Fatal Error on Starting FSX

[twister1853 7]

Thanks for that precise post giving the options.  Before acting on any of these options, could I go to 3 posts back where I referred to the instructions given in the user manual for un-installing Treescapes, i.e. delete all Texture files with the extension *AGN (there are thousands of these files).  Would that be the first step to take with this problem?

[Jim Young 2,356]

Thanks for that precise post giving the options.  Before acting on any of these options, could I go to 3 posts back where I referred to the instructions given in the user manual for un-installing Treescapes, i.e. delete all Texture files with the extension *AGN (there are thousands of these files).  Would that be the first step to take with this problem?

According to their guide:

 

"ES - Installer places Treescapes UK into your Earth Simulations folder and provides you with some simple tools to assist you in transferring the autogen files to the correct locations. Please refer to step two below for more information."

 

Step 2 - On completion of step one ESI will initiate the installation of your product into the Playsims/Horizon VFR Photographic Scenery volumes you own and that are relevant to your purchase."

 

"Uninstalling Earth Simulation’s Treescapes UK"

"If for whatever reason you would like to disable Earth Simulation’s Treescapes UK once installed, you can do this very easily by carrying out the following actions. Within your photographic scenery folders locate the folders named “Texture”. Inside you will find many files with the extension *.AGN. Remove all of these files to a backup location of your choice, or if you are absolutely certain that they are no longer required you may simply delete them. This action is all that is required to remove Treescapes UK."

 

The way I read that is that you have to go to your Playsims/Hrizon VFR Photographic Scenery folder, looked for the sub-folder of Textures and then move any and all of your .agn files (several thousands) to a backup location (I would recommend Backup/Horizon VFR/Textures).  AGN is all of the autogen files.  You do NOT want to delete any of those .agn files in the Scenery/World/Texture folder.  Those are your default textures. 

 

Hope this helps.

 

Best regards,

[twister1853 7]

Hi - sorry. I have had to be away from this problem of mine for a while.

I have now remove all "Treescapes" texture (*AGB) files in the photographic scenery folders to a backup location and tried running FSX.  I still get the 'Fatal Error' as before. Also while doing this work, I noticed some scenery files missing from 'volume 1'. Looks like there are other things afoot here !

I am of the feeling now, that with my level of expertise, the best thing I would be competent in doing, would be to un-install FSX which would also remove the photo' sceneries. Then re-install both FSX and the photo' sceneries. Although this would take some time, I do have the time. 

Would doing this remove everything associated with FSX?

[Jim Young 2,356]

I have never had to remove my photoscenery folders after reinstalling FSX. I can uninstall FSX completely, reinstall, and then, reconnect the location of the photoscenery folders via the Scenery Library.

 

I think it would be better to reinstall Treescapes. But, if you have the time to completely uninstall/reinstall fsx and all of your add-on's, then go for it.

 

I would recommend using the guide at the following location to uninstall/reinstall FSX - http://support.precisionmanuals.com/kb/a87/how-to-uninstall-and-reinstall-fsx.aspx .

 

Best regards,

[twister1853 7]

Hi again. Thanks for the continuing interest in my problem. I've had a look at the link given to un-install/re-install FSX and I can now see that it is not that straight forward. So, I've turned to the Avsim CTD Guide. To start with, do I really have a CTD situation?  As I stated at the start of this post, what I get when I try to run FSX is an almost immediate message "A Fatal Error has occured" and this is immediately followed by the message "MSFS has stopped working".  I don't get a WER.  Anyway, the guide suggests Disableing the Add-on Scenery.  My OS is Win. 8.1 and when I look in (C:)>ProgramData>Microsoft>FSX I see 3 folders: Facilities, SceneryCache and SceneryIndexes.  Where is the add-on scenery here and how do I disable it?

[Jim Young 2,356]

 

 

To start with, do I really have a CTD situation? As I stated at the start of this post, what I get when I try to run FSX is an almost immediate message "A Fatal Error has occured" and this is immediately followed by the message "MSFS has stopped working". I don't get a WER.

 

Anytime you application does not start up properly and you have to shut it down is considered a CTD.  The fatal error message indicates something serious happened to your computer and a .wer report should have been posted.  I think you are very mistaken that you did not get a .wer report.  The AppCrashView program interprets all .wer reports and tells you (and me) what most likely caused your problem.  At the minimum, the Windows Event Viewer recorded the shutdown and probably provided a report too.  A fatal error is very serious and not to be taken lightly but it is not as bad as a BSOD or Blue Screen of Death which you might have had too.  The AVSIM CTD Guide shows you where and how to download the AppCrashView and BlueScreenofDeath apps.  We also have a section on the Event Viewer (for Windows 7 and 8.1 Users) and how to use it with a link to the Internet where it will show you exactly what to look for depending on your OS.  In the Event Viewer, you want to look into Custom Views/Administrative Events.  No where else.  Just there.  It will show you everything that has gone wrong with your computer since the day you installed Windows.  Some are very serious errors, some just warnings that something is amiss.  There are a lot of people who are not familiar with Windows and how to troubleshoot a crash and that's what we tried to put into the guide.  The Event Viewer and WER's provide a lot of valuable information.

 

The Windows Error Reports (WER's) are located in C:/Users/(your username)/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/WER.  Unfortunately they are not readable but it does show you whether you have WER's or not.  Someone developed a neat application called AppCrashView which interprets these error reports and makes them readable to you and me.

 

 

 

Where is the add-on scenery here and how do I disable it?

 

Your addon scenery is located in your scenery.cfg.  You can move your scenery.cfg to a temporary folder, restart FSX and the scenery.cfg will be returned to the default.  You will have no addon's that might be causing your problems.  If you still have problems after doing this, then you can move the scenery.cfg that you had moved to a temporary folder and you will have all of your addon scenery back.

 

 

 

My OS is Win. 8.1 and when I look in (C:)>ProgramData>Microsoft>FSX I see 3 folders: Facilities, SceneryCache and SceneryIndexes.

 

On page 5 of the AVSIM CTD Guide we show you exactly where the facilities/scenery indexes and shader folders are located.  You can delete all of those folders.  They will be rebuilt the next time you restart FSX.

 

Earth Simulations went out of business and they can no longer help you with your problem.  Our support forums have members who might be able to help you.  If you are having problems reinstalling the scenery, then you might want to post this issue in the FSX/FSX-SE forum.  You can also ask how to uninstall/reinstall FSX but everyone will tell you to look at the guide at the link I provided you earlier.  You state it is not straight forward but I can see no easier way of uninstalling and reinstalling FSX.  There really is no other guides.  It tells you where the hidden folders are located.  I really am perplexed you are having a problem.  Still, you are most welcomed to post your questions in the FSX Forum as long as they do not relate to crashes.  Some people post crashes about a developers product only because they are frustrated and the developer will not help them with their problem.  It is there way of getting back at the developer.  ES cannot be hurt as they are no longer in business.  I think one of the reasons they went out of business was because of their lack of support.  But then, I did look at their guide and it looks pretty straightforward to me.  Telling everyone you had a crash is not helpful so you should leave that out of your discussions in the FSX Forums.  Thousands of members have successfully installed this product into FSX without any issues.  This indicates to me that the problem is not with the guide or the ES software problem but with the way you installed the product.  Did you read in the PMDG uninstall/reinstall guide that you should disable UAC and turn off any anti-virus program before installing the product.  These programs are there to save you from evil people who might lurk on the Internet and download and install something without your permission.  These security programs will stop the installation of a program or place files into quarantine because they think the files are harmful to you.  Of course they are not as it comes from a FSX addon developer from a safe link on the Internet.  FSX and any FSX addon should not be scanned by any anti-virus or malware program.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Best regards,

[twister1853 7]

Hi.

Thanks for the prompt reply.  I note that you ask that I do not continue to post questions regarding my CTD problem but act on all the suggestions you have already given.  Before leaving the post therefore, I would if I may, like to indicate the action I have now taken on your suggestions.

Using the CTD Guide I have done the following:

1.  Disable Add-on Scenery (p2), and

2.  Delete/Rebuild Facilitiies/Scenery Indexes and Shader Folders (p5).

After these steps, I still get CTD.

I have run AppCrashView and in CustomViews/Administrative Events, the faulting Module is shown as visualfx.dll  (unfortuately I've forgotten how to paste the AppCrashView complete results in a post).  Does this help in locating the cause of the CTD?

Finally, on p1 of the guide to "uninstall and reinstall FSX" it is indicated that all addons, including scenery, need to be removed at an uninstalling of FSX.  You have indicated above that you have not found it necessary to delete the scenery when uninstalling FSX.  Could you enlarge on this point?

[Jim Young 2,356]

 

 

I note that you ask that I do not continue to post questions regarding my CTD problem but act on all the suggestions you have already given.

 

LOL!  I would never tell anyone not to post their CTD questions here but you seem to think that it is an installation problem rather than a CTD problem.

 

Here's what the AVSIM CTD Guide says about visualfx.dll as the faulting module:

 

Visualfx.dll – The visualfx.dll is used to display an FSX effect.  An effect needed for an aircraft or scenery may not be located in the Effects folder and, when the effect is called by the program, it cannot be found and FSX crashes.  The CTD occurs mostly with aircraft not properly installed and/or the default flight (shown in the [userinterface] Situation= line in your fsx.cfg) may be corrupted when a new default flight is set up.  The solution in this case is to rename your fsx.cfg to fsx.orig, restart FSX and let the fsx.cfg rebuild.  It has also been fixed by returning the default textures into the main texture folder.  This can be done through a backup or conducting a FSX repair installation.

 

 

 

Finally, on p1 of the guide to "uninstall and reinstall FSX" it is indicated that all addons, including scenery, need to be removed at an uninstalling of FSX. You have indicated above that you have not found it necessary to delete the scenery when uninstalling FSX. Could you enlarge on this point?

 

A guide is a guide.  It is not explicit instructions.  Definite do's and do not's.  PMDG only provides instructions on how to uninstall FSX/Acceleration.  Nothing else.  They they provide instructions on how to reinstall FSX so that you can circumvent some of the security built into Windows 8.1 or Windows 7.  They want your experience with FSX to be a happy experience.  It provides you a bit more information about how FSX is uninstalled and where you might find the hidden folders that you much delete before you reinstall.  If you do not want to follow it and do it all yourself, then by all means do that.  I was just trying to help you.  That's what the AVSIM CTD Guide provides.  Help.  Nothing you really have to do.  Just some guidance for some who are not familiar with the Windows systems and some suggestions on how to avoid crashes.  I try to do everything I can to get you back to running FSX and enjoying the product.  For your problem, there is no definitive (positive) solution other than to uninstall fsx and then reinstall it and then reinstall your addons.  Non-positive solutions would be to uninstall Earth Simulation's trees, run FSX and see if this fixes the problem.  If so, then you can try reinstalling the trees again.

 

This is not a support website for FSX or Earth Simulation products.  It is a place where members from the flight simulation community get together and try to help one another.  Sometimes our help is not very good and our members get more frustrated.  So I will let you read the AVSIM CTD Guide, the PMDG uninstall/reinstall guide as that's all I know.  Hopefully others will come here and provide information that will completely resolve your problem immediately.  I hope so anyway.

 

Best regards,

[twister1853 7]

Hello again.  Thanks for coming back.

As suggested in the AVSIM CTD Guide on Visualfs.dll as the faulting module, I've renamed fsxcfg to fsx.orig and restarted FSX.  I now have an error as before that states:

 

SCENERY.CFG file error. Local scenery directory (E:\megasceneryEarth\Washington-017\SCENERY) in scenery Area.212 not found.

I click to continue and obtain another NEW error that states:

 

Scenery read error.  Attempting to open a non existent directory:  d:\fsx\texture

This is "SOMETHING NEW" but I click OK to continue and obtain the HOME page for FSX Acceleration.

I select FREE FLIGHT and then have the FATAL ERROR again. This time MSFS FSX trys a restart but the FATAL ERROR reappears again.

 

(Checking for fsx.cfg rebuild, I see 3 folders: fsx.CFG,  fsx.CFG.txt and fsx.orig .)

 

The AppCrashView utility shows again this result

 

- EventData

      fsx.exe       10.0.61637.0       46fadb14       visualfx.dll       10.0.61637.0       46fadb59       c0000005       00020cbb       15a0       01d0ad9f387afbf8       D:\FSX\fsx.exe       D:\FSX\visualfx.dll       963b0434-1992-11e5-8069-74d02b93293e

 

The other suggestion in the guide is

 

It has also been fixed by returning the default textures into the main texture folder

 

How does one do this and might the above error "d:\fsx\texture" be corrected by doing this?

[Jim Young 2,356]

 

 

SCENERY.CFG file error. Local scenery directory (E:\megasceneryEarth\Washington-017\SCENERY) in scenery Area.212 not found.
I click to continue and obtain another NEW error that states:

Scenery read error. Attempting to open a non existent directory: d:\fsx\texture

This is "SOMETHING NEW" but I click OK to continue and obtain the HOME page for FSX Acceleration.

I select FREE FLIGHT and then have the FATAL ERROR again. This time MSFS FSX trys a restart but the FATAL ERROR reappears again.

 

This error should not cause FSX to crash after you click okay.  The startup is just telling you that a scenery was uninstalled and the program can no longer find it.  You can manually edit the scenery.cfg or download and install Scenery Configuration Editor (see page 8 of the AVSIM CTD Guide).  This program will tell you the problem and give you the option to delete the non-existent scenery area or, in the Menu of the Scenery Config Editor, you can click on Actions and then select to "Reset the Area and Layer Numbers and reorder the file and the problem will be fixed.

 

 

 

(Checking for fsx.cfg rebuild, I see 3 folders: fsx.CFG, fsx.CFG.txt and fsx.orig .)

 

The FSX.cfg is your working config.  The FSX.txt is created when you have a crash.  It was Microsoft's idea to make a fsx.txt file so it could be sent to the Microsoft techs who would take a look at it and see why FSX was crashing.  Microsoft no longer supports FSX so this cannot be done.  The fsx.txt can be safely deleted.  The fsx.orig is a previous fsx.cfg you renamed so you could restart fsx and let a new config rebuild.  This is no longer recommended and we recommend you simply move the fsx.cfg to a temporary folder, restart FSX, and a new config will be rebuilt.  The fsx.orig can be safely deleted as it does nothing and is taking up a tiny amount of space on your hard drive.

 

 

 

The other suggestion in the guide is
It has also been fixed by returning the default textures into the main texture folder
How does one do this and might the above error "d:\fsx\texture" be corrected by doing this?

 

The only way you can return the texture back to the default if you did not back it up is to repair FSX.  You insert the first FSX disk in the DVD drive and select the repair option.  Since you have Acceleration installed, you also need to repair Acceleration and you do that by inserting the Acceleration disk in the DVD Drive and selecting repair.

 

What will a repair do to your current installation of FSX? 

 

• it will not harm the dll.xml or exe.xml files if you have them in the folder where the fsx.cfg is located. 
• It will rewrite your current fsx.cfg and bring it back to the default settings. You want to move your current fsx.cfg to a temporary folder if you want to keep it.  You can move it back once FSX has been repaired and overwrite the default FSX.cfg if you want.
• the scenery.cfg will be returned to the default.  If you want to keep your current scenery.cfg, move it to a temporary folder.  You can move it back once FSX has been repaired and overwrite the default scenery.cfg.
• it will return all of your textures in the fsx/texture folder back to the default.  This should not be a problem.
• it will return the fsx/scenery/world/scenery folder back to the default.  You might want to back up this scenery folder as it contains your AI traffic and some addon airports like FSDT or FlightBeam throw in scenery files with their own AI.  UTX and Orbx uses it too for when you are enabling the default scenery or their scenery. 
• it will not mess with your fsx/modules folder as that folder does not exist when you first install FSX.
• it will return your Effects to the default but most developers now simply add effects in this folder and those will not be removed with a repair install.  Sometimes a developer will rename an effects to say, fx_launch.orig or .bak and install their own version.  This is rare though.  You might want to back up this folder too. 
• there will be no changes to the main fsx folder (the once where fsx.exe is located).  If you have a program like "MakeRwys" it should still be there after the repair.
• the Gauges folder will be brought back to the default.  This is okay as any addon developers would install their own gauges and those will not be touched by a repair.

That's it.  No other changes that I can think of.  It is fairly easy to do.  Hope this helps.

 

Best regards,

[twister1853 7]

Hi again

Back to the PC again and very many thanks for the very complete guide in the last post.  I have really come to the view that I am getting a bit out of my depth.  So I've decided to do an uninstall of FSX following the guide indicated earlier in this post, in the hope that this will get rid of the bug.  I have a very large set of addons as well as vital scenery files, but I will just have to persevere reinstalling what I can find of these, so as to ensure the reinstall does not trigger the issue again if it is related to them.

Kind regards

Ray 

[twister1853 7]

Hi

I've uninstalled FSX completely (removing everything associated with FSX as suggested by the guide) and now reinstalled just the default FSX.  I now get a CTD,  and if it is any help, the following error as shown in AppCrashView:

 

faulting module name  -  uiautomationcore.dll

faulting application path  -  D:\FSX\fsx.exe

faulting module path  -  C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\uiautomationcore.dll

 

Page 14 of the CTD Guide, makes mention of  uiautomationcore.dll  but what to do is unclear to me. Any further help would be appreciated.

Ray

[Jim Young 2,356]

 

 

Page 14 of the CTD Guide, makes mention of uiautomationcore.dll but what to do is unclear to me. Any further help would be appreciated.

 

Page 7 provides you will more information and provides a link to two different versions that can be placed in your main FSX directory.  Many throw the System32\uiautomationcore.dll version into their main fsx directory and that causes an immediate crash.  The faulting module path is to your Windows file and not to any uiautomationcore.dll in your main FSX folder so I'm not sure what you did.  The uiautomationcore.dll belongs to Microsoft.net and is used for managing memory for your application (in this case FSX).  Some say putting one of the two versions shown in the AVSIM CTD Guide into your main FSX directory will save your from all crashes.  No more CTD's!!  You will be crash free forever because it is the holy grail of all fixes.  It is not.  Best option if you have it in your main fsx directory is to remove it so it does not conflict with your Windows\System32 file.

 

Best regards,

[twister1853 7]

Hi

Could I please give a few points to help me along.

I have looked at p8 of the CTD Guide where reference is made to users of FSX on Windows 8.1 .  This is the version I have - 64 bit (I think).  Does W8.1 - 64 bit matter?

I have done a search for uiautomationcore.dll and find it in This PC>Documents.  I don't see it in FSX.  It is the First Version: 6.0.5840.16386 .

Is this info' helpful and where do I go from here with this info'?

Ray

[Jim Young 2,356]

Hi

Could I please give a few points to help me along.

I have looked at p8 of the CTD Guide where reference is made to users of FSX on Windows 8.1 .  This is the version I have - 64 bit (I think).  Does W8.1 - 64 bit matter?

I have done a search for uiautomationcore.dll and find it in This PC>Documents.  I don't see it in FSX.  It is the First Version: 6.0.5840.16386 .

Is this info' helpful and where do I go from here with this info'?

Ray

FSX and all FSX addons are 32 bit applications installed in Windows 8.1 or 7, 64 bit version. FSX can be installed and work in a 64 bit Windows environment but they will use the 32 bit versions of Microsoft.net's and Microsoft Visuals C++ Redistributables (indicated with an x86 in the file name).

 

The AVSIM CTD Guide provides you links to two different versions of the uiautomationcore.dll (32 bit versions). We do not know whether the uiautomationcore.dll fix will work with Windows 8.1. The reason we stated in bold letters not to use the uiautomationcore.dll in 32 bit versions of Windows 7 or Windows 8 is that we believe the uiautomationcore.dll (32 bit version) only works when you place it in the main directory of FSX and you have the 64 bit versions of Windows installed. I have the 64 bit version of Windows 7 installed and have never had the uiautomationcore.dll (32 bit version) knowingly placed in the main directory of FSX as I have never seen a FSX Menu crash which is the only type of crash that the uiautomationcore.dll (32 bit version) will fix for individuals who click on the fsx menu for at least 19 times and FSX freezes up. If your FSX menu or FSX is not freezing up, then you do not need the uiautomationcore.dll.

 

I mentioned above that it will not hurt to try to throw the uiautomationcore.dll (32 bit version) in the main FSX folder and see if this fixes your problem. If it doesn't then you need to remove it.

 

Best regards,