Hi. I've been away from flightsimming for awhile, and recently loaded fs9 on my new Dell XPS600. I have reloaded planes, etc, and all has been working well for the past couple of weeks, except tonight when I try to start the program, shortly after the initial splash screen I get an error message: "ERROR FS9: Failed to Read from File." I have disk 4 in my DVD drive ... it has always worked before. I rebooted, same thing; I also tried to start in fs9 safe mode, same thing. I initially tried to start a chat with microsoft fs9 support, but I couldn't get the game to start to locate the product ID. I'm hoping that someone might have an idea other than start all over again and reload everything. Thanks in advance, Steve J. P.S. I hope this is the right forum (I didn't think this was necessarily a hardware question, so posted here.)

First step to try -- rename your fs9.cfg to fs9.bak, then restart. It sounds like one of your latest files that you've reloaded is getting referenced somehow at startup and is damaged--either that, or something you've just loaded has overwritten a file fs9 needs with a corrupt file.-John

John, thanks for your quick reply. I was able to chat with a microsoft support guy, but not much help. He sent me to a website for some things to try before sending a new disk 4. I'll try the config file rebuilding first. Thanks, Steve J.

I just tried rebuilding the config file, but still get the same error. I'll now go through the list at the web address provided by the microsoft support guy: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;EN-US;321641 Thanks, Steve J.

This is really frustrating. :-fume I've been through the steps in the troubleshooting guide for reading DVD discs.......still same error "failed to read from file." Does anyone have any other thoughts before I try to arrange for a replacement disc 4 from microsoft? Thanks again, Steve J.

Open the FS9.cfg and look for something like this:[uSERINTERFACE]MAP_ORIENTATION=2PAUSE_ON_LOST_FOCUS=0PROMPT_ON_EXIT=0SelectFlightLevel=0SelectFlightTitle=0PageID=3OpenATCOnCreate=0DisplayFuelAsWeight=0SITUATION=C:Documents and SettingsOwnerMy DocumentsFlight Simulator FilesAt MYBS South BiminiThe situation is the startup location. Remove that. (ie..SITUATION=C:Documents and SettingsOwnerMy DocumentsFlight Simulator Files//At MYBS South Bimini) This will force it to start at the default location,KSEA in the Cessna. It sounds like a corrupted start file and this will make it start all over again and reset all the settings. You may have to re-save at the start that you had.Joe W

Going into the My Flights folder, and deleting the last "default" flight that you setup can help. Like "previous flight" or any other, as it can be corrupted for some reason. One thing I found when my FS repeatedly crashed to desktop, was that duplicate files were causing it. Many times if you add add-on scenery, it may be in a folder by itself, (ie duplicat AFCAD's etc.) and the system works fine when you save a default flight at that field. BUT, when attempting to reload it, it than finds two files and aborts when loading to the desktop. By downloading the free FS manager from this link, and using the diagnostic features it can find the duplicates, and renames one of them. Immediately my FS loaded. http://www.ranainside.com/After installation, click icon of man in white coat on right end.At top of menu, click on "Texture" and do a search for duplicates.I'd recommend this to all, as a preventative measure. I found 137 duplicates, and after having them renamed, have had no problems. A friend found 87 though he was having no problems yet, his system ran better, took less time to load, etc..

Joe,Rebuilding the FS9.cfg would have reset the start situation. -John

John, Joe and Kingair,Thanks for your advice. I tried the various fixes you suggested but with no success. I was able to get help from a Microsoft games support specialist this afternoon, but in my haste to get up and running again, I think I have really screwed things up. This is a bit long, but I would appreciate it if you could stay with me here.....-- The MS support specialist was able to help test my Disk 4 and determine that the disk was ok. The only solution, according to her, was to reload fs9 from scratch. I was not happy about that, since I just spent about a week before Christmas loading fs9 and my various addons onto my new Dell XPS600. (I was also not particularly happy because she implied that if I wanted to make sure fs9 ran ok, I should not add third party software...I couldn't believe she actually said that) But I signed off and began to delete my programs, resigned to load everything again from scratch, if that was what it took to get up and running again (I should have checked in here before doing anything.....)-- Unfortunately, I think, I decided to delete fs9 first (using add/remove). No problem. However, when I went to add/remove to delete my other programs, I couldn't because their config files were not located (I guess I had just deleted them with fs9). So now I've got all of my addons that I don't know how to delete for a fresh install. (My addons include: A/C: Dreamfleet A36, Archer, C-177, Real SF260, F1 Meridian, PMDG B1900C, Ultimate Traffic, USA Roads, Flight Environment, Megasceneries: Pac NW, new LA, Mid-Atl and FS Genesis Mesh for Mid-Atl, West Coast and U.S. Land Class). -- So I decided in my further haste to reload fs9 to see if it would infact reinstall, and it did....the program funs fine. Although I don't understand it, all of my aircraft seem to still be there and working fine (I don't see how all of their files deleted with the old fs9 allowed them to still work in the newly installed fs9....I guess they were somehow rebuilt?)-- But the sceneries do not show up, and I can't seem to remove them from add/remove.....the same with Ultimate Traffic and Flight Environment...they do not work. *****Can I reinstall these programs and copy over the existing files without ending up with a complete mess of duplicate files? (or if not, how can I remove so I can make a fresh install).*****What a mess. I haven't been flight simming lately and have just recently decided to give it another try with my new computer.....but I'm completely confused on how bad I've messed things up and where to go from here. The good news is that fs9 is reinstalled and runs fine with what seems to be all of my addon aircraft, but I've completely messed everything else up.Any thoughts or recommendations as to how to get things back in order would be greatly appreciated.Thanks in advance,Steve J.

FIRST if using XP, I'd use the flight sim, to make sure it is working correctly. Then, exit, and shut down the system. This creates a NEW restore point for that day and time. Then, make one change at a time, check it to see if it works, if so, REPEAT to create a new restore point for all working systems. By doing this, if you reinstall over something, and it does not work, you can go to Start, Help and Support, then undo any changes using System Restore. You can reinstall and copy over any FSgensis files. What may have happened, is you deleted the folders for scenery when you deleted FS9, but it did not remove the registry entries. So they look like they are there, but are not. If you just uninstalled FS9, it does not remove other addons, but leaves the folders intact. So when reinstalled, it finds the aircraft you had formerly installed. Dont know about USA Roads, I use American Data Roads, railroads, etc from FSGenesis. and when first reinstalled it over itself, it did not run. By going into the folder in Programs,Microsoft Games,Flight Simulator 9/American Data ... then clicking on the EXE file it brought it up so it could be configured again. Then I right clicked on it, SEND TO, and created a new Icon for it on the desktop. From then on, it worked normally. You may find the other programs are still in their folders, and that you could do the same to reconfigure them. What may have happened if you removed the folders, they now dont find them as the new one is different in the registry. If not, I'd just do a reinstall of them after creating a new restore point, but believe they will work. If they dont work, set the system to the previous restore point, and seek their support.

Hi Bob-Thank you for the extensive response.....I'm in the process of recovery this evening.....going well thus far....the only program I'm having getting up and going so far is Ultimate Traffic. More later.Steve J.