splash screen flashes a fraction of a second, then FS9 closes.  There is no BSOD, no error message, no event in the Windows event log.  It seems to just exit cleanly. The task mgr shows FS running for a couple of seconds.

 

I have made no (known) changes to my FS since my last flight.

 

What I have tried:

 

- restore Windows to a point prior to my last good flight

- disabled all non-stock sceneries  (although it does not get as far as renewing the scenery index)

- deleted FS9.cfg.  A new one is indeed generated but with 0 bytes.

- removed SweetFX

- run another FS9.exe that I had backed up when installing the 4GB patch

- malware scans

 

My next step is to try in Safe Mode... if I am ever able to access Safe Mode in W7!

 

Has anyone perhaps encountered this and found a solution?

 

Thanks,

 

Phil

 

Windows 7 64.  FS9.1.  Nvidia

 

 

 

 

 

run another FS9.exe that I had backed up when installing the 4GB patch

Never heard of this before. What's a 4GB patch?

 

deleted FS9.cfg. A new one is indeed generated but with 0 bytes

Are you sure you deleted the fs9.cfg and not the fs9.txt? It has been a long time but believe the fs9.txt file is created whenever you have a crash. If you do not have file extensions turned on, then you could have deleted the .txt file instead of the .cfg.

 

Did you disable the modules in the dll.xml?

 

In FSX, there are a lot of problems with corrupted logbooks and removing the logbook.bin and letting fsx rebuild it usually fixes it but in FS9 it's called a logbook.log. In the fs9.cfg, under Misc, there should be an entry like Log_File=(then the name of the logbook like logbook). Sometimes this entry gets corrupted in the fs9.cfg so make sure the entry equals the one in your C:\User\Documents\My Documents\Flight Simulator Files. If there is no entry or it looks corrupted in your fs9.cfg, then just name it LOGBOOK, save the FS9.cfg and restart. In the My Documents/Flight Simulator Files you can try renaming the logbook.log to logbook.old and let it rebuild when you restart FS9.

 

Did you try starting FS9 with Administrative Rights? (right click fs9.exe and select Run as Administrator).

 

Is UserAccessControls (UAC) disabled?

 

FS9 will not work in Safe Mode (or at least it shouldn't).

 

Hope this helps.

 

Best regards,

Thank you, Jim, for your quick reply.  I'll save your tips for future reference.

 

Explanations below for the benefit of others who might have similar issues.

 

I identified my problem when managing to start Windows in safe mode.  

Upon FS9 startup, a pop-up showed up about "Bad Level-D 767 licence.  FS9 will quit".  I pressed OK and it quit alright as promised!.

 

The licence must have been corrupted by some virus scan or Windows restore.  I started the 767 install process, aborted it,  and that was it.  Licence regenerated.  FS9 happy. Yours truly ecstatic.

 

Now, why would that popup message not show up in standard mode?  That caused a lot of frustration and almost made me do a clean FS9 install!

 

 

Never heard of this before. What's a 4GB patch?

I meant "large address aware patch"  to allow the use of memory beyond 3Gb

 

Regards,

 

Phil

I meant "large address aware patch" to allow the use of memory beyond 3Gb

I figured that was what you meant but be aware that the large address aware patch (/3GB switch) allows access to VAS up to 3GB. You will never see up to the max of 4GB's as the system needs some of it too. Without the large aware address, you only get up to 2GB's of space for FS9 or FSX or P3D. But that's only in a 32 bit operating system. With a 64 bit operating system, you don't need the switch or patch or whatever you want to call it.

 

I identified my problem when managing to start Windows in safe mode.

Upon FS9 startup, a pop-up showed up about "Bad Level-D 767 licence. FS9 will quit". I pressed OK and it quit alright as promised!.

Get out of here! What a find! I didn't realize that was possible! Just have never had the op to start up in Safe Mode with no drivers installed. It would be great if FS9 or FSX or P3D would tell us exactly what's wrong but the programming of the product does not allow that. Maybe in 50, maybe 75 years from now.... LOL.

 

Best regards,