I downloaded and installed Flightsim Manager too. What a great little program! It does everything! Thanks for the suggestion, guys! Much obliged!Cheers,N.

I do not have that many add-ons except free sceneries and AFCAD's, but ever since I keep checking for duplicates with ScanAFD, I do not recall any CTD's. Might help.Cheers,MAB;-)

Many problems result because the Registry is filled with Invalid links. It takes so much time going through all the invalid links searching, the program errors or system crashes.Recommendations for better operation or to stop errors or even a CTD of your system:IF you are using XP, without SP1 and SP2, installing it will boost _framerate_ and make other improvements.The FS9 was _created_ with XP installed, and the FS patch was undoubtedly created, with SP2 installed. If not using SP2, by all means upgrade, there are too many reasons to do so, to repeat here.Each time you _delete_ something from your HD, it can leave an invalid links, deleting an aircraft you no longer use. Deleting stuff from your Download folder, etc.. Even something as simple as a picture you no longer want, leaves an invalid shortcut. Over time, invalid registry entries can slow your system to a crawl, if FS pauses _too_ long, it even causes errors, as XP "times out". Software demo's or payware which give you a free trial, leave links in the registry or leave folders with junk in them, which you need to remove manually. You can get RegCleaner free, I've used it with W98, ME, and XP.You might search for: RegCleaner 4.2 by Jouni Vuorio.Another free program is...RegScrub, and it is easy to use even if you know nothing about the registry. This will delete many _invalid_ registry keys, etc. but does not find all problems. First time it ran on my system, it deleted 287! HOWEVER... both my wife's and my computer have been slowing down drastically over the past year, and even have had a few "blue screen errors." Pages which used to load in 4-5 seconds, have been taking 16-20 and longer on DSL!A friend told me to check this link for an even better program http://www.registryfix.com/ Decided to try it. It found 275 errors which several other registry cleaner programs have _never_ found. It Fixed 37 ... which helped, but to fix the rest you need a registered copy, which costs $29.95 . . . .. Decided to buy it, ran it to delete the others, and rebooted. Now all webpages which Ive tried, load in _one to five_seconds with 0SL! Unlike the other registry programs, Registryfix searches Classes, Program ID, Add Remove Programs, Application Paths, Windows Fonts, Shared Program FIles, Help Files, Startup Programs, System Services, VXD Section, File Assoc, Sounds, Registry Integrity, and for Invalid Shortcuts or entire drive for orphaned files or links and missing shortcuts, et. al... Finds errors and then fixes them. One person I told about Registryfix, found 309 errors on his first search, another person I told, said it deleted ... 1643 errors ... and his system ran like it did brand new. Windows makes RegClean, but it does not work anywhere near as well as this one.Have begun running it each day, after I'm through surfing, etc, as I use the computer 8-12 hours a day, and it means my system runs better the next day. AND I always run it before running the Flight Sim.If not using Ad-aware, and Spybot, (freeware) its a good idea to begin. They can get rid of a LOT of programs which tell companies where you are surfing, and more. Each time they do, it uses bandwidth. . . .. If there are hundreds of them on your system, the time they use is significant. Cleaning your Registry and getting rid of Spyware, makes your operating system work the way it should.Every time I have a problem with the FS, _first_ thing I do is clean the system.As it is the easiest to use, and Fast,I highly recommend you at least check out the demo at: http://www.registryfix.com/

Registry cleaners can be really dangerous for two reasons:1. Many of the freeware cleaners that can be downloaded from the net are trojans for spyware or work very badly.2. Even with payware cleaners that do work properly, there is never any guarantee that they won't delete something vital for your system's operation. That said, the alternatives are not attractive. You can do a format and rebuild but that takes more time and knowledge than most people have. Particularly if you have 40 GB of flight sim files like I do. Even if you make an image of your system with Norton's Ghost, most of us have systems that evolve (read grow!) with time and an image of your system won't save much time if you have to load a bunch of new files by hand. It has been recommended that the best approach is to manually remove registry entries with regedit. For this to be a viable option, you need to know what to delete and what not to.Where do you get this information?Cheers,N.

> Where do you get this information?From personal experience... Didn't you -read- the message?First, I have been using regcleaner for years, running the automatic feature in it, have have _never_ had a single problem. If you only use that feature, and leave the rest alone if you dont know how to use it, there are no problems. Second, many others have also been using it for years, without any problems. Third, I have now been using the automatic features of RegistryFix for over a year, without a single problem.Neither have _ever_ deleted anything which is "vital" to the systems operation. Each of them, are run at least once a week, sometimes more often, and they find invalid links each time. Do you really want to do a format and rebuild" that often? I think you would not.As for Norton, I ripped it out of my system over a year ago, it IS one of the programs slows the system down dramatically. Many have had lots of problems with Norton. As far as I am concerned Norton is worse than many spyware programs. There has been quite a thread about it on AVSIM and the problems it causes for FS, for some time. Switched to Avast, to check for trojans, etc, which works much better, without using so much of the system resources.Try over 90 Gigabytes of Flightsim files... if I want to add more, have to delete stuff, to have enough room for defragging, etc...By using only the automatic features of RegCleaner or RegistryFix, you do not need to know what to delete and what not to. Maybe it would be best to go to the webpages concerned and learn something about these programs before posting warnings which do not apply. What do you mean by "trojans for spyware?" Have never seen or heard of that term, and I've been using computers since 1976... My message also recommended ADAWARE, which eliminates "spyware" very effectively, and the payware version of it, even PREVENTS spyware from being installed. If either were even slightly related to Trojans OR Spyware, and "dangerous" - I'd certainly never have recommended them...

>> Where do you get this information?>>From personal experience... Didn't you -read- the message?No me old China, I read your message and I am not shooting from the hip. I did some research before opening my trap. I checked with IT professionals responsible for supporting around 6000 PC's (that's CSIRO, folks). Then I checked some IT websites. The recommendation of both groups was not to use registry cleaners, but instead to save a pristine image of the system when it is first loaded. Now as I explained in my post, this is not very attractive if you are constantly adding to your system, as we flight simmers do. An image is no use if it is out of date. So I'm all in favour of registry cleaners, IF THEY ARE SAFE. Freeware one's ain't safe! You can't be sure they will work properly. You can't be sure they don't have some nefarious code incorporated in them. Payware register cleaners are often better and safer. But they can be like a bazooka in the hands of a 10-year-old kid. There's a lot of potential power and you only need to delete one wrong entry to turn your system into an unresponsive heap of silicon and plastic. OK, you have had a good experience with Registryfix. On your recommendation I downloaded it and ran it on one of my PC's and it sure ran like a charm. But did you know there is a freeware package called Registryfix 3.0 (similar name but not related) that some people have had, well shall we say ISSUES with? All I'm saying is: be extremely careful with these things. They don't all work as well as they should. And the consequences of a single mistake can be severe.For a review of several registry cleaners, see:http://registry-repair-software-review.top...=clean+registryCheers, N.

Find that is a good link, with lots of information about Registry repair, but am also suspicious of any site which provies reviews, and promote certain programs. Especially those which provide links to them, as they get commissions for the promotion. They did not "Review" RegistryFix, but did have a 'Google Ad' which lead to it... Spent several hours during the night doing a google search for RegistryFix, and could not find a single reference to "V3.0... where did you find this information. There was no warning on http://registry-repair-software-review.toptenreviews.com or on Google about any version http://Registry.fix.com V3.0But they did have this info:"Safety

Philip,Thanks for taking the time with your explanation. I used a spyware checker and also turned off my antivirus as you suggested. Problem has almost gone away but not quite. I can fly now for about an hour before the problem strikes. You are probably right - something is cutting in and taking the resources up.Kev

Where were you flying when the program crashes? I downloaded the new update but haven't found any flaws in fs so far. How long did you play fs before it crashed? I just tested it for a little bit with my A320. No problems all except I need to re-learn to fly the A320, since I am a 757 sim pilot. Any info would be appreciated.Total Program crashes? Please be specific. Are they "Send MS error report" CTd, Hang ups? Btw- What was the date of the update? I know I installed it but I might have to do system restore if I have problems.

>>> Where were you flying when the program crashes? It does not seem to matter. I am flying GA or Egg Beaters in Michigan, Wisc and Illinois. >>> I downloaded the new update but haven't found any flaws in fs so far.There have been a couple Updates for XP since the middle of May. This is when the problem started. The errors all result in "Send MS an error report" however I have also had one where it could not find a default airport when switching starting locations. That one locked the system up so bad I had to use the reset button (which I hate doing). When you 'send an error report' the program ends and you go to desktop. I am not sure if that is what some of these messages are saying relative to CTD and the reason I started a seperate thread. I am quite familiar with the old (pre FS-9.1 CTD problem as well as many problems we have had along this line over the past 15 years of FS. At least this one is sending data to MS. Hopefully, something will be resolved.As for possible clues to the problem, I have had a couple of times (one as recent as this afternoon) where I had flown for about 1.5 hours out of KGOV in Michigan via TVC and Manitowoc, WS to KDPA (far western Chicagoland area)with absolutely no problem (IFR). On approach to DPA I reached up with the mouse to change the scale of the GPS and immediately received the 'send error report to MS' message, crashing FS. I have also had situations where I was sitting on a fuel spot and filing a flight plan. As soon as I initiated something from the cockpit, 'error msg to MS', so it is not consistent. I thought there was a possible timing situation (flying Real WX) where it seemed to be failing consistantly at about 12-15 minutes after program start. That is one reason I have been flying nothing but real weather as of late, trying to determine any link..... It does not appear to be a communication problem in downloading WX data. Several GA aircraft including choppers are showing the problem. For info.... I did a complete reload of the program in April when a new motherboard and hard drive (200 GB) were installed. I am on the computer about 10 hours a day and retired from computer repair with 40 years in the business. I have been in flight sim longer than MS has and yes, I even tried to get it to run on a Kaypro CPM (giving away my age in PCs). I hate to admit it but some out there will appreciate this part..... I remember when Bruce Artwick was a new kid on the block in Flight Simulation.This problem though, has me puzzled. I can assure you that there are no duplicate AFCAD files and my registry is clean as a whistle. But something has happened since the middle of May that is really beginning to get on my nerves when it comes to FS-9. I read with interest, the data that is transmitted to MS but it too is very inconsistent. It does not seem to be pointing to a specific DLL or anything along that line. Hopefully somebody at MS can make heads or tails out of them and provide a solution. Funny little quirk that has happened in this same timeframe.... I have 1.5 GB of RAM in this machine. I have had a couple times now where after a 'send error report' error and attempted restart, MS feels that I do not have sufficient memory to run the FS-9 program. According to Cacheman, there is 999 MB available to be used at the time of the error. The system must be rebooted before FS-9 will acknowledge that it has sufficient RAM. I have been trying to watch Cacheman to see if this might be related to when the error is occuring during flight but haven't caught it yet. For the techno geeks...the RAM is 400 MHZ RAM coasting at 100 MHz so it is not being stressed with overclocking by any sense of the imagination. Still head scratching on this one......Al FR-153